When it comes to design, it’s a touchy-feely thing that’s often subjective to the eyes of the beholder (or in our case – our clients). At times it becomes an endless back and forth struggles trying to make sure an ad or email is on-brand and visually appealing. When either party tries to do too much (or not enough), that is when potential problems can arise. With that being said, here are some pro-tips to help you get on your designer’s good side to start off the New Year.

Keep Things Simple

Having a busy background can be distracting and will take the focus away from your message or promotion

When working with copy layover, don’t send your designer an image with a background that’s too busy. Backgrounds with too much going on and/or too much contrast (i.e brick walls, busy rooms, etc) make it difficult to lay copy over without making it look forced or too busy. Having a busy background can also be distracting and will take the focus away from your message or promotion.

white-space

An ideal image should have plenty of white space to make room for text (such as the one pictured above), and it should drive the focus towards the product instead of the surroundings.

 

Lifestyle Shots

Lifestyle shots can be a tricky matter. You don’t want to make it look forced and you don’t want to take the viewer’s attention away from the product(s) being showcased. When getting a designer to edit a lifestyle shot, this can add an extra degree of complexity, as these types of shots can sometimes get busy.

A key to avoiding conflict here is to provide your designer with a variety of shots from multiple views. That way they can better create something that looks both visually appealing and sends the appropriate brand message.

Another bonus tip for lifestyle shots: choose colours that complement each other such as in the shot shown below. If you are using a model, play around with the shot and have them look at something. As humans, we will have a tendency to look wherever the model is looking. This opens the doors to various creative opportunities.

Lighting

Fade or blurring the background, can be done by the designer in post-production. It will look a lot better than trying to force a look with poor lighting.

The key to a good image whether it’s a lifestyle or product shot is good lighting. There is nothing worse than an image where the product is out of focus or is difficult to notice due to poor lighting conditions. If the intent is to create fade or blur the background, this can be done by the designer in post-production. It will look a lot better than trying to force a look with poor lighting. In the example below, the product is featured in great lighting conditions, making post-production fade easy to accomplish.

lighting

Cropping

Sending your designer a cropped photo is a huge faux-pas, especially when you’re asking them to do text overlays on the image. Once again, you want to provide as much white space as possible for text overlays, and if the designer can find room to crop and adjust the image size later on, it can be done post-production.

cropping

GIFs

When it comes to making GIFs, it’s easier to do than some people think. When in the photography stage of the product, making a GIF is as easy as creating a stop motion. If you’re rotating multiple products in a GIF, keep it nice and simple by showcasing them on a plain background so that you can bring all the attention towards the products in motion. The extra white space will also make it easy for your designer to add text overlay if needed.

So there you have it. Follow these few simple tips when submitting creative to your designer this year and you will be sure to win their hearts this year – making your job a whole lot easier as well.

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Written by Roman Komarov

About the author

Roman Komarov is a full-time soulpepper, part-time DJ and has a keen eye for design. He is regarded as one of the top graphic designers in the country and if that’s not enough, he also has a few good dads jokes up his sleeve. 

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