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Retracing Design Direction Dots
Working as a graphic designer - like many artistic pursuits - can be a lonely occupation, especially for freelance or solo designers who don't work within a studio collaborating with other designers. For these folks, the WEB is a great resource - a place to seek information, advice, and inspiration.
This morning, I discovered a new design site - Logopond - that seems like it will create value for designers in another valuable way - providing feedback and a showcase.
In the words of the site's owners: "Logopond hopes to showcase identities and brands of designers everywhere." One improvement I would recommend to Logopond is to let showcasing designers link back to their own home pages. For some reason, this hasn't happened, but I expect it will.
The site goes further than solely showcasing work. It provides an opportunity to ask questions, leave comments, and seek inspiration. It uses the WEB's interactivity to best advantage.
I perused some comments on the site. Some are more insightful and interesting than others, but that's the way things are in a studio, as well. Many designers I know are most articulate when they are communicating with visual language. They're artists, not writers. So nobody should be surprised when an insight stops with "That's awesome!"
On the other hand, I have been often amazed at how insightful and articulate my favorite designers and illustrators often are, especially brand designers out there. These people have to conjure the essence of something, then give it visual form. That form has to be instantly comprehensible by a wide spectrum of people. This isn't easy to do.
I found one logo in particular, Renew New Orleans, inspiring in both design terms and in human terms. This identity was created by designer Frank McClung on a pro bono basis to help designers who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Mr. McClung's philosophy is stated simply and straightforwardly on the site: "Design is a means to an end, not an end unto itself." Amen. Mr. McClung is my kind of designer.
When it comes to working effectively with designers, I've found that the biggest challenge is giving clear & effective design direction, and giving it up front, before the designer begins, not after they've started working. Giving clear direction requires me:
1. To clarify my communication objectives; establish the tone that I want communicated;
2. Specify the media channels in which the design product will be used;
3. Create a clear inventory of the product, organization, or brand's personality; and
4. Annunciate the brand's values.
If I fail to do any of these things - up front - it's nigh impossible for any designer to deliver what I'm looking for.
What Logopond offers an aspiring creative director or a marketing director are the occasional insights about what the designer was trying to accomplish. Retracing the dot connections between visual communication intention and visual representation has helped me improve my ability to give design direction. I've found this a lifelong learning continuum. I simply cannot get good enough at this critical skill, so I keep on trying to improve my ability to do so.
If you want to demoralize or abuse a design team, get in the back seat and tell them how to drive while they're designing. Wait until you're in production rounds to change your mind or change direction. These things will produce a hash of bad work and bad feelings. It amazes me that so many people actually work this way and get anything done.
If you're looking for a winning recipe to get great design, use 5 parts direction to every 1 part feedback. (Direction is defined as taking place before sketch rounds) I've learned that when I give effective direction that I get effective design. It's as simple as that. When things have gone sideways, it's almost always been my fault, not the fault of the designers.
If your design team brings something back to you that is completely off the mark, your written direction document (Creative Brief) provides an excellent point-of-departure for a conversation about why your designers took things where they went. This gives you a leg to stand on when you ask them to go back to the drawing board. Or, you may discover that what you thought was clear direction was read differently from your intentions.
A hundred times a year or more someone asks me what I think of their logo, their brochure, or some other design product. This is not a short conversation. Some people expect me to say "I like it" or "It's interesting" or "I don't like it." Of course what people want to hear is "It's awesome!"
My response - if I have time to listen to the answer - is "What were you trying to achieve?" Without that information - without a clear understanding of the strategic bedrock underpinning the design product - any response that I give will be impressionistic and not particularly useful.
Of course the polite thing to do is to utter some vaguely polite and positive feedback, but this kind of feedback can be damaging. It might get me off the hook and allow me to proceed with the cocktail party, but it may cause the person who asked the question to persist in using something that is off-strategy or off-brand. It's happened to me and I know it's happened to others.
Posted on July 14, 2006 08:44 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Greate article, and not simply because it shines logopond in a positive light. There are some really great points you made here. I'd like to be able to add this article to our resources page on logopond, email me your approval or denial.
This is a very interesting and insightful article.
Lonely, freelancers need feedback like this b/c it can be just like you said, "oh, that's nice", or " this is not what I wanted."
Of course, we cannot live in our clients heads, but… effective communication can get us half–way there!
I'm glad there is a site like LogoPond....i was looking up CSS stuff, when the link showed up in google. I do freelance whenever a job comes up, and its hard not to have inspiration that you can look at.
So LogoPond is one of those special websites that I bookmark, before I completely forget in the back of my mind.