Graphics designer recommendations [Archive]

Robert

11th June 2006, 04:59 AM

Here is my 5 cents on the design process. ;)

Unlike so much in today's business world, graphic design is not a commodity. It is the highly individualized result of people coming together to do something they couldn't do alone. When the collaboration is creative, the results usually are too. Here is a kind of "best practices" guide. The fundamental premise is that anything worth doing is worth doing well, but if it's to be done well, it must first be valued.

Design—good design—is not cheap. You would be better served to spend your money on something else if you don't place a high value on what it can achieve.

There's a view in Buddhism that there's no "good" karma and no "bad" karma, there's just karma. The same can't be said for design. Karma is a universal condition. Design is a human act and is subject to many variables. When the word design is used here, it is always in the context of good design.

A lot of famous people have written many books on the importance of design and creativity. The subject matter ranges from using design and creativity to gain a strategic advantage or make the world a more livable place. The focus here is on how to make the process of design work in the business environment so that the end product lives up to its potential.

We live in a time of sensory assault. Competing for "eyeballs"—which is to say, customers—is more than just an Internet phenomenon. The challenge for companies everywhere is to attract consumers to their products and services and keep them in the face of fickle markets.

The answer to this challenge starts with each organization’s people, products and services. How organizations communicate to their markets and constituencies is becoming the primary means of differentiation today. Effective communication has never been more important. It has increased the pressure within to establish environments and attitudes that support the success of creative endeavors, internally and externally. More often than not, organizations that value design lead the pack.

Design often has the properties of good looks, which perhaps is why it's often confused with style. But design is about the underlying structure of communication—the idea, not merely the surface qualities. The late, great designer Saul Bass called this "idea nudity"—messages that stand on their unadorned own.

Certainly, it's possible for a good idea to be poorly executed. But bad ideas can't be rescued. When, for example, a global fashion house put verses from the Koran on the back pockets of its designer jeans for all the world to sit on, that was going to cause deep offence before it was ever designed and produced. And the outcry of indignant Muslims worldwide loudly attested to this. Using a different color or type style wouldn't have changed the outcome.

Ideas give design its weight, its ability to influence audiences positively, negatively or not at all.

Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear your $2,500 Designer suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn't have alternatives, but customers do.

So, it isn't enough for an organization to have a great logo if the communications effort isn't carried out across the full spectrum of the company's interaction with its marketplaces—from how the telephone is answered to corporate identity; branding; packaging; print materials; advertising; Internet, intranet, interactive multimedia and Web-related communications; and environmental graphics. As an example, the Nike "swoosh" didn't make Nike a successful company. Nike made the "swoosh" an iconic reflection of a carefully orchestrated approach to the marketplace. This successful idea has spawned a marketplace now deluged with "swoosh"-like shapes identifying companies ranging from sportswear to software. It's the frame of reference for what many think of when visualizing the word "mark."

People with a great deal of experience—both as designers and as clients—will tell you that if you really do your homework in the selection process, the chances are that what follows will bring the excellent, hoped-for results.

Why provide a design brief? The purpose of the brief is to get everyone imbued with a common understanding of what's to be accomplished. It gives direction, and serves as a benchmark against which to test concepts and execution as we move through a project. Some designers provide clients with their own set of questions. Even so, the ultimate responsibility for defining goals and objectives and identifying audience and context lies with the client.

Another benefit of the design brief is the clarity it provides to the client before and while it is embarking on a project. It is important to get support and backing for the project to garner many aspects of input to, and support for it. A brief is as valuable internally as it is externally. If you involve people within the organization that are likely to influence the success of what you produce, you not only elicit valuable input, but also gain their commitment or “buy-in”.

How to write one. A brief is not a blueprint. It shouldn't tell the designer how to do the work. It's a statement of purpose, a concise declaration of a client's expectations of what the design should accomplish. And while briefs will differ depending upon the project, there are some general guidelines to direct the process. Among them:

Provide a clear statement of objectives, with priorities
Relate the objectives to overall company positioning
Indicate if and how you'll measure achievement of your goals
Define, characterize and prioritize your audiences
Define budgets and timeframes
Explain the internal approval process
Be clear about procedural requirements (for example, if more than one bid is needed from fabricators, or if there's a minimum acceptable level of detail for design presentations)

In the final analysis, design briefs are about paving the way for a successful design that achieves its aims.

If the briefing is thorough, budgeting and managing a project is likely to be more successful. The most successful collaborations are those where client and design organization have clarified the objectives and have a clear agreement on the expected outcomes.

Design involves costs. "There is always a budget," whether it is revealed to the design team or not. Clients often are hesitant to announce how much they have to spend for fear that if they do, the designer will design to that number when a different solution for less money might otherwise have been reached. This is a reasonable concern and yet, it's as risky to design in a budgetary vacuum as it is to design without a goal. If your utility vehicle budget stops at four cylinders, four gears and a radio, there's no point in looking at an up-market four-wheel drive vehicle.

If you have $100,000 to spend and you'd really like to dedicate $15,000 of it to a specific aspect, the design team has to know that information. Developing trust is the 800-pound gorilla in the budgeting phase. Without trust, there is little hope of a successful collaboration.

To kick-off a successful design project the ideal approach is to involve your designer early. This enables the design team to help you arrive at realistic cost parameters that relate to your objectives in lieu of an arbitrary budget figure. At this stage it is feasible and constructive to put together a budget based upon the broad scope of the project. Individual estimates can then be provided ,for example, design concepts, design development and production, photography, illustration, copy writing and printing for a print piece (or, in the case of a Web site, estimates for programming, proprietary software and equipment) which provides a flexibility to the budgeting process that enables the key funding to focus on the critical issues.

The more informed you are as a client about the structure of the various costs involved, the more effective you are in leveraging the best value from the investment in the project. You will know, for instance, that if your project requires your design firm to hire additional resources such as writers, photographers and illustrators, you know in advance what it is going to pay them. You can choose to pay these contributors directly to avoid the markup, but this should be addressed at the time they're hired. Printing, historically, has been treated the same way.

Photographers, illustrators and writers are generally paid a "kill fee" if a project is cancelled after work has started. That's because talent is in constant demand and accepting one project often means turning other work away. In the case of photography, expect to pay when a photo shoot is cancelled. And remember that unless you stipulate otherwise, you are buying one-time usage of the photographs—not the work itself—and that copyright laws are in force the moment the shutter trips. If you want unlimited use, you will have to negotiate and pay for it.

There are countless volumes written on the subject of leadership, however the same general principles apply. In a design project, leadership requires that the client provides clear direction, and is accessible when needed to make the decisions essential to on-time delivery of the project. The client is regularly briefed to be able to understand how the design supports the objectives, which is important to maintaining organizational confidence in t he project and support for the project champion. Major delivery points will be clearly specified in the project proposal to enable the client to time the essential approvals. On this last point, many designer houses have excellent presenters, and like to present their work to the final authority, which provides the opportunity to answer questions as well as providing support for the final sign-off. As the leader of the team, the client’s project manager is the “owner” of the project.

The key factors for achieving a successful project are: -

Clearly defined and articulated objectives
A written project brief/proposal
Established time-lines and establishing what is required from the client organisation as well as what is required from the design team.
A detailed budget, and production schedule to measure progress
An agreed review and approvals process
Project finalization deadline.
Final sign-off authority.

With these safeguards in place, clients enjoy the design processes as much as the end product.