What type of work I do
Five types of design projects I work on the most and how I handle the creative process
In the last blog, you learned something more about me and my daily routine. I didn’t write much about the work I do and specifically which design projects I take and get from clients. That’s why I am going to write this blog about the 5 types of design projects I mostly work on. If you want to see some of the projects I’ve never published and to know how I handle the process, keep on going.
- Branding & Logo Design
A lot of clients reach out to me because they want to refresh their existing brand or establish a new brand and they need a designer to help them out. Especially clients who are looking for minimal typographic logotypes and a modern, and fresh brand feeling. We always start by analyzing their brand positioning and looking at good practice examples, then we create a moodboard from both sides. That way we make sure to know in which direction we wanna go and resize the possible wrong design direction. When choosing the right typeface for a brand it is important to know their position, the target group of the brand but also how the brand wants to present themselves within their community and among their competitors. I always aim to keep it simple but interesting and different. During the design process, I usually give clients different options to choose from, before finalizing the design.
2. Website Design
The biggest part of my design work is websites. There are two types of clients who reach out to me, ones who want the whole design package from branding and logo design to website design, and others who come with their branding prepared and just want to have a website designed.
The process starts with figuring out the creative direction that the clients like, by creating a moodboard (1). I always ask clients to bring their own examples of good practices or what they think they are and I also bring my own examples. We all discuss what we think are the good and not so good parts of the mentioned website and why. We also discuss what would be the best approach to their brand visually. Then we continue with creating the wireframes (2), before we start we need to have the content (3). If the clients don’t have their content ready I take over the role, I suggest some content and set a direction for the content creating (photography, copy,..). After that, I start the exploration (4) phase of the design process by creating different design options, trying out different colors, typography, shapes, and layouts. At the start, I am not trying to finalize anything, I am just exploring different options and trying to clear up the fact that I understand the client’s needs and visual expectations correctly. This way we manage to lock in the creative direction (5) in a very quick way, without having many wrong designs. After we have a direction we can implement it on the other pages of the website. After the implementation (6), mobile design (7), and before handing it over (8) to the developers, I complete the last part of my process. Usually, I work with developers I know so our communication continues within the development phase, regarding the preparation of the animation moodboard (9) and the finalization (10) of the project.
The two main types of websites I work on are eCommerce websites and business websites.
a) eCommerce websites
b) Business websites
With the business websites, I consider agency websites, portfolio websites, or some personal professional business websites.
3. Presentation Design
Presentation design works in a similar way as website design but in a few shorter steps. Beginning with exploration and finding the right creative direction, after that, implementing it in the whole project. There are two types of presentations I work on, custom presentations and template presentations. Both of them follow the same creative process.
a) Custom Presentations
Custom presentations are mostly connected to a specific business or product. The clients reach out because they want to have a pitch for their investors or showcase the products that they offer to customers, investors, or the in-house community. Usually, they have all their content prepared so we are including the final content from the start, with minor changes during the process. If that isn’t the case, I work with clients on storytelling and we manage what is the best flow of the presentation and content creating together. Each client has individual expectations so I try to satisfy their needs in the best possible way within my capabilities and profession.
b) Presentation templates
Presentation templates are made for a bigger group of clients who use presentation tools for their business. They are made with placeholders and imaginary content which is exchanged with the clients’ content in the end. The purpose of templates is to give clients ideas on how they can structure their content within a presentation but also which content is necessary to have, for example, in a branding presentation. If we take a branding presentation as the example we will for sure include the slides like cover, content, brand summary, colors, typography, icons, grid, and photography. According to the topic of the templates, the necessary slides are changing.
4. Social Media Design
Within social media account design, I mostly work on Instagram posts, newsletters, or some other social media banners. Now I will explain a specific design in more detail.
a) Instagram posts
Clients request social media design in two cases. I will take Instagram posts as an example. One is that they have a lot of projects and case studies and they don’t know how to create a layout and design behind it to present it to their followers in the best way possible. In that case, I take their content and create interesting designs behind their projects or products and try to uplift their accounts with the fresh design. The other case is when I create new branding for a client and then I try to create an Instagram grid on how they should use the colors, typography, and assets within the brand on different social accounts, it is more like a style guide for social media.
B) Newsletter design
Newsletter design mostly consists of creating a design with an already established brand and guidelines. The good thing about this is having the full content delivered from the client in the beginning, they already have the content prepared in advance because it usually goes out to customers in a short time. With that said, it never takes a lot of iterations or long-term changes because it is a one-time design within the defined brand style guide.
5. Personal Concept Work
As we all know, we don’t always get clients and projects with which we can 100% reflect our style and the creative direction we personally like. I try to create personal concept work to showcase my creative capabilities, design skills, and different approaches. That way I am able to present what type of projects I am capable of working on and I attract more clients who are looking for the same aesthetic. I share that on my social media accounts and through it I fill up my portfolio and get new job opportunities.
Thank you for reading! Let me know if would like me to write about a specific topic in the next blog.
Cheers! xx
