At every stage of the design process, we prioritize your feedback. This meticulous review process serves as a cornerstone of our workflow, ensuring the final product not only meets but exceeds your expectations.

It helps catch distracting mistakes and spot issues that take away from the brand.

The review process is also vital in building the relationship between you and our creative team. Effective communication between creatives and clients is an absolute must for reviewing designs and giving constructive feedback that leads to a project’s success.

We’ll show you our methods for streamlining the graphic design and branding review process and empowering clients during projects.

Establishing communication channels that work for everyone

Once a branding or graphic design project begins, we make it a point to use communication channels that work best for you, which can include:

• Project management tools used by your company
• Email correspondence
• Video conference calls
• Asynchronous tools like Loom
• Or a combination of the above

After picking one channel—or a couple—we’ll stick to it so there aren’t any surprises or confusion about which to pay attention to.

Keeping quality standards high throughout the process

Rule number one for any company rebrand, branded campaign, or marketing initiative is to have a clear objective and plan. It serves as the creative brief we work from and what the deliverables are measured on.

As our design team works, we constantly check to ensure it aligns with the creative brief.

What does this mean in reality?

Our graphic designers work under the guidance of an experienced creative director who oversees the entire project to ensure that it fulfills all the requirements established from the beginning.

This creative director functions as the account lead and project manager, keeping an eye out for any potential issues or discrepancies, such as typos and other errors that degrade the quality of the work.

Reviewing creative and giving feedback so you get what you want

It’s almost impossible to contain the excitement of reviewing the first round of creative. This is your chance to see how everything comes together and share your thoughts on enhancing it.

When you receive the design as part of the review process, it will come with a quick recap of any pertinent information related to the creative brief the work was based on.

For more complex projects like website designs or brand redesigns with multiple elements, our team will send over the creative with a pre-recorded Loom walkthrough or schedule a call to discuss it live.

Review timeframe
We understand that some people need more time to form their thoughts, while others can make snap decisions.

To ensure you have enough time to evaluate the design and provide feedback, we will build an appropriate number of days for review in the initial schedule agreed to during the initial project planning.

Giving constructive feedback
As you consider what is or isn’t working in the design, it might not be easy to frame your thoughts so the creative team understands them.

We have some recommendations on offering constructive feedback to help you articulate your ideas effectively and ensure everyone is on the same page.

• Remember the initial creative brief
• Think about the audience who will see it
• Highlight any inaccuracies or inconsistencies
• Express what in the design works toward your strategy and goals

Descriptive feedback, such as “I like [design element], but I’m concerned that [specific issue] might impact its effectiveness,” gives the creative team a clear idea of what your concerns are and how to address them.

Meanwhile, subjective phrases like “It’s not working for me” or “Something feels missing” create ambiguity. Translating those statements into creative direction that solves the issue or gives the team enough detail to deliver an effective design can be challenging.

So, don’t be afraid to share your thoughts or ask questions you’re wondering about why we made certain design choices. We’re happy to discuss them more in-depth.

Making revisions and iterations easier

Since we do a lot of work upfront during discovery to gather information about your business and project goals, we try to make sure that the first review round is as close as possible to the final product.

The benefits of this mean:

• The likelihood of significant revisions decreases, keeping the project on schedule
• Designs are based on the creative brief, so you have a point of reference to assess them
• You can provide feedback that aligns with the initial project goals

Part of guaranteeing we get it right is asking questions when feedback needs clarification and (gently) pushing back when it goes outside the initial brief. This process makes it much easier to edit the design to give you what you’re looking for.

Choosing proactive communication over reactive

When you don’t know what’s going on, worry starts to creep in, making working relationships, let’s say, tense.

And we definitely don’t want this to happen.

To us, transparency means we like to solve problems before they escalate. We provide status updates about your project, and should anything happen that would impact it, we’ll notify you immediately.

But there are times when things come up that affect the timeline. For example, people need longer to review the creative, or the feedback given requires more time on the creative side, extending the revision period. When this happens, we communicate realistic alternatives so you can make an informed choice on how to proceed.

Streamlining the review process

Right from the beginning of every project, our creative team uses crystal-clear and transparent communication, keeping projects in check and you in the know.

We make sure that reviewing your creative and providing feedback is a simple and seamless process for you.

