Business owners and organizational leaders request design services because they have ideas for products and services. Many have great passion for their ideas, but have not thought them through enough. As a designer, I have to look at things from the customers’ point of view so that the outcome of my efforts is successful. My mind immediately goes to the viability of the idea: Is this going to work? Is this reasonable? Will people want this idea? Let’s face it: some ideas look really good in your head but when you get them down on paper and begin to develop a strategy, the flaws become apparent.

Before taking an idea to a designer to develop a logo and start building a brand, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there a real audience for the idea and is it big enough to warrant the investment in design and marketing?
2. How will people use or benefit from it?
3. What similar product or services are already out there? Is this an improvement on what already exists or is it a copy? Will this make a positive impact on people?
4. Am I the only one excited or passionate about this idea? How do people respond when I share it with them?
5. Am I willing to invest financially in design development, brand strategy and marketing?
6. Why do I want to market this product or service?

I’m currently reading the book, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer. It’s trigging a great deal of thoughtful contemplation as I consider how creativity works and where it exists. So when I received this invitation from the design firm, Continuum, I wanted to share it. Continuum’s creative development for Procter & Gamble’s Swiffer is the opening scenario in the book.

Cultivating Creativity with Imagine author Jonah Lehrer
Q&A led by Continuum CEO, Harry West

A lively discussion on unleashing ideas and growing businesses, including Lehrer’s delve into how Continuum created the Swiffer for Procter & Gamble.

Tuesday, May 8th
7:00-9:00 PM
RSVP by April 24th
Space is limited

Continuum
901 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291

Often the first question a prospective client asks is: “How much will it cost?” This is the wrong question to lead with because it indicates a lack of understanding of the role of design in business and the lack of awareness of its potential to create success for an enterprise. It reveals that the inquirer is thinking of design as something to decorate rather than communicate.

Design is not decoration. Decoration hangs on your wall while design performs a function and addresses a consumer’s needs and emotions. A design solution should be consistent with your brand values so that it creates a memorable and repeatable experience for the customer. Repeatable experiences help create customer loyalty. Customer loyalty grows your business.

If design is part of a marketing strategy, the business is best served when it brings the designer in at the beginning of the strategy development. Doing this allows time to test ideas, re-think, and get feedback before the design is launched. All too often a business or organization seeks a designer to execute an untested, unrefined idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. A business that’s design-oriented will not regard design as an afterthought but as the basis for its marketing communications and brand awareness.

Design, carefully developed and crafted, can communicate quality. A well-designed company is perceived as being trustworthy and substantial. It’s worth it to the consumer to remain loyal to the  company when they perceive the value it brings to their lives.

Good design does not just happen, and it’s not simply an endeavor of visual expression. Successful design is the progeny of a marriage of purpose and visual appeal. Whatever it costs, the investment will definitely be worth it.

A design job listing included this statement: Special considerations will be given for (art school name) alumni.

There is little to be criticized in having a preference for specific educational backgrounds and skill sets that will blend well with a hiring comany’s needs. Predisposition and special consideration is a common practice. In the fields of business, law, accounting, technology, science and medicine, many of which require education and on-the-job experience in order to be licensed or certified, where one went to school carries weight in hiring practies. GPAs are important qualifications and are a commonly used filter for making hiring decisions  In the design fields, GPA is not a prime consideration, but degree achievement is a common criteria. Above all, the portfolio is regarded as proof of ability and experience.

Given the academic standards, breadth and depth of curriculum, degree of excellence in design thinking and craft, and the focal strangths of individual curriculums, it’s realistic to expect much from graduates of certain design schools. All curriculum are not equal. All canddiatate are not equal. One can be a good designer and not have had formal training, but when one comes out of a school which maintains a world-class reputation, it is reasonable to expect him or her to live up to it.

The concern here is in the publication of the preference. If a hiring firm wants to give special consideration to candidates from a specific school, that’s its right. But then it should carry on its notification processes within the sphere of that school’s alumni and career counseling office rather than broadcast it to the job-seeking design population at large. Although it may not intend to exclude, it will in fact, do so. Job seekers wil assume they have no chance and therefore not apply, and it may or may not increase the pool of candidates from the preferred school.

No matter what the hiring criteria might be, it’s unwise, for a company to disclose preference for specific alumni in a job posting. Special consideration, when stated outright, does not promote equal opportunity or good will. It makes a company’s reputation suspect and can set the stage for lawsuits.

