I have not yet shared any of my design projects with you so thought I would give it a try. This project is one I did about a year ago, for a Design Management Company whose Client was a Multiple Sclerosis Charity.
The Brief
To design an A5 informative booklet for young people (from kids to teens) who have a parent with Multiple Sclerosis. Initially to produce 3 possible style for the booklet, one of them being on the lines of a manual style they supplied, the other 2 options were open to my ideas.
1. The First Step – Mood Boards
I don’t have children and was not sure of the sort of thing that would appeal to them so I decided to create some mood boards. This consisted of finding child/teen related imagery online and buying a batch of magazines, comics, greetings cards and paper targeted at kids. I then cut these all out and stuck them on mountboards to try and give me an idea of the kind of look I should be creating.
2. Step Two Sketching
Once I had an idea of the type of “feel” I was looking for I began by sketching ideas. This is a way I usually work for creative projects as it allows you to think quickly and clarify your ideas. My first scribbles usually involve brainstorming spider diagrams as well as possible layouts. I then narrowed these down to three sketches – the manual option (requested) and two other options. For the other two options I decided to go an illustrative route for one and typographic/graphic route for the other. I emailed this sketches to my client who luckily has an ability to understand what I am trying to show (as you can see my sketches are not going to win awards)
2. Step Three
My client liked the sketches so I worked them up up using mainly quark and illustrator. The teen illustrations are a little rough but get across the general idea enough for the end client to decide if this is the route they want to go.
4. Step Four – Amend then Artwork
The chosen design was the text and graphic version. I made some slight amends as requested to the visuals and then artworked it using supplied text. The final booklet is shown below.
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31 Comments
Thanks for sharing
Hi Matt
Thanks
I hope it’s of interest
Excellent Tara, love those sketches and the finished articles look pretty cool too.
People often don’t realise the work involved from brief to final product, its good to see it outlined here with exmples and insights. Thanks for sharing, duly dugg.
Thanks Rob, thanks for the digg too
Nice post Tara – it’s always interesting to see how ideas develop over time. It’s interesting that you email your rough sketches to the client. Is this something that you do all the time to allow them to comment at the sketch phase?
Hi Aaron
Many thanks. I don’t always email sketches to clients. It depends which client it is and what the job is. In this case my client has been working in the design industry for years and I know he will understand my roughs while other clients won’t and I would only show them the computer visuals. By giving him roughs on this occasion it enabled me to find out if what I was proposing was what he was looking for before spending too much time on it.
Very nice… You know, I find it massively rewarding as a designer to see my creativity made real in print.
I just completed a huge project for a new British social networking site called Britster.com. Two months of work ended up as 10,000 flyers, a load of t-shirts, business cards, posters etc.
I got to see a team of people wearing my shirt design, all handing out flyers at the Internet World show in London.
It took ages for me to lose my inane grin! ;¬)
I’ve never had rough sketches off designers. I’d love to though, and I think it would make me value and understand their work a lot more. It’s a good idea Tara.
Awsome! Looks really good!
That’s pretty cool. I like the mood board idea, and sketches are always a great idea to do.
Mood board huh .. I havent used mood boards, at least in a physical way since … UNI. Did you had to present them or made them for personal reasons?
Dont you thing that internet can also provide a “mood folder” of images and ideas ?
Further more the design is indeed very nice and colourful (uplifting) and since the matter is a bit sad it was a very good idea. I loved the way that you have designed your “diagram”
Good to go
Hi Andy and Sean,
Thanks, I’m glad you like the post
Romeo
Thanks for your comment. I did show the mood boards to my direct client took a digi pic of them, thats why I had them on file. The real reason I make physical moodboards is I don’t want to be constrained to the computer. The actual act of cutting and pasting makes you see things you may not have noticed before. While sketching it is also far nicer/easier to refer to a physical board than sitting in front of a computer screen.
Thanks. It’s really interesting to see someone else’s process, and it’s very generous of you to share with us.
