Process
How to give feedback your designer can use
“Make it pop” helps nobody. Four simple habits that turn vague reactions into notes a designer can act on the same day.
“Can you make it pop?” is the most common note a designer receives. It’s also the least useful, and we say that with love.
Good feedback is a skill nobody teaches clients. It takes five minutes to learn, and it will save you a round of revisions.
Say what you feel before what you’d change
Your reaction is gold. Your fix might not be. “This feels too serious for us” tells us everything. “Make the logo bigger” only tells us one thing to try.
Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
Make it pop | It feels quiet next to our rivals |
I don’t like green | Green reminds me of our old brand |
Can we see more options? | None of these feels friendly yet |
My partner hates it | Here is what worried her |
Three habits of our favourite clients
After more than 60 launches, the projects that ran smoothly had these in common.
They gather the notes
One list, from one person, on one day. Comments arriving in eleven separate messages is how details go missing.
They point at the goal
Every project starts with an agreed aim. The best notes test the work against it: “Will this make a first-time visitor book?”
They sleep on it
First reactions are loud and often wrong. A night’s rest turns “I hate it” into “the colour is fine, the heading is the problem”.
When you really can’t explain it
Send us something you do like and say why. A photo of a shop front or a cereal box is a perfectly good brief.
“The best note I ever passed on was a single line: “It looks expensive, and we’re not.” The designers fixed it in an afternoon.”
Ruth Clarke, studio manager at Sunday Studio
A template you can steal
Next time a design lands in your inbox, answer these in order:
What was your first reaction, in a word or two?
What is working and should stay?
What feels wrong, and what does it remind you of?
Is anything missing that the project needs?
Four answers, one email, and we can get straight to work. Got a project that needs a fresh pair of eyes? Book a 30 minute call.
