Loughborough Design School Experience

The students were asked to highlight elements of the Loughborough Design School education that they found particularly beneficial and describe why students considering a course of study in design should choose Loughborough.

Example Projects at New Designers

Here are some of the products Loughborough students have created for their final year projects that have been taken to the Business Design Centre to display to other students, potential employers and other Universities. It is a great opportunity to see the very latest and best design talent leaving education establishments in the UK.

Photographs from New Designers

Find out more about Loughborough Design School

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Initial Questions

When considering setting up a business start by asking these questions:

What skills and experience can I offer a potential client?

Personally I can offer a variety of skills and abilities to a potential client – these include web design, print design, photography, creative brainstorming and ideas development as well as video and audio production. Each of these skills is honed in a way that allows me to offer competitive products and rates without trying to become an expert at everything – see wide but focused skill-sets for further explanation.

What is the market like for my area of expertise?

It is often quite difficult to know how many people will offer you work unless you have been building up a list of contacts who are talking money and offering you paid work. However, the trick in many cases is to find guaranteed work that will bring in a guaranteed income whilst you experiment with your network and cast your net out for new jobs. This may be in the form of temporary work in a call centre, coffee shop or just simply asking the boss if you can go part time. With the last option – I always find it best to be honest about your position in that, an explanation to the boss of your intentions is fair to the employer and sets a precedent of open, honest deal-making even in difficult situations.

To a degree your research for understanding the market will come from an evaluation of the following:

- How many companies perform similar tasks in your area? Search Google and type in your company’s activity and the name of your city for examples of local companies. Expand your search as appropriate.
- What are their clients like? similar to your your desired clients?
- Do you think you can compete with similar companies in quality and price? Could they be a business partner?
- Can you identify companies you would like to target? Are they open to you discussing freelance work with them? [ie some companies may have in-house skills and never look externally]

Are you able to pitch an idea to a potential client?

The ability to network or pitch ideas to potential clients is one of the most crucial things as person starting a company -especially in the field of freelance design. An understanding of the industry, the motivation of clients and methods for negotiating and dealing with costs confidently will make or break a deal. Clients want a clear understanding of two things – benefits and cost.

Organise and Manage

One of the key skills for someone starting a company is to be able to organise and manage time. Sounds obvious but there are several factors to consider all at once when you are running a business day to day:

• Energetic, vibrant and creative application of your skills and abilities to stand out from the crowd of other companies who want the same business
• Keeping up to date with the latest information, technology and activity within your sector to ensure your knowledge and understanding of the sector is up to date. Finding quality sources for this information is vital as there is pressure on your time to maximise understanding with minimal effort.
• Sourcing new work is an ongoing effort for the freelance designer or other sole trader. Every event attended, simple conversation on the train or most importantly, your last piece of work, is a stepping stone to a potentially new and exciting project or lead which must be exploited in a careful and considered manner. There is nothing more off-putting to a new lead than conversation with an entirely selfish “I need more work and money” agenda – business is a two way thing – the benefits you the client and the benefits to you or your company.
• In amongst all this intensive activity you need to be developing your skills and maintaining your edge to ensure that you are able to deliver what is expected.
• Ability to remain calm and professional under pressure is vital. There are many pressures on a company including client expectations, non-payment of fees, staffing issues and projects not going according to plan that all require patience and the ability to separate the personal from the professional
• Finally, but not least – a healthy balance of work and inspiring play is vital to anyone running a business and in fact, it can aid in your creative, dynamic edge in any sector. Whether you are a sports enthusiast, arts fan or musician – giving yourself time to indulge in a way that compliments your business can reduce the possibility of burn out or a lack of enthusiasm for your direction.

The Business of Business

To use a classic line of business-speak – “the business of business is business” which essentially refers to the fact that the world revolves [ideally] through the fair exchange of skills, abilities and money. In the world of business we are constantly looking to produce quality work and be paid for this. Simple as that.

It is possible to be friends with your clients but the primary connection with a person should never mix with the friendship side – they are expected to pay you and you are expected to return that agreement with the best work you can produce. However, I personally work with some great people with whom I can have direct business conversations with but then as a separate issue I can have a good chat with about business, life and the world in general….I just need to remember our initial agreement at all times and enjoy the business relationship with that in mind.

