# working with your designer
You want to create not only an informative and helpful map, but also a beautiful piece to be proud of? Great! Here are a few tips to work smoothly with your designer and to make the best out of this collaboration.
## WHAT DO YOU WANT? PREPARE A BRIEF
Before even starting to look for a person to design your map, sit with your team to write your brief. A brief is a short project presentation (1 or 2 pages maximum) that has two purposes:
📋 put your ideas together and **be clear on what you want**\
💡 **give to your designer all the information** they need to make a precise estimation of cost - and later create a map that fits your expectations.
To write this document, get inspired by the presentation you wrote to get fundings!
{% content-ref url="/pages/pCisY4MLizM32bRSzciG" %}
[motivation](/use-it-wiki/funding-your-project/prepare-your-project-plan/motivation.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}
The brief should include:
👋 **a short presentation** of the map project, your team, the NGO and USE-IT\
🎒 a few words on **your target group** (young travellers of course!) and **your objectives**\
⌛ **your constraints**: schedule and budget (for graphic design AND print), USE-IT graphic standards (paper and digital) etc.
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{% column %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/VDkhYyUjaRKuYkHHcT1W" %}
[budget](/use-it-wiki/funding-your-project/prepare-your-project-plan/budget.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}
{% endcolumn %}
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{% content-ref url="/pages/YTM5j6FRUI2FOZWz8bDU" %}
[reverse schedule](/use-it-wiki/funding-your-project/prepare-your-project-plan/reverse-schedule.md)
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{% endcolumn %}
{% column %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/mSf7IY03kjJOOEe9smAU" %}
[paper map guidelines](/use-it-wiki/map-design/paper-map-guidelines.md)
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You can add **a moodboard** of inspirations, but for every image you add to this document, ask yourselves what you like on those images. Is it the illustration style? the font? the colours? Write down all those ideas and wishes.
You can also **draw a draft of your map**: what section should go where? What goes in the front and what goes at the back? How do you split the content? (full map on one side and text on the other? Zoom in / zoom out? North / south?) Of course your designer will later help you be more precise with this, but it’s good if you come with a rough idea.
{% content-ref url="/pages/Q9Ai7YViiVSgistbw9UR" %}
[dividing the city](/use-it-wiki/map-design/cartography/dividing-the-city.md)
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## CHOOSING THE GOOD ONE
This is definitely the hard part. There are different situations:
#### No designer in your team: you will have to look for someone!
🖼️ Look closely at **flyers and images that you like** in your city. In general, the name of the illustrator is written on it.\
👭 **Look around you**. You for sure have designer friends or relatives with great portfolios.\
📣 **Call for applications!** Speak about the project, spread the message online and offline. You can use your social network if you already have a little community around your project.\
☎️ Ask for an estimate of costs, try to meet or have a phone call: what’s their reaction to the project? **Trust your first impression**, human matching is important if you have to work with this person for a few months.
What to look at when you check a portfolio:
* Does the designer’s work match your moodboard?
* Did they work on similar projects before? (Designing a map OR designing a printed brochure OR designing about the city vibe…) It does not mean you should not hire them if not, but you can have an idea on their experience. USE-IT is a nice first professional project for young designers, and as juniors, they might be cheaper. But you have to bet on their skills on school and personal projects.
{% hint style="warning" icon="palette" %}
**Beware of the difference between an illustrator and a graphic designer:**
An **illustrator** is a person who draws and creates pictures, drawings, illustrations for advertising, books, magazines, etc.
A **graphic designer** is a person who combines text and pictures to create advertising, books, magazines, etc.
Sometimes, illustrators are also graphic designers, sometimes they are not. Make sure to find a person who is first of all a graphic designer, so they will know how to combine images, text and map!
{% endhint %}
Remember, USE-IT is above all an informative tool. Keep it in mind in the all designing process. Before any kind of art style, it’s important to publish a map with legible text, a map with enough street names and a good hierarchy of the text.
{% hint style="warning" icon="people-group" %}
**Beware when choosing a designer as a team**
*Feedback from Nantes’ experience:* "We had a shortlist of 5 illustrators to work with our designer. Everybody from the team had a different favourite, so we ended up choosing this artist who was 2nd or 3rd in everybody’s heart. Afterward, we realized we picked her more because her drawings were « trendy » so easy going rather than picking someone with a stronger artistic universe."
