For a lot of people who are new to business or who haven’t done it before, its hard to know where to start when looking to employ a design firm. If this is something you haven’t done before how can you know who is right for the job or who can give you value for money when your working to a tight budget?

Well. The UK Design Council recently published a excellent set of articles outlining the ins and outs of hiring a designer for the first time. It gives you information on ‘How to find a designer‘, ‘How to choose a designer‘ and ‘How to agree budgets and costs‘ as well as what to expect once the project is water under the bridge.

We work with start-up and small to medium enterprises on a day to day basis and its safe to say that these articles cover pretty much all the questions we get asked by clients when we take on a new project.

Here are the 5 best snippits to get you started:

• Be upfront about your budget
  Initial discussions about budgets and costs ought to take place at the first meeting. If you have absolutely no idea what you need to spend then it may be a case of requesting three proposals or quotes, as you might with a plumber. Either way, it is beneficial for everyone to be up-front about your available budget.
• Looking around
  So, whether you’re interested in branding work, packaging design, annual reports, a retail space or an office redesign, if you come across something good in the same area, then it’s probably worth talking to the designers who worked on it.
• Personal chemistry
  At the first meeting you’re likely to be getting a feel for how the designers relate to you and your business and how you relate to them. Make sure you see a selection of their previous work – known as a portfolio – to ensure that it’s appropriate and of a high enough standard for you. You may also want somebody who has previous experience in a relevant market, so look out for that.
• Seeing design as an investment, not a cost
  Spending money on a well-run design project is an investment in your company, not a commodity cost. If you’re running a business which has never previously commissioned design it may be hard to see it that way. But it’s likely to make for a smoother, more productive (and possibly cheaper) project if everyone involved views the expenditure as an investment, with positive effects for your business. For some people, this may require a shift in mindset and it may fall to someone in your business to champion the design project to other members of staff and management.
• The creative process
  If you haven’t worked through such a creative process before it may be tempting to think you should be able tell the designer what you want so they can go away and produce it, delivering the finished article back to you a few weeks later. But the results from working like this will almost certainly be poorer - and the process less interesting - than if you engage with the development.
  Design is not a completely black and white process, but nor is it a dark art to be left to entirely to the ‘creatives’. Getting into the process is not only essential, it’s also fun.

To read the full article click here and to find out more info about the Design council head over to www.designcouncil.org.uk.