Alumni Panel + Design

I never think of talking to clients as public speaking. It’s always been part of my job to be able to talk things through with my clients. So when I was asked by my graphic professor from college to speak on an alumni panel, I did a “Gollum slinking into the shadow” action.

But it turned out not to be so bad. Public speaking among 20+ young girls and 1 boy at an all-girls school is not as scary as it sounds. I mean, none of them were going to bite me.

While the main theme was really to discuss “what have you done with your degree and where are you now”, I opted to spend as little as possible on myself. I believe 5 minutes tops regarding my career path. Instead I focused on how the career path led me to creating a design process that I live by.

This is an edited version of my design process, which I find helpful when working with clients.

I started the talk with a few inspirational quotes about design, which I find incredibly useful.

Design is art with a purpose.
Sandra Li-Rosi

[Design] help[s] people deal with change.
Paola Antonelli

Great design will never make up for a flawed business model or product/market fit.
@davidkadavy

When a client comes to me with an idea, I always try to take a step back and not to form any immediate ideas. I think we, as human, like to fill in the gap immediately and form patterns and ideas. I strongly suggest setting those preconceived notions aside but not altogether disregarding them.

Research

Always know your product before accepting or even proposing for a project. Know the product’s audience: always ask WWWWH – who, what, when, where, how (I remember as a grammar school kid, my teacher taught it as know your 5 W’s). By understanding product and audience, you can get a general direction of what you’ll be doing. I usually send a questionnaire to a client to fill out but I find most of the time, asking them in person works the best. You get to form a relationship and learn what it would be like to work with the client and how much the project means to them. As a freelancer, I find sometimes, you don’t have a luxury to be picky but if you can, you should pick something you like.

Inspiration

After the proposal and contract has been signed off, I start a mood board. This is where I get all my inspiration. The product type shouldn’t hinder you from getting ideas outside the box. If it’s a electronic board, it doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by fine arts. See my logo concept for VADO.

Sketch

Sketching is a lot like prototyping for me. If it’s a logo design, I sketch by hand because I’m faster at drawing by hand than using the computer. Sketching helps me to be nimble and quick to change when it involves client commenting.

Iteration

Throughout the process, always keep the client in the loop. Iteration includes all the changes to be made. I always have a strict clause in my contract that limits changes to the design if there’s a limited budget and/or limited time. Your hours are made of money and the client, no matter how many demeaning things they say, you should value your worth. And the contract binds them to this. The mutual respect you have for one another will make the project run a course less jagged and rugged and often will create some really good outcome.

Showcase

I’m on the mindset that even if a design is meant for one thing–one type of medium–, I try to showcase it on multiple media. I want the design to be a living organism that can grow, mold, and change with time, place, and medium. Sometimes, as a designer, the design you make is often beyond your control so you have to make it flexible and to not grow stale.

In conclusion, design is a process and it’s cultivated per person, per need, and per project. I don’t believe having strict rules is the only way to work but a good guideline helps.