designers work station with laptop

The Design of Design: How to Streamline the Graphic Design Process

Is your small or large business in desperate need of a better graphic design process? We understand the struggle of perfecting a graph design process. It is not an overnight job that is easy to do.

In fact, it can take a few weeks to master changes and get an entire up-to-speed. But don’t freak out yet! We’re here to shed light on what you can do to improve every day.

Keep reading to discover how you can streamline your graphic design process! 

Every Graphic Design Process Needs a Strategy 

Cultivating a great plan is the best way to get a great design. Find out more about how to perfect your plan with a little research! First, ask yourself,  what is your goal? 

You can’t have a good plan without a clear goal. To be effective, you have to work toward something achievable and realistic. From here, you can start to pinpoint what it is you want to transform within your graphic design team.

  • Do you want a faster turnout for projects?
  • Are you looking for higher quality designs? 
  • Do you want more efficient communication between designers and clients? How about the among the rest of the design team?

These are all very real questions on achievable goals. Start out with a strong foundation, and discuss a goal with your team.

Graphic Design Step by Step Process

We know that you can’t have a successful process without a goal. A great starting point is formulating a realistic and achievable goal. Once you are ready to move on, you can begin constructing a graphic design creative process. 

It’s best to give your team a place to voice their opinions and thoughts on the process. After all, they are the ones that are completing the tasks. They’re going to know the in’s and out’s of what’s works and what doesn’t. 

Listen to their suggestions. Offer up an online survey to collect their feedback, or have a sit-down discussion with the team. Here is a good template for a graphic design step by step process. 

Step One: Have a Clear Idea of What You or Your Client Wants

Have a clear overview of what the graphic designer should be accomplishing. This may include special requests from clients, or your comments and ideas. Be sure that the design has specific details, like color, shape, and size of a request.

The more information you provide, the better the final product will be. Set your graphic designer up for success. Provide a platform for open communication with the client.

If this seems too risky, have a client fill out their preferences on a questionnaire. This might be a survey response you give your designers after an initial meeting with a client.  

Step Two: Planning and Sketches 

Once the idea is clear, start planning and sketching out ideas. This is the rough draft phase. Let this be the open area to brainstorm. Mistakes shouldn’t be a concern right now.

The point of this step is to get a better and clearer idea of what the final product will look like. It helps to put on a paper what you’ve only seen in your head. This might look different than what you have been envisioning.

Brainstorming gives you the opportunity to keep or change what works and doesn’t.

Step Three: Creative Process and Editing Rounds

This is when your graphic designer should start creating the product. To avoid extra work, before they start, request to see their plan. This should be a rough sketch of their goal for the final product.

Set up to give your approval or make changes before they invest a lot of time making something you won’t like. After designing and creating, have them edit their work. Have your team work together to catch mistakes and fix them. 

Step Four: Final Product and Management Approval

This is the best part and the one you have been waiting for. The final product should be the final step. This should be a clear draft with no mistakes in the design.

With management approval, the design process is complete. The project is ready for the market! 

Effective Management

A business strategy for your design team won’t work without proper management. Every design team needs effective management to function right. Even experts will need guidance from time-to-time.

You can’t expect a good team to happen overnight. Solid teams come together through trial and error. But being active in managing is what will make or break the team.

Another thing to remember is that technology is always upgrading. Keeping your team up-to-date is also important. As a manager of a design team, you have to consider the important aspects of a successful team.

This would include: 

  • Clear communication between management, the design team, and the client
  • Opportunity to train on new software, and ongoing education support
  • Balancing workflow amongst the team so no one has an overwhelming amount of tasks
  • Fair compensation to avoid burnout 
  • Fun office environment to inspire creativity

These are only a few of the factors to consider as a manager of a design team. Still, these are super important elements that’ll affect productivity. Many graphic designers are looking for flexibility.

You might consider hiring on remote graphic designers to tackle mundane tasks. This will take the pressure off your in-house team, so they can focus on more important projects. Effective management will improve your design process, speed, and efficiency! 

Encourage Your Graphic Designers to Follow a Graph Design Blog 

Another element to consider is ongoing education and training for your staff members. Gather a list of graphic design blogs that’ll spark imagination! Not only does this represent positive morale, it tells your employees you care about them.

You’ll notice their improvement, which will lead to business growth and client satisfaction. While it’s easy to get stuck in the trap of a comfort zone, progression is vital to keep your business thriving. Blogs are a great way for graphic designers to get quick tips and suggestions.

They provide quick tidbits of information for graphic designers to experiment with. Give your graphic design team the freedom to learn, grow, and thrive as a professional. Investing in your employees may even improve your retention rates!    

Help! I Need Advice for my Graphic Design Team! 

Developing a graphic design process is not easy by any means. Yet, the design team is vital to any small company. The good news is there are experts you can rely on for advice.

We offer our readers plenty of graph design business advice to keep your business strong. Our goal is to provide our clients with the best information. That way you can continue learning, growing, and succeeding!

Have your ideas run dry? Not to worry; we have a long archive of trendy graph design ideas to keep your projects moving with ease.