Figuring Out Your Project Timeline as a Brand or Web Designer

Originally, the first line of this blog started with, “the first step to having a smooth and successful branding or web design project is planning out your project timeline.”

But here’s the thing: we wrote that sentence, and realized that knowing your project timeline goes much, much deeper than that.

Being able to forecast timelines for your brand and web design clients leads to smoother and more successful projects, sure. But as we all know so well, successful projects = a happier, healthier design business.

So, let’s restart this blog, shall we? → A successful brand or web design business starts with planning out your project timelines accordingly. (How’s that?)

Figuring out (and sticking to) a timeline is usually easier said than done, however. As a brand or web designer, there are a ton of obstacles that pop up throughout a single project’s journey. Things take longer than you might expect, or that one client won’t provide their feedback on time. You’ve experienced it, and we have too.

Design project mishaps happen all of the time, making it extra important to plan ahead for the unexpected, while creating a timeline that gives you plenty of space to create your best work.

How to Successfully Design Your Project Timelines

Step 01 | Outline every step of your process per project.

You probably offer more than one type of project, which means that we want you to create an outline for every single step of every single project! Write down every detail, no matter how big or small, that goes into each project. And because you asked so nicely, here’s an example of what this process would look like for us at Wayfarer:

Invite the client to schedule their brand discovery call
Do the brand discovery call + take notes during it
Have a design team call afterwards to discuss ideas for the design direction
Work on filling our the creative direction presentation
Browse pinterest for visual inspiration
Finish working on creative direction presentation
Share presentation with the client
Client reviews the presentation
Client gives their feedback
Have a design team call to review client feedback
Work on logo concept ideas
Have a design team call to talk through any final changes to logos
Put together logo concepts presentation
Share logo presentation with the client
Client reviews the presentation
Client gives their feedback
Have a design team call to review client feedback

…And so on.

Once you’ve outlined all of your individual steps, group them into different phases. Wayfarer’s project timeline phases are:

Brand Creative Direction
First Logo Concepts
Refined Brand Concepts
Final Refinements
Brand Style Guide
Final File Handover

Organize your project steps into phases that make sense for you!

Step 02 | Allot time for each phase.

Take a look at the project steps and phases you’ve written down, and figure out how much time is needed for each phase. Is it one day? An entire week?

Give every phase of your process a specific time range - and be generous. We recommend using Google Calendar or Asana to help map your timing out! Pick a random start date on your calendar, and plan out how long each step of the project would take from that point. If you aren’t sure how much time is needed, just make an educated guess before moving on to the next step.

Step 03 | Refine your timeline + create space for the unexpected.

Like we said at the beginning of this blog, surprises and mishaps are the name of the brand and website design game. Due to the nature of the creative work you do and the fact that you’re working with humans, things are bound to pop up during your project!

The best rule of thumb is to plan your timelines with those unexpected situations in mind. We know, plan for the unexpected? Vague at best. But trust us when we say that it’s always best to set aside just-in-case time for each project!

Some important things to consider when creating space for the unexpected:

Juggling projects - You might be working on multiple projects at once, forcing you to juggle multiple tasks and creative visions at once. You may need extra time to work on everything!

Running your own business - As a designer, you have your own business to market and take care of. Make sure to leave room in your weekly schedule for marketing and administrative tasks.

Creative blocks - You will experience creative blocks as a designer. The worst thing you can do is rush yourself to complete tasks as fast as possible! Be purposeful; leave a little extra room in each project’s timeline in case the right idea doesn’t come to you immediately.

Client behavior - Your client probably doesn’t operate in the same way that you do (unfortunately). So, consider how much time your client might need to complete the tasks they’re responsible for! When asking for client feedback on presentations, we provide three business days. But for bigger tasks like website copy, that might require communicating with your client about how much time feels doable for them.

With all of the above in mind, you might decide to extend the timeline you’ve just created. Add in a bit of extra time for the phases of your projects where you often find yourself feeling stuck. If your clients have a tendency to be late with their feedback, carve out more time for them to do so. It’s always better to have more time than you think you actually need!

Step 04 | Clearly communicate your timelines.

If you’ve worked as a brand or website designer for a day or a decade, you probably already know that clients don’t always respect timelines.

Clients might miss feedback deadlines, neglect to tell you about a vacation, or go completely silent on you for weeks (been there, experienced that, didn’t get a t-shirt for it).

To avoid those sticky client situations, it’s important to be upfront with your clients about the importance of your timelines for you and for them. A few tips to help you do that:

Have your client approve the project timeline before signing your contract.
Use an app like Asana to set due dates for every task so your client can see when they have to complete something.
Send your clients a weekly check-in message to forecast upcoming due dates.
Walk through the timeline with your client right before starting the project + explain the importance of sticking to the timeline for the health and success of their design project. I.e., if things get delayed, your workload could be impacted, leading you to being overbooked. Overbooking might result in a delayed launch date, which nobody wants!
Encourage your client to let you know ASAP if they can’t meet a deadline, so that you can make the proper adjustments. It’s better for you to know ahead of time rather than experiencing them going silent and letting the deadline slip by.

Planning ahead pays off. (We promise)

It can feel overwhelming to map out your entire project process and figure out timing, but we hope that this step-by-step project timeline guide was helpful for you! If you want more help figuring out your perfect design timeline, check out our FREE Google Sheets Timeline Tool ⬇️

We at Wayfarer use our Google Sheets Timeline Tool to plan out every single one of our project timelines! Just add in the start date of the project, and the Timeline Tool will automatically generate the rest of your due dates for each step. It’s a great tool, and it’s free. You can’t beat that. Opt-in via the form above to download it today!