Feedback Time: What to Remember When Responding to Designs
You've received a logo, website, or other design and it's time to give feedback! Woo-hoo! You review all of the designs and suddenly you feel paralyzed. What do you say? Where do you start? You might be worried about offending your designer. Or, you might have so much to say you want to jump on a call and go to town with comments.
Most designers have a certain way they prefer to receive feedback.
At Bold August Design Studio, we prefer written feedback for three reasons:
It keeps us accountable. Written feedback provides a list for both parties to refer back to and remember what they’ve said.
We can reference it! When chatting in person, it's hard to take notes AND review and speak. By having a written list, we can go through your feedback on our own time while we make edits, and process your words.
It keeps us on schedule. Sometimes it can be hard to book calls! We get overloaded with calls to the point where it prevents us from working. Written feedback can be done without both parties being present, so the timeline doesn't budge!
When typing out your feedback, keep in mind that (if you follow the tips below) you won't offend your designer! Design is all about critique and editing to get to the perfect logo. Most of us have been doing this for years, meaning we see lots of "rejection."
Think of it this way. At Bold August Design Studio, we give minimum three rounds of logos to look at. That means, at minimum, every single project we do, two logos will ultimately bite the dust. How's that for constant rejection? We're very used to it!
If you follow the tips below, you'll give great, actionable feedback, stay respectful to your designer, and end up with a design project you love!
Tips for Providing Great Feedback
1: Use Concrete Feedback with Clarity, not General Feelings
Examples below:
Unhelpful: "I don't like these colors."
Concrete and helpful: "This color palette feels dark. I really like greens that are more sage-colored." (Sage means different things to different people, so in this case I would ask for a screenshot!)
Unhelpful: "I really don't like this font."
Concrete and helpful: "This font feels too formal, I prefer things that are whimsical, like [this logo example.]
Unhelpful: "This isn't it, but I know it when I see it."
Concrete and helpful: "I'm not seeing something that fits my goals here, and my goal is [X]. I believe a design with a brighter color will achieve this goal, and a reminder that I like these logos here."
Designers need visuals and clear directives to make feedback rounds happen. Showing us, rather than telling us, is the fastest way for us to understand how to move forward and to provide another round. Additionally, oftentimes feelings and emotions are subjective. If you like a "navy" color, for example, I might interpret "navy" to be a different shade or darker than the navy in your mind. It's very easy to pull colors, fonts, and examples from the web to illustrate what you mean.
Most designers will take you through a vision boarding process before starting on your logo. Go back to that vision board and provide specific examples. Designers have so many tools at their disposal, so we're great at helping make things a reality, but bad at trying to peek into your mind to decipher feelings.
2: Don't ask your entire group of friends and family. Keep your feedback team small.
We know, we know! This one is really hard. When you get a board of shiny new designs you want to show them off or ask everyone you know to get "feedback." The biggest issue with this is that those friends & family have not gone through the same process as you did when doing this project. At Bold August Design Studio, we have an entire discovery flow that is essential to understanding your audience, goals, and aesthetic. Without understand those core elements, your friends and family might get the wrong idea and provide their feelings instead of strategy.
Getting feedback from friends also can confuse you and make you lose sight of your own aesthetic. Remember, your designs are coming from your brand's personality and authenticity, not theirs! Be sure that your compass is always pointing North and not being swayed by anyone else's.
We recommend keeping your feedback circle to 2 people - a significant other who knows you well, and either a mentor in your industry OR someone who would be your ideal client.
If you absolutely have to ask friends, be sure to frame the feedback and not ask for their general opinions, like so:
"Does this logo [or design] look like it achieves my goal of [X]"?
"This logo [or design] is supposed to represent my personality of [X, Y, Z.] Do you believe it reflects that?"
"Is this readable and professional?"
Stay away from getting personal opinions or thoughts, and keep your own authenticity in mind.
3: Remember that design is a journey, and not a quick fix.
The first round of any design I give a client, I give with this caveat: "This is only our first round of directions, and serves as an exploration of the many avenues we can go down." You might not see "The One" design in the first round, and that's okay! Use the tips above to help narrow and focus your thoughts. Remember, if you only wanted a quick design. Fiverr or 99Designs could have helped you, or even DIYing a design on Canva. If you've hired a professional designer, we focus on strategy and deep thinking to make sure we're including you as a partner in the process, and not an output.
Professional designers are here to take you on a journey, and are humans that excel at design principles and aesthetic, and want to help your brand achieve those things, too! Which leads us to....
4: Trust Your Designer.
Quick story time: about 3ish years ago, watercolor logos were all the rage. Everyone wanted one (especially with a script font scrawled on top!) We designers knew these logos… weren't the best. They were hard to make printing look good, they often were too busy and unreadable, and most importantly, they were a fad. A trend. And sure enough, as the years went by, Bold August Design Studio redesigned about 3 watercolor logos after the owners realized they weren't applicable.
Listen to your designer. We know what's trending! We are listening to you, too. We know your personality and we’ve gone through a process to identify your goals. The designer also has your entire project in mind, from top to bottom, and are working to make every piece work as a whole. We are trying to mesh best design principles with your aesthetic, and create a long-lasting look for your business.
The trends right now:
Simple black and white logos
Circles! We've done so many circles!
Simple serif font with a script tagline
If you're nodding at any of these like “Oh, but I love these things!,” just note that this is what's trending. (Did you also like watercolor logos 3 years ago?) You might come back years later and realize you really needed some color or balance in your logo, because it's all about what's reflecting your values best.
Part of this trust is trusting that they can receive feedback thoughtfully.
Too many times I've heard clients say "I was so worried that you'd be upset at my feedback, that I decided not to give any." That's not what we want! We want you to be respectful in your feedback and tell us how we can help you. That would be like if you took a bite of a meal at a restaurant, hated it, and the chef shows up and they ask you what you didn't like.
"Oh, I just don't like it. I know I like food after I taste it. I can't tell you what's wrong with it. Thanks, though."
What! That doesn't make any sense. You would want to tell the chef so they can do better next time, learn how to please customers, and they also would want to provide you a great experience.
Your designer has your best interests at heart (or they should!) They've taken you through a journey of exploration, creation, and then design. Designers are often the last step of output between you and your business goals, so this process is critical, but with respect and clarity on both sides, you'll end up with a great design!
