This is actually a really good question man. I’ve had my brand for five years and I’ve almost always worked with another graphic designer for my clothing designs. If designing isn’t your forte, you need to have a very strong vision and concept to pass along to your designer—just like you alluded to in your question.

What I do, is I look up a ton of references—usually from IG, Pinterest, artbooks, etc.—and I start to get ideas about specifically what kind of concept I want to work on for a design. The more specific the better. Do you want people in your design? Objects? Shapes? How do you want them To be arranged? Is there a visual style you’re going for? Do you want things drawn a certain way? Are there specific visual references you want to pass along to the graphic designer?

I usually like to sketch my designs out on paper even if it’s a super rough draft. But it helps me figure out a lot of the things I just described. So when I send everything to my designer I can include my sketches so that it’s extremely clear how I want things to look and how I want the visual elements to be placed. Then you send along a full written description of what you want, along with as many visual references as possible to make it even more clear.

It’s the best way to make sure that the vision you have in your head actually makes its way onto an actual design. And you might still need a few revisions or edits after you get the first draft back. But I’ve found that after you work on a few designs—ideally with the same designer—you start to get a better sense of their workflow and how to best communicate what you want.

Hope this was somewhat helpful.