Simply put, the size of your firm or company doesn’t matter -- everyone can work with a design agency. After all, the power of good design is beneficial to organizations of all sizes and bad design costs everyone.

What does matter however, is what you bring to the table.

Building an image and brand or strengthening an existing one takes expertise. It’s also a collaborative effort. Here are a few tips for setting yourself up for success with a design agency regardless of your size:

• Bring Examples: Providing your design partner examples of what you like and what you don’t like is a great way to get conversations going and establish goals. Showing instead of telling can significantly speed up the design process.
• Ask Questions: Ask for clarifications on any part of the project or timeline that doesn’t make sense. If you aren’t sure about a design element, ask for background.
• Trust: Trusting the expertise of your agency team leads to more creative ideas. Providing direction and brand oversight is key, but being open to new ideas can help the design team push boundaries and be more innovative for your firm.
• Communicate Clearly: Be specific about the needs, expectations and goals of a project. Collate feedback from multiple people/groups and use a single point of contact for communications. Provide positive and negative feedback, both are helpful.
• Collaborate: Think of your design agency as a strategic team member. Involving them early in discussions, and empowering them with critical market research or customer insights will lead to more innovative and effective design work.

The most successful design partnerships come from good collaboration, not the size of your firm or creativity of the agency. Effective collaboration, trust and clear communication puts design expertise within reach for firms of all sizes.