Are you giving your graphic designer the background information they need for projects? At the first meeting with your graphic designer, you should come prepared to answer some basic questions. When you come prepared, you streamline the process for the designer, and get better (and faster) results because there is a fuller understanding of you, your company, your product, and your audience. Have answers ready for these top eight questions:
*1. What is the purpose of this project? What is the message?
*2. Let me know as much as you can about your “target audience,” be they clients, customers, prospects, colleagues, or employees.
*3. Clarify the project scope. Is the project for print or the web?
--If in print, does it require 2-color or 4-color printing, or does it use “spot” (PMS) colors? How about the format, size, or assembly of the new piece(s)? What quantity do you need? Do you have a paper preference? Do you have a favorite printer you’ve worked with before, or shall I recommend one?
--If it’s for the web, how many pages do you need, for what purpose, and how do they function?
* 4. What is your timeline? When do you need it completed?
* 5. What is your budget? Printing methods, paper selection and sizes, even cutting and folding can have an impact on the final project cost. There are many ways to approach a project, some of which you may not have thought of before, and I’m here to make helpful suggestions.
* 6. At our first meeting, please bring previous “business collateral” — for example, brochures, flyers, newsletters or business cards you’ve done in the past, especially if there are elements you want to re-use. Is there copy to re-use, or shall I write new copy for you? Do you have original electronic files?
* 7. Also bring any photos, illustrations and/or logos you’ve used before and want to re-use. They are best in electronic format at high resolution (300 dpi or “dots per inch”). If you have original AI or EPS vector files, that’s best, otherwise PSD format is the next best. (Other formats are TIF, JPG, GIF, and PNG). If you need photography, will you supply it or do I need to find stock photography for you? If you need a logo used, will you supply it or do you want me to design a new one for you?
*8. It’s great if you have information or collateral about your competition. What makes them similar or different? What makes your business unique or sets you apart?
Many clients have a file they keep with this type of information, and it’s easy to just pull it out for the meeting. But if your company hasn’t assembled such a file, be prepared to spend some upfront time talking over these points. Ensuring full understanding at the beginning goes a long way to ensuring a pleasing result at project completion!
Top Eight Ways To Get The Most From Your Designer
Simplicity in Design
Recently I took a vacation trip abroad. While I was sitting on a tour bus, I noticed the street signs and the advertising around me on billboards and the sides of trucks. And I was struck by the logos I saw. They weren't much different from the logos I see everyday in the U.S. -- they were colorful and creative. But because they were for unfamiliar products (and in a foreign language), I noticed them more. That made me realize just how familiar my favorite U.S. logos are, and how much I take them for granted. And also that creativity is a universal thing -- we don't have a corner on it here in the U.S.
While logos have never been my number one choice for design work, I did come home with new inspiration for trying new things. And I also realized again something I've long believed -- that the best design is simple design. By that I mean good design is not over-designed, and is not design for design's sake. It supports a marketing message, but it is most effective when it does not call attention to itself. Nice to get that reminder while I was halfway around the world. Food for thought...
Making Color Work for You
What’s your favorite color? If you’re like the majority of responders to a recent color survey, you probably answered “blue.”
For some, that means your clothing, car, room décor, and all sorts of everyday items are chosen because they are blue, or whatever you said was your favorite color.
How about your advertising? Web site? Other marketing materials? Those things demand choosing color beyond personal preference.
For starters, we all have psychological reactions to color, heavily influenced by our culture. Some colors have taken on symbolic meanings. For example, the “good guy” wears white and the “bad guy” wears black. Red can mean passion, or it can mean danger. Green conjures visions of grass and nature, or of money.
And I’m talking about Western culture here. In Western culture, for example, it’s traditional for a bride to wear white. But in many parts of Asia, white is a funerary color. Brides there wear red, the color of good fortune. Western brides generally avoid red, because of negative associations (at least in the old days) with “poor morality.”
But maybe you knew this already, so time to move on to my point.
Designers for businesses pay attention to the positive and negative connotations of color when designing something seen by customers. For example, if your product is a financial investment service, it’s better to use a color theme of green (for money) or blue (for trust) then it is to use red (“in the red” or losing money). Seems obvious, right?
Then there’s the way colors make us feel. Some colors keep us calm and relaxed, others make us restless or alert. Some make us happy, others make us angry. At least symbolically they do. Green and blue are both restful colors. Yellows and oranges have more energy. Did you know those two colors are often deliberately used by fast food restaurant chains to give a subliminal message to “hurry up and eat”? The idea is to get customers to eat and leave to make room for more customers!
So as a designer for business, it’s important to understand what a typical customer feels about the product, and support that emotion with the wise choice of color in all marketing materials. You’ll make more sales that way.
Yes, the best marketing does keep a prospect’s attention. It does so with good copy and good design. If done well, it doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles. Color is just one of the tools a designer uses. But ignore the impact of color at your peril. That fuchsia color you love so well in your favorite sweater won’t work for a company making uniforms for security guards. Have you ever seen advertising on a web site for security guards with a fuchsia color theme? Probably not.
In choosing colors for business, keep a balance between the symbolism (obvious or not) of the color choices and the need to attract attention to your company, brand, or product. Choose colors that “play nice together” and aren’t jarring. And choose colors that support the message of the copy rather than detract from it. Never choose an aspect of design for its own sake, whether it be color, line, balance, contrast, or any other element of design.
Oh, and my favorite color? Blue, of course. Just like you, I’ll bet.
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