Design is kind of like a tennis game …
A FRIENDLY tennis game for sure!
- Introductions consist of you contacting the designer and requesting and approving an estimate. A deposit on the project is normal.
- Everyone shakes hands.
- Then you pack up all your equipment – your ideas and thoughts, past marketing materials, your logo. Consider anything that has to do with your branding and how you and your clients perceive your company.
- We meet at the court (a virtual court – our rally now is via email and phone calls).
- You ‘serve’ your information to the designer. This gives us something to start with. Now we know a bit about where you’ve been and what you want to do with your marketing. A goal for the project helps.
- The designer rallies, having organized all the facts, goals and themes you’ve presented in a logical, graphic, manner. Usually we respond with an idea or two in PDF format for print projects. For web projects a design is presented in a folder not viewed by the overall public.
- The ball is back in your court. You review the project, give your opinions and input your ideas, hitting the ball back again …
Usually this rally takes only a few back and forths if communication has been good along the way. All parties hope for a short, happy tennis game!
Be sure to discuss these items when interviewing designers
- Time line
- Budget
These seem to be the biggest areas for misunderstanding.
Think about this ….
You save money when you buy 3 … er, tennis balls, versus a single one. The same applies to marketing materials. You’ll want to repeat a lot of your design elements in brochures and on your website. It’s good branding. So creating a trifold at the same time as you create a website is an effective use of your money.
And even if the budget doesn’t allow you to do both at the same time, if you use the same designers (they’ve become your marketing department), they have all your graphic elements and doesn’t need to start anew.
In the slide show at the top, both Premier Chicagoland (in the first two slides) and Linda’s Fine Arts Studio (the third and fourth slides) took advantage of this, repeating their print information on the Internet and vice versa.
You’ve heard of it?
WordPress has taken the Internet by storm. Right now, it’s estimated that almost 27% of all sites are created in WordPress …. big sites too! Ones like ….
- The New York Times
- Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy
- People Magazine
- National Geographic
- Forbes
- The White House
So you’ll be in good company! And effective marketing will have you looking as good as the ‘big guys.’
Click on the image to see it better.
WordPress is fairly easy to get around in. I don’t recommend everyone try it – a lot of my clients have taken one look and said ‘Can you do this for us?” But for those not faint of heart, this is your typical text box. As you can see, it looks pretty simple.
So if you want to make easy changes yourself, check with the designer on whether or not they encourage sharing.
We opened our doors at Deb Manning Design in 1994. First we were a graphic design company oriented to speakers and speaker print needs. Then about five years later we added website design to our menu of services. DebManning Design specializes in services that make your business excel. Our clients range in size from one-person enterprises to large corporations.
Deb Manning Design has offices in both the Chicago and Ft. Myers areas. The beauty of design though is that we have no physical boundaries! We are just an email or a phone call away. We service clients across the country.
At DebManning Design we believe there is always more than one way of doing things … we will find the best alternative to accomplish your goals within your time-frame and your budget. Call to discuss how you would like to grow your success!