Each iteration undergoes a rigorous internal review process before it reaches your hands. So, when you receive it, you can rest assured that it meets your expectations.

Establishing milestones, especially for larger projects like website designs and company rebrands, gives you and your creative team specific goals to target that produce a result everyone can be proud of.

But to get there, it’s essential to map out every step of the design process, taking into account checkpoints that need to be completed along the way. This includes each phase of the creative, review, revision, and approval process.

Let’s look at how to overlay this multi-step operation over a timeline so you can collaborate with your designers to plan a schedule that matches your objectives.

Stating your objectives and defining your path

Before following the map, you have to know your destination. This is why it’s essential to clearly define your project goals first and then plot out the deliverables needed to accomplish them.

Here’s an example company for a fictional business called “Rad Bikes.” Rad Bikes wants to launch a new marketing campaign to promote its new lightweight folding bicycle. As part of this campaign, the company intends to hold a sweepstakes for one lucky person to win a free bike.

Rad Bikes want to produce these deliverables:

• Three social media posts to drive awareness of the contest
• One landing page for people to enter the contest with a simple lead generation form
• Five emails to nurture participants and offer discounts for other products

And they want to launch this contest in two months.

Producing the creative, writing the copy, programming the campaign, and launching it within a tight timeframe requires all hands on deck. The process will also include design reviews, revisions, and obtaining approval from Rad Bikes.

These things must happen in tandem for this campaign to launch on time. Any deviations or delays could impact the campaign.

So, where to start?

If our team worked with Rad Bikes, we would establish the project’s key milestones and incorporate checkpoints in the schedule that must be met over the next two months. We would suggest designing the social media posts first, getting that look and feel approved, and then building out the emails and landing page based on them.

By having one approved design, it’s easier and faster to produce the remaining creative assets.

This simplified example timeline shows the milestones that need to be hit and project tasks.

Design & Copywriting (Weeks 1-4)

• Design and get approval for the look and feel of the campaign with social media posts (Week 1)
• Create and obtain final approval for all creative assets (Weeks 2-3)
• Give approved email and landing page designs to the development team (Week 3)

Development, Testing, QA, and Launch (Weeks 3-8)

• Programming and testing emails (Weeks 3-6)
• Programming and testing landing page (Weeks 3-7)
• Launching the completed campaign (Week 8)

Notice how some of the tasks overlap in this schedule?

Design and approvals need to happen quickly for the campaign to launch on time. The social posts tend to be smaller creative projects, but in this case, they will set the tone for the sweepstakes campaign.

Once the emails and landing page get the “okay” from Rad Bikes, the development team will program and test them in the last few weeks before launch.

Tracking project progress with technology

We would communicate internally and with them through a project management system like Basecamp, Breeze, or Asana to track the team’s progress and keep everyone in the loop about Rad Bike’s campaign. It’s a place where the creative, development, and account teams can get status updates and share assets for review.

However, given the compressed timeline and multitude of deliverables, it’s highly probable that the schedule could be impacted.

Making adjustments to the schedules

Sometimes, circumstances beyond one’s control can derail even the most carefully designed milestone plan, and changing course is necessary.

As we continue to examine our example client, Rad Bikes, we find that it’s taking much longer for them to come together and provide final approval for the email and landing page designs.

This delay pushes the schedule out by two weeks. Yikes.

Unfortunately, this means our creative team can’t meet the second milestone of passing the designs to the development team for programming. Since the next step milestone (programming, testing, and launch) could only move forward with their approval, we would communicate a few options to Rad Bikes to approach this problem.

They could:

• Extend the timeline or;
• Add more resources to the project to meet the same deadline

Rad Bikes decides not to sacrifice quality or rush the project. They also don’t want to increase their budget to hire more designers and developers. Instead, they choose to extend the timeline by two weeks. This extension also pushes out the campaign’s launch date and remaining milestone deadlines.

Reaching your project milestones

Transparent communication is key to ensuring that projects with tight deadlines are delivered on time. However, as much as you want things to go smoothly, things happen, which can impact an already condensed schedule.

But what happens when you have to pivot entirely?

In the example project, we walked through our approach to milestone planning and what happens when delays occur.

Working with a proactive, communicative, creative team makes navigating these issues easier when they arise. When delays happen, we work with you to reassess the plan, make necessary changes, and help you get as close as possible to meeting your initial deadline.