{% endhint %}
#### There is a designer in your team.
They are willing to design the map? Great! They will have a good overview of the project objective, target, and the USE-IT standards. However, working with a friend can sometimes be tricky. From the start, and even if it’s a close friend, try to **keep it professional**: write a budget and contract, agree on deadlines and main design choices… And remember: never take design feedback and discussions personally. **It’s about the map, not about the people.**
Whoever you decide to work with, check the contract closely and make sure:
* that you understand how many draft versions and changes the designer will do
* that the copyright will enable you to use the illustrations as you want (for example make sure you are allowed to extract illustrations to use on socials and on the digital map).
## WORKING PROCESS
A great result is not only about finding the good designer, it’s also about being a good client: giving proper information and feedback is the key!
🤝 Meet the designer (in person or have a phone call) to **agree on the working process** and deadlines. Explain all about USE-IT, your team, your map and its content. Yes, that’s repeating the brief, but better too much than not enough. Show your moodboard, discuss your map draft and stay open to their ideas as well. Leave them space for creativity, that’s what you’re hiring them for!\
🧑🍳 **Pick one person from the team** to be responsible for being the ONLY contact with the designer, gathering all your team’s feedback.\
📝 **Prepare a clean, proofread final version of your text**. Make sure you wrote all the addresses after the location texts in the same format for example. You can also prepare a Google map document with all your locations to help the designer visualize where all the places are and how to frame the map section.\
ℹ️ Share this wiki with them, in particular the sections listed bellow:
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{% column %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/mSf7IY03kjJOOEe9smAU" %}
[paper map guidelines](/use-it-wiki/map-design/paper-map-guidelines.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/Ud45MYYy1qwGGA9Xwtbv" %}
[how to improve cartography](/use-it-wiki/map-design/cartography/how-to-improve-cartography.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}
{% endcolumn %}
{% column %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/ztriOjDOlq20JNuHV0Nf" %}
[drawing your base map](/use-it-wiki/map-design/cartography/drawing-your-base-map.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}
{% content-ref url="/pages/yjLvvZPw7mCR1K4QummT" %}
[guide on preparing assets](/use-it-wiki/map-design/digital-map/guide-on-preparing-assets.md)
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{% endcolumns %}
In general, your USE-IT map design will be split in two steps:
#### Research phase
At this stage, the designer will **define the visual atmosphere**, the illustration style, the fonts and colors and the general layout of the map. They will also present **trials for the cover** (the number will depend on your budget). On your side, you will have to give feedback that may be very subjective. To make the best out of it, follow these advices:
🔑 **avoid saying ‘I like’ or ‘I dislike’ without explanation**: try to explain what makes you dislike a design choice. Is it about the atmosphere of the map? Is it about the user experience? Is it because it’s too different from your initial brief? \
💬 **stay open to discussion**: try to understand why the designer made this choice/proposition. Of course you can disagree, but then think of the impact that a change may have — better than discovering a major change consequently to a little one.\
🧑🤝🧑 **build a trustful and respectful relationship**: it’s not about people, it’s about design. This is particularly true if you are working with a friend.
#### Finalization phase
The map will more and more look like a finished product. At this stage, here is what you should particularly look at:\
🔎 **always think of legibility**: font size, colour contrast, text hierachy…\
🗺️ **make sure the map is usable**: are there enough street names, illustrations of main buildings… Can someone actually use the map to walk around the city?\
📍 how easy is it to find location numbers from the text to the map? **Check the order of places on the map**. (But the more you discuss this before starting the job, the better the designer will understand how important this is for you.)\
👓 **multiple-proofread**: share the proofreading within your team to spot the last possible mistake: someone can focus on grammar and spelling, someone else on matching location numbers.\
🕖 **do not underestimate the time a little change takes**: it may look tiny, but removing a comma can break an entire text block. Consequently, the more you group your feedback, the easiest and smoothest it gets between you and your designer.
Remember to ask the Editor-in-Chief to proofread before the contract ends! She will give you important feedback based on the network’s experience, and it’s important to implement them as well. :)
## TIME FOR PAYMENT
Some designers may ask you to pay for a deposit. It’s usually 20% of the total amount of the contract. You can try to negotiate to pay it at a certain time, it may work if you have a paper proving that you are going to get the funding later.
However, **you should not pay the entire amount before the designer even started to work**. Signing the contract should be enough. If the project does not go well, at least you will have to pay only the job done, not the entire quotation.
And if you work with a friend, try to avoid as much as possible the “strange requests” linked to the project. For example : asking to be paid to buy the computer or the software they are going to work on.
And of course, in case of doubt, ask the network, previous mapmakers probably have an answer to your question!
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