1. Listen
Before we ever start a project we sit down with our client and listen to what they have to say. No one knows your company better than you, and the more you can tell us about your business and where you want to take it, the better we are able to help you. The most important task of the client is to have a clear goal that they want to achieve, our job is to help you get there. We have a lot of experience with printers and other production folk and know what questions you need to ask them.
Note: There are restrictions that exist with every medium (color, number of colors, size, line thickness…) which can have a big impact on a design, so it is important to think about the final destination of your design, and to talk to your printer before getting too far along in a project. The last thing anyone wants is a great design that can’t be produced or is too expensive.
2. Plan
Once we have discussed your goals and your options of achieving them we will assess what is necessary to make them a reality. We will send you an itemised list of everything we need to create along with the costs and timeframe associated with each item. Once you have approved the costs and made a 50% downpayment we will begin design part of the project.
Note: It’s important to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. Consider what you need to accomplish and what resources you have available to you in the area you’re in. Every material and every printer has their restrictions (size, number of colours, kinds of colours (pantone, CMYK, RGB), amount of detail, file type, etc…). These things have a big impact on how something will be designed and knowing these things ahead of time will save you a lot of money, time and heart ache.
3. Brainstorm
This is the part where we put on our thinking caps and start churning out ideas. This includes not just sketches and ideas, but also research into your industry, your competitors, the styles used by them, and your audience and the things that appeal to them. In the design world, just about everything has been done at one time or another, so our aim is less about making you unique, and more about making you a successful business that will stand out among its competitors and win customers.
Note: If there are any brands you admire or company you strive to be like, tell us who they are and tell us what you like about them. This is a great way for us to get to know you and what you are hoping to do with your business.
4. Present
After coming up with lots and lots of ideas we will pick our best ones (at least 3) and present them to you in a pdf presentation. Included will be our research, looking at styles of similar businesses, as well as images of things we drew inspiration from in developing your project. We will also annotate each option with comments to explain the choices we have made.
5. Refine
At this stage you will get to chose which designs you like and which ones you don’t. The more you can tell us about why you like or dislike a particular design, the better we help you to get the look you want. Comments about colour, typography, and overall shape or layout are all very helpful to us to keep the project moving forward.
Note: It’s hard to know exactly what you want before you see it, so we count of having about three rounds of edits on any given project. To help keep edits to a minimum, be as assertive as possible, and for projects that require a lot of content from you (text, photos, etc…) make sure we have all the content at the beginning of the project and that it is correct.
6. Finish
Once all the kinks have been worked out and we arrive at the final design(s) full payment for the project is due. After we have received payment we will hand over all the final files involved in the project. We use Adobe CS6 Design Suite and will give you a copy of the files in their native program, as a pdf, and any other format you specify. If you or your printer uses an older version of Adobe or another program (Corel Draw) please let us know and we can get you the correct format of your files.