I hired a web UI designer for a project. I have professionally-done page wireframes with basic mark-ups ready, and I have clear documentation about the contents and functionalities of every component of every page.
After three days of research, the designer told me that the project lacks essential elements to get started, and pointed out two such missing elements: branding guidelines and contents.
By branding guidelines, the designer wants a logo and brand identity materials such as colors. I don't have those and honestly I was expecting the designer to come up those during the process. After some research of my own, I described and gave examples of the style and color choices I intend to have. However, that didn't seem adequate for the designer either.
In terms of the content, the designer is not satisfied with the dummy text placeholders on the wireframes as well as explanations of what each block of text would be. As the much of the content on the site will be user-generated, I am puzzled to see how I can provide 'actual'/'real' word-by-word contents at this stage.
Therefore, the designer concluded that it is hard to start working on the project, and the project is going to take 2x the time we've initially estimated.
I am no expert in UI design, but am genuinely interested in finding out what resources/materials I need to provide to enable an UI designer to do his/her job properly.