The devil is in the detail

DESIGN IS THE INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN INFORMATION AND UNDERSTANDING.
-- HANS HOFFMAN, ARTIST AND TEACHER

Part of being a creative is about interpreting. Interpreting the myriad of different perspectives on any one tender and creating a consistent whole visually.

The biggest part of my job is taking the information given to me and presenting it in an accessible and value adding form.

The hardest part of my job is getting a coherent and consistent visual from a clients head.

Designers love autonomy and coming up with our own vision of a brand or a solution. But in a team driven environment like a tender, we need embrace and visually interpret a client’s vision. Most of the time we don’t get to sit in on the strategy meetings or chat through detailed solutions. We rely on the sketches, the mind maps, the mark-ups of old graphics and sometimes the indecipherable and crazy list of thoughts for graphic responses.

So, to assist the graphic designers on your teams, some tips:

Elaborate.

Expand.

Refine.

Extend.

Discuss.

Clarify.

Elaborate on the screenshot of text or the extract from the 2000 word response. Share the vision you have in your mind. The size, the width and the direction. Take the time to provide context to the designer. The more you give the more you receive visually.

Thorough sharing of thoughts can save time and can help those of us on the outside of in depth discussions get a better understanding of what it is you want to create.

The quicker we can decipher your doctor’s scribble on a PDF, the quicker we can create, refine and deliver something that supports your solution to shine.