How do you protect your graphic design consultancy from practices that could cripple it aside from writing graphic design contracts? You could do this in a variety of ways. One such strategy involves using the graphic design brief template. The template offers the level of protection that you would struggle to get from other sources. Bad designs can hurt your freelance services. Inability to provide what your clients want or expect from you could also hurt the consultancy irreparably.
Many freelancers struggle to earn and retain the trust of their customers. How do you make yourself trustworthy? That question – and the answers you provide – can go a long way into helping you to break through as a freelancer. It could be the difference between staying ahead of the competition or lagging behind. It’s easier to succeed or push forward when more clients feel that they can trust you. It’s easier to grow your business when more of them trust you too. The graphic design brief can help you with this.
How can the brief help here?
1. The graphic design brief template is showing the importance of graphic design
Occasionally, graphic design consultants are likely to come across clients who fail to appreciate the important role that graphic design plays in life. It’s important in communication, marketing, advertising, starting and running a business, and healthcare too. It conveys messages that words alone wouldn’t be able to pass across effectively. It’s worth noting that its role goes beyond social media too. After all, most users interact with graphic design on social media.
Use the graphic design brief template to let clients know its importance in their lives.
2. Graphic design is more than its cost with the graphic design brief
Many clients will look at your rate and shudder. They believe that it’s not worth parting with an arm and a leg for the graphic design services that your consultancy offers. However, the brief can help clarify this issue for them. Use it to let clients understand that cost isn’t everything. Instead, their focus should be on the benefits their businesses are likely to derive from your services. The benefits far outweigh the cost of the services you provide.
3. Break everything down for the clients in your graphic design brief sample
It’s important to break everything down so the client can understand what you’re talking about through the graphic design brief template. Yes, freelance graphic designers can often use strange words and terminologies that leave their clients feeling more confused rather than enlightened. Do you struggle with industry-related jargon? Then take some time off to learn how to communicate with clients without employing graphic design lingo.
Some of the most common graphic design lingo that confuses clients include:
- Pre-flight
- Color matching
- Vector images
4. Avoid rushing through the job with the with the graphic design brief template
It’s true that some projects are more urgent than others. That said, freelance designers must learn to be in control of everything. Otherwise, you may be forced to rush through work that needs more time only to deliver a substandard product. Expect your clients to walk away disappointed when you deliver a design that falls short of their expectation. Once more, use the graphic design brief template to clarify such issues to your clients.
Let them know what you expect from them. Tell them what they can expect from you too!
5. The graphic design brief template shows when to expect approvals
In graphic design, consultant designers often meet clients who take their sweet time approving the drafts. This can often cause more problems than either party envisaged. Sadly, the designer often ends up in deeper trouble when this happens. Why? Because clients will be in a hurry to get the final copy designed and submitted depending on what they want to do with it. This causes the designer more inconvenience. Approvals shouldn’t take more than a week.
What kind of help should freelancers expect from the graphic design brief?
6. The graphic design brief template acts as a resume
Clients trust the resume you provide. The resume lists your qualifications. It lists your experience. It lists your capabilities too. The information clients can glean from your resume – and the graphic brief template – convinces them to either trust or distrust you. Make your freelance resume stand out from the rest. After all, many clients receive bids from truckloads of consultants. Those whose resumes stand out to increase their chances of getting hired.
The resume is more important to a beginner or new freelancers. Most new freelancers have nothing other than their resumes to show that they can do the job.
7. The graphic design brief template plays the role of a portfolio
Freelancers who get the best jobs often boast of the most impressive portfolio too. The portfolio shows that you have done jobs similar to the ones your clients are now bringing to the table. It not only proves your expertise but also works perfectly at winning customers’ trust. However, curate the graphic design brief appropriately so that it relays the proper message regarding your expertise on matters that the clients hold dear to their hearts.
Hone the brief – and portfolio – to provide details on specific services the client wants. Write the brief well to distinguish yourself as an expert freelancer.
8. Provide certifications and licenses in your graphic design brief sample
Can freelance clients trust you if you don’t provide them with certifications and licenses? These two types of documents are proof that you can do the job for which clients want to hire you. The certifications and licenses can only help you earn customers’ trust if they are from recognized sources and bodies. Otherwise, you may only succeed in attracting more doubts about your credibility as a consultant. The more doubtful your credibility is, the less trustworthy you become.
No consultant can ever run a successful business while being less trustworthy.
9. Offer a highly professional and personal service in your graphic design brief sample
Many times, you will come across clients who prefer contacting you with more business primarily because of your ability to add a personal touch to the existing professional relationship. Take advantage of this fact to make yourself more trustworthy to clients. The fact that you’re a freelancer already offers you more leeway into how to define the client relationships. Don’t restrict yourself to professional connections alone. Demonstrate your willingness to be personal with them too.
10. Provide testimonials and references in your graphic design brief sample
It’s easier for freelance clients to trust you based on the testimonials and references that you provide. Now, the graphic design brief may be too short or brief to capture and relay all your thoughts. However, it still allows you to mention 1-2 things about other clients you have served. Be careful to include testimonials and references from clients whose projects were of a similar nature to the one you are about to start working on.
Without relevant details, the testimonials and references won’t earn you the trust you crave. Use the graphic design brief to set yourself apart as the freelancer that clients find most trustworthy.
Use the brief to let clients know the entire graphic design process from start to finish.
As noted above, graphic design brief templates are wonderful tools for all freelance designers. They offer the designers all the protection their consultancies need. Crucially, the template ensures that the relationship between freelancers and clients never deteriorates. It provides a roadmap the two parties can use to determine the path they want their relationship to take. Everybody benefits from the regular use of the template.
