How to Choose, Brief and Work with Graphic Designers , livre ebook

Andrews UK - J. Field Amanda

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24 pages

English

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A company's visual identity - as it appears in everything from business stationery and brochures, to product packaging and websites - is central to a company's impact on the market. It's the first impression a prospective customer gets: but for many businesses, design is seen as a 'necessary evil', best avoided, but if that's not possible, then best done cheaply. This down-to-earth, succinct handbook will show you why you should choose your designer as carefully as you would choose a new, senior member of staff; why good design need not cost any more than bad design; what the difference is between a 'brief' and a 'briefing'; how to stop design budgets spiralling out of control; how to conduct tenders; how to get the best from your designers; how to handle approvals; and how to judge design concepts. It is packed with practical advice and guidance that is just as applicable to a new-business start-up as it is to a multinational organisation.

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Marketing et communication

Advertising

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Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	26 novembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781909183421
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Title Page
HOW TO CHOOSE, BRIEF AND WORK WITH GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
by
Amanda J Field

Publisher Information
First published in 2013 by
Chaplin Books
1 Eliza Place
Gosport PO12 4UN
www.chaplinbooks.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed in 2013 by
Andrews UK Limited
www. andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2013 Amanda J Field
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder for which application should be addressed in the first instance to the publishers. No liability shall be attached to the author, the copyright holder or the publishers for loss or damage of any nature suffered as a result of the reliance on the reproduction of any of the contents of this publication or any errors or omissions in the contents.

Chapter One
Why You Need a Graphic Designer
The development of computer-based publishing programs has transformed the graphic design business.
The good news is that packages like QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign and PhotoShop have enabled professional designers to turn work around quickly, to experiment more easily with different ideas, to produce highly finished visuals, and to have control over the entire process from creative idea to finished artwork.
The downside is that it has put the ability to be a ‘designer’ into the hands of every business person - from one-man/woman businesses, through departmental heads, right up to board level in major organisations. And they have seized the opportunity with enthusiasm. The result is comparable with your first experiments with a video-camera. The dangerous difference is that, whereas you would only think of sharing your amateur holiday movie to your family or to friends on Facebook, business people are displaying their ‘artwork’ (complete with a multiplicity of typefaces and colours, and awash with ‘clip art’ images downloaded free from the internet) to their most influential audiences - staff, customers, suppliers and business partners - and thus unwittingly damaging the image of their companies.
Design is a business for professionals - cutting corners by trying to do it yourself (or asking your IT specialist, web manager, or admin assistant to do it) may appear to save you money in the short-term, but it will most certainly hurt your business in the long-term. Thinking you can design because you own a sophisticated computer design program is a bit like thinking you can be a heart surgeon because you own a scalpel.
Design templates on programs such as Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress - or even on Microsoft Word - may be tempting to use, and will give a superficially professional look to your design, but they are not always the answer: you still need good concepts that are not clichéd or passé, that are appropriate to your company, and that are exciting and innovative.
A company’s visual identity - as it appears in everything from business stationery, van-sides and brochures, to product packaging, websites, exhibition stands and PowerPoint presentations - is central to a company’s impact on the market. It’s the first impression a prospective customer gets - it’s your ambassador, and just as important in that role as your staff.
But for many, design (and allocating design budgets), is seen as a ‘necessary evil’. If you can avoid spending on it entirely, that’s ideal, and if you must spend, then pick someone cheap - that’s the opinion of many business people.
This attitude is certainly not confined to small businesses.
In many large companies, policies about graphic design often only extend to the major, high-profile items. So, whereas the annual report may be designed by a high-quality designer, individual departments are allowed to design their own brochures or fact-sheets; or there’s no standard way of laying out a letter or sales proposal. The cumulative effect of all this communication can have quite an impact. To maximise, rather than dissipate, this impact, it makes sense to have a consistent approach to design.
You should choose your designer with the same amount of care as you’d choose a new, senior member of staff. And they will need the same investment in briefing, educating and motivating as you would make in your staff. It’s likely to be a long-term relationship - and indeed, as we’ll see later in this handbook, long-term relationships make for a much more cost-effective service. Design is a professional service rather than a commodity, and needs to be bought with this in mind.
‘Good design is good business,’ said Thomas Watson Jnr, whose maxim IBM has lived by for many decades. The company realised that as the marketplace became increasingly competitive, a design programme based on consistency and excellence could play a major part in differentiation. It can do the same for your company too, whether your business is in its embryo stages, or whether you are multinational operation.
Chapter Two of this book will help you choose the right graphic designer, and arm you with the evaluation tools that will enable you to consider every aspect: from creativity and value-for-money, to personal chemistry and organisational skills. It will show you why you should be wary of award-winning designers, how building a portfolio of designers can often be the most cost-effective solution, and why house-style do not have to be a ‘straitjacket’. Chapter Three explains the vital difference between a brief and a briefing; why tight deadlines make for an unhappy relationship; how to keep budgets spiraling out of control; how to conduct tenders; and why you go to designers with the problem - not the solution. In Chapter Four, you will learn how to set out the ground-rules, dealing with issues of copyright, confidentiality and payments. Chapter Five is about team-working: why ‘information is power’ is the wrong policy to adopt, and how to ensure that even the designers who your company has worked with for a long time will still come up with fresh and innovative ideas. In Chapter Six you will discover why being shown two design concepts by your designer is a bad move, and how to take the ‘I just don’t like it’ element out of judging designs. Is a new design going to be judged by a committee? Chapter Seven tells you why this will always be a disaster - and how to avoid it. Chapter Eight is about the role of research and testing: why conducting your own research can be a false economy, and on how to balance professional research results with your own judgement. Finally, Chapter Nine suggests a post-mortem after every design project, and why your views on how your designer performed may be rather more forthright than their own.
QUESTIONS TO ASK Take everything that emanates from your company and lay it out on the desk - letterheads, business cards, sales proposals, brochures, advertisements, personnel recruitment forms, product factsheets, flyers, webpages. Have they all been professionally designed? Do they look as though they emanate from the same company? Is there a difference between the professionally designed items and the ones done in-house? Put a competitors’ material alongside - how does it compare with yours?

Chapter Two
How to Choose a Designer
Choosing the right designer - or group of designers - with whom to form a business relationship is crucial.