Recently, I had the fortune of working for some clients who passed on a couple of Photoshop files to me to work on a project for. When I opened the file, it looked presentable as such, but the layering and organization of the layers were nightmarish! Things were everywhere where they shouldn't be and there was no common coherence to grouping even though folders had been set up.

My point here isn't obviously to rant about the previous designers lack of diligence in developing a proper file, but I'd like to take a moment here and talk about how utterly important it is to keep a clean Photoshop file; heck any graphic related program that uses layer techniques should follow this simple rule.

Often, as a graphic designer or illustrator you'll be working with many layers inside any given file; whether it is your own created file or someone else's. So it's really quite important to keep the layering intuitive, and sensible to what you're seeing on the canvas spatially. If particular elements like a navigation bar sit on the same plane on the canvas, they should all be grouped together through either colour coding or even folders (now that Photoshop implements this function). Even if they aren't colour coded or placed inside folders, at the very least put them in the near vacinity of each other.

First and foremost, it'll make your own life easier as a designer/illustrator when you one day have to go back through that file; at least it'll make sense and you just swiftly move through the 1000 layers you built back in 2009. And if you feel generous enough, maybe the file will one day be handled by another designer, at least they won't have to rummage through the superfluous hidden layers and non-hidden layers to find which layer is the one where the downward pointing arrow graphic is that lies on top of a navigation tab.

Just common sense, and no matter how time compressed you are to deliver the files, there's no reason why organization shouldn't be already a part of the workflow.

Whether you're an established business or a start up, at one point or another, you're going to call on the services of a freelance designer. When you do, you might want to consider a few of these things during the process.

You need something creative done, do you do it yourself?
I'm sure there are business owners who aren't in the creative industry out there who are equally as creative as a designer is. Your role however, really is to take care of the business side of things and worry about where your accounts are coming from, and constantly building new relationships to expand/grow your business. So you decide to outsource work, but as you know and I know, there are always budgets that need adhering to, and this is even more apparent now in this recession than in that past couple of years.

With that said, it's now important for you to realize what budget you have, and this doesn't mean your budget is "I want to spend as little as possible and expect top notch work" mentality. This is figuring out a ballpark estimate of how much you are willing to spend on marketing material and matching a designer up with your budget to what you feel works for yourself and the designer in question.

Out of respect for you own business, I would advise you to not take the "cheap & good" results route, but instead look for a designer that can produce "fast & good". There's an adage out there that work often comes in a triad. It's "cheap-fast-good" relationship, and with any given project you can only choose 2 of these 3 items because expecting all 3 to happen is just unrealistic as far as respecting the designer and showing a respectful professional image of your own business.

The old saying of "you get what you pay for", really does apply. It certainly is not 'just' a saying.

Designers are not Production Artists...
Believe it or not there is 'actually' a difference between the two! Certainly, because of the nature of how a freelancer is set up, a designer is a one man/woman show and so they will be both designer and production artist, but when you're specifically looking for a Production Artist, they won't likely be doing design work for you.

As the name suggests, Production Artist; their responsibilities are to ensure the layout of information and graphics are coherent, the tracking and leading make for legible reading, catch small spelling errors and maybe some grammatical errors, and that the file is ready for "production", as in sending it to the offset printers (in a more traditional sense of the title, though I'm sure the title has expanded over into the web in some circles). There are certainly more technical aspects to the role of a Production Artist, but the core difference here is that they are more likely to take an existing design style and apply the content throughout the project.

Designers on the other hand handle both the creative side of the project and the technical layout aspects of preparing the file for print production. Essentially a designer is both designer and production artist, and that should be clearly defined in your mind when you're looking for projects to be completed. Do you need a designer to start from scratch? Or do you have something in mind that you would like to realize with the help of a Production Artist?

So you've decided to outsource, but why not do it yourself?
Sure you could do the work yourself, but do you have the time? Do you have the creativity? Do you really want to deal with the printers when your fonts are missing from the production file at 6pm at night? I'd imagine as a business owner you have enough to deal with on a daily basis, so outsourcing your creative work at this point seems like a great idea, right? More importantly, if you decided to go do it yourself, but you really can't spend the time to start something from scratch, chances are you'll end up doing something very unprofessional looking and/or you end up looking like every other business out there because you purchased a template and slapped on your logo smack dab in the middle of your business card with no consideration to appropriateness.

Woo, you've chosen a designer and you've seen their work...
It's exactly what you're looking for with respect to style and your initial communication with them is on par with your exceptional standards. So now comes the ugly part, how much it's going to cost you.

One can understand the difficulties in grasping the notion of "you charge how much for that?" as it is a service and not something entirely tangible that has a sell sheet standing nicely next to it with a lengthy list of features with all the bells & whistles. But you have to remember a few factors when you're faced with this part of the negotiation:

• What your initial budget was initially
• If it's beyond your budget by a little are you willing to spend a little more because you value the exceptional standards that the designer presents themselves as being or have shown?
• If you can't or don't want to spend more, be honest with your designer and tell them your budget. An exact number expedites the process not only faster and leaves immediate considerations for the designer to 'offer' you a discount to meet that budget. It makes for a higher chance of a win-win situation that way.

The worst thing a business owner can do at this point is start bargaining with the designer and providing reasons why they shouldn't charge that much for the project. This not only devalues yours and your business's professional image, it undermines the entire business transaction that the designer has taken their time out of their schedule to meet with you. Bang! You shot yourself in the foot. It's important to remember that you're not at the local market bargaining a couple dollars off of a head of lettuce, you're speaking with a similar minded business person in a coffee shop or maybe in yours or their office. Again, not the local market.

A designer sells their service, but their product is actually your project...
So you've got past the negotiation of pricing and there is a mutual agreement between the two parties. Excellent. You go back (or they leave), and you're still a little unaccustomed by the fact that you just went and signed off on the project to move ahead with all things considered. So what do you do?

You could keep dwelling on it until it drives you mad, but that's generally not advisable. What you can do is think back to your conversation with the designer and possibly refer to your contractual agreement with them. Look at it and you'll likely find the words along the lines of "upon project completion, all artistic rights are relinquished to the client. Therefore, there shall be no other appropriated reproduction....etc." If that isn't in writing, discuss this with your designer, unless you're ok with other competitors producing similar marketing materials as you are. Yeah, I didn't think so. You paid good money to get custom work, and custom work you shall get. Just be sure to make that clear.

Whew! You're still with me? Good, I'm going to stop soon...
So anyway, you've got the project started and you're providing the copy for your designer. What? You have to do that? Well of course you do! Unless the designer has explicitly said they're capable of copy writing, it shouldn't be assumed nor used as a tool for bargaining (again shooting yourself in the foot) the value of the work being produced. Likewise with other materials, such as photos/logos or whatever else it may be, you as a client are responsible for providing the proper materials from your business so that the designer can include it into the project.

It's also important to note that whatever initial timeframe both parties agreed upon for the completion of the project was, the designer can only move as quickly as you provide the proper materials for them to include. The longer you take to give them what they need of you, the longer the project will take as well.

Final remarks...
Ok, I've said a lot of things that might upset some people, but hopefully it will serve a slightly higher purpose than angering individual business owners. This is more of a guidline for businesses to consider when they need this type of work done. It certainly is not definitive by any means.

I'll be cruel, and let you salivate on some seriously awesome vermicelli with grilled chicken & beef combo. This thing was easily the best bowl of vermicelli + grilled chicken & beef combo I've had in a long time. Major props to the Pho 88 @ Steeles & Yonge!