There are other businesses do exactly what yours does. The customer you seek has choices, and may or may not choose you. What will get you noticed? Your business needs to stand out and separate from the rest of the crowd. It needs to be the anomaly.

An anomaly is something that deviates from what is normal, standard or expected. Much of the time we think of anomalies as undesirable: Fitting in is better than standing out. Standing out makes you a target, unacceptable or open to ridicule. But in marketing and promoting your business, fitting in does nothing to grow your business.

Being different is one thing. Being different in a marketplace in which every other business is trying to be different is the key. One way to stand out is through effective design solutions specifically tailored to your business and your audience. You won’t find effective graphics through a crowdsourcing site or by holding a contest. The prevalence of stock photography, motion, illustration and canned logos is not going to help you stand out. The plethora of visual sameness lulls your audience to sleep. Wake them up with custom design specifically tailored to your business. Custom design solutions will differentiate your enterprise and increase its influence in the marketplace.

Make the investment. Be the anomaly.

Some projects just don’t fit me well. There are things I’m really good at and things that I’m not. I want to be effective at what I do, and that involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.

When a client wants something that I know I can deliver although it might stretch me and I might have to invest extra effort and time, I’ll take it on. But at the point that I realize what they want is simply too far out of my sweet spot for me to be effective, I need to make a decision. Do I continue onward or let it go?

Letting it go is the more courageous choice. This requires recognizing my strengths and weaknesses and being willing to experience discomfort in order to solve the client’s problem. This is not a bad thing… but when I know that the return will not match the effort, or the client could end up dissatisfied, the best thing to do is to face it, and offer an alternative. Clients trust honesty.

I took on a project to create some illustrations for a plastic surgery after-market product launch. In the process of iteration and reiteration, the client began re-defining their purpose and market, and I knew that I was no longer the right designer for the work. I am a realistic, narrative illustrator and the re-defined project needed a fashion illustrator. What they wanted was not realism but stylized fantasy. So I referred them elsewhere.

Professionalism often involves letting go rather than creating problems by pushing against our natural bents.

Why should people buy your product?

People buy things they love. Our stuff becomes part of us, like a permanent accessory. Objects help us define ourselves and identify with each other. Through them we find mutuality and acceptance.

How do people fall in love with stuff­? How does a product carve its niche in the hearts of consumers to become that “gotta have” item that, if you don’t have it, you just don’t quite measure up? It’s first an issue of seduction, and second of satisfaction.

The things we love help us feel good. When we feel good, we look good — we feel desirable, attractive and valued. Whether it’s designer coffee, that special pair of skinny jeans, or a robust Harley-Davidson, our things reinforce what we believe is good in ourselves; they bring out the best in us; we see them as positive reflections of who we are. We build our culture around the things we love, both personally and corporately.

The things we love are precious. We associate them with good friends, good times, favorite places and activities. They become irreplaceable items, necessary to our daily function, and meaningful because of how they help us connect, engage and get things done.

The things we love are sensual, providing pleasure and contentment through sound, sight, taste, smell, and touch. These are very individual choices. What pleases one person will not please another. We need to first connect personally with the aesthetics (that would be the design) of the thing. After that, further connections are made. The more connections we make, the more we fall in love with the item.

How can you invest your product or service with “lovability”? Here are a few suggestions:

• Love it yourself. If you’re not passionate about it, how can you engender passion in another?
• Know your market. Your market is people, not statistics. Spend time with your market before you offer your product.
• Be patient. Give people time to react and respond to your product.
• Design it well. Design adds value and meaning to your product. Visual communication should be consistent and noble. Don’t rely on your own sense of style; invest in design created by an expert. And finally:
• Follow-up. Find out how your product is really being used. Do folks like it and talk about it? If so, they’re creating a culture around it, making it a necessity for lifestyle maintenance.

To be promoted in our design-driven culture, a product must be packaged in such a way that it becomes meaningful to the person using it, so that they become an evangelist for it. This requires thoughtful planning and execution of a design strategy. Although you cannot ensure a desired customer response to your product  just because you have a plan, investing in good design increases the likelihood of lovability because it increases recognition, differentiates in a visually-cluttered world, communicates reliability, and creates affinity. In short, good design increases overall desire and appeal.

You cannot market anything these days without creating some sort of culture around it. You cannot can’t create culture without design.

