Saving Time & Money: Project Setup
December, 2005
Last month, our feature talked about finding a designer that can make your marketing plan shine. But just finding the right designer doesn't guarantee your project will go well. A good designer will work with you and let you know what is needed for a project, but the more you understand up front, the smoother the project will go.
The first item you should be aware of is deadlines. A good designer will meet your timeline, but a rushed project will always suffer. The more organized you are, the easier it will be to produce a quality result in the time allowed. If you wait until the last minute to hire and communicate with a designer, fewer options are available, and either quality will suffer, or cost will increase. The old "good, fast, cheap: pick two" applies here.
Let's assume there is plenty of time to get the project done. How else can you help to make the designer's job easier?
The first meeting between client and designer will be the project outline; what is the project, what is the message, what is the timeline. The more information you as the client have for the designer, the better the designer can meet your goal. So what information should you have?
As I said last month, you know your business better than anyone. The designer is there to help give life to your message. You as the client should have a clear idea what the message is, who the target audience is, and what the goal of the project is. All this information is often written into a creative brief, which describes the above items as well as any possible creative ideas or brand requirements you may have.
The creative ideas are not to limit the designer, but give a general direction to go in. If you have a specific idea about what your project will look like, and the designer comes up with a different approach, time has been wasted. This is not to say that you shouldn't use the expertise of a designer, but to collaborate and communicate up front about a project. That way the designer can work toward a solution that meets your expectations, and be able to make changes or suggestions that may add to the success of the project.
Once a clear idea of the project has been worked out, it's time to get down to practical details. I have written about branding in a previous newsletter, and here is where it is put into practice.
Does your company have a logo, and is it in a digital file format that the designer can use? The ideal format is a "vector" format that is created with a program such as Adobe Illustrator. You may not know what that means, so I will write a more in depth article about file formats next month. To complete your branding profile, does your company have corporate colors and fonts that are used consistently to create visual brand recognition? Are you familiar with the variants and limitations of using these in various formats, such as in print vs. on the web? Does your company have any assets such as product photos or previous marketing materials? Are you willing to pay for custom photography or illustration, if needed, if it would add to the success of the project?
I have asked a lot of questions in this article. They are the same questions that are asked of any new client when starting a project. Of course, there are other questions once more specifics of the project are known, but these are universal. At Smudged Graphics, every project is a collaboration between client and designer, so a free flow of information is critical to each project. We take pride in our work, and work hard to create unique solutions that benefit the goals of our clients. That being said, the more input we have from the client, the better we can perform our job.
If you have any questions about this process, or would like to discuss the possibilities for your next project, email us, or call us at 978.263.0094.