Help with the intial brief

Give a short design brief that communicates the following wishes:

  • A description of the work or brand the illustration or design goes with.
  • The feel or impression you want to give with the design.
  • How much work is needed and, if applicable, which part of the work in question is being illustrated.
  • The style (please don’t use terminology if you don’t exactly know what it means; compare with work from my portfolio if you can’t articulate it well).
  • Themes in the work being illustrated or in your past branding.
  • Typefaces for which you already have a licence.
  • An idea of the content of the design, if applicable (but please don’t be disappointed if I don’t stick to this idea).

Help with giving feedback

It can be difficult to give good feedback for a first draft of a design. The point of giving feedback is to help an illustrator or designer to represent your work or brand well.

The point isn’t to tell the designer or illustrator how to create a design. Otherwise you’d do it yourself! Each detail of a design is deliberately put in place and I do my best to explain why it’s been put there. It’s sensible to keep your feedback simple and somewhat vague.

This also means less work for you and for me, and the less work you have me do, the less it costs. But what should you say then? A short guide:

Do say e.g.:

  • If you want the illustration to be more literal or more abstract.
  • Regarding colours: whether they’re bright enough; whether or not they represent your brand well; whether they give the wrong feel.
  • Regarding characters: whether they represent your idea, your clientele, your organisation, etc. well, e.g. by their gender, ethnicity, or general appearance.
  • If the design reminds you of something unwarranted, such as a racist trope, something politically insensitive, et cetera.

Please don’t say e.g.:

  • Whether the logo fits your own, initial idea.
  • Anything about small, insubstantial details, e.g. whether a man is carrying a staff, which direction an animal’s looking (unless this contradicts the text of a story being illustrated, but you wouldn’t expect that to occur).
  • Whether the type should have serifs; whether it should be bold, italic, et cetera.