Wide But Focused Skill-set

As a designer I am always keen to make myself available for as much work in the design industry as possible. Targeting a narrow area of web design in your daily activity can render some highly paid specialised jobs but it may be that your specialism is only sold to a client 3 or 4 times a year and unless your fame spreads far and wide there is a chance that you may exhaust your leads very quickly. On the other end of the scale is the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ where skills are so thinly spread that there is little opportunity to refine your offering to industry and therefore clients lose interest because there are more capable companies or individuals. This is where a ‘wide but focused’ skill-set comes into play:

• I focus on producing websites using the highly capable WordPress platform which enables me to produce a reasonably wide variety of website types without needing to learn HTML, PHP or CSS in very fine detail [I do need to understand it to a reasonable level] whilst maintaining industry standards.
• I focus on design for print for manufacturing companies, businesses requiring information design and banners for exhibitions. By understanding the typical needs of these sort of clients I can offer a quality service and reach effective design decisions swiftly.
• My video is focused upon documentary making in relation to projects or business activity and uses a very similar series of probing questions to really maximise the benefits of including an interview as part of a presentation DVD, website link or other application.
• I do offer Flash design on a limited basis but have a reduced rate for this service as I have less experience in this area of design and production. This allows me to develop Flash skills whilst producing the quality of projects a client would expect for the money spent.

Should I Ever Turn Work Down?

What happens if you are asked to complete a project outside of your usual skills base or do not feel the usual level of confidence in the specification? There are two options.

1. Make a judgment on the complexity of the project in relation to your previous experience and if it is a calculated risk that will push your skills then it is worth pursuing for the benefits to both you and your client. The end result has the potential to be a compliment and asset to your progression as a company or freelancer.
2. If the project is reasonably far displaced from your usual line of work then it maybe unfair to the client, yourself and your companies reputation to undertake the job.

In the second instance, all is not lost – a client will respect you for explaining where your skills are focused and if you make a recommendation to another company or freelancer then it may be that you will get a phone call from the same potential client when they have a project that is within your ability to complete professionally.

Do I Need To Buy The Latest Equipment?

As a designer I need to own a suitable computer system, internet connection, mobile phone and other means to complete my work – see Designer Top 5 Tips for an overview of my own personal priorities on equipment and other resources for designers.

My personal opinion is that when the hardware is appropriate for the type and style of work you are doing then an upgrade should only really be occurring every 3 years on average. For example, upgrading Adobe Software costs me around £700.00 each time, a suitable desktop – around £800 for the base unit and a laptop is £1000.00. On a year by year basis this is unnecessary to complete quality design work but the purchase of new equipment can open up some new channels of design and production and increase efficiency…..so there is a balance to be had.

How Much Should I Charge?

This is a tricky one but I would suggest that the formula for setting your pricing would involve three factors:

• Regional and national cost comparison eg what do others charge?
• Evaluation of your skills / experience
• Overheads and outlay for equipment, transportation and materials

Should I Ever Work For Free?

The old chestnut of speculative projects or competitions has been covered by Design-Design previously in the article Speculative Design and You where the topic is explored in all its cynical glory. This is a tricky area which applies to many areas of industry and whilst they should not be completely discounted, should be approached very cautiously.

Quoting

Quoting is one of those time consuming business facts-of-life that may or may not lead to business but really has to be done as part of the process. For those in business and generating quotes they will know that quotes are expensive to produce if you consider time as money. The only advice I can give is that quotations should respect the client in quoting fairly and accurately by stating any reservations or limitations of the project to ensure a happy outcome.

The other side to this is that if you ask for a quote from a supplier or project partner then you should respect the use of their time and limit the efforts they need to go to by stating clearly what you are requesting and giving them an estimated percentage chance of the quote being used. There are many people who have asked for quotations or meetings in my own history who have no respect for your time, expense or effort you put into just getting to see them and prepare for them – this in a way is an interview regarding their attitude and whether you respect them professionally. In my opinion, those who a careful with you and your business are the clients to seek and those others – well, they set the rules in their approach to you shall we say.