I’m dipping my toe into the waters of freelance design this year, and I’ve just discovered your blog, which is interesting and very relevant for what I’m facing. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed and I look forward to more insightful posts!
Hi Tracey
Thanks for commenting and good luck with the freelancing, I’m sure you will enjoy it. I have quite a few posts on freelancing which you might be interested in, and also a few bits in the design resources section
Feel free to contact me if I can help at all.
Good luck
I love these kinds of posts. It’s always informative to see how another designer works, and your end product is a great design. You do really nice work. Let’s see more of it! Do you have a portfolio online somewhere?
Thanks Randa
My portfolio and website is in vast need of a makeover, hence I am hiding it at the moment – as it looks pretty bad. I guess I have got a bit complacent as I have had a good run of freelance work for the last 3 years. I will be redoing it when I have another quiet spell. It takes me a long time to redesign a site as my web knowledge is not great (nearly all my work is print based)- but I am trying to improve. I will post another project up soon. I am just trying to think which projects I have scans of my sketches for, as unless I show them to my clients I tend to bin them. I need to redesign my logo and then my site – maybe I could post my sketches when I do them and you all could give some advice on those?
I wish I had design skills
…and writing skills
Crap! I wish I just had a skill
Yeah I would like to see portfolio as well
Awesome! It’s always ineresting to see the creative process. And you’re lucky you have a client that understands sketches. In my experience I always have to show the final creative. They never understand that it’s a work-in-progress or that it’s only the general look-and-feel.
Great post and must have taken you a while to put together. Thank you. I love the font on the middle of the three options you gave your client and I think was the one they went for. May I ask what it is?
Thanks for your comments Brett, Frank and Rob.
Rob, the font on the visuals is Rothwell
Thanks, Tara. I’m in to rounded fonts at the moment!
Great post Tara!
Always great seeing sketches. You’ve quite a talent for it, and I enjoy the colours you used for the final product.
Thanks David
I liked seeing your logo sketches too.
your sketches are impressive..
I agree with you, not to email of sketches to clients who dont understand, Design work is like cooking.. One wont be able to judge the final taste looking at the initial steps..
Thanks, and nice analogy Santosh
I love it when designers put up sketches. It really allows for some great insight to all the different processes people come up with. I can’t sketch to save my life, but in discovering more and more design related blogs, I’m learning this can be a very effective way of conceptualizing something before ever going to the computer. Unfortunately my “formal” training didn’t cover storyboarding, and my first “real” job was a small-time outfit with a lead designer who still uses tables (doh!) so OJT never filled in the educational gaps. Much of what I know is self-taught or picked up by trial and error, and blogs like this.
Hi Charity
I will dig out some more soon. Give it a go. Drawing small helps start with really small scamps about 8cm wide to represent a spread, it really helps to work out balance on a page.
I don’t know tables or CSS yet so you’re definitely one up on me there. Wish I did.
I like your bright colours and upbeat mood that elicit.
Always felt that only good designers bother to do a sketch. It’s a worthy process where one idea lead to another yet another. It’s also useful for the sketches be shared with the account servicing people so that we can chip in to help. Yet, at times, our sharing and oppinions are not welcomed, even though we meant well. There was one agency I worked for, the relationship between the creative and account servicing was so tight that good works kept churning out, and yes, we kept winning awards. I missed those golden days. Until now, I truly appreciate when my team provides sketches.
Thanks
I would love to do more sketches for clients. I think in general everyone has got so used to seeing slick computer visuals that they are generally expected. The downside to this is a good idea can be rejected in preference to a weaker one because of style rather than concept.
You sound like you worked with a great team. Relationships between account managers and designers can be a tricky one I think sometimes we don’t have enough appreciation of what is involved in the other persons job.
Congratulations! Great Design blog!
Good luck!
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[...] doing but not necessarily in the same area of design. I also go back to basics and sometimes create moodboards, cutting up magazines and found graphics. It’s one of the things I find incredibly difficult [...]