Last Updated on March 5, 2024
Whenever you start a project, you should have a good idea/understanding of what you will do. Things like research, strategy, checkups, changes, and everything else that come along when dealing with clients. Most designers have a certain path that they take for every single project. For those who don’t, we made a great design process guide to help. You can follow this route for almost every type of design project. So if you’re a designer that needs navigation, this blueprint should definitely help!
1. Project Initiation
– Client identifies needs or goals
– Client develops preliminary budget
– Client and designer meet for preliminary discussions and portfolio review (face to face meeting or use of social media out-lets such as Skype is an alternative if client and designer are unable to meet face to face)
– Designer typically requests deposit payment on the project
2. Orientation Research
– Client provides any relevant background information and materials
– Designer leads client through creative briefing
– Designer commence research (as needed) regarding:
- Competitive landscape
- Market research
- Design research
– Client confirms the media in which the designer will be producing for (web,print, etc) and confirms any technical parameters (for example website dimensions, color schemes, width and height for print materials
– Client and designer confirm needs assessment
3. Strategy
– Designer analyzes the research and information gathered
– Designer develops design and functionality criteria
– Designer develops a strategy for a design
– Designer presents all of the above for client input or approval
4. Exploration/Development
– Based on client approved strategy, designer develops preliminary design concepts
– Designers methodology of generating concepts vary but below are a few that I use:
- Mind Mapping
- Story Boarding
- Free writing
- Layout creation
– Client provides insights and initial validation of the concept direction to make sure project stated objectives and goals are being met
– Typically in the exploration step I develop several alternative concepts that will be narrowed down to a couple ideas for further development
– Based on the approved concept (within exploration step) designer develops the design concepts
– Further iterations of the concepts will be provided as tighter representations of the design:
- Comprehensive layouts
- Page spread
– Typically in the development step the client picks one design to be refined the designer
5. Refinement
– Designer makes minor modifications which includes minimal changes on aesthetic elements and client request
– Designer presents the above for discussion and approval
– Designer initiates preproduction meeting with team members and 3 party facilities if needed which include:
- Printer
- Manufacturer
- Photographer
6. Production/Launch
– With an approved design the designer begins implementation of the design axross all the required deliverables. For my services it would include:
- Print: finished art, camera ready art
- Web: all content delivered, finished graphic elements and photos, detailed flowchart
– Depending on the project and delivery media, the production materials are often handed to a third party which includes:
- Pre-press/Printer
- Media outlet
- Launched on web
- Designer or client will be engaged In the supervision or management of the above suppliers
7. Project Completion
– Designer and client have a project debriefing to review project outcome
– Designer writes up a case study
– Designer closes invoices project
– Client pays design
Download Design Process Flowchart
Logo Design Process of Green Candy
Designing a logo is no easy task and there is a lot of thought and consideration that is put into the process in order to bring about the best design solution for your client. Depending upon the project scope an the amount of information you received from the creative brief a designer should be capable of designing a logo that is outstanding and in direct alignment with the project goals. In this post I will give a brief overview of my process of designing a logo in which I will give you an hands on approach that you can incorporate or add into your own process for designing logos.
Note: Click the image for a larger view.
Step 1: Digestion of the creative brief and idea generation
The first thing I do before designing a logo or even hitting the sketch pad I go over the creative brief 3 times and write out all the relevant information on a big sketch pad. Its important that you don’t overwhelm your self with to much information but make sure your strip the creative brief down to its core an list anything that can help you generate ideas. When I am creating a logo the most effective technique that I use to generate ideas is combining concepts / visual elements to generate ideas; also by making variations of those ideas I get huge amounts of concepts to work from. Below I included a sample for a client company name Green Candy NY.
Step 2: Develop and color palette
Very rarely do my clients have an exact color they would like to incorporate into there logo design; so in order prevent my self from using colors that my clients will not like I simply create a color palette for them to choose from. By doing this I save a whole lot of time and energy which mean fewer revisions. Below is a sample for green candy.
Step 3: Font selections
The wrong front selection can make or break your logo design so it’s essential that you spend a considerable amount of time choosing a font that is appropriate for the project at hand. I suggest you pick 5 to 10 fonts and then systemically eliminate your front selections to three. Below are the font selections I choose for green candy.
Step 4: Sketches
I have personally sketched out over 30 possible logo designs for a project and I have sketched out only 10. When sketching it is important to allow you intuition to lead you on and let your ideas flow onto the paper. When I come to the point where I have to think to hard for ideas I simply lay my pencil down and choose the best sketches and start to take my sketch ideas into illustrator. Below are the sketches I did for green candy.
Step 5: Final designs
It’s important to only submit 3 concepts to your client and no more; anything more than that will lead to whole a lot of “I like this but that is nice to”. After some minor tweaks the owner of Green Candy was in love with the logo I created. Below is the final design for Green Candy NY.
If you have any process you would like to share please add a comment.