The Mac vs PC Thing

People often make the statement that ‘designers should use Macs’. Not necessarily true – the software is identical on both platforms and performs equally well. The issue is mainly about price and preference differences, though it has to be said that the quality of Windows driven PC machines vary considerably more. Macs are on average about 30% more expensive than the equivalent PCs, though salespersons and Mac fans will always qualify the difference in speed and efficiency. They may be right to a certain degree but not to the extent that they do believe in their own hype……and to be fair, the speed of design style and creativity is independent of the Mac / PC platform .

Some Practicalities

Down to the basics. On a practical level, here are a few bits of advice related to the physical aspects of your company:

• Have you decided whether you will work from home? If so, is there a suitable location where you feel comfortable working? What will happen when you need to get away from the potential isolation – can you work in other locations?
• If you require a building for machinery or offices, have you investigated the cost of doing this considering the business rates, rental costs and cleaning of the building?
• Are you looking to recruit staff? Have you considered the appropriate employment law surrounding employment? Have you considered how you will select your candidates and how you will ensure that a fair and efficient process is applied to managing staff and the respective expectations of working conditions?
• Do you know how you will resolve disputes with clients or staff? Have you got a process for recovering payment from late payers? Are you aware of the legal implications of your actions related to clients and staff?
• Do you have a list of terms and conditions for your products or services? See Business Links example terms and conditions.
• Have you got a suitable bank account? For example, HSBC will provide ‘Free’ business accounts for those with limited cheques or payments each month which is perfect for many freelancers.
• Are you aware of pension schemes for you and your staff? If you are not part of a scheme, have you got a savings strategy appropriate for both now and the future.
• Do you require indemnity insurance to cover legal costs in the event of liability?

Alot of these issues are covered on the Business Link website which provides a useful starting point when considering the legal and management side of you business. If you’re interested in the latest business and technology news then online sources such as Mashable and BBC Click. My suggestion is that you use Google Reader to build a collection of RSS Feeds that you can briefly glance through each day to check for new and relevant information.

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I started my own design business under the name Simcoemedia in early 2002 and so as of writing I am about to begin my tenth year of business in February. This is a good sign that things are going in the right direction and whilst its not all plain sailing, many SME’s such as Torse Ltd or Greenbarnes ltd and some large organisations such as Loughborough University or Via Mat International based in Zurich have placed trust in Simcoemedia to produce a high quality and appropriate solution to their design problems.

Design Bubble

When judging the quality of your design work it is easy to forget that, once you have established yourself with a few clients and your business relationship goes from strength to strength, you can become trapped in what I would describe as the “Design Bubble”. This occurs when you remain within your comfort zone and please your clients with some great designs but do not develop or enhance your skills, experiences or client base through other design related activity. One factor that fuels the “Design Bubble” is that, in the early months and years of establishing a freelance business there is a huge amount of energy that goes into working out your business strategy and principles as well as the learning that is necessary for survival – this reduces the time and energy that can be put into popping the Bubble.

Signs you’re in the bubble

1. You are unaware of design trends in web, print or video production
2. You do not have any updated sources of reference in terms of design or associated technology
3. You are comfortable that your business is doing well and don’t feel the need to explore other avenues of investigation related to your work
4. You do not have a long term strategy for your work direction or processes
5. You are intimidated when people question your techniques or processes
6. You are not looking for opportunities to diversify in related design areas

Why pop the Bubble?

1. Preservation. Maintaining your business and income. Knowledge of design trends, techniques and technology should enable development of design skills, aquisition of useful technology and innovative discussion with clients
2. Respectability. Your clients will admire and respect your knowledge – they will put more trust in you and your business as they feel that your finger is on the pulse and that using you will put them ahead of their competitors.
3. Contribution. Remaining competitive and pushing your skills allows you to contribute to the ongoing design discussion through forums, simple competitions [though watch the Speculative Design trap].
4. Inspiration. Discovering new and exciting things about design can be inspirational. Writing for this Design-Design blog has helped me put many of my discoveries into words for future reference.
5. Satisfaction. You have pushed yourself and your design capability to the limit and this shows in your portfolio as it goes from strength to strength.

How do you know if you are improving?

1. Your designs begin to look competitive with some of the inspirational sources you have used.
2. Techniques you were experimenting with become commonplace in your workflow.
3. You begin to identify and mentally disseminate more and more complex designs.
4. You identify more clearly information that is of value and that which is useless.
5. You are able to communicate more confidently with clients and other design related staff.

Sources of Inspiration

1. www.bbc.co.uk/click/
2. www.mashable.com
3. www.quickonlinetips.com
4. www.computerarts.co.uk
5. www.designfloat.com

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Please Note

To a degree this list could look like it is just stating the obvious – “yes, we know we generally need a PC or Apple Mac to create design work in this modern digital age”. In addition to the obvious, the listings should also be viewed as a set of priorities or levels of importance – the first on the list being the items that the freelance designer should consider as most important and a bench mark for functioning as a business. I hope that this provides some guidance or inspiration if you are currently designing or thinking of starting your own freelance design business.

TOP 5 BASIC ITEMS FOR FREELANCE DESIGNERS

1. Laptop PC or Mac [and desktop if possible] with broadband access
2. Mobile phone with email capability – Smartphone, iPhone, Blackberry
3. Website with portfolio examples + webspace + custom email + good domain
4. Contact list + maintained address book eg Outlook
5. Office space at home + favourite cafe or social space

TOP 5 COMMUNICATION TOOLS

1. Mobile and desk phone with inclusive minutes – make sure you can contact clients anytime
2. Email account personalised to company name eg design@simcoe.co.uk
3. Screenshare + voice capability from www.skype.com to collaborate with other remote users
4. www.yousendit.com account for sending large files [up to 1Gb]
5. www.adobe.com account for using communities, Kuler and other services

TOP 5 RESEARCH WEBSITES FOR DESIGNERS

1. www.mashable.com
2. www.designfloat.com
3. www.quickonlinetips.com
4. www.computerarts.co.uk
5. www.bbc.co.uk/click/

TOP 5 DISTRACTIONS

1. Non-work related emails or websites
2. Administrative activities such as new equipment
3. Television such as film / news / daytime terrible TV
4. Poorly managed projects and unhappy clients
5. Telephone calls

TOP 5 WAYS TO IMPRESS

1. Immediately responde to queries, errors, problems or corrections with plans
2. Show persistance and an understanding of how both parties may benefit from the work
3. Show respect to the hierachy of a company as well as the boss
4. Contact a company / organisation / client after its all finish and paid
5. Show creativity in conjunction with the ability to deliver + discuss pitfalls

TOP 5 WAYS TO DEPRESS

1. Do not respond to emails in an acceptable timescale eg within 2-5 hours in most cases
2. Show a lack of understanding / inflated sense of your importance in relation to the client
3. Assume that you know better than others and make unreasonable demands
4. Do not make the project advantages and limitations clear to the client
5. Allow a project to spin out of control either in time or functionality

TOP 5 USEFUL ACTIVITIES

1. Create a design blog and discuss your experience of designing in helpful articles
2. Experiment with other not-for-profit projects to gain experience and exposure
3. Visit relevant exhibitions and galleries to inspire and understand art and design further
4. Completely change your day with some exercise eg running, sport, music
5. Meet with other people in similar circumstances eg freelance, design, other creative

TOP 5 MOTIVATIONAL GOALS

1. Create excellent design projects that create a sense of professional satisfaction
2. Expose yourself to unique experiences through creative activity eg travel photos
3. Community and connection through the production of successful projects
4. Fund your food and shelter needs by doing something you have chosen and enjoy
5. Help fulfill your own desires and material goals by helping others to achieve theirs

TOP 5 STOCK RESOURCES

1. www.istockphoto.com – great for finding design elements or images for your work
2. www.themeforest.net – great for finding themes for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc
3. www.activeden.net – Adobe Flash and multimedia elements for your websites
4. www.audiojungle.net – low cost audio soundtracks for your videos or podcasting
5. www.shutterstock.com – alternative backup to iStockphoto.com

TOP 5 SOCIAL SITES

1. www.youtube.com – promote your video production or podcasts
2. www.linkedin.com – display your academic and professional achievements
3. www.flickr.com – online photo sharing site with great supporting tools
4. www.twitter.com – create a list of useful links and designerly comments
5. www.facebook.com – establish a brand and connect with your clients




If you like this article please click on the DesignFloat indicator on the right

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Quality

The quality varied depending upon which product you ordered – the t-shirts were excellent quality with crisp edges and flat, solid colour – even on black t-shirts [though I haven t yet washed them a number of times to see how the colour will handle detergent]. The cups were pretty good considering that they were single custom printed items [though sharp edges were a little more blurred than I expected them to be]. However, the clocks were fairly mediocre to poor due to the cheap plastic used and poor design style [the printed element of the large clock I purchased was bubbled due to heat or moisture.]

Customer Services

The second point to make is that the level of customer service is pretty good. There were two or three products out of the 12 ordered that were either broken [eg cups] or were not to expected standard [I could not access the "bubbled" area of the clock to flatten the raised areas]. When customer services were contacted they readily provided replacement items in the case of the broken mugs or a refund in the case of the clock after I supplied images of the problem.

Wasting Resources

The third and most important point is that the whole process generated a huge amount of packaging and waste which, although the process was alot of fun and the results were pretty good in the case of the cups and the t-shirts, was quite a shock to me and a disappointment. As a designer I need to be aware and concerned by waste and in this case it was something worth thinking about. The problem is that it would be near impossible to provide Cafepress services without the incredible amount of packaging and processing.

Many of the products were created in the Czech Republic then delivered to the UK and the cups, for example, were made in China – which again, takes incredible amounts of energy in terms of shipping transportation.

I was keen to explore alternatives to this process and in certain cases, products may be more efficiently produced in terms of time, packaging and energy waste by purchasing locally. For example, KallKwik in my home town of Chester, create custom designed cups for approximately the same price and the covered area of the cup is larger than Cafepress’s.

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One particular place that stands out as a place of interest both visually and culturally is Cuba. Cuba, and in particular, Havana, is a rich source of interesting visual imagery including the famous classic American cars, weathered Hispanic architecture and people going about their daily business in a very unique political and economic environment. If you want the real Cuba – visit Havana on your own – not with your partner or your mates – ON YOUR OWN, ALONE.  Forget all that you have read, seen and heard – absorb the atmosphere, ponder and make your own mind up as to what Cuba is really about.

Jim Anderson, owner of Gesso & Bole said:

I was really impressed by Pete’s work and the effort he had gone to to capture the vibrance and visual flavour of Cuba. We love work like this in our gallery as it allows us opportunity to push our own creativity as framemakers and show off our own frame designs. Pete is also a great artist to work with in terms of considering both our business needs and the need for integrity and quality in the process.

I was recently contacted by Jim Anderson at Gesso & Bole in Derby, asking me if I would like to exhibit some photographs from Cuba in his gallery on The Strand in the city centre. Last night was the opening night of the exhibition and a great opportunity to see ten of the images I took in Cuba displayed in hand crafted picture frames with a custom weathered and distressed effect – one of the custom styles Jim is promoting in his gallery. The images are mostly from Havana and took considerable time wandering “off the beaten track” to find them. It is interesting to see which images people are drawn to a why – my favourite is not necessarily theirs and the reasons for a purchasing decision, entirely different. Jim Anderson, director and owner of Gesso & Bole, said:

Ultimately, travel is about the experience and adventure and whilst carrying your camera equipment around can slow you down a little or make you stand out when you would rather be inconspicuous, it is an important opportunity that reasonably low fares and varied routes affords modern life. Making photography part of the overall experience is an important part of my adventure and finding ‘that’ photo to explain the feelings and emotions of the moment or simply a beautiful scene that you want to share with others.

Other links:

Overview of the photographs in Simcoemedia portfolio »

Review of the gallery opening night »

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My print colours do not match the screen

Understand that the colours you see on the screen are not necessarily completely accurate in terms of what you will get at the end of the print design process. This is mainly down to the difference between the way colour is created on screen and the way colour is created on paper: on CRT or LCD monitors, the monitor combines Red, Green and Blue light [RGB] to produce colour using very small pixels and any tiny, barely visible gaps between the pixel elements are black whereas the common process of printing with Cyan Yellow Magenta and Black [or Key as it is sometimes known] [CMYK] uses a combination of inks printed at various angles to give the impression of colour tone – all space between the distributed ink is white. Different input and output devices dealing with colour all have a different gamut – ie the range of colours a device can display or print, and the effect of the material or technology used to present this colour also has an effect.

