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Behind Every Great Design is A Good Brief

Any great design is the result of a good understanding between client and designer.

The first step in this understanding is a good brief. Before going ahead with any design project, it could be a good idea to have a face to face meeting with your designer.

This enables you to get to know the designer you’re working with, and also gives both parties a chance to get an idea of what their expectations and needs are.

The Designer may ask questions such as:
-    What does your business involve?
-    Who is your target market?
-    What are you trying to achieve with this particular project?
-    What is the timeframe in which you would like to have this project finished?
-    Why are you choosing this particular type of medium (eg. Flyer/website/TV ad) to promote your company?
-    Have you thought about what if you want an icon in your logo or colours /fonts you may want to brand your company?
-    Do you have existing branding that is to be included in the design?
-    What is the look and feel you are trying to create with this project?
-    What is the desired outcome of the project?
-    Do you have any images to include in the project or do you want us to source and supply images for this project?

It also allows the client to ask as any questions they have – and get to know the designer a bit better.

The Client may ask:
-    How long have you been in business?
-    How does the design process work?
-    What kind of costs should we expect with this project?
-    How many rounds of changes are included in the price?
-    We a budget of $XX to spend – what cost effective marketing strategies can you suggest?

Hopefully by the end of this process both the client and designer have a comprehensive idea of what they need to do to complete the project.

A vital first step for a designer is obtaining a good brief. A great brief will always result in a focused and fantastic end result for both the parties.

Take the time to really think about what it is you’re trying to achieve and how your designer can best help you reach that goal – and you can’t go wrong! Remember we are always here to help along the way if you have any questions or concerns. We have many years experience of obtaining briefs and dealing with many different customers and businesses everyday, some who know exactly what they want and others that ask our advice. We are always happy to help if we can.

Too many small business owners look at their marketing budgets as just too costly or too much of an expense. Contrary to this belief marketing need not be a huge expense. When you are a little quieter why not focus your time on creating a cost effective marketing plan? You will need to invest some time and maybe make a small investment, but unless you get the word out to your customers any business will only be forgotten. However, lets look at doing this the most cost-effective way possible.

Ok so you need to market, but your not sure how or what to do? A quick knee jerk reaction will not help. Many businesses often do this and spend money on marketing the wrong way with very little return. Instead, why not use smart, cost effective marketing strategies that stretch every dollar as far as possible?

Why not team up with another or many other local businesses to pool your money? If several complementary businesses get together, then they can afford to publish a newsletter or flyer for distribution in their local area. Maybe you can organise a business luncheon in your local area where you can all sit down and find out more about how you can help each other? It can be a win-win situation for everyone.

Outsource it When you Can’t do it Yourself

You have spent days and days and many nights putting final touches on your flyers or collecting photos online for your next marketing brochure only to find out they cannot be used for print due to copyright and low resolution. Maybe you have spent days doing your tax only to find out you have set up your MYOB system all wrong. Why not get a professional to do it instead? Not only will you save time but you will also save money in the long run. Think about it, would your time be better spent doing what you do best and paying someone to do the other stuff you are not so familiar with and do it in half the time? We recently had a client ask about converting a site they had spent weeks building, into a CMS site. When we presented our pricing to them they were shocked to see they had wasted all this time on a site they were still not happy with, when they could've got us to do it exactly how they wanted it in half the time. Also we were shocked to find out that if they were actually paying themselves for the work it would have cost them over 4 times the cost of outsourcing it to us. Outsourcing may sound expensive on the face of it but think of the alternative. Another thing to consider and weigh up is hiring someone within your business to perform the task at hand. This also can be very expensive. If you employ staff not only will you be paying professional full-time salaries, you’ll be paying benefits. Sometimes it’s much cheaper to outsource and pay on a need to need basis.

Make yourself visible. Join the Chamber of Commerce and any other service clubs that exist in your community. It is a great networking opportunity and many local clubs always look for people to speak too. This is a great opportunity to increase peoples knowledge about your business and also promote your business so as you are always first and foremost in peoples minds. People like doing business with people they know. A great person to talk to about this is Jaeneen Cunningham of Intergr8. Not only does Intergr8 give their members an opportunity to present their business at events they also encourage you to talk about your personal interests. Jaeneen has said time and time again she finds people within the intergr8 network are meeting up and doing business because they can relate to the person or feel they have a connection and therefore doing business and the business knowing their needs will be better understood.

Although networking can take time it’s worth it. My plan is always to figure out where to spend your time by talking to others and visiting other networking groups to ‘try before you buy’. Don’t network where it isn’t paying off.

Another Tip: Network online too! Use Facebook and Twitter to contact your clients.

