Blueprint for Design

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Design Process – Part 6

It has finally come to an end. The design process and this series of posts. You’ve done your design work, you’ve made all the revisions and it’s time to finish up the project. With most design projects there will be a few loose ends to tie up.

Is that brochure really ready to go to print? Are the colors separated correctly? Do you have the files setup correctly for the printer? Is the website complete? Are all the links working correctly and have you tested in all web browsers…especially Internet Explorer?

Once the project is out the door, don’t lost track of your customer. Check in periodically. Make sure the project went well. If it’s a website, check the site. Make sure it’s working correctly. Ask if they have any questions. If you do a good job the first time and stay in contact, repeat business is the best. Ideally, you want all your clients to think of you for all their design needs.

August 2, 2010 No Comments David Pohlmeier

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Weekly Town Crier

After a long hard week, enjoy this list of random links that we feel you may want to check out. Some may involve design, some may involve small business and others may just be something random we find interesting. Keep checking our site each Friday to find out what inspires or interests us. Feel free to email suggestions.

Join our Flickr group.

Tilt shift photography.

Cool door stickers.

Smart way to connect USB’s.

Mmm Kebabs. (Matt’s got to stop hungry posting…)

Well said about phone books.

Are freelancers a turn-off?

45 (more) free WordPress Themes

Photoshop for web design

Way cool logos…Dave can do better.

Iron and Wine “Naked as We Came” from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

July 30, 2010 No Comments Blueprint for Design

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Gravity

I remember watching Bill Cosby do some stand up comedy when I was a kid. There was a story he told that caught my attention. It was an “A-Ha” moment. He told this story about a neighborhood kid who walked past his house. There was some fence that this 2nd grader would climb on top and walk across. Each day, he would do this without falling. Then one day in science class, they learned about gravity. After that class, he could never walk across the top of the fence again.

I wonder if ignorance is truly bliss? Can we have too much information processing in our brain? Sometimes, maybe it’s better to just concentrate on what you know and not be brought down with the day to day lessons?

Not sure I know the answer. Any ideas?

photo credit: timailius

July 28, 2010 No Comments Matt Falco

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That looks like a good box…

The old Seinfeld joke – “When you are moving, all you see are boxes everywhere, and you think: That looks like good box!” I have been involved in several office moves in my career and they all suffer from one commonality: Too Much Junk! Especially samples.

I was a temp at an A/ID office that was moving from Wicker Park to Downtown and we filled two dumpsters. A lot of it was samples. We all love getting things for free, concrete simulated stone, granite counter tops, glass blocks, binders full of paint chips and Formica planks. But home much space do they take up? How often are they used? I spent hours of man power throwing all of these things out. I could have built a house from the debris.

Every architecture office seems to collect tons (literally!) of this material, and has to provide space for it. Granted during the shop drawing review stage we may need to select colors, finishes, but then what? For the needs of documentation we’ll need it to prove we selected “bone white” not “Autumn white” for the trim at the 9th floor. But do we need to keep the actual sample?

There is a hidden cost in accumulating all of this stuff – it takes up space – either in square-footage we pay rent on, or in garbage costs when we end up filling a dumpster with it, or when we pay to have it moved to our new office. Then we find out a few years later they have discontinued that color or texture of that material entirely.

Has anyone found a solution to this? Is the internet and your used monitor trust-worthy enough to forgo a sample entirely? Will clients put up with making all of the color selections themselves? Is it considered cheap to send samples as Christmas gifts to in-laws? Let’s discuss what we can do before I have to fill another box full of brick samples.

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Design Process – Part 5

I took a small break to work on remodeling my office. I’m back and ready to continue the series on my design process. If you’re interested, check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. This next phase is where you take the suggestions that your client has made to the original concept and “fix” it.

This phase is pretty straightforward. I do however see two ways to approach this part of the project. The first, and easiest, is to just make all the changes the client wants. This typically leads to happy clients. That’s never a bad thing. You can probably then guess that the other approach is to pick and choose what changes to make. Many reasons can dictate this decision. You may have spent too much time and just can’t afford it. The fixes may be a hindrance to the design. Or, they may just be plain bad suggestions. Using judgment here is the most important thing. Not every piece needs to go in your portfolio. You may just have to suck it up and make the corrections. I’ve even changed a piece for the client, but kept my original design or concept as my showcase piece. I go back to the fact that happy clients are the best ones. They lead to more work and more money. Which, where you are comfortable admitting it or not, is the main goal of owning your design company. You don’t do the work for free.

July 26, 2010 No Comments David Pohlmeier

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