Screen vs print

A screen’s gamut is usually much bigger than the printer’s gamut and this must be accounted for when dealing with images for print. The human eye has a much larger gamut of colours that can be viewed – monitors and printed material can only ever represent a reasonably small proportion of the colour available to us in the natural world.

Adobe users have the opportunity to set their colour spaces for local [eg US, European or Asian] printer technologies in the settings for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign providing a reasonably accurate environment for the images to be imported, processed and saved in suitable colour spaces – though Adobe’s colour engine requires considerable calibration and testing.

I am not the designer. What can I do?

Calibration Hardware

Buy yourself a piece of hardware for calibrating your monitor [and if you can stretch to the expense, your printer too]. See the Design-Design article Why Bother Calibrating? This will give you a fairly accurate starting point though personally my X-black Sony VAIO seems to overcompensate black and therefore shadows are slightly heavier than they should be – watch out for this sort of inaccuracy.

Colour Management – the printed photo method

Unless you have been trained in Colour Management then the most appropriate course of action would be to calibrate using a special image from your printers – my current choice of printer provide a test image on their typical gloss and matt stock and request that people manually set the colour of their monitor or graphics card to match the printed image with an image on screen. In cases where you can use a test image then this is recommended because, if you can get a ball park colour value from using a calibration device, then adjust manually so that what you see on screen matches the lithographic print, you should never be disappointed [though may never see 100% perfection either! - but that's a very tall order]. Ensure that your colour management policies are set to off when you calibrate. For further information please see the Why bother calibrating? article.

Colour Management – the Adobe method

If you find that this process is not yielding the results you want [though if you constantly use the same printer then it is probably best to use the first method mentioned for increased accuracy], then try setting your Adobe software to the appropriate region settings for example in European countries choose EUROPE  GENERAL PURPOSE 2 and ensure that Preserve Embedded Profiles is set for RGB, CMYK and Greyscale. This is a catch all method for ensuring that files are reasonably accurate, though if you really want to improve colour accuracy then read this incredibly detailed document from Adobe if you dare!

Does the printer understand your design?

When I’ve finished designing and I am preparing the file for print, I usually create proof files in the form of low resolution JPEGs to send off accompanying the file – this helps to ensure that your vision of the document boundaries, colours and content is communicated clearly and that changes in the PDF between your computer and the print unit’s machine can be identified.

If you feel it is necessary to clarify the print job further then it would be recommended that a physical proof is sent to the printers. This may indicate how pages fit together, where perforations are located or where there may be problems in the PDF. These proofs should be annotated. Usually printers have received all sorts of documents containing all sorts of problems with vectors, bitmaps and colour models eg screen colours as opposed to print colours and so are often experts at identifying potential print issues – I just don’t rely on that knowledge as print is so expensive.

I recently completed a car sticker job for a client. The client was surprised at how much detail I wrote in the accompanying email as I made a list of assumptions of how the process would occur and asked important questions that needed consideration. Assumptions included the understanding that all text would be cut out of the stickers rather than another sticker placed over the top in white – the client did not know that the colour of the car body is white and that this will be expected to show through in text areas. Also, I was concerned that the 4-piece logo items would need some sort of template in the application of the sticker to ensure all parts were accurately spaced – the print guy told me that there was a special coating on the stickers to allow easy application of several elements in the right place. It is really worth getting into the fine detail before money / time / effort is spent.

Turnaround

Never underestimate the time that a printer requires to complete a job – printers run to a carefully planned and priced schedule and will not be able to deviate from this as it would affect their pricing model. In many cases the client can pay a premium to receive the printed material such as stationery within 2-3 days. For example, RCS, the print company I use, have an 11am deadline for the receipt of print and from that point, it is classed as day 1. Within day 1 payment must be made for the job to run within the time guidelines.

It is worth looking at the variety of print options available to the client – RCS offer an economy turnaround time which is twice the normal turnaround but can make savings on the overall cost of the job by 10% – 15%

Colour Proof

Printers can provide a proof of the artwork but this will come at a price. A chromalin or laser copy can be generated which will provide around 85% – 95% accurate representation. It is worth finding a local photocopy shop with industrial quality laser printers to speed up this process but do your research and testing first to ensure that the results are reasonably accurate.

