Design often arrives last in the process. Slides are “nearly finished”, and social tiles are “90 per cent there” when a designer is finally called in to rescue them. That pressure creates stress, delays, and the occasional tear. To understand how to work better together, we chatted with Marco Crisari of W5 Studio, a designer who has supported dozens of campaigns and thousands of assets. He loves marketers. He also has some truths to share.
Marketers are under pressure to move fast, and often, design is brought in late. Why does that timing matter so much to you? It feels like you can just polish it at the end.
Design isn’t just a final flourish. It is concept, process and structure. When we come in at the end, we are often redesigning decisions that were made visually without design thinking. A headline is too long. The hero message gets buried. The content no longer fits the intended format. The earlier you involve a designer, the less you have to unpick. It saves time in the long run, and the end result is more effective.
You always ask us to pick “one main message.” Why does that single message matter more than giving audiences more information?
Because people do not remember multiple details. They remember ideas. When everything competes for attention, nothing wins. A strong single message becomes the anchor. The rest supports it. The question should never be “What else can we add?” but “What can we take away without weakening the point?” Designers fight for clarity because clarity persuades.
Fonts feel like a small detail. Yet you often wince when one of us changes a typeface or stretches a word to make it fit. What are we missing?
Typography is a fundamental part of your tone of voice. Before a viewer reads the words, they feel the tone. If you stretch a font, you distort the brand’s character. Mixing too many fonts makes the piece look confused and amateurish. A consistent type hierarchy guides the eye and tells the story in silence. Tellingly, no one thanks you for good typography, but they do notice when it is poorly implemented.
Many marketers panic when they see blank space. They want to fill it with something, anything. Why does white space matter so much?
White space is breathing room. It lets the idea land. It signals confidence. If we cram every corner with more text or shapes, we suffocate the story. Good design looks simple because someone has done the hard work of removing distractions. Let the eye rest. The message becomes stronger.
We love bold colours and visual energy. But you pull us back to the brand palette and insist on contrast rules. How do you strike the right balance between creative freedom and brand consistency?
Colour is part of your structure. It pulls the viewer through the piece and functions as a visual shortcut the user doesn’t even realise they are following. Brand palettes exist to create recognition and trust. If every campaign invents a new mood, we dilute the brand and confuse audiences. Accessibility is very important. Low contrast can sometimes work very well in creating a sense of sophistication, but it inevitably shuts some people out. Use colour and tonal range to guide and support and reinforce your branded message, not for your own entertainment.
Marketers often grab images fast: the first stock photo that seems vaguely relevant. You ask us to explain why an image is there. What is the cost of getting this wrong?
Pictures are powerful. They shape emotion faster than text. But generic images add noise. They dilute the message and obscure the purpose. The right image clarifies the story. The wrong one distracts from it. Diagrams and data are even more sensitive. If the viewer has to decode them like a puzzle, we have lost them. Every visual must earn its place.
You talk a lot about hierarchy. Yet to many of us, everything feels important. How does hierarchy help an audience read a piece without thinking about it?
Hierarchy creates a path. It holds the target audience’s hand. First, the headline. Then the sub-point. Then the detail. Without hierarchy, the eye wanders and the brain loses interest. Designers use scale, weight, and spacing to give direction. It is storytelling with layout. If a piece can be skimmed and understood in two seconds, hierarchy is working. That speed matters, especially on social.
Consistency sometimes gets dismissed as boring. We want variety across assets. But you worry about coherence. Why does consistency build trust?
Consistency is rhythm. It creates a sense of belonging between each piece of communication. A set of assets should feel like a family, not strangers forced into the same room. This is where your brand guidelines are your friend, not your nemesis. When the style, spacing, colours, and tone align, the brand appears reliable and confident. Inconsistency is messy. It signals disorganisation. And audiences can feel that before they can describe it.
We tend to give more feedback than you want. Everyone has an opinion on design. How can marketers help in the feedback process without crushing the integrity of the work?
Be directional, not decorative. By all means, explain to us why something isn’t working for you, but be able to back your position with brand-centric reasoning – something along the lines of ‘I just prefer red and a modern sans serif’ doesn’t cut it when red isn’t in your brand colour palette and your corporate font is a traditional serif. Also, be prepared to be open-minded to the reasons why the designer designed it like this in the first place – it’s never casual. Tell us what the audience might misunderstand. But avoid telling us how to fix it. Designers translate feedback into crafted solutions. Too many small, subjective tweaks turn strong work into soup. And most importantly, please collate feedback through a single voice before it reaches the designer. Committees create Frankenstein assets.
You talk a lot about editing as a design superpower. We think editing is a writing task. How do you see it differently?
Editing is where design becomes intelligent. It is the courage to reduce. To prioritise. To make the work easier and faster to digest. A clean design shows respect for the audience’s time. When you hand over content that has already been trimmed, considered, and shaped, we can focus on amplifying the takeaway message. Editing is collaboration at its finest.
What designers really want
Marco is not here to complain about marketers. He is here because he cares about the story and the outcome.
“We want marketers to succeed,” he says. “Your messages deserve design that lifts them, not drags them down. We are not simply the finishing touch. We are part of the storytelling from the first moment. Work with us early. Trust the rules we protect. And the work will shine.”
The goal is a shared one. Better engagement. Better persuasion. A stronger brand. If marketers bring even half of these habits into the process, design becomes smoother, faster, and more rewarding for everyone involved.
The next time design enters the room, remember that empty space has a purpose. That font is a voice. That one clear message is your biggest advantage. And your designer isn’t just there to make something pretty. They are there to make something unforgettable.