You’ve done it! You’ve made the decision to partner with a graphic design agency to elevate your marketing… now what? When working with a graphic design agency, it’s important to know how to supply copy and other necessary files. Here are some tips to ensure a smooth collaboration.
Depending on the scope of your project, the process may vary. If both parties have a clear understanding of the project (goals, timeline, content, etc.) a start date can typically be scheduled. A more complex scope of work generally requires a project kick-off meeting allowing for the client and the design team to get in sync and exchange ideas.
When you start a project with a design agency, there are several things they may ask for. Below are common items that are necessary and the best ways to supply them to your designer.
Brand and Graphic Files
Brand Guidelines
First off, we always ask for a current brand guide if it exists. Not sure what that is? You’re not the only one! You can learn more about it here. In short, this guide dictates the parameters of your brand and any guidelines that need to be followed to keep your marketing materials consistent. It outlines things like logo usage, typefaces, and color palettes. Often this information can impact design decisions and it’s imperative that your design team has this as a resource while working on your project.
HOW TO SEND: Generally this guide is a pdf or a link to an online source that can easily be emailed.
Logo Files
In addition to the brand guide, it’s helpful to have proper logo files. Supplying an eps file of your logo is ideal, but jpgs, pdfs, and pngs are suitable. If you don’t have any logo files, let us know and we can discuss how best to handle that issue.
If you have worked with a designer in the past, you likely have your logo in various formats and color variations. It’s helpful for us to have all of those files in order to keep brand consistency and make sure that the best logo variation is used for your specific project.
HOW TO SEND: Unless it is a large file, this can be sent via email. If you have larger files or just aren’t sure which ones to send, feel free to create a download link from Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, or whatever application you use.
Photography
If you have photography that is consistent with your brand, we are happy to use it. Whether it is purchased stock photography or custom images you have commissioned, having access to high-resolution imagery that reflects your brand is really helpful.
We can also source stock photography if you don’t have images that work for a particular project. Once purchased, you acquire ownership of the photos and can use them on other projects.
HOW TO SEND: If you have a large gallery of photos, a download link is going to be the best way to share these with us. If it is a smaller amount, you may be able to compress/zip them into a file that can be emailed. Just keep in mind that designers prefer to have the highest resolution available – we’d rather not have them sized down in order to email.
Supporting Collateral
Existing collateral that you’re currently using (supporting graphics, illustrations, iconography, etc.) helps to give us an idea of how you have been using branding elements in your marketing materials.
Copy/Content
What the heck is Lorem Ipsum?
In a pinch, we can design with dummy text – we use something called “lorem ipsum” which is Latin text that has the same visual appearance as written text. This is helpful if you need a visual guide for how much content to provide – but working within those constraints can be difficult, and providing six paragraphs when there is one in a design can result in more revisions.
Outsourcing your Copywriting
If writing content is not your strong suit, we can certainly handle it for you. We’ll work with you to make sure that we have a clear idea of what is being communicated. Messaging is important and it needs to be on track with your overall brand.
If Annatto is handling copy, we can do this in two ways. First, we can start from scratch and create your content based on client interviews, research, and what we know about your project goals.
A second option is for you to provide an outline or even a rough draft of the content. We can take that as a starting point and copyedit as needed.
Providing Completed Copy
If you are providing completed and refined written content there are a few rules of thumb to follow.
- Provide it in an editable document. We know this sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s important enough to note! Sending your copy in a Microsoft Word document or a Google document is the most common way to do this. Having a designer re-type your copy is doable, but not advisable – it’s not an efficient use of design time and it opens up the door for typographical errors.
- Be intentional and consider the project specifics when you are writing. Consider headlines and subheadlines and how you are breaking up your content. And format your document so that it’s obvious to your designers where those headlines are.
- Consider Calls to Action. What exactly do you want your client to do when they read this? Depending on the type of piece you are creating content for, you may need one or you may need several for different areas. And don’t forget to list what contact information you would like included!
Stay tuned for the next part of How to work with a graphic design agency :: Handling revisions for your project
