Articles

An idea of our ethos : by John Whalvin : Designvent

Vent 1 : Customer Expectation

There are not many things worse in business than a client who feels lied to, kept in the dark and generally messed around, especially when it can all be avoided by a simple honest process that if implemented and explained at the beginning will benefit all involved.

In general, a client will approach a designer with all manner of expectations, hopes and dreams and generally expecting miracles, the trick is to understand all that is said, correlate it and form a plan with timescales, milestones and all sign-off points clearly marked so both the designer and the client understand what is required of them and by when. For example, there is no point turning to your client the day before they want to launch their new website on a new server and request the details to re-point their domain. With all do respect to most clients these are never usually at hand and some have no idea what you are talking about. If these are requested at the beginning, well, not hard to work out is it!

At the same time, by requesting all the necessary information early there is a great opportunity to explain to the client what these details are and how they affect the site. This way, not only do you gain the information early but you also educate the client thereby further increasing their trust in the work you do and the knowledge that you have.

Whichever industry you find yourself in you have to resign yourself to the fact that there are certain aspects of business that you have to rely on someone else for. If the air-conditioning in your office breaks down you send for a specialist who you TRUST knows how to service and repair the unit, although if the photocopier starts playing up you will nine times out of ten have a go at fixing it yourself before you call out the service agent. If your computer plays up you will probably switch it off and on then at a push run Norton or similar program, when this fails it is time for IT Support Staff if you didn’t call them at the beginning and go for a coffee.

The point to be made is that the client will approach a designer for the simple fact that they have a knowledge and expertise that most in day to day life do not possess due to lack of training and understanding. So once there son, daughter, friends, uncles and cousins have failed to produce the professional website that their company requires, they will approach a graphic designer for the expertise they require and to know they can TRUST that the person designing their work has the knowledge and skill to hit the mark.

Once that trust has been established, a great working relationship can so easily follow with a good opportunity for repeat work. But it is easy to get complacent and trust is so easily lost so continuing the management of customer expectation is key.

© www.designvent.co.uk

Vent 2 : Plagiarism

Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus - Cite This Source
Main Entry: plagiarism
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: copying
Synonyms: appropriation, borrowing, counterfeiting, cribbing, falsification, fraud, infringement, lifting, literary theft, piracy, stealing, theft
Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1)
Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Where do I start, plagiarism and design of course, now I was once told by my creative director at the time that there is no such thing as new design, just old design regurgitated in an original way?

Discuss!!

I can understand what was trying to be explained to me as a young designer but I don’t necessarily have to agree with the concept. The thought that more often troubles me is that we are all influenced by a bombardment of visual messages every day and no matter who you are it will effect your taste and perception of what you as an individual deems good or bad design. And this is where I believe designers are starting to run into problems.

It was nowhere near as bad when it was primarily all print design although I did run into it now and again. But now that so much effort is being put into website design and everyone’s friends, mothers, brothers, uncle can design a website, not to mention every child under the age of 14; it is cropping up on a far more daily basis.

I find it hard to believe that any graphic / web designer who reads this article has never had a client say to them;

“I want a website, I have seen this site online that I really like and I want it to look like that”,

Or

“My competitor’s new site is really nice, can you design me a site that is similar, I like the way his buttons work, and can I have the same style.”

By no means are the majority this bad and it is not necessarily plagiarism, or is it? Either way what can come out of this is if not dealt with at the beginning of work is either a watered down somewhat like version of someone else’s site or just a site that you might have been proud of as part of a BTEC project back when you where a wide eyed change design as we know it renegade design student, otherwise known as not having a clue yet!

There are so many factors that go into a good piece of website design;

This is not an article about design and what goes into a good website so before any designers say what about this or what about that!

The point is that all clients whether they are paying a couple of hundred pounds or £50000+ for a website that will do everything including making a cup of tea in the morning, picking the kids up from school and cleaning the hard to reach areas behind the freezer deserve the best possible “bang for their buck”. I am not saying that they should not be allowed to be influenced by other sites, just advised properly against just blatantly trying to copy someone else’s.

The reason they came to see a qualified designer with a proven track record is because they wanted the best website for there company or organisation. The best way to achieve this is with an open mind to all ideas and with an understanding of what will best suit the necessary requirements and importantly progress and enhance the existing brand of the company or organisation.

Clients should not stop looking for design they like and should certainly keep showing designers what styles they envisage for their website. Designers should however clearly and honestly explain each step and outline the reasons for all parts of the design and the effects on the final piece of work. This way when the client signs off on the work and pays the bill, he or she does so knowing that the finished article is exactly what they wanted and even though it does not necessarily look like what they expected at the beginning of the work, they have the confidence that it is right for them and not just a copy of someone else’s.

NB. Just a quick note to say I have never designed a website that makes tea, collects kids or cleans hard to reach areas, nor even though liking Americans do I condone the use of Americanisms like bang for you buck.

© www.designvent.co.uk

Vent 3 : Sales Staff vs Design Staff

“Straight from the horse’s mouth”

This phrase relates to the ability to tell a horse's age from its teeth. Horse dealers would lie about how old their merchandise was, so the buyers would check the horse's teeth to determine their true age. Thus, the truth came "straight from the horse’s mouth".

This phrase in its actual context seems to bear no true relevance in the design world. The client wants design, the designer produces what the client wants and everyone is happy. In a one-on-one scenario that is true and generally that is the preferred way of working from a designer/client point of view but there is one quantity that always fits into design like a square peg in, not a round hole but a not so square hole as there is an obvious requirement and that is the salesperson.

Salespersons sometimes get a bad wrap, car sales persons are thought of the same the world over, in stores they are either two busy to help, nowhere to be found or hanging on your coat tales. Sales persons for big corporations earn the big money drive the flash cars but also keep these corporations bank balances filled with big accounts and big orders.

Pretty much all sales persons are doing the same thing, selling a commodity, whether it be stereos, televisions, cars, advertising space, watches, software, design . . . . . . . here is where it gets jaded!

Selling design, design is a commodity of sorts, what is actually being sold is a website, brochure, stationary, presentation or whatever the clients requires which now lands us in the grey area of where does a sales persons job stop and the designers start.

The sales person can sell the brochure, but it is the designers’ responsibility to come up with a sell-able design that best suits the client based on the requirements. The problem arises when unless the sales person was once a designer, then often at the initial visual stage the client comes back with questions for the designer about “why it was done this way when I asked for that”.

It is understandable that everyone has there own opinion on design and what they think is right. Designers are trained, experienced individuals who can discuss requirements far deeper than most and get to the root of issues with a far greater understanding often formulating ideas along the way which can only benefit the design process. So why not let the designer carry out the first consultation with the client.

“Straight from the horse’s mouth”

Sales people are great! The job they do does take talent if not a bit of the old, gift of the gab! But all in all it requires them to be knowledgeable about what they are selling, but once the deal has been done just get the basics and stand back, let the designer carry out a “DESIGN CONSULTATION” to ensure that everyone is on the same page and get the job off to the start it requires.

© www.designvent.co.uk