What is best way to develop brand project with a designer?
Over 20+ years of work, there have been different formats of cooperation, but a recent project for Converge Well showed the best and most effective work structure. I want to keep it and apply for all my upcoming projects.
1. Marketing
Relying on marketing makes it possible to rely on personal feelings but on the actual desires of the business's target audience for which the brand is being created. Working with a brand designer begins after clearly understanding the target audience and the first sales.
Marketing operates with numbers and facts and aims to make a profit. It sets the structure to which all its working systems are subject. Without this structure, prioritising is difficult, which always leads to disputes between the abstract design and sales departments.
2. Deadlines
After the contract and the prepayment, we together with a customer agree on the works list and deadlines. Therefore, I give guarantees that the work will be completed on time.
For this to happen precisely when expected, there is one general deadline for the entire project and deadlines for each work. From the very beginning of work, I prescribe project milestones to see what parts it consists of and how long it takes. When discussing deadlines, it is essential to consider whether the business is in its infancy or has been in the market for some time.
Owners who have just established their business want their brand to be recognizable and well-designed. Brand design is based on marketing, and the design development time increases if there is no basic marketing information, and I warn my customers about this in advance.
3. Workflow document
Having one working document with all the information on the project is essential. This document is available to both the customer and the client. It is necessary to write comments and the status of the work because it makes the workflow transparent.
Experience shows that initial and final objectives can be adjusted, especially if it is a new business. Many ideas we discuss, and new ideas appear. I do not mind, but I always warn that this may lengthen and increase the project cost. It happens when the new task is more complex than the previous one.
4. Communication
High-quality project communication between business owner and brand designer is 50% of success. What is quality communication? It is a balance in the interaction and when the participants in the workflow hear and trust each other.
As a brand designer, I aim to express the customer's ideas. I do not impose my vision; I extract the business owner's vision and implement it in the design. It does not mean that I do not offer my ideas. They serve as a starting point for the development of new ideas that are born in the discussion.
I am always open to this discussion. It is the path for seeking new images, and I am the specialist who helps this vision be born through proper communication.
5. Work meetings
Another critical point is the mandatory online meetings. I send an email after every step; usually, it can be several emails. So when we worked with Heather for the Converge Well project, we realized that the best way of giving feedback is Zoom-meetings. We have a time difference of 9 hours. It narrowed the time for calling, so we chose one option that suited us both and agreed on a new meeting each time.
Before a new call, I send everything that was done a few hours before the meeting so that a customer can study the materials. During the call, the customer gives feedback on the work done, and before the next meeting, I have to make comments. For a project like Converge Well, we needed about ten meetings during two months.
In this article, I looked at five essential elements of any project involving a business owner's collaboration with a brand designer. If you need an online consultation on the above issues, fill out the form below, and we will choose a convenient time for a meeting!
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