Tales of a Designer

Designers Should Understand Business

When approaching new projects, and being a creative type, it can be very tempting to want to jump right into Photoshop and get out all of the ideas that come to mind from discovery meetings. And when you think of designers, being business savvy doesn’t exactly come to mind. I’ve already discussed the importance of knowing how to sell your services, but it’s also very important, if not essential, for designers, especially freelancers, to be business minded.

Say, for example, I wanted to consult with an architect on remodeling myself a new kitchen. You don’t just sign the paper work and have them start building a kitchen. They would ask questions like how you use the kitchen, what you’re looking to do in the kitchen, if you entertain in the kitchen, etc. They need to know how you’re going to use this space before they can start crafting it.

Websites work the same way. For you to effectively design the best experience for a website, you need to understand how your clients’ business works and what they’re looking to do. Understand all of the hows and whys of the business that you’re working with. Understand the challenges the business has and will face, their business objectives/goals, and so on. Here are a few, of many, questions that we, at Tridea, normally ask during the client discovery meetings:

• Who is your target audience?
• What do you feel is your number one business problem?
• How does the company differentiate itself from competitors?
• What are your short-term marketing goals (in the next 1-2 years)? And how will the website help reach those goals?

Remember, as designers, you’re a problem solver. More likely than not, if you’re being approached by another business for work, they need your help (and creative knowledge) in solving business problems. And asking the right business questions will help get you to better creative problem solving. I would recommend asking these types of questions in a questionnaire, so that you can come back to the answers during your creative jam sessions. They can turn into a good checklist when going over a design to make sure that you’ve addressed the business problems.

Outside of working in Photoshop, what other skills do you find necessary for designers to have?

Business Card Design Inspiration

I love creative business cards. The past few years of traveling to SXSW, collecting business cards has been one thing that I looked forward to. I’m surprised that there haven’t been more websites dedicated to showcasing great business cards…. mostly just blog posts.

In comes Unique Business Cards. I spent a good deal of time going through the collection, and there is no shortage of creative inspiration to draw from. So, I wanted to share the resource I found, and hope that it will be useful and/or inspiring to others.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Graphic Design Ninja

Intoto

Queen of Diamonds Makeup Artist

Box Office

VDJ Gaurav

There’s much more to see, but don’t take my word for it. Go look for yourself. What other places do you find business card design inspiration?

Guiding Users Down a Path

I am very much a student of design, and love looking at other mediums of design, outside of the web to learn. I recently came across a great example of giving users a path to follow, and wanted to share it. It’s the updated packaging from Help Remedies.

Not only is the packaging very clean and straight to the point, but it immediately tells the consumer to choose a path. There is little room for confusion. This concept should be used on the web, and is very important in 1.) keeping users on your site, and 2.) guiding/helping them find relevant information before leaving.

See more of this packaging at The Dieline.

The web needs more of this. Can you think of good examples of this concept on the web? Please share.

Life Update

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post here, let alone it being a personal post, however I don’t think it’s a bad idea to let readers know what’s going on with the man behind the blog. I haven’t been completely absent from the internet, as I normally post most of my thoughts on Twitter, but in terms of setting aside time to think about what to blog next…. that time has been scarce.

So, what’s new?

The past few months have been swamped with wedding planning. Before being engaged, I never considered how much of my life would be consumed by it, but it isn’t bad, and actually kind of fun at times. You never realize how much creativity comes into planning until you’re actually in it, but I got a chance to design our website, as well as the invitation identity, with some assistance from Victoria Pater. It was the first print project I’ve ever done, and though it was fun and challenging, I’m glad that I work on the web. Once the full package arrives for the invites, I will post pictures.

In addition to wedding planning, there is still Tridea, which got really busy at one point earlier this year, which brings me to my next point.

When you’re burned out, you know it. You can feel it and taste it, but in order to get past, it you have to acknowledge it and fight to restore your internal equilibrium. Stop, decompress, communicate, and focus. That process often begins with a look inward to learn what gives your life balance, such as family, friends, personal interests, and hobbies—the things that counterbalance your life on the web. via

Freelancing on the side

Not that I’m old or anything, but I’ve been doing the fulltime job/freelance on the side thing for roughly 5 years and it finally caught up to me in the form of mental exhaustion. Between a fulltime job, wedding planning, and freelancing, I was stretched pretty thin. Something had to go, and the best decision was to take a break from freelancing for a while. I will say that it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made recently and it’s nice to not only have my evenings back, but I feel much more refreshed.

My point here is don’t work yourself too hard. Step away from your computer/work sometimes and enjoy life because it only happens once. It’s ok to not be a workaholic, which I’ve had to tell myself quite a bit. And since not working all the time, I’ve come up with a few creative ideas/projects that I would like to work on in the near future, that I can do at my own pace.

So what about Tales of a Designer?

Many times in the last few months I’ve thought about giving up this blog, not because I didn’t want to write anymore, but because I haven’t been inspired by design on the web lately. So I’m throwing around ideas to slightly change the direction in the types of posts that go up here. It would still be design/development related, as it always has been. I am open for ideas though, so if you have any suggestions, don’t hesitate to comment.

So that is my life update. Lots going on, but I would love to hear your thoughts, and/or ideas on what kind of stuff you would like to see posted here.

Austin Time

Well it’s that time of year again, to head down to Austin for SXSW. This will be my third year attending and I’ve enjoyed both previous times that I’ve went.

It seems, though, that there are less interesting panel selections this year, than last year. I’ve picked out a few that I plan on attending, but I more look forward to meeting and conversing with new creative/business minds.

I also plan on tweeting quite a bit, so if you’re on Twitter, let me know if you’re down there so we can connect! I’d love to meet you, if I haven’t already.

I have to cut this blog post short because I need to go register and such. So if you see me, say hi.