Providing visual inspiration
What do you love? What do you hate? And better yet, what is working with your audience very well.
This is not just good prep work for a design project, but also smart to do on a weekly or monthly basis. Analyze what’s working on your email or social media marketing. Keep a list or a folder of images you’ve seen online that perfectly capture the essence of what you want your projects to look like. Seen a great website lately? Or an amazing instagram post? Keep track of it.
Some designers use Pinterest, but I believe in seamlessly integrating into whatever workflow works best for you. So: Dropbox folder, secret Pinterest board, files through Slack or email; just send those in for me for review. Having a benchmark of what you like (or don’t like, feel free to send that in as well) really helps when it’s time to decide on the building blocks of your project. Is your aesthetic clean or complex? Are your colors bright or muted? Do you prefer elegance or quirk?
Answering all the questions
Be prepared to answer questions. They might come in as a literal questionnaire that requires you to go through and answer to the best of your ability; or I might go through them informally over a phone or in-person meeting. The more descriptive you can be when answering questions, the better your design concepts will be. Make sure you provide all the information you can, and as much detail or background as you can – links to background information are key. Have a competitor that gets under your skin? Share that too! No detail is too small or unimportant. I have had very successful campaign ideas be generated from a throwaway comment a client made during a phone call.
Interested in doing some homework together? I’d love to show the ropes of my process first-hand and do amazing work together. Contact me today.