The April 2, 2011 New York Times op-ed by Ross Perlin describes how schools are encouraging an exploitive trend in unpaid internships offered by businesses and corporations.

Although a somewhat recent type of “job” offering in other professions, unpaid internships are not new to the graphic design field. In fact, they’ve been a regular practice in this profession for years, especially at non-profit organizations. Students and graduates are now presented with internship opportunities more often than they are entry-level jobs. They’re asked to work for nothing or next to it in exchange for “gaining experience”. There are cases where interns work full time for no pay for a year or two in hope of being hired by that company. Businesses seeking low- or no-cost design will contact a school to recommend students or recent grads with no intention of paying them for their work. A casual perusal of design jobs on Craigslist reveals compensations offered in the form of lunch or gas money. One web site states that internships are necessary for finding design jobs: Internships are an essential part of attaining a job in graphic design. Get started on your career as a graphic designer with the internship of your dreams.

As designers, are we working to please the client? If that’s our purpose, I suggest that we’re missing the mark a bit. If in fact the client has a customer base, the design needs to engage that audience. The challenge is to create meaningful experiences for the end user, not the client. In other words, the design should be significant, applicable and heartfelt so that the target audience will develop connection and loyalty. The designer uses aesthetic elements including type, color and texture as triggers to create meaning, achieve a positive audience response and build customer loyalty.

It follows that design is not created for the client but for the customer. Think about that for a moment. When a client regards design only as something that makes their business look good and they want the designer to produce their ideas, they are engaging in short-sighted thinking. This can be detrimental to the goal of the design; alternative solutions won’t be considered and the final result may not achieve a meaningful connection with the client’s customers. The client needs to let go of assumptions about how their projects should be developed. What they ask the designer to do may not be the best thing given what they want their customers to experience. For example, the client may ask for the design of a brochure when an interactive video would create a stronger connection.

Given the job of creating meaningful experiences, designers function in a role far more complex than that of a mere production artist or “decorator”. They need the freedom to develop concept within the prescribed guidelines and the permission to suggest “what if”. Clients will be well-served to let go of personal preferences and allow the designer do what he is asked to do (create a successful design experience for the customer), and be open to consider the many possibilities the designer might conceive.

Ultimately, if the audience is reached and responds as desired, the client should be pleased. Design for the audience, and the client will also be satisfied.

I teach a course at UCLA Extension called Elements of Design. It deals with the stuff design is made of. Things like balance, gestalt theory, proportion, value, color, structure and composition all go into the mix of what design is all about. Students who complete the course come away with the understanding that design is not one thing or another but a conglomeration of elements. Remove one or several and it’s just not design.

We can say the same about designers. Let me begin with this analogy: It’s conceivable that a person can purchase a stethoscope and a white coat, have his name embroidered on it and call himself a doctor. But the proof of his being a doctor is not in his accessories or attire, but in his knowledge.

The person who takes a few software classes, prints up some business cards, sets up a website and calls himself a designer is not necessarily a real designer. He might look like a real designer but without certain abilities that are essential to the craft he’s created a veneer with no substance to support it.

Real designers, whether formally educated or not, are set apart by virtue of what they know and how they apply it. (How and where they learn these things is not my point here.) Beyond technical ability using Creative Suite software, there are critical thinking skills and background knowledge involved in creating successful design solutions.

This is my list of essential knowledge and abilities that are foundational to being a real designer. Lacking any of these ingredients compromises one’s ability to design well, if at all, in my experience. Please note that none of these have anything to do with Photoshop:

Design principles and elements, including gestalt theory;
Color theory, including web and print color, psychology, symbology and basic scientific properties of light and pigment;
Typography, including typefaces and font families, and the ability to select a face based on how it needs to communicate;
Knowledge of design history;
Knowledge of popular culture, current trends and future projections;
Drawing skills, because drawing is a basic form of visual communication;
Verbal and written communication skills to be able to present a solid rationale for design decisions, keep clients informed and educate when necessary.

Then on top of these foundational ingredients we can add technical skill and the ability to engage in the design process to reach a successful outcome. Why? Because a real designer can design with a pencil or a computer. The tool is secondary; the thinking ability is primary.

A few places where you can get learn design without applying to a degree program:
Art Center at Night
Otis Continuing Education
UCLA Extension
School of Visual Arts Continuing Education
Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education
Pratt Institute Continuing & Professional Studies
Parsons The New School for Design Continuing Education
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design Continuing Education