The question isn’t whether or not you should talk to one. The question is, When is the right time?

The answer is right now. Before you get any further along on a major product update without a guiding vision. Before you spend days on end designing high-quality artwork for a muddled concept that won’t fly no matter how nice the aesthetic. Before you announce something important to the world (and it’s all important) without getting an expert opinion. And before you have to spend a whole day explaining your muddled concept to the designer you brought in to clarify it.

Talk to the designer first, before you make a bunch of decisions. It’ll be much easier to talk yourself out of the bad ones if you haven’t spent a lot time convincing yourself they’re good.

(I’m not saying all your ideas will be bad, by the way—just that the bad ones need to be quashed before they do harm, and designers usually are very good quash-ers.)

Posted by Robert on April 15th, 2008