Concept Creation

Firstly when starting any design project, it is always good to brainstorm as many ideas as you can. The possibilities of getting all the ideas out on the table is an excellent way to see what will and won't work. Getting the pens and paper out and drawing a load of quick sketches can be quite an empowering. You may be surprised, I've seen some of the best ideas come out this way. This process is all about communication between teams and collaborating to make a great plan with everyone's input.

Art Direction

An excellent creative director will bring your projects to life. They'll see your project as a good movie and develop all the various attributes to maximise your exposer. So what is the difference between graphic design and art direction.? Art direction is seeing not just the now but the future of where everything is going. They are highly sought after by all the big agency worldwide as they are the real key behind all business. It is not a skill you can pick up you'll usually of had over 10-15 years doing design & marketing and learnt the woes of the market place and how it can change is a second. A creative director will see things others just can't.

Campaign Design

A great campaign can help you stand out but also get business moving in the right direction. Combining an array of design and marketing skills, a great website and imagery that talks to the customer can be the fuel your business might need. A campaign is a strategic ploy to lead customers to your business. It should be intelligent and meaningful and should be changed every few months. It should be measured to see what the outcome was using data. Where I use this most is email marketing, you can see and measure the outcome of a discount or product line. Within a few days, it is a precious sales tool to grow your business.

Identity Creation

When designing a logo, it should be a reflection of you and your business. It should be instantly recognisable and reflect the service you offer. Get it right, and you'll save yourself a whole lot of extra work over the years. Over the years, designs and styles can become outdated. When updating your logo, you should take the time to develop it with minor changes that the consumer will overlook in a brand refresh. Doing it this way allows you to integrate the changes over a timed period without having to change all you're marketing collateral which will save you money.

Brand Guidelines

Brand guidelines are when you have affiliate networks that will be displaying our using your logo. The big thing to understand with brand guidelines is that it's not there to kill creativity but to help people know what they should and should not do with your brand. Most of you will spend thousands of dollars developing your brand, so it is essential to protect your Intellectual property. When selling your business, the brand will be the most valuable asset that will be a deal-breaker if it not all looking right. Rebrands cost a lot of time effort and money, so make sure you keep your Intellectual property by working with your designers and continuously developing it, keeping it all inline. I often get jobs to help business do this, and they spend more money fixing the whole thing than just keeping it running.

Graphic Design

Graphics help your brand stand out, having a good designer is key here someone who has a style you like. There is lots of talent out there but like art some like 'cubism' and some like 'surrealism'. If you find a designer and you like their style you should try to keep them as long as you can as it is not as easy as you might think to find a replacement. A good graphic designer will help you grow your brand, and develop styles your customers like. More than anything, they will know what to do as they will understand what you want.

Retail Design

If you have a retail or shop chain you’ll know that getting the right look will encourage people to come in to your shop. A big part of brands is the culture and thats the following, the people who like what you do and believe in your message to change the world, the more of them you can collect the better as they usually express their believes to others, if i could give anyone advice for free it would be "give the crowd what they want" Retail is a fast environment and it comes down to who can get the poster in the shop first will have the sales. Speed and reliability are crucial here. If you have a retail or shop chain, you'll know that getting the right look will encourage people to come into your shop. A big part of building any brand is the culture, and that's the following, of people who like what you do and believe in your message.

Point Of Sale

The more people you can collect, the better as they usually express their beliefs to their friends and others. My advice is a referral is free and "give the crowd what they want" Retail is a fast environment, and it comes down to who can get the campaign and posters in the shop first will have the sales. Experience, Speed and reliability are crucial here. Point of Sale (POS) is the last chance to enforce why your product is better than the rest. As the consumers are walking down the shop isle, it is always important to give that last pitch, whether its lifetime guarantee or organic, these are the choice the consumer ways up before purchase. Having a shelf talker or a uniquely designed bottle or packaging at this point, and they always pick you.

Poster Design

Never underestimate the power of a poster. Most of the time, people will say that they never even saw it as they passed, but the subconscious brain takes it all in. It is a bit like the green emergency exit sign we all tend to know where it is should there be a fire. It's low-cost to produce and will do more good than you can ever imagine. Large companies like Coca Cola spend millions just reminding you of there brand is still the best drink of choice. Most of the biggest companies insist on a good poster campaign. In essence, this is validating their brand message of what the campaign or products you are selling.

Signs & Wayfinding

Signs are the one thing people get wrong. There are millions of bad signs out there. Forget about looking good when doing this; the purpose of a sign is information, nothing else. Make sure you have the name, what your business is selling a huge phone number or website. In my words 'Keep it clean; keep it simple'. Big Bold text and contrasting colours.

Signage

I often pass the Vans or shop sign that people fail to get right. Usually, a stretched-out logo, No Phone Number, No Website, sorry it means nothing to the person driving behind you if they can't work out what Bj's services do. Forget about looking good when doing this; the purpose of a sign is information, nothing else. Make sure you have the name, what your business can do phone number or website. Please keep it clean; keep it simple. Big Bold text and contrasting colours that stand out.

Photography

Great photography tells a story paints a thousand words, but also is multilingual make sure your images and photography style fits what you are selling. Your customers should look at the image, so there is no mistake about what you're getting. You never see an airline showing you the seat in the economy because that's not what they are selling. They are selling the business and first-class seats hence the difference in cost of the seat. Photography shows customers that this is a premium or discount product. If you are targeting a discount customer show them what they want to see the "price" one thing to remember is that images go out of date, so its always needed to be refreshed or carefully selected in the start.

Website Development

Websites are today's online brochure or catalogue. It should be easy to find your way around and let customers get what they want quickly. With today's technology, you'll have to deal with been found on the search engines as well as making the front end look pretty. It is continuous work and a full-time job as you'll also need to be doing social media, Adwords SEO as well as protecting your business from hackers and making sure your servers have the ability to handle the traffic.  Its important lesson to identify the strategy when developing a website give the customers what you know they are looking for right from the home page.

Website Design

There is excellent looking software out there that does not work, and it is complex to use because of the two personality types out there logic and creative. Great development is born from merging creative with the ability to perform the logic. Over the years, I've developed so many user interfaces and while sitting with the logical programmers. Making 25 steps for you actually to do what you want too will scare customers away as the process is too complicated. An excellent creative person uses UI and UX to design interfaces that are easy to use; a good developer will write code that gets the person there in 2 steps.

Website Design & Mobile Application

Packaging Design

Lastly, the packaging is a massive love of mine, and who does not love a good pice of packaging. Often, we are limited to what we can do because of budgets, but most of the time, the lower budgets create outstanding results. They involve more labour, but as a start-up, you'll go the extra mile. Making a robust design married together with amazing typography that is recognisable will reap the rewards. Understanding of your product range and market place will help you here, having a style that is yours, down to Typography, layouts and colours. Make sure you find yourself a good designer before doing this, or you'll end up with the biggest miss-mash that will confuse your potential customers.