The design process is flexible, some steps might work for some projects and some might not. Many things can influence it, including budget and timeframes, so think of this more as a general guideline that is going to be tailored to suit your needs.
This is the first meeting. It can be on the phone, online or in person.
We will discuss the scope of the project, the project goals and what your vision is. If you don’t have a solid idea of what you need, that is okay, I can help you clarify things. Expect lots of questions from me about your likes and dislikes, who you are, who your customers are, what your company is all about and who your competition is. If you have examples of things you have seen and like, show them to me, even if they seem unrelated. Most importantly if you have examples of things you don’t like let me know. If you have questions, ask away.
Depending on the project and client sometimes the quote will be based on this meeting. Sometimes it will be done beforehand after a quick initial conversation. It really is project and client dependent.
Send me an email or give me a callcontact to set one up. I’m more than happy to help out in any way I can.
I take all my notes and samples from our first meeting and do a deep dive into the internet. The goal is to get to know you, your industry, your clients, your competition and your industry really well.
Here is where I pull out the sketch book… I know it seems old school, but it is a fantastic tool that lets me quickly generate lots and lots of ideas without getting hung up on the details that will be ironed out later. Some of these ideas will be word maps, layout sketches, notes on fonts and colours, basically whatever comes to mind.
For website design, this is the point where I put together a site plan for you if we haven’t worked on one yet and start to thumbnail page layout and templating ideas.
I take the strongest ideas (anywhere from 2 to 5 depending on what was quoted) from the idea generation stage and do polished mockups of the concepts for you to choose from.
These don’t necessarily need to have the finished text in them if it’s for something other than a logo. If we are waiting for copy to be completed, I’ll drop in temporary text that we call greeking and if we are waiting for photography or illustrations I’ll drop in place holder images.
If we are working on a website together this is where I show you rough digital concepts of what the home page and interior page templates will look like along with any notes on functionality.
This is where I present you with the concepts from the step before this. You choose one concept, or multiple elements to be mixed and matched, along with things you’d like to see done differently. I then take your feedback and make the changes. Where greeking or place holders have been used I drop in the final text and images. You can expect to go through two or three sets of revisions, sometimes more, or less, before the final piece is ready for print.
For website builds, this is where I build the page templates and shell of the site based on the digital concepts and the site plan. After you have signed off on them, I will then populate the site with the final text and images.
This is the final step in the design process. Once your happy with the finished piece and sign off on the project I’ll ready it for print and send the press readied PDF to the printer.
For website projects this is where we do the final go through, you sign off on the finished site and we go live.
This is different for each project depending on size, scope and how quickly you respond with feedback on concepts and get back to me with revisions. I’ve had projects done in 24 hours and others longer. Once we have that first get to know you meeting, I’ll be able to give you a good idea of how long your project will realistically take and I will do everything in my power to be sure we meet your deadlines.
My costs are based on the design process and preparing the final piece for print only. If you don’t have access to original or stock photography and illustration to use in the project be sure to let me know so I can include it in the quoted price. In the case of a website the costs are based on going live. Any changes after sign off at this stage will be billed additionally.
If you don’t have a printer or hosting company I am more than happy to make some suggestions and reach out for separate quotes for you.
For new clients one third of the quoted price is due as a down payment before I start the project. The remainder is due once the project has its final sign off to goes to print, or in the case of websites live.