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My last assignment after feedback below!
Defining Client Needs: Week 1 Activity Post
Defining Client Needs is a course that I have looked forward to before even enrolling into Full Sail University. Sure, I have had an extensive background in design, but anyone can design something. Not everyone can successfully tackle the business aspects, however. Not everyone can visually communicate a compelling story. Not everyone can be innovative. Not everyone can sell a product.
There are a number of components that drive successful media campaigns. While many aspects have the ability to vary from project to project, understanding a client’s need is one that can never be ignored. This is because the root of media design is to provide convincing content to targeted audiences. For this reason, media campaigns rely heavily on the client-designer relationship. Possessing a strong client-designer relationship is crucial to every aspect of the branding, designing, and media campaign output.
Defining Client Needs
In the course Defining Client Needs, we made posters for a fictitious performance of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. During this process, we discussed not only technical aspects of designing layouts in inDesign, but also how to pitch our designs to potential clients. “Designers often find themselves explaining aesthetic decisions with formal design or typographic principles” (O’Grady, p. 89). Because design principles are often not learned by non-designers, it is important to be transparent about the research process behind our decision making, so that we can make a convincing case to our clients with demonstrable material and evidence to support our choices.
When designing promotional materials for clients, we must keep in mind to whom our clients are marketing their product, and what kinds of expectations those customers may have. It’s important to be able to put aside one’s own personal tastes and focus on the efficacy of the designs and how their various elements might be perceived by their target audience. By conducting research on our clients’ brand identities and primary demographics, we can create designs that are better suited to each client’s individual needs.
Text-only design, studying how to use typography effectively.
Exercise posters, based on designs by Nigel French.
Final Posters with original designs.
Three “Take-Aways” From This Course:
“The most important issue is a good idea. Once you've arrived at this, a great layout will make it powerful and clear” (Adams).
“It's your duty as a designer to ... create work that is dynamic and exciting but could only be made by you” (Adams).
“A well-designed poster is a piece of art that people will want to hang on their walls long after the event itself is over” (French).
References
Adams, Sean (October 31, 2013).
Graphic Design Foundations: Layout and Composition. [Video]. Retrieved from: https://www.lynda.com/Design-tutorials/Foundations-Layout-Composition/135095-2.html
French, Nigel (March 13, 2009).
Designing a Poster with InDesign CS4. [Video]. Retrieved from: https://www.lynda.com/Illustrator-tutorials/designing-an-event-poster-hands-on-workshop/741-2.html
O’Grady, Jennifer V. and O’Grady, Ken (2009).
A Designer’s Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need. [E-book]. Retrieved from: http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/graphic-design/9781592535576
Defining Client Needs
It is important to know what your client needs to elevate their brand and to know what it is that they want. Defining the needs of the client involves research (O’Grady, 2009, 89-90). To research properly, the designer needs to have an area conducive to supporting creative impulses. Since “Taste” is subjective, the designer needs to be able to cater to the client and their projected audiences to gain more clientele, etc (O’Grady, 2009, 89-90).
The importance of articulating the value of the service or product can mean the difference between having a client come back for more design work and finding someone else. When presenting to a client, the designer needs to be able to articulate the meaning behind the elements used among other things. In completing this course, I have further learned the value of constructive critique and research as pertains to my field. I look forward to taking the next step.
Three main takeaways for this course would be: 1) Research is important. Without research, I have no way to better understand my clients and their needs. 2) Deadlines must be met to move forward. Without meeting deadlines, I lose ample time to properly and creatively meet standards. 3) Constructive Criticism is key to elevating one’s designs. Approaching design from different angles allows for it to evolve.
References:
OGrady, J. V., & OGrady, K. V. (2009). A Designers research manual: succeed in design by knowing your clients and what they really need. Pg. 89-90.
Mastery Journey Reflection: Defining Client Needs
In this course I was finally able to learn the principals of Typography. I was able to learn that I can do what the client wants, even if I feel it arbitrary or low value, while also adding my touch to it. Finally I learned about research.
