Tips to help sell your designs

Get started with some research

You need to have a good understanding of who you’re designing for before you start so it’s worth spending some time before you begin creating your designs to do a little bit of research. You want to have a good understanding of your target market which means having a good understanding of who will be buying your designs. This essentially means knowing who your customer is and being able to profile them as well as understanding the trends and what’s selling in the market at the current time.

If you are wanting to sell your designs to a particular client, then make sure you take some time to understand their customer and the sort of designs they buy. By making sure you have a good understanding of the target market you’re designing for, you can make sure that you design according to their needs and wants.

Understand the product you’re designing for

As well as understanding and researching the market you want to sell your designs in, you also need to understand the product you are designing for. There are lots of different factors that will determine the parameters you will need to work within including the product you’re designing for, the surface your design is being applied to and the production methods involved. It’s really important that you know these parameters before you begin designing as this will determine you limitations and how you go about the design process.

Commercial colour palettes

If you are creating designs for your own purpose you can be as creative as you like with your colour palettes but if you are wanting to sell your designs commercially you need to research which colours palettes sell and are appropriate for the products or market area you want to sell to. You’ll also need to keep this in mind when you’re creating your designs. Colour is such an important element within a design and by simply changing the colours you can change the whole look and feel of the design and also the market it is suited to. Make sure you allow some time to research and develop successful and appropriate colour palettes.

The take-home is if you want to create designs that sell, make sure you do some research before you get started so you know who you are designing. It may be a  bit more work upfront but believe me, it’s worth it in the long run.