You’ve worked hard to build your business—and your brand represents its reputation and its promise. And as important as logos, fonts, graphic styles, and color palettes are, your brand is about more than just these visual elements. Your brand begins with the messaging you want to convey to your audience, and the voice you communicate it with.

When you clearly define your brand’s core messages and express them to a trusted design team, they can transform them into compelling visual assets that resonate with your audience. Here are five simple steps to effectively engage with and brief a design team, to make sure your collaboration with them is as smooth and productive as possible.

1. Define your brand’s core message

Before you engage with a design team, you should have a solid grasp of your brand’s fundamental message. If you haven’t already, establish three things:

• Your mission: What are you setting out to achieve?
• Your audience: Who are you trying to appeal to and what are their wants and needs?
• What sets you apart: What makes your product or service better than your competitors’?

2. Gather and organize your existing brand assets

Unless yours is a new brand, you’ll almost certainly have some existing brand assets. Assemble everything you can, including your brand guidelines, logos, and relevant design files, along with any demographic research you’ve gathered or focus group information you’ve gleaned. These resources will go a long way in providing your designers with an understanding of where your brand’s been and where you want to take it. It’ll also give them an edge when they’re building out new assets, and ensure that there’s consistency with your brand’s past output.

3. Create a design brief

Establishing clear intent and aligning the expectations of each side is best done through a comprehensive design brief. Make sure you share general goals and address important particulars, and be certain to include a project overview, any needed design elements, a list of expected final deliverables, and—importantly—a budget and timeline. It’s much easier to discuss these things up front, and it helps both sides work efficiently and avoid misaligned expectations down the road. Another consideration can be to collect real-world examples of design inspiration; discuss what you think works and why. Your objective should be a brief that’s thorough—but also allows for some creative flexibility. Keep in mind that the design process is a journey that will almost certainly stray from a prescribed path.

4. Engage the right design team

Now that you’re prepared with a proper design brief, the next step is finding a design team you can trust with your brand—and to deliver on your goals. Inquire with non-competing brands you admire. Who do they work with, and why? First impressions are huge—when meeting with a prospective design team, consider how they represent themselves and if their values align with yours. Do they seem responsive and listen to your needs, or do they trumpet their own achievements? Does their industry experience align with yours? Ask about practical matters, like how you’ll be billed, how deadlines are determined, and how many rounds of revisions are reasonable. Importantly, define what your measure of success will be and how you’ll quantify it. Will the investment be worth the return? And put it all in writing.

5. Ensure good communication and foster effective collaboration

As in any relationship, the key to success lies in open communication. To cultivate it, establish regular meetings and go into each one with a clear agenda. Both sides should feel that they can give constructive criticism and provide honest feedback at any time, but scheduled check-ins make for a regular forum that takes the pressure off everyone. It’s also essential that you trust the expertise of the design team; you’ve hired professionals who come to the table with the knowledge and experience to guide, implement, and elevate your brand.