Getting the Most Out of the Design Process
Extract from "A Client's Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process" a free publication from Weavers. Request your copy from design@weavers.com.au.
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Unlike so much in today's business world, graphic design is not a commodity. It is the highly individualised result of people coming together to do something they couldn't do alone. When the collaboration is creative, the results usually are too.

The Value Proposition
Design - good design - is not cheap. You would be better served to spend your money on something else if you don't place a high value on what it can achieve. Design is a human act and, therefore, subject to many variables. When the word design is used here, it is always in the context of good design.

Numerous authors have written many famous books on the importance of design and creativity. The subject matter ranges from using design and creativity to gain a strategic advantage or make the world a more livable place - and more. The key is to make the process of design work in the business environment so that the end product lives up to its potential.

We live in a time of sensory assault. So many sights, smells, sounds, tastes, etc all competing for our attention. And now you want to draw attention to your product or service. You want potential customers to take notice. Competing for customers' attention is more than just an Internet phenomenon. The challenge for companies everywhere is to attract consumers to their products and services and keep them in the face of fickle markets.

The answer to this challenge starts with each company's people, products and services, but it doesn't end there. How companies communicate to their markets is becoming the primary means of differentiation today. Never, in fact, has effective communication been more important in business. And it has increased the pressure within companies to establish environments and attitudes that support the success of creative endeavours, internally and externally. More often than not, companies that value design lead the pack.

What is Design?
Design often has the properties of good looks, which perhaps is why it's often confused with style. But design is about the underlying structure of communicating the idea, not merely the surface qualities; i.e. your messages must stand on their own unadorned. Certainly, it's possible for a good idea to be poorly executed. But bad ideas can't be rescued. Ideas give design its weight, its ability to influence audiences positively, negatively or not at all.

The Objects of Design
Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear your Armani suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn't have alternatives, but customers do. And they know it.

So, it isn't enough for a company to have a great logo if the communications effort isn't carried out across the full spectrum of the company's interaction with it’s marketplace. Every aspect of communications is important from how the telephone is answered to corporate identity, branding, packaging, print materials, advertising, internet, intranet, interactive multimedia and web-related communications. The "swoosh" didn't make Nike a successful company. Nike made the "swoosh" an iconic reflection of a carefully orchestrated approach to the marketplace. The marketplace is now deluged with "swoosh"- like shapes, identifying companies ranging from sportswear to software. It's the frame of reference for what many think of when visualising the word "mark". It's unlikely the "swoosh" would be so memorable had it stayed confined to, say, hangtags on shoes.

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In this issue

Getting the Most Out of the Design Process

Top 10 Business Tips

Strategic Planning