The Guide To Kimp’s Unlimited Graphic Design Service

But how do you integrate a whole new workflow into your own? Especially when you’ve got a million other things to do. It’s a question we come up against all the time as we onboard clients. So we thought we’d put together the ultimate guide to Kimp.

First thing’s first – the nuts and bolts aka “What You Get With Kimp”

1) A 7 Day Free Trial

Take Kimp for a test run with our 7 day free trial. During the trial you’ll be able to make 3 design requests + revision requests for your designs. You can request anything but logos (find out why here). As soon as we have all of the necessary details from you, we’ll work on delivering your designs so that you can review them. Depending on the size of your requests you’ll receive completed designs or process work for one or more of your requests to evaluate.

For instance, if you request 3 ebooks and each one is 50 pages long, it would not be possible to complete the design work for all 3 tasks in their entirety. But we’d get as many pages completed as possible. We typically turnaround 2-3 designs per business day for designs like social media ads and web banners and 3-5 pages or slides for ebooks and presentations.

If you like what you see during the trial, no further action is required from you. After the 7th day your full subscription would automatically begin. And if you’re not convinced that Kimp is right for you, you can cancel at any time during the trial without incurring any charges. Once your subscription begins you’ll receive source files for all of your trial requests and for any requests going forward.

2) A Dedicated Design Team 

Your team is made up of a Project Manager and 3 designers. Your Project Manager will be your main point of contact, reviewing your creative briefs, asking for clarification if needed, and keeping you updated on the status of your design requests. 

You can expect updates from your Project Manager Monday to Friday, during our business hours. This will range depending on your time zone and the team you’re assigned. Find out more here.

The designers on your team each have a particular area of expertise and your Project Manager will assign tasks based on the team member best suited to complete them.

3) 2-3 Designs Per Business Day, On Average

This can range from brand new requests to revision requests for things like social media posts and well as single-sided print designs. If you need a more complex or detailed design like a custom illustration, ebook or presentation deck, our turnaround time will be longer and will depend on your requirements.

Once you share your creative brief your Project Manager will review it and let you know if we have everything we need to move forward and they’ll confirm the ETA. For quick reference, click here to see a list of things we do design and click here to see a list of things we don’t.

4) Design management using Trello or Email

With Kimp you can make and manage your design requests all in one place. That place can be Trello or email.

Now let’s get one thing out of the way – full disclosure, we LOVE Trello. And we think you will too if you give it a chance. Just imagine – no more emails going back and forth about tweaks and changes to be made. Just Trello cards which expand and collapse to give you the whole picture, whenever you need it. Nothing more, nothing less.

But…we understand if you’d prefer to use email to make and manage your design requests. 

Making Your Design Requests – The Dos & The Don’ts 

Dos: 

1. Provide as much detail as possible. This includes references (screenshots are great, so are attachments that are examples of designs and styles you like). 
2. Provide the text copy to be used and indicate which will be the headline, description, call to action, etc. 
3. Tell us what your goal is for the design – what do you want your target audience to walk away remembering? 
4. Attach your brand assets (logo, pictures, elements etc. and make sure that the files are high resolution).
5. Specify the size of the required design, the platform it will be used on (e.g. Facebook).
6. Tell us if you have any preferences for colour or fonts so we can get the look just right.
7. Tell us what to avoid – is there anything you just can’t stand in your designs? Let us know!
8. Describe your industry and target audience and we’ll aim to design accordingly.
   
   Kimp Tip: Whether you’re a fan of writing out creative briefs or not, using Loom or your favourite screen recorder will save you lots of time when you’re sharing the requirements for a design. Or when you’re trying to explain the revisions you need. Screen recordings allow you to show exactly what you mean and cut down on the chances of misunderstandings. Kimp Tip: Let us know when a project is particularly urgent, and we’ll be sure to prioritize its completion over other requests. And if you’re ever stuck in a bind and need a design request fulfilled faster than you originally thought, let us know and we’ll do our best to expedite it.

Don’ts: 

1. Ask us to come up with the text copy for your design. At Kimp we focus purely on design.
2. Send a creative brief which consists of “design what I’m imagining”. Less is not more when it comes to creative briefs! Help us help you, and share what you have in mind with as much description and as many examples as you can. 
3. Provide us with any brand assets, images, design elements and so forth which are not copyrighted to you. Or that you have not been granted the authority to use.

Getting To Know Each Other

Once your Kimp team begins designing for you they’ll get to know your brand or brands over time. And your workflow will get smoother and smoother. One of the things that can help speed up this process is if you tell us bout your brand. Here’s a handy list of things we’d love for you to share if possible:

1. 1. Your website
   2. Your brand assets
   3. Brand guidelines 
   4. Examples of design work that you’ve previously had completed that you liked or didn’t like. 
   5. Examples of design work that you like – be sure to let us know which elements you’d like!(Maybe it’s the font or the layout or particular design elements.)
   6. A list of the types of designs that you’d like for us to work on for you. This is especially helpful if you have any really unique design requests. We’d love to learn about them as early as possible. This helps us deliver exactly what you’re looking for.

Apart from the ideas above, let your Project Manager know when you have suggestions or pain points that you’re experiencing. Connect with the customer experience team via live chat 7 days a week. Or request a call with us by sending a message on the Kimp chat or emailing [email protected]. Reach out about anything from complex new design projects you want to start, to challenges you’re facing with the design process.

Whatever the case we’re here to hear you out and we’re always happy to find better ways of working together.