Design Matters—Episode 4

Typography and typesetting. Fewer typefaces are better.

Color and emotion. Evocative can do quite a bit for promotions and marketing.

In this episode of DesignMatters I'll talk about working with a designer. What's the process? How do they work? What can I expect from them? What do I need to do?

When working with a designer or design firm you can expect they will have a methodology or process to how they get things done. There are steps or stages to developing any project. Not every designer follows the exact same process but by-and-large there are certain phases to the process that I can touch upon.

The first phase is discovery, or research. At this stage of development we need to know what is your project about? What's its purpose? Who is the target audience for this project? Is this project based on pre-exisitng communications? These questions and many more will be brought up between you and the designer so that he or she can understand as clearly as possible what communications challenge you are asking them to help with. After my last segement Jon and Matt talked about whether or not you should bring ideas to the table. I would say yes. It informs the designer about your thinking about the project. It helps at this stage to come to the table with as well thought out ideas as possible. For example, telling the designer “I need a sell sheet” and that's it, versus “I need a sell sheet targeted towards production managers that highlights these 3 specific features of our new product. I'll need about 1,000 copies. Our corporate colors are blue and green.”

You can see from this example that the more you can inform the designer the less likely you'll be surprised when you enter the next general phase, creative development. At this stage the designer will begin to develop creative visual solutions to address the project at hand. This phase is usually iteraive where the designer will develop a set of ideas and then present them for feedback from you. Then the input is taken into account and then another round of creative is developed. This process continues until you reach something I refer to as “creative lock.” At this stage you the client are satisfied with the way things “look” and we now move to the next stage production.

At this stage we are concerned with the details of the content. Setting up a photo-shoot at a studio for product shots, getting the images scanned in high-resolution. Also getting your copy fine-tuned with the help of an editor and “writing to fit the space” is performed at this stage. Then the designer at this point is busy making your project ready for whatever medium it will be delivered to—the web, the press, video, or other media. To finish this stage the designer should present you with a proof to approve.

Once you have approved the final presentation of the project the designer is ready for the next general phase: publication. At this point the designer is publishing your project to the proper medium. Uploading via FTP if a website or burning a CD of press-ready files to be sent to a commercial printer.

At this point the project is nearly complete. If your project is a printed piece like a business card there may be a press-check. This is where you or your designer attend to the project as it is on press to sign off on color and ensure that things are going as planned. Once printing is complete you'll then get delivery of your project. If your project is a website it is published and you usually receive an e-mail alerting you that the site is live.

The final phase to any project is getting the bill. The designer will bill you for any and all time related to the project as well as any materials that may have been purchased during development. This would be a good time to share feedback with your designer about your level of satisfaction about the process. It may be a bit premature to give feedback about the success of your project because it may need to time to generate some results.

Next time on DesignMatters I'll talk about do-it-yourself design. What if you don't have enough money to hire a designer? I'll give you some things to consider if you are going to do-it-yourself.

For the cubicle escape pod this is DesignMatters I'm bert mahoney of HamiltonBerchman Design Group Inc.

Bert Mahoney

2006-02-09T09:36:09

Bert Mahoney