Design Process
At Gold Rabbit, we have refined our process to focus on the key stages that we believe determine whether a design project will succeed. We will outline our step by step design process, from the initial brief with the client, all the way through to presenting the final designs to a very happy customer.
Design Process Steps
1. Setting the Brief
The brief is all about collecting information about the client, understanding their problem, reviewing their brand and their target market, so that we have enough information to inform our designs so that they will be more effective and appealing to their intended audience. We discuss our client goals and establish how we can help them get there. At this stage, it’s crucial to agree on clear objectives. A design brief that captures all the important information and sets clear goals will be invaluable as we move on to the next stage of the process. (See
Example:
Our client ‘East Riding Youth Dance‘ required a design overhaul on their annual dance leaflet. We discussed their needs, their business and brand and how they envisaged the new design. Here is what their leaflet looked like before the redesign:
2. Research and Development
Following on from brief, we know have a good understanding of our clients goals and what we will need to focus on in the research and development stage. Here we spend time understanding the business and the brand, assessing market trends and competitors, and reviewing the businesses existing designs. If the client has brand guidelines, we pay close attention to ensuring our draft designs will be consistent with existing guidelines.
Example:
For East Riding Youth Dance, we created mood boards to present for feedback so we could gain a clear understanding of the mood and style and they wanted to capture.
3. First Draft and Feedback
Knowing the brief, and having completed the research and development stage, we know begin developing design concepts based on our research and directed at achieving our clients goals. We create several variations of our design and present them to our client for their review and feedback. Feedback is an important part of our design process. It allows us to get a clearer idea of what our client is looking for and allow us the opportunity the refine and finetune the design.
Example:
At this stage with East Riding Youth Dance, we were able to begin planning the layout, how to present the chosen images, and implement the new colour and font scheme. We then presented the draft to the client for feedback.
4. Revisions
At this stage we have presented variations of our designs to the client, and listened to their feedback, and made careful notes about what they liked about it or what they would like us to change. The revision stage grows from client feedback of the initial draft. Often clients are very happy with the first draft and very little extra is required at this stage. In other cases seeing the first draft can spark a clients imagination and they come up with new changes they would like us to develop. At the revision stage we address and resolve any design issue that our client may have, and we develop the draft into the final design.
Example:
The client was happy with the overall design. They requested an image change on the front cover and added revised copy/text which required layout alterations to display the content clearly.
5. Final Design and Delivery
We present the final designs to the client, and give them another change to review of final design and provide feedback. When the final design is agreed, we send in a print ready file format, and forward digital designs in a file to the client.
We’re always looking to improve our customer experience. At the end of the process, we ask our clients to complete a very short questionnaire about their experience working with us.
Example:
The final design was approved so we prepared their artwork to be print-ready and sent the client their copy.
Before
After:
