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26 April 2009 | No Comment

I am writing this as a designer with plenty of experience working with clients (I have been at this since 2002). Before you read on please know I am not being prejudiced, I am not being lazy and I am most certainly not trying to offend anyone or their intellignece – real or perceived (ok, that was in appropriate).

Anyway, for this article I shall assume you want your designer to prepare for you a brochure.

Step one: decide what you want to put in your brochure. By that I mean think about who you want to target first then think about what you want to tell them. Once you have that down record what you want to tell them and break it down into lots of little elements that can work together or as separate elements on the brochure. This gives your designer variety, the elements s/he may need to get the job done.

Step two: Think about what you to look like. When I say what you want to look like i can just see you thinking ‘hold up, i thought we was discussing a brochure?.” Er, yes we are. Please never forget that everything that has your logo is who you are. Your business cards, brochures, websites, t-shirts are who you are! (This is useful to know because when you look at them you know what someone else is thinking wherever they are… e.g. the Amorino long sleeved T’s are really nice – or the opposite.)

So, yes, think about how you want to look. Do you want to look environmentally conscience? cheap? expensive? quality? Wahtever you are going for it can be achieved.

Step three: Think about what you don’t want to look like. If you do this you will not inadvertantly look like something you do not want to look like. So if you are a new beer brand (and please do this!) actually think about every beer brabd you know and decide which you do not want to look like. Find the mistakes they made according to you and record these. It’ll help when you brief your desiger.

Step four: find examples of style. These can be frome the designers own collection or from your own clippings (if you are in marketting please keep a clippings folio for things you like and dislike – easy reference). If you don’t find what you want in eaither of the above go out and do the research. You have the opportunity to do better than the guys already out there, you can pick up where they left off.

Step five: Create a clear and simple brief. After having done the above four steps, you will find you can almost see what you want from your designer (incidentally, you are also the type of client a desinger likes). We are not gods or angles (or demons) so we cannot read your mind. But if you are prepared, you can actually show it to us.

Then we can do what we do and produce something that you feel is true to your vision and naturally all you corporate goals, strategic plans, yada yah! We don’t wanna know.