How we work
October 15, 2018
This guide is intended to give you a better idea what it’s like to work with us and outline some of our standard workflows.
Step 1. Make a time to meet.
One of our commitments to you is that we are easy to work with. Start by booking a free no-obligation video consultation. Maybe you’re ready to get started on your project, maybe you are just curious at this stage. Either way perfectly fine.
You can easily check availability and book a time here: https://calendly.com/demingfactor/free-initial-consultation
Just reach out and lets make a time to chat, either face-to-face or via a video call. Usually we can offer good advice even in that first meeting and most people then ask us to prepare a proposal based around your rough budget.
Step 2. You talk we listen.
Sure we’re happy to tell you all about our services and how we can help you. We’ve found that the best way to get started is for you to just give us the whole picture. Get it off your chest. Your plans, hopes, concerns, requirements, all of it.
By giving you space to unpack the challenges and goals of your project we also build a solid understand of who you are and what you’re wanting to achieve.
Step 3. We prepare a proposal
We debrief as a team, unpack what has been discussed, envisage the future and create a proposal for you.
We help you develop a Brand Focus which can be used across many different media. With this approach, future creative endeavours by graphic designers, web designers, photographers, interior designers, animators are all working towards the same objective. This process doesn’t take us long, but it has a significant impact on ensuring all your visual communication starts working together and really working for you.
Step 4. Project Discussion
We meet again and we take you through our proposal and discuss how to make the project really work well. If you’re happy with what you see we begin to talk about first steps and getting things moving. If you need a little time to consider that’s fine too.
Step 5. You choose to go ahead
BOOM! Now we’re in action. We’ll send you our more formal paperwork and also start scheduling your work into our agency schedule. Exciting times!
Step 6. Strategic Positioning Workshop
Often clients engage us for a positioning workshop, it can be just you or even some key members of your team if you’re not a team of one, depends on you.
Over 1.5 hours we unpack with you who your ideal customer is and dig right down to why they might love your product and how we can really target what you are doing towards the people that matter most to you. Have a few different targets, we work with that too.
We also develop a brand focus with you that can then be used for all creative work be it branding, websites, animations, photography.. it means there is one impulse that directs all the creative work you engage, it’s a core part of what we mean by media designs.. not just graphics.. we help you produce results and attract customers cross-media.
Step 7. Design and Creation
Here we get down to the creative tasks at hand.
So far we’ve found that there are different types of creative work. Technical work can be completed in blocks, but for true inspiration we’ve found it works best to tap away at a project every day or two, it gives the chance for that “in the shower” inspiration to hit. We love it when we find the gold, and we keep refining our process to get the best results to you.
As Media Designers we work across different mediums of design, from print to web to animated graphics. Once upon a time a designer knew how their designs were going to be displayed, on which publication/paper size and when. Now integrating traditional graphic design with modern digital marketing as well as animated motion design is creating a more complex environment, one that brings new challenges and new opportunities to those that can look beyond.
Step 8. Delivery
Step 7 and 8 really run like an iterative loop. Depending on the project you’ll usually hear from back from us in 1-3 weeks with the next phase for feedback. Some projects are more casual and have a longer lead time others need everything done asap, so for those the feedback loop is usually tighter.
Step 9. Retrospective Debrief
Wow. All done. Well wasn’t that amazing? We usually meet with clients at the end of major deliverables both to celebrate and hear from you how the process could improve in future. We really value the feedback you give us and are committed to continually improving how we work. The Japanese call it Kaizen. We see it as part of our commitment to the craft.
Conclusion
Were happiest when people bring us complex problems they are grappling with us and ask us to go to work to creativley and strategically to help them get things moving.
We’d love you to reach out and make a time.