Pipeline & Workflow
Key question
How do teams work well together?
Design rarely happens in isolation: teams, clients, printers and developers work together, often in different locations. Tools can help, but they are no substitute for clear communication.
Learning objective: You are able to select tools according to their purpose, gather feedback in a structured manner, and establish ground rules for collaboration.
Clear agreements beat any tool.
4.1 / Tools by Purpose
The right tool for the job.
Tools can be organised according to their purpose:
01
Layout and print
Multi-page documents and print-ready files.
02
Image
Photo editing and image compositing.
03
Vector
Logos, icons, and illustrations.
04
Interface
Screens, prototypes and design systems.
05
Collaboration
Communication, tasks and files across the team.
Tools change quickly. More important than a specific program is understanding what it is used for.
4.2 / In-process feedback
Structured, not scattered.
Feedback that arrives via email, chat, and phone all at once gets lost or contradicts itself. It is far better to have a single place for comments, directly on the draft, and one person on the client's side to consolidate all the feedback.
01
A place
Comments directly on the draft.
02
One voice
One person collates the feedback.
03
A decision
In the end, what matters is what gets implemented.
Every feedback round ends with a decision: what will be implemented, what won't, and why? Find out more about dealing with feedback in the Industry Realities course, Module 06.
One place, one voice, one decision.
4.3 / Agreeing on rules
Who, what, where, when?
At the start of a project, it is worth establishing how the team will work together: which channels to use, where files are stored, how feedback is given, and who signs off.
A brief written agreement prevents many misunderstandings and helps new team members get onboarded.
Agreed once, time saved often.
Exercise
Test collaboration
Task: Work in groups of three on a small assignment, spread across different locations.
STEP 1
Agree on your rules with the tool.
STEP 2
Assign the roles: Design, Copy, Client.
STEP 3
Work for two days only via the agreed channels.
STEP 4
Evaluate what worked.
Evaluation: Where were there misunderstandings, and which rule would have helped?