Reason Before Rhyme

“Concept before creative”: This statement never used to make sense to me. In my head, design was always an arbitrary piece of the puzzle contributing to some companies bottom line. I knew it was an important piece of the puzzle, but I never really understood why. It’s not like it was a big mystery that I was losing sleep over; I was simply an undeveloped designer with limited understanding of the industry. It wasn’t until later in my career that I realized the true importance behind design and the positive (or negative) effect it can have on a business or product.

When assignments were given to me, the first thought that crossed my mind was, “what current trend do I want to copy from Print Magazine and apply to this project?” I honestly feel bad for the first few clients I worked with, because I’m sure that the designs I created for them didn’t really make sense from a marketing perspective. Sure, they may have looked cool (emphasis on ‘may have’), but does that really matter if there is no purpose supporting it?

It took me awhile to grow out of this habit, possibly because I was never responsible for presenting my designs to clients. They were always handed off to an account representative (or another superior) to handle the presentation. The results always seemed to be 50/50. Sometimes I’d get lucky and the client would approve the design with limited changes, other times I wasn’t so lucky. In hindsight, I can’t believe how much I actually got away with.

It was a rude awaking when I was finally asked to attend a client meeting and present the design I had created for them. When your only explanation behind a design treatment is “it looks cool”, you’re in rough shape. It’s true that there is a lot of BS floating around behind conceptual explanations within anything artistic. In fact, there’s nothing I hate more than hearing a pretentious artist explaining the deep emotion behind the painterly strokes applied to their masterpiece. But there must be some truth rooted somewhere within these regurgitated explanations. If you honestly think about it, there is no denying that certain visual aesthetics trigger certain emotions within you. Whether these emotions are natural, or have been manually pounded into our heads by society, I have no idea; The fact is, they exist and it is our job as designers to understand and interpret them.

Now I make it a priority to always present my designs to respective clients in person. This holds me accountable for creating designs that I can back up with logical and conceptual meaning. During the kickoff meeting to any new project, I’m always sure to encourage the client to question every single element I’ve created along the way. This may seem like a stretch to many people, but I feel that even the most insignificant item should have a specific purpose. For instance, the copyright statement that is normally placed in the footer of a website may always appear as though it’s an after thought. However, I try to be sure that this placement is somehow contributing to the layout of the site in some fashion. Be it through, balance, composition, or accessibility, its placement should have a specific purpose.

Through the practice of presenting designs in person, I’ve learned that there is no better sales approach then making it obvious to your client that you truly understand their business, and you’re confident in the solution you have created for them. However, in order to do this, you must first take the time to learn the needs and goals of your client. Design is so much more than using random elements that have proven to be successful for other companies and piecing them together into a blank document. It is a medium used to simplify complicated subjects in order to appeal to the masses.

The Benefit of Research

Taking the time to research your clients in order to understand their needs and goals is an essential starting point of any project. To this day I struggle with the temptation of jumping straight to the computer before I start the research phase. This is an inevitable path to destruction. Even when I think I know exactly how I want a design to look, it will go up in flames without first laying down a solid foundation. Before I know it, I find myself staring at a screen full of canned solutions while feeling frustrated that it’s not working out exactly as I saw it in my head.

You’d be surprised at how often research opens doors to new ideas and concepts. When you take the time to follow an organized design process that includes research and planning, the odds are much higher that you will not only create a better result, but you’ll hit all of your marks along the way. Every design for every client needs to be treated as it’s own unique solution. Simply applying a design treatment that has proved to be successful for one particular project to a new project will not normally end with the same results.

So the next time you start a new project, I challenge you to make sure you’re not recreating, or worse, reusing design elements simply because they look cool, or they’ve worked well for a different project. This only cheats you as well as your client. Take the time to research and understand your client. More importantly, listen to what your research has taught you. When you find yourself falling into old design habits take a moment to re-read the scope of the project and review your notes. It is very easy to fall haphazardly into old trends and habits, especially if you are juggling multiple projects. Like I mentioned before, design is meant to simplify complicated subjects. How can you take a complex subject and simplify it when you never took the time to understand it in the first place? This is one of the many reasons why spec work almost always results in terrible design, but that’s topic that I will save for another day…