The act of design entails many things. It’s not just about creating and delivering a slick, dope, and complete design, it’s about solving a problem through your work. Defining the needs of your clients is an important part of your work as a designing. The act of research is crucial to the design process.
Our text refers to research as aiming our creative impulses properly (O’Grady, 2009). I have worked on many projects where lack of research on my part and the client’s wasted substantial time. Doing the due diligence of research will help to transform the results a client is given in the end.
In a recent client interaction, I showcased a male version of the unilome for woman owned yoga studio. Showcasing the male unilome was a fluke. I didn’t realize there was a different versions of symbol. Ultimately I figured it our throughout the presentation and then argued to keep it. The only thing I can think of is what if I did my due diligence? What if there was purpose to my decision and not just a fluke.
Projects:
Week 1: We were tasked to create a dynamic black and white, no frills poster for Much Ado About Nothing. This project was to show our knowledge of the Typography tutorials.
Week 2: Two projects, three sketches, and NPS. We were tasked to slightly improve on the original designs of the Romeo & Juliet posters below. We were also tasked with creating an original National Park Service Poster.
Week 3: I personally was encouraged to stretch myself, get out of my own box. This time around I went with an obviously modern poster, an avant garde one, and a classic look.
Week 4:: My favorite poster is the modern poster, the one on the left. I chose to return to the color red, crimson specifically, to keep a level of romance and mystery flowing with he poster.
Media Design MFA, Defining Client Needs
When defining client needs, one of the first things that needs to be understood is what the client wants to achieve, what challenges they face, who their competition is and what their business goals are. After understanding what needs to be achieved the next step is to understand the target audience. By understanding the consumer, you will know who the product will eventually end up being purchased, viewed and used by. Identifying the consumer’s mindset and how they view and feel about products leads to a better design solution that benefits the clients return on investment. “The reason we do this is really to help clients solve a business problem. And when they come back afterwards and say that their sales increased 40 percent because of the design we did, we think we did a good job.” (Chase, 2008, Creative inspirations, 1:32).
As a designer it is your job to make sure that you effectively communicate not only to the audience but to ensure the client is confident in the path and approach you have taken. To ensure this experience stays positive make sure to articulate and regularly communicate with the client. As you progress with the project, show the client the design approach and explain what your showing them. Make sure to articulate in a manner in which they will understand. As a designer, different lingo or jargon might be used. While another designer might understand this language the client might not or might not believe that it is important. Don’t make the client feel inferior by using terms they are not associated with. “Thus designers often find themselves explaining aesthetic decisions with formal design or typographic principles. Clients may well view these choices as arbitrary (remember, they don't know the difference between Helvetica and Arial).” (O'Grady, V., & O'Grady, J. V., 2009). Ask the client for descriptive feedback, address the concerns and move the project forward.
Three Main Takeaways from Defining Client Needs:
1. The first takeaway is learning about creating a persona that lets you delve into how and why the product is used and understood. Designing for the audience is the goal not designing for what they think the customer wants. Targeting the audience to the specific consumer starts the actual understanding of the brand. Using a tool called a psychographic map allows for the creation of a persona that represents the customer along with their desires, likes and dislikes. "We want to have a specific person in mind, not a general person, not a woman from 26-32, a specific woman who has got a name, who has got a job, who has got a history, she lives somewhere, she does certain things, she reads certain magazines, watches certain shows, we want to know her inside and out." (Chase, 2008, Branding, 3:31). Creating the persona targets the appeal to the consumer, not for the designer who might feel the design and packaging is to their personal taste.
2. When working with typography, I usually stay away from text that is overly large or a heading that takes up too much of the page and feels overbearing. For this class I pushed myself out of the comfort zone and created challenge exercises that used extremely bold text and moved the text beyond the limit of the page. "Bigger always gets top billing in those critical split seconds when your viewer first sees your project, so take care to calibrate your type size for maximum effect" (Saltz, 10/2013, Creating typographic contrast with size, 1:33). Below this post is the challenge exercise “Much Ado About Nothing” where I used text to maximize the visual impact without the use of images.