Every business must have an online presence. An initial website build, domain and hosting package can be bought pretty cheap. An important aspect to consider is having a CMS website which will mean you can update text and images yourself going forward. A CMS site also allows you to keep building on your web presence from your initial set up. Sass Design provides a ‘Get Online’ CMS website package for just $625.00 see http://www.sassdesign.com.au/design-and-print-packages.html A website is a very cost-effective way of letting people know about your business even if your business is mostly a storefront operation. Your website works as a 24/7 catalogue for your business and can also save you a lot of time if you can direct people to the information they are seeking online.

Another Tip – Why not set up an e-newsletter? You can publish a newsletter about your business on the web or to your clients very low cost and in most cases free! Create articles about your business and guide people to you site!

It is so important to communicate with your customers. At the moment it seems many people are tightening their belts and some items we once purchased regularly are now seen as luxuries. Think about selling something like a massage. On the surface some people will say ‘That is a luxury and I cannot afford that’. A massage reduces stress and back pain and also relieves headaches and sports injuries. Is your customer thinking this and purchasing pain killers, seeing a physio and taking time off from their business because they have a sports injury? Maybe they are more stressed because they cannot play their favorite sport every week which was their ‘time out?’ educating clients on why they should invest a small amount initially for a long term goal such as a healthy and productive lifestyle can really help you stay busy and your customers feel satisfied the money they are spending is worth investing.

Follow some of these tips and you will build a cost-effective marketing budget in no time!

Many people are unaware of the differences between designing for print and designing for the web.

If you’ve just had your logo, business card, letterhead and brochure designed for print or maybe you have a brochure and would like to convert it into a simple 3 page website? Sounds simple right? Lets say the situation is reversed and you’d like to take you existing website and convert it into a brochure for print. Although it does sound like a simple matter of saving the file as a different file type it is not. This is where a little know how comes in handy. Below is just a couple of issues that can cause problems when changing mediums.

There are a few things that need to be taken into consideration when designing from print to web or vice versa web to print.

When designing something for print the resolution of artwork/images needs to be a minimum of 300dpi.

When designing something for the web it only has to be 72dpi (screen resolution).

Therefore, when moving between the two mediums it’s important to remember that most images taken from your website or online will not be high enough in resolution to use for print. The reason for this because good web designer will make all images online as small as possible without any noticeable loss of quality to make your website run faster. Apart from this logos will be flattened and compressed. Logos, and other vector objects, once flattened and rasterized (converted to pixels) cannot be resized and used in print artwork and will more often that not need to be re-created if a vector file is not supplied.

You are not limited to what fonts you can use when designing something for print.

On the other hand, when designing for the web you are limited to a number of standard of fonts. To get around this some people will convert all the text on your website to images but this is not good for search engines.

The reason for this is so that no matter what computer your website is viewed on, PC or MAC platform, that computer will need to have the font you have used in your website design. If a text has an unusual or obscure font that only a small number of people have on their computers it will mean that on everyone else's computer it would default to another font and you may end up with some unexpected results.

You can always ask your designer if images are high enough resolution enough for printing or if a title can be made an image and content text to stay in HTML for SEO friendly websites. An experienced desier will be able to advise you on these issues.

Having a basic awareness of these and other differences between designing for print and web, especially at the start of a project, will help you to gather information and images correctly and basically speed up the process for you.

When discussing paper sizes, sometimes it can get confusing unless you are familiar with the standard paper sizes. When you are thinking of marketing ideas that not using standard paper sizes you also need to consider this will mean stock wastage and is not cost effective. Paper is produced to a standard A1 size around the world. An A4 size paper (your standard photocopy paper) goes eight times into an A1.

You can also purchase other standard paper including A6, A5, A3 and C5, C6 (mainly used for envelopes) and DL. Choosing a paper size closest, or the same as, your finished product reduces wastage and eliminates guillotining and die cutting, making it more cost effective. When selecting a customised shape, be mindful that if a die (the shape of the knife that cuts the paper) is not a common one or one the printer already has, you will be required to pay for this to be set up also.

Once you have decided on your paper size you will need to consider GSM. GSM stands doe metric grams/per square metre but basically means paper thickness. Paper comes in numerous thicknesses from approximately 80gsm to 420gsm.

As a guide a copy paper will normally by 80-90gsm, an A4 fold to DL brochure 150gsm, a business card or postcard 300-420gsm.

All paper can come with a gloss or matt finish. Different finishes give a different look to the end product. A gloss finish will feel slightly thinner than a matt finish as it is like a polishing technique that will remove the surface slightly. Gloss finish also gives colours more intensity and has a sharper dot gain.

You also will hear the word cello/e-glaze/laminate all thrown around when you order printed material. What does this all mean? Basically, they are all a laminate. They will protect your product, increase the longevity and give your product a professional finish. As these are applied after the print, they also can add the feeling of a bit more weight to your product. These are highly recommended and usually standard for items like business cards that need to stand the test of time with wear and tear.

