3 changes I made to my ever-evolving design process
january 22, 2019
Category: Business
3 recent changes I made to my ever-evolving design process
When I look back at where I was a year ago in my business my process was soooooo different. I could talk about process for days, but wanted to highlight three major shifts I’ve made over the past year and how it’s impacted my clients and work.
When I look back to where I was with Brighten Made a year ago soooo much has changed, but one thing in particular that stands out as being so different is my process. Process in general is such a broad topic I could probably write about it for literal days, but to keep things short and sweet I wanted to share three major shifts I’ve made over the past year and how those changes have impacted both my clients and work.
change #1 | in-depth brand strategies
Alright so this is a big one. Before I kick off a project, I like to send over a mood board (like most designers and creatives) along with explanations so the client has an idea of what I’m thinking before I dive into any actual design work. This is something I’ve been doing for years, even since the early days of my previous wedding stationery company, Flyover Design Co.
What started off as sending pretty mood boards before beginning design projects shifted into a more in-depth brand strategy presentation. I slowly added to my initial mood board phase so the client could understand the intention behind the inspiration. It wasn’t until I took the Branding with Bre course though that I really flushed out the presentations with as much meaning as possible — covering everything from the client’s target audience to their competition, brand goals, and more. The key behind all of this is that it has helped me make sure I’m asking the right questions and doing enough research on my client so I can fully understand the ins and outs of their business. The more I know about their business, the more their branding will speak to the right people and bring them success.
If you’re not familiar with Breanna’s course, it’s basically an entire overview of her design process and what has really worked for her and her clients. If you’re a designer, I HIGHLY recommend investing in her course — you can use the code “BRIGHTEN” at the check out for $25 OFF!
change #2 | one-concept presentations
If you would’ve looked at my branding presentations a year ago, you would see that I shared three different branding concepts. These concepts were unique but still inline with the initial mood board, so some type treatments would be different, illustrations might have been different, or colors might’ve shifted slightly, but overall they were all a similar style that I had initially presented with the inspiration.
While more options might seem appealing to clients, I learned that it actually wasn’t better. In Breanna’s course she shared her own personal struggles with presenting to clients which I had really connected to as well. A lot of times clients would want to combine two concepts into one because there were parts they liked from both of them, but what they didn’t understand was there was a reason why a concept worked on its own. When you combine different ideas it can tend to be an incohesive mess and I knew that wasn’t what was best for their business.
The other part to this that I realized was I was spending a lot of time creating concepts just for the sake of having another concept. I wasn’t able to devote my time to really fleshing out and perfecting one idea because I had to make sure I was also presenting two more. In my process now, I’m still creating different concepts upfront but I’m able to use my expertise to narrow them down and know which one works best for the clients’ goals, audience, and brand.
I feel much more confident knowing that I am sending them a well-thought-out branding presentation that fully shows them their brand across different platforms and used in a variety of ways — which brings me to my next point.
change #3 | gathering feedback
The feedback phase used to be such a daunting part of the process to me. What if they hate it? What if I have to start over? Design is SO personal and it’s hard to fully remove myself emotionally when I put so much heart behind every brand. What I learned in Bre’s course was that I wasn’t asking my clients the right questions. Instead of just sending off a presentation with my fingers crossed hoping that they’d like it. Instead, now I give my clients a bit more guidance on how to provide feedback. I urge them to try to take their personal preferences out of it (as much as they can!) while really trying to think about their ideal audience, brand, and how the design effectively works for them or how it could be improved.
Now I can confidently say that I’m able to really collaborate with my clients during this phase and it’s been much more successful for their brands by doing so.
So there you have it! Three big shifts I’ve made in my business which I owe a lot to the amazing Branding with Bre Course.
