Strategy + Design = Digital Design Solutions!
The ultimate graphic designer today doesn’t just have talent for aesthetics, they also have a mindset for business. This is an artist with problem solving knowhow and visual skills that support the challenge at hand. With multiple technology platforms to design for, the current day designer needs be a triple threat with marketing, business, and design skills. By asking the right questions, having a framework, one can begin to create digital solutions through strategy. Ultimately, possessing an approach that marries form and function to create purposeful design.
Socially Competent
It starts with asking questions. Although a lot of designers are shy by nature, it’s of the utmost importance to work on the social skill of asking questions and learning the “why” behind a company and what makes that company unique. When a graphic artist creates a dialogue with the client, they can start to understand the company in a visceral way. The closer you get to the mindset of what makes that company tick, you can better understand how to create visual solutions.
Beauty of Branding
To understand a brand, create a framework questionnaire. By understanding the brand