Design For Better Communication

This is addressed to agency clients everywhere.
As much as we appreciate your business, there's something you need to know:

"The evaluation of a good visual communication design is mainly based on measuring comprehension by the audience, not on personal aesthetic and/or artistic preference as there are no universally agreed-upon principles of aesthetics." - Visual Communication - Wikipedia

So you see, dwelling on a design because it doesn't suit your personal taste is a waste of time, mainly for your business. However, dwelling on a design because it doesn't respond to objectives or it won't resonate with your target audience, is constructive and likely to lead to better outcomes.

All this is nice and dandy to know, so how do we, together, get to an impartial understanding about your design needs and accordingly help you drive business results.

Basically, you need to make your business goals and ideas very clear. How?

Think about it like a funnel, start big and then make your way to the details.

1. Avoid ambiguous language. Ambiguity leads to interpretation, not understanding.

If you are requesting an agency's design services, it's usually for a reason, and you need to be very clear about your reason, for example: you are launching a new business, you are changing your business model, you are adding a new service or product, you are revisiting your offering, you are opening a new location, you are developing your online presence, etc.

2. Set clear objectives. These will be the foundation of all our efforts.

Let's say that you are adding a new service to your already existing business and that this service caters to a higher-end and more niche audience; then perhaps the objective here is two-fold: 1- there's the need to create a name for this new branch of services, since it will cater to a different audience than the already existing one and 2- the look and feel of the visual collaterals has to reflect a more refined (maybe even luxurious) offering.

3. Provide necessary details. The clearer the path, the easier it is to navigate smoothly.

Objectives have been set; to respond to them in a streamlined fashion, the more information the agency has, the better. For example, what is the history of the existing brand and what is its future? This will enable the agency to know if and how much inspiration to draw from it. Are there any no-nos, i.e. should the agency consciously avoid certain design styles or directions? (perhaps something has been tried before, by you or by the competition, that yielded sub-optimal results). What is the expected response? Are we doing this to create awareness or to get leads?

So you see, it's a work in progress, it's an ongoing conversation. The best design results are usually those that come out of a very collaborative undertaking between client & agency.

Let us work together to achieve your marketing and design needs. For a free consultation, get in touch.