Our thoughts on issues, large and small.
A primer on the design process
Design is a tough concept to nail down because it is applied so broadly to so many industries. In its most abstract form, Design is a framework for reducing risk and improving outcomes when creating something new, or when changing something existing. It can be synonymous with planning, and also with innovation. It is a service, rather than a product, though the end result of a design process is often something tangible. In this article, I'll shed some light on the area of communication design where I have the most experience, in order to give you a better understanding of the goals communication design attempts to achieve.
Your options for a modern website
If you’re the owner of an established business, or just getting started, pricing out a website for your business can be an exercise in frustration. The lack of tangible inputs allows you to purchase ‘a website’ for little more than free on the low-end, or tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on the high-end. How can the cost of a website for the same business vary so widely? In almost every case, the difference is time.
Branding in today's market
If you’ve started a business, or you’re thinking of rebranding, you know there are a lot of potential avenues for a new logo. How do you pick the right one? In this article I'll give you some insight into the ideas behind branding, and some of the options available in the marketplace. I hope to show you that the thinking and strategy behind a logo is the most valuable part. Everything following that is simple repetition.
7 things to know before you spend any money on design
We’ve been in this business a long time, and we’ve worked with countless clients who’ve come to us after investing time and resources somewhere else. They left their previous agency or designer because they weren’t happy with the results. Frequently the issues was quality and expertise, but all too often, they also lacked a sense of what it was they were buying, and what their expectations should be from the process. Far from a simple purchase, design projects tend to be lengthy discussions which require resources from the purchaser proportional to the size of the project. In this article I’ll lay out some of the basics of what design is, and how it works, so that you can know what to ask, and what to expect in your next design project.