If you need any information on any items relating to how to get the most out of paper stock, paper weight and paper finishes, contact us at Sass Design. We are experienced in all aspects of paper and printed products and can help you achieve professional-looking products.

Looking for that perfect image that represents you and your company? Not every business can afford (or has the time) to plan and execute a successful photo shoot. The cost of a photographer, model(s), studio time - not to mention the turnaround involved - is simply not practical for a lot of small businesses.

There is however, an alternative...

Graphic designers, as we do here at Sass Design, use Royalty Free images everyday in design. We have access and are members of numerous online stock libraries and can usually choose the best image to use in your design.

Online Royalty Free Stock Photo Libraries can take the stress out of sourcing that perfect image for your next flyer or brochure. Online stock libraries allow users to browse through thousands of images and illustrations from a variety of photographers and artists. 'Royalty free' basically means you pay a one off fee for the image. This fee is usually based on how big you are going to print the image, the number of times it will be reproduced on a flyer or marketing item and for what purpose it will be used. Fees can range from about $10 and image up to hundreds of dollars.

When using Royalty Free images cost is not the only thing you should consider… Think about what your using the image for. Is it landscape or portrait? Also think about who you are trying to target. For example, if you are promoting a fitness club images of healthy, young, fit people doing sport would be suitable rather than people sitting on the couch or indoors. Basically if the person looking at your promotional piece can connect with the people/scenes in the photos, then you are already a big step along the way to getting them into your place of business!

Placing text onto a background image is a great idea to liven up your pages and design. It is a simple technique but it can, as with all design techniques go wrong.

Perhaps create a semi – transparent box under text to ensure text is easy to read.
Place contrasting text onto dark (or vice versa onto light) aspects of the image behind it.

Ensure the text is bold or large enough to be legible on the background image – maybe don’t use narrow fonts unless the background you are placing them on is fairly smooth or solid in colour.

Most photos will not be 100% right for what you want but don’t trash the idea if you love the image. Think about what you are trying to achieve when picking an image but send the image to your designer and ask them if they think they can make it work, sometimes they will have programs that can alter the image to fit or ideas you may not have even thought of!

Low-resolution images versus high-resolution images - By Danielle Butler January 2008

Whether scanning a document or choosing a digital camera and supplying images for use in publications, many people are confused about how many pixels they need in an image. This is just a quick little guide to image size and how to ensure your printed material is always of professional quality.

When we supply print files to printers, all files are sent at 300dpi. This is the resolution printers print at. Supplying images with less quality or small images that need to be blown up in size will result in poor quality printing.

When you put the image on your computer and re-size the image , the software adds or takes away pixels (it is called resampling) and results in a loss of quality. A good analogy I often use is to imagine lots of little dots - all so close together you cannot make out where one finishes and the next starts as they are so small and compressed together. This is what make s up and image. If you make the image larger, you are pulling those dots further apart or spreading the pixels and making the gaps in them larger. This will result in loss of quality for your image.

Images displayed on your screen will display at 72dpi. The naked eye cannot see the poor quality that will be evident once the image is printed. These images are great for the web. Smaller file size makes websites run fast and efficiently and, hence, web images are re-sized to 72dpi.

So what does this all mean?? Well, put simply, print and web image resolution is very different. Just because something looks OK on your screen does not mean it will print the same. Any downsized images taken from the web will print poorly and be very obvious once printed.

At Sass design we always check your images and advise before printing if images will not be an adequate file size. A good measure is file size - if something is not larger than 1MB it's almost always guaranteed to be a downsized image and not print qualit. If we are using it very small or resizing it to be very small, then in some instances this will be OK.

We realise that sending large images via email can take time or not send at all. Try zipping two images together or sending large files in separate emails to ensure files are received. Alternatively, a disk can be sent via post.

Where do you get your inspiration? Every field of work requires a certain amount of creativity stemming from inspiration. So what do you do when you feel you are lacking inspiration or hit a wall?

Look at Magazines/ Books/ Paintings/ Films. Take in the colour, layout, and design. Even if what you are looking at does not relate at all to what you are working on your sure to have some new ideas pop into your head.

Listen to Music. Great motivation for creativity! Or even to see you through that boring paperwork or housework!

WWW. Visit websites and read articles, view images and artwork and get loads of new ideas of your own.

Take a Break. While getting overseas and experiencing new cultures and customs is always inspiring for me, sitting by the beach, taking a walk, exploring city laneways and scoping markets or places such as China Town and Byron Bay can be a source of great inspiration.

Talk to People. Whether you find the old lady in the corner shop or a sportsperson inspires you it doesn't matter. Getting out there and talking to people can give you ideas. Just hearing what others have done also sparks motivation and ideas you can vary and utilise in your own work.

With all of these suggestions please note we don't mean to copy anyone's work ever, but in viewing others work we are be inspired to create ourselves.