One of my dear friends, who is a photogapher, Mariam Mamaji, was recently working on a corporate profile shoot and needed a guinea pig for composing the shots and to come up with creative ideas for the poses – none of the usual “stuck-up” poses were intended. I was the guinea pig and the following images are the ones that I liked from the ones that the client picked to act as guidelines for the actual people who were to be shot.
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Now that’s a question all freelance designers must be asking themselves pretty much everyday.
In my case, I’m not even a freelancer. I’m supposed to be an entrepreneur! I’m playing the roles of hiring manager, trainer, mentor, designer, finance manager, data entry operator, consultant, art director and some I am not even aware of. Phew!
After four months of ad hoc work and no processes and systems – and after innumerable discussions – last week, I decided to create some documents to help smooth out the design process.
I’ve managed to create a simple, preliminary PowerPoint document, which would help even a newbie to understand how a design engagement works at this particular design studio.
This would help anyone to understand how the design process works at this particular design studio. We could even hand it out to clients from them to understand “What the hell do these guys actually do!?” – should be a lifesaver when faced with a client who has no clue what to expect.
I have also created a template for receiving Creative Briefs from clients.
I scoured the web for sample creative briefs and creative briefs that have been used by advertising agencies. While I got the general drift of how they are usually composed, I realised that I’d need something completely new for this particular design studio because of the way work is done here and the type of organization this is. It’s going to help us decide – before we start work – what the client has in mind. While I don’t intend to use it as the sole tool for understanding the client, it will help us get started and we’ll be able to elaborate on the requirements once we at least know where the client is going! It’s a 10 page document with the cover – I’m wondering if the length with be intimidating to a client – it’s actually a four page thing, but I’ve increased the font size and given ample space for replies, hence it goes on to nine pages. It’s an interactive PDF form that a client can fill and return via e-mail.
The third thing on my agenda is the creation of a template for a proposal that is presented to a client – to be signed and approved.
Till date we’ve not used a single “formal” document, except the estimates, bills and invoices – everything related to money. Not a single document related to deliverables and the design itself. Clients have turned around – midway through the engagement and said “Oh! I no longer need that envelope designed, I’m sourcing them from someone else. Please remove the charge for the same from the total bill” AND “I’ve spoken to the boss, we’re great friends and he’s agreed to reduce the price of the design engagement even further” after the design team has been working on the project for over three months! I’m hoping to completely do away with such clients and situations – terrible for the morale of the team.
The fourth thing would be a check-list that will help the designer stay in sync with the other parts of the design engagements [ for example job number, supervisor assigned to the job, a quick list of deliverables, some mandatories to be kept in mind, etc. ].
This would be a quick reminder of what the project is about, without going through the entire creative brief and the formal proposal to the client. One sheet of A5 paper that summarizes the whole engagement – will help me understand where we’re going in terms of type of design engagements and type of clients.
These documents are going to help me work smarter and avoid wasting time on ambiguous client brief, they will also make me dispensable – as a Business/Creative Head. Which just brings me closer to my goal of setting up a design studio or a creative services business division and moving on. [ TEXT REMOVED ]
When I’m done refining and testing the above documents, will make them available for download – that should help me refine them further.
This post has been edited to make it more politically correct.
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The last post on the logo design for a company.
This is an update.
The project ran into delays and consequential misunderstanding with the client.
In my personal opinion, the client is a fairly common human being – which also means that they had no idea that there exists a bunch of people who make a living out of designing logos and identities – and this is self-admitted, I am not making it up.
The client was not able to fathom why we were giving him “dull”, “non-exciting” and “unattractive” shapes for his logo. When we repeatedly informed him that this was only the first stage of logo design, where we come up with “dirty”, “rough”, “black and white”, “sketches” that help lay the groundwork for the final logo, he told us it was too late that we had informed him about our intent, his partner had already given the logo to someone else for designing!
With all the sketches that we sent to the client, the accompanying e-mail always mentioned that these we only sketches and the motive was to find out whether the designer was thinking in the same direction as the client – in order to avoid last-minute design changes. But the client did not seem as someone who reads their e-mail and for obvious reason lost out on that crucial piece of information.
A whole lot of work went into those “drafts” and I found myself wishing that we’d taken at least the 50% advance that we usually ask from clients [ TEXT REMOVED ].
While I appreciate constructive criticism, where the clients would tell me that this is not what he was expecting at all and I needed to re-work my designs, I certainly expect more than a statement of “Ok, you say that all these funny shapes mean something. Tell me what that blue ball and cube thing means?” to which I replied that it encompasses the human side of his company – that they take care of all their clients’ needs at the same time the technology enables the company to deliver upto the clients’ expectations. To which he said “But how will someone viewing the logo know that the logo is supposed to mean that?!”
And they have of course conveniently given the work to someone else – and I’m not so sure about the acceptance of the solution that the other design studio will offer – but maybe this person’s partner is someone who knows what logos are and is more “open” to the idea of art and design not being the only conclusive proof of the viewer’s intelligence.
This post has been edited to make it more politically correct.
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Now that’s attitude!
They’re out of “BETA” and into “GAMMA”!
Sign of things to come [ or rather - things happening already ] – don’t miss the boat!
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