A great and insightful post. To me, this is the heart of the author’s treatise.
For a design process to produce an extraordinary product, two conditions must be met: stakeholders and participants must unequivocally accept that they aren’t designers, and trust the real designers’ abilities.
It took me years to realize that. This is why I expect a new client to be able to clearly articulate who his target audience is during the discovery process. If he can’t identify that, then your hiring me is a waste of effort and time because energies are going to be wasted crafting something for the wrong target.
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Sometimes things don’t go as planned. I do have my daily designs and they will be posted in order but I had a new client call and they needed a really quick turnaround for a promotional piece advertising their event. As such, I was not able to post because I wanted to focus on making a good first impression, meet the deadline and hopefully get repeat business from a happy client. They were very pleased with the result and I got the press-ready files to them today. So, below, I’ll show you the process all the way to the end result.
It started with the following request that came in on January 7:
Happy New Year!
Wondering if one of you might be interested in designing a 4×6 card for Beebe Memorial Cathedral’s upcoming revival in early February. I’ve attached samples of previous work that they’ve liked so you can have an idea of the style.
Also need to know your rates. Hoping this can be completed relatively quickly. We’re in need of a designer so if successful, this can turn into several projects.
Please let me know asap.
Below are the samples that were included in the email. Samples are always good because you can get an idea of the client’s taste and decorative preferences.
I responded with a yes, and a design price of $175. The $175 is the average price for jobs like this based on previous jobs throughout the years. In instances like this, it’s helpful to have a set of prices for common requests so that you can provide a quick reply to a quote request. In my experience, more often than not, when you have a price ready to go on smaller projects, you land them faster and more frequently. Also, on more common jobs, you should be able to optimize your time to maximize your profit potential.
The client agreed to the price and was happy that I agreed to turnaround the project quickly. They also included the content and guidelines for the design.
Thanks for agreeing to produce this so quickly!
This should be what you need. Let me know if I’ve missed anything. I’ll be the project manager for this. I believe we’re all open to seeing drafts this weekend, but Monday he definitely wants to make a final or really close to final approval so that I can get moving on marketing next week. I don’t think the timing will work for me to complete the design myself from scratch by Monday so I certainly appreciate your help! If you want to send something directional for feedback since this is your first project for BMC, just let me know and I can review it before you get too far if you prefer…
4×6 cards are fine.
I’m attaching the following:
BMC Logo
Picture of Dr. Frederick Haynes, III, Guest Speaker (nights 1 & 2)
Picture of Dr. Walter Malone, Guest Speaker (night 3)
Picture of Dr. Charley Hames, Jr. Pastor, Beebe Memorial Cathedral
Other Info:
The dates for the revival are February 2nd, 3rd and 4th (Tues, Wed, Thurs). Freddie Haynes speaks for two of those nights (2nd and 3rd) and Walter Malone for one (4th).
The card should have the following info. You can be creative in it’s placement.
Beebe Memorial Cathedral
presents
2010 Stewardship Revival
February 2-4, 2010
7:00 pm nightly
Beebe Memorial Cathedral
3900 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland. CA 94609
510.655.6114
www.experiencebmc.org
info@experiencebmc.org
Theme:Walking in Fulfillment
Scripture: Malachi 3:10 “Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Guest Speakers:
Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III
Senior Pastor, Friendship West Baptist Church
Dallas, TX
Dr. Walter Malone
Pastor, Canaan Christian Church
Louisville, KY
Hosted By:
Rev. Dr. Charley Hames, Jr.
Senior Pastor
Beebe Memorial Cathedral
logo should be included, along with the tagline “Life is a Cathedral Experience)
Hints:
- look at the other work Tiye did, for general look and feel that the church has developed (both of the revival cards I sent, and I can send other work as well)
- He tends to like things a little corporate, but “warmer” since it is a church.
- You may want to emphasize the theme “Walking in Fulfillment” artistically as a primary element of the card, along with, of course, the fact that it is a stewardship revival.
- We like to use cutouts if possible as opposed to the framed pics. I’ve attached a psd cutout of Pastor Hames
- Regarding colors, we tend to use earth tones or some variations as opposed to pastels, etc.
Let me know if you need any other info. Hopefully, I’ve covered most of what you’ll need.
After reading their requirements, the content, and looking at previous designs, I pulled out the sketch book and wrote down a few things and drew some rough sketches based on the design elements that were emailed. Actually, let me show you what elements I had to work with:
I had to use Photoshop to do the cutouts (a client request), I used Illustrator to create some backgrounds and modify some elements I have in my library. I decided to continue to use Trajan Pro as the headline font. It looks good and matches the message. Other fonts considered and used were Stempel Garamond and Interstate – both very legible fonts at many sizes.
The Ideas
Okay. Two ideas came to mind. The first idea was that of clouds, sky and sunbursts. To me, that imagery emotes spirituality and hope which are essential considering the event is a revival. However, the colors go against the earth tone request from the client, but the overall message the design conveyed would be instantly recognizable and I think fit in line with what the client likes and what would resonate with their potential audience. That design can be seen here:
The second idea was to sort of combine their two previous ideas into a new one. I wanted motion along with the symbology of the tree and the warmer, earthy colors. That design can be seen here:
After sending those two designs off, this is the response that I received:
Thanks Jarvis,
If I understand the email exchanges that have gone on, this is where we are:
-They like both designs (I believe this is a first, so well done!)
-I believe there is a preference for the colors of v2
-The logo isn’t clear-is this this a lower quality pdf or did I send you a bad file?
Please try the following:
1) Use Version 2
2) Eliminate the trees
3) Make the Walking in Fulfillment more prominent
4) please do the website in lower case, and use . to separate the phone number 510.655.6114
5) Adjust Dr. Malone’s pic so he isn’t so much smaller than the others?
6) Remove “Services to be held at”, add the email address and phone in the box on the second line
7) Would it look weird to justify the quote on the back? If so, leave it like it is.
8) I think you can just say Pastor for Dr. Hames instead of Senior Pastor
Thanks, and hope this makes sense!
Yes, the changes made sense and I was pleasantly suprised that they liked both designs. But I was a little disappointed that they didn’t choose my first design. However, I do realize that it didn’t really fit within the parameters that they provided so, it’s not a surprise (and was expected) that the client would choose design 2.
After one more round of revisions (replacing their low-res logo with a vector logo and changing a period to a comma), here is the final product:
One small note – notice on the back of the design I used one of the cutouts break up the monotony of the address box. It’s a pleasing visual and it brings attention to the host and the guest speakers.
That’s it. I hope you like the end result and appreciate the process by which I got there. Now it’s time to post the daily designs that I haven’t posted yet.
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