Savings and Offers

Check to see if your printer has special offers and pass these savings on to your client. This always brings a cheery smile to the clients face and shows him or her that you are a loyal designer!

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* the brief states that the Flash animation must not be a linear Powerpoint style presentation.

Design Tools

Two of the most efficient tools for beginning a design project are a pen and an A4 or A5 pad. These can be used in a variety of ways:

• Spider diagram or Mindmap exploring initial thoughts from the design brief and gradually narrowing down more clearly defined lines of thought through the use of a tree structure. This tree structure can also contain links between some of the branches where there are relevant links between similar levels of the tree structure. You could use something like FreeMind.
• Consider all the topics and issues surrounding a subject by entering it into the search box at WikiMindMap.
• To do lists. A very important part of a designers thought processes – acting as a reminder for tasks, lists within certain areas of a mind map or a break down of timescales and deadlines for delivery of design work. Try creating a Google Homepage using iGoogle and adding Remember The Milk as an addon to iGoogle – this is a great way to help keep activities listed in a useful way.
• Sketches of the layout, logos and colour scheme for the product. A designer rarely begins this part of the process on his or her computer. Ideas can be quickly tried out and explored using this method and the pen and pad is a couple of tools a designer should rarely be without.

The designer may use the sketches created to show to a client in a meeting or scanned and sent over the net – using [free] screen sharing facilities on www.acrobat.com or even Skype can be very useful – in tests Skype has always come out as the most efficient tool for this purpose. This can often lead to a significant leap forward in client / designer communication [depending on the quality of sketches] without sacrificing too many hours of the project. These precious hours can then be spent refining the final chosen design.

One thing that should not be underestimated is the use of written documents and emails. These should be stored for future reference and will often act as security or insurance for decisions made or problems to resolve. When an email can be referred to during any part of the process it allows the designer to be confident in his or her development of an idea. Ultimately, the best approach to dealing with a client is not to need these emails to refer back to in the way that ‘proves a point’ but to foster a culture of trust and understanding as described in the Design Process 1 article.

Evaluating Your Design

One of the main ways to evaluate your design is to compare it to the original brief and associated questions asked at the beginning of the project. If your questions were not detailed enough then evaluating your design and concluding the project becomes more difficult. Your brief and questions should be the key statements whereby the design is evaluated and should you feel that you have made your case then you can proceed with contacting the client and demonstrating your product. On the right is the sort of development image that could be presented to a client along with an explanation of how the app would work. The reaction to this initial presentation is crucial in terms of establishing whether you are on the right lines or not.

When contacting the client, be prepared to take notes, negotiate changes to the design and evaluate new ideas. Clients are busy going about their daily business and will often not have considered how many options and trials the designer reached before his or her conclusion and will need talking through these clearly in many cases so that the benefits to the work you have done are clearly identifiable. Agree another evaluation date and set a list of tasks to conclude this next design evaluation. Be careful not to undersell your skills if the costing is set but also ensure that the client gets the maximum value for their money.

The process of evaluation and conclusion will be covered elsewhere in this blog at a future date. For the moment, the principles mentioned above and their relationship to establishing a solid and clear brief are sufficient.

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Hardware and Software

Buy yourself some calibration hardware and software. This will measure the coloured light emitted from your monitor and automatically adjust the computer’s colour settings to represent the closest to some of those diffiult calibration problems such as achieving reasonable skin tones.
Personally I use the Spyder2Express system for my calibration – though, as the link demonstrates, this has now been upgraded to version 3. There are several other budget options available including Pantones Huey amongst others.

Calibration Image

You will need to request a printed example of this image – this is usually included as part of a colour chart. I usually put my design work through RCS plc because they are usually very careful to obtain the highest standard in print quality – plus they offer checking and proof reading for a small fee which is always useful as an extra backup after both I and the client have looked through the job.

Discuss

If your printers are not so happy to advise [though please not the use of advise rather than 'hold your hand at every step' which ends up wasting their time] then it is worth looking for a company who will give you a little customer service to ensure the best results possible.

In Conclusion

Please note that, using this process, there are no guarantees that your colour will be entirely accurate but it is safe to assume that, without spending thousands of pounds on consultancy and equipment, using these methods will significantly improve your colour accuracy.

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