Design comes second. Maybe third

Recently I have been working with a client to create a better brand image for their online image. I helped them redesign their website which was a hodge podge of design, usability, forms and bad white space into a more sophisticated interface design that displayed their content better and provided them a new palette with which to grow.

Over the last couple of weeks I have become aware of real problems with their design consistency. As I have been working with them during this time I can safely say that the problems I am seeing are a result of their internal decision making process.

They have too many people making decisions, changing their minds, basically trying too hard with their campaigns. For instance they witnessed that the signups for a campaign weren’t going as fast as they would like, so rather than investigating how to solve this problem they made the text bigger across the site. This just made everything on the page scream at the user. Such a bad decision.

I have seen this again and again throughout the years and the solution is simple. Appoint one person within the company to own the brand and that person must be trusted to approve all of the design elements that will be placed in front of the user.

Make my logo bigger

Making a client logo bigger is one of the graphic designers oldest jokes. Clients always ask to make their logos bigger. When we hear this feedback we may roll our eyes but eventually this is a change that will happen.

The question that should be asked is why do clients ask to make their logo bigger. Is it really because designers make the logo too small? As always I think we first have to assume that the designer has some talent in answering this question. So with that in mind…

When a client reviews the design layout that you have provided you have to set the stage for what they are looking at. You have to assume that they do not know what they are looking at and therefore don’t know how to react to the layout. Talk about the thought that went behind the concept, mention the research, the decisions you made to arrive at the layout. By doing this you begin to provide them insight into the the choices you have made along the way. Without this information the client can only react to things they understand such as a colour, an image or their logo placement.

We may joke about clients asking to make their logo bigger, but this is our fault. When this happens it is because we are not doing our job as designers. We have to walk the client through the thinking before they react. By describing everything that went into the design we allow the client into our world and at the same time provide them with a way to critique the layout or design armed with the correct information.

If we describe the process and the client still asks for their logo to be bigger then you may want to consider finding a new client. Sometimes clients are lost causes.

The importance of being a designer

The design world to clients must be a complete mystery. Clients know that they need designers, but they aren’t entirely sure what it is designers actually do. Perhaps that is down to the lack of definition in our industry.

One designer is not equal to another. This can break into many categories including talent, skill, ability, experience, artistic talent (some designers can’t even draw) and technical ability.

Clients hire designers based upon the look of their portfolio, a reference or god forbid cost factors. Not because they have found the most talented person to solve their design problem.

So how do we as designers inform our clients whether they have located the right designer for their job? The first thing I recommend is a short questionnaire before the client signs on the dotted line:

a) Have you worked directly with a designer before?

b) What was the project tasked to the designer?

c) To what extent did you work with a designer?

d) Was the project a success?

e) What did you learn from your experience with the designer?

The goal of these questions is to ascertain what your client’s expectation is of a designer, what they understand the role of the designer to be and what their experiences have been with other designers. Armed with this information you can get a clear picture of how your project will shape up with the client, and you can inform the client how you prefer to work, resetting their expectations for you.

This can be very rewarding but a word of advice: Resetting their expectations can set you up to fail in their eyes so make sure you deliver on your promises.

An old love affair

When I left design school I really didn’t have too much experience with many typefaces. But I had been very influenced by the Swiss design movement and as a result utilized the font “univers” designed by adrian frutiger in 1956.

Univers has a distinctive look, and is very versatile. And during my early design career I think I used it for almost every project in some way or another. It actually was years before I forced myself to use other typefaces. Today I still use Univers, it just works, but not as much as I used to. There are many typefaces that imitate Univers, but really why bother? Just use the real thing.