We design products that are creatively-inspired, communicate effectively and add value to our client’s products and/or services. We seek to understand our client’s business and their customers, and then design solutions that are appropriate and effective.
We believe that graphic design is more than just “window dressing.” It is getting to the heart and soul of a business or product and then expressing its key messages in the most effective way possible. It’s making your business attractive to your customers so that they are authentically drawn to your business rather than being pushed.
In a design conscious world, we believe that graphic design is no longer an option. It’s a necessity. In order to compete in a crowded market, your business, product, and service must stand out. We believe that graphic design can add tremendous value to your product or service. And, we are here to help.
Seven steps to understanding the process and flow of an award winning design concept:
1 | The Creative Brief
Understanding the client’s needs, goals, mission & audience is what will take your design to the next level. The creative brief questions will help us get on the same page about what you want & need out of the results of the project. For example, maybe you want to increase conversions with a new website, or stand out from the competition with a unique brand identity.
During the process I will set a schedule, with milestones, deadlines and revisions. This will keep us on track and from getting stuck in an endless loop of revisions.
2 | Research & Brainstorm
Now it’s time to utilize what we’ve learned from the creative brief by doing further research. We like to create a project mood board with important themes (pulled from the creative brief). If it’s a larger project, we’ll also put together a “brand strategy” guide. This will cover important topics from the brief – the brand’s mission & values, the target audience, competition, what makes you, the client/brand, unique, etc. and we will present it to you.
In some instances, we may try “mind mapping”. By brainstorming a bunch of different ideas, we’ll be able to think outside the box.
Getting this initial research phase done right will help us down the road when presenting concepts making sure that we’ve made the best and most strategic decisions to reach your goals.
3 | Sketching
For the first round of concepts, we stick with sketching it out on paper. If we hop onto the computer too soon – we can get stuck in doing the same old same old. Not to mention get, more easily distracted and getting too wrapped up focusing on the nitty gritty details, like colors, type and general pixel pushing. 🙂
4 | Refining
Take our best work and digitize it, either tracing over our illustrations – or re-creating concepts on the computer to share with you.
5 | Presenting
Now that we’ve refined our best options – it’s time to show them to you, the client, and hopefully impress you with our design chops! We utilize mockups, which will help you visualize the overall concept. We’ll also include important themes from your creative brief that helped lead us in the direction of the project. This helps you understand why we made certain decisions (I chose this color because it reflects the warm & friendly nature of your brand).
6 | Revisions
When it comes to revisions, and getting feedback, we will schedule when to provide feedback, to keep the project moving forward. We ask our clients to consolidate their feedback in a “round of revision”. Instead of getting a bunch of different emails, a round of revisions assures us that we make changes seamlessly and quickly. You can also have a discussion about the requests and if it makes the most sense for the success of your project.
7 | Final Delivery
fter the project has been approved, it’s time to deliver the final design! As we wrap up your project, our goal is to leave you over the moon impressed while preparing work for future success.
We put together a “package” beyond sending over a folder full of .jpgs and. pngs.