What is design? It begins with ideas—ideas based in purpose. It requires a plan or a process. Design is as much a process as it is an end product. So tell me Greg, how does your process work?

Okay. Well. I have a magic keyboard on which the buttons produce campaigns, websites, logos, posters, brochures, business cards, etc. by mere keystrokes. IT’S JUST THAT SIMPLE! I often wonder what all these other creative types are whining about. I mean, they could just “Photoshop” it, you know… PHOTOSHOP IT. When it comes to marketing campaigns I use the model below on most of my projects -

But in all seriousness, I hope to add to this more in the coming weeks in order to give you a better understanding of how I manage creative projects, my basic workflow outline is as follows -

1. Why do we think we will use this offering? (Marketing Direction)
2. What are they looking for (Task Analysis)
3. What else is out there? (Competition Evaluation)
4. How’s this for starters? (Design)
5. What would make it better? (Design Evaluation)
6. How did it stack up? (Overall Assessment and lessons learned)

I’ve had consistent success in directing projects with this as a general backbone, except for that time with the room of typewriter monkeys... the horror.  It does evolve per project (advertising campaigns, site designs, branding, product development, etc.) or any such combination, but the basics are still the same. If a brief isn’t presented then it is up to me to make one, it helps greatly in determining the objective for everyone (especially the client).

As you’ll notice there’s a great deal done before design even gets started, this speeds up the process exponentially. Research is extremely important. Being innovative doesn’t mean re-inventing the wheel every time. It takes a REALLY long time to make drop shadows in DOS. Putting more effort into the mind mapping, discovery and sketch stages will consistently result in better design phases. Which in turn, gives you a better overall product.

Problems? Of course there are, nothing is ever perfect and not all solutions present themselves directly. Sometimes I end up polishing turds, but that’s business. I always end up doing a bit of client hand holding and cajoling no matter how strong the concept. Adaptability to solve problems is key. It’s all about utilizing strengths and being able to fill in weak spots, running internal reviews to maintain quality control, and being able to inspire progress through critiques. Insert cliché about teamwork here.

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