3. The third takeaway is going back to some basics; sketching. It’s easy to skip this step and move directly to the computer mostly because moving items around in a design only takes a click and drag. This can sometimes lead to the trap of not realizing how many designs idea you might actually develop. Sketches allow the designer to quickly put ideas down on paper, refine them later or dismiss the ideas that won’t work. They don’t need to be masterpieces but they do need to convey enough information to work from when the designer takes the step to move to the computer design. “Making thumbnails can help you weed out the bad ideas from those that have some merit and it's only these potentially good ideas that you need to pursue when you sit down with computer and software.” (French, 2009, Creating Thumbnails, 0:23).
References:
Chase, M. (2008, September 04). Creative Inspirations: Margo Chase, Graphic Designer. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from https://www.lynda.com/Design-Documentaries-tutorials/Introduction/685/38830-4.html
French, N. (2009, March 13). Designing a Poster. Retrieved October 31, 2016, from https://www.lynda.com/Illustrator-tutorials/Welcome/741/47201-4.html?org=fullsail.edu
O'Grady, V., & O'Grady, J. V. (2009). Designer's Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/graphic-design/9781592535576
Saltz, I. (2013, November 25). Foundations of Typography: Hierarchy and Navigation. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from https://www.lynda.com/Typography-tutorials/Foundations-Typography-Hierarchy-Navigation/133327-2.html?org=fullsail.edu
Defining Client Needs Projects:
Foundations of Typography, Challenge Exercises, Much Ado About Nothing
Foundations of Typography, Challenge Exercise, Grand Canyon
Sketches for Romeo and Juliet Poster Concepts
Final Romeo and Juliet Poster Layouts
Sample Typography project
Defining Client Needs
Defining Client Needs
This month’s course focused on understanding how to define a client’s needs and effectively communicate this understanding through the use of typography, hierarchy, scale, color, layout, composition, and interpretation. The Foundations of Typography presented by Ina Saltz on lynda.com introduced me to the world of Typography and its many uses and interpretations. As Ms. Saltz states that Typography is all around us, it wasn’t until viewing this video that I actually took this statement into consideration. Soon after viewing this I found myself carefully considering my own use of Typography with various project assignments for school as well as for work. I looked at everything from resumes to project posters.
Samples of my work will be linked in a separate post**
As the course continued, we explored design critique and how to use it effectively to become a better designer, as well as to ultimately serve the client in the best way possible. Three takeaways that were important to me from this course were: (1) to practice subtractive design when creating forms to reduce clutter by eliminating any visual element that doesn’t contribute directly to visual communication (Designing Useful Documents, nd). This helps to keep the document user friendly and keep the user focused on the content they are using with clarity. (2) to be bold and not boring with your design. In lynda.com’s Foundations of Layout and Composition with Sean Adams, he encourages designers to push the limits within reason to keep designs exciting and intriguing. He provided a useful tool called the golden section and taught me how to use it to help guide my composition and layout to ensure the most effective design results when placing graphics and text for everything from posters to business cards. (3) that no matter if you’re pitching and idea to the boss or delivering a speech at a conference, an engaging presentation will help you reach your audience and emphasize your message (Seeley, 2013). Justin Seeley’s Designing a Presentation gave great examples on how to improve your presentation to keep your audience focused and intrigued while getting your message across.
Resources
Designing Useful Documents. (nd). Designing Useful Documents. Retrieved from https://assethub.fso.fullsail.edu/assethub/525WK4DesigningUsefulDocumentssm_5d00d312-587b-4fb9-9e10-14a581082c70.pdf
Saltz, I. (2013). Foundations of Typography. Retrieved from https://lynda.com
Adams, S. (2013). Foundations of Layout and Composition. Retrieved from https://lynda.com
Seeley, J. (2013). Designing a Presentation. Retrieved from http://lynda.com
Best, K. (2006) Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation. Switzerland. AVA Publishing SA.
Biederbeck, T. (2011) The 4 Essentials of a Design Critique. Retrieved from https://www.mohawkconnects.com/feltandwire/2011/04/13/the-4-essentials-of-a-design-critique
McDaniel, C. (2011) Design Criticism and the Creative Process. Retrieved from https://alistapart.com/article/design-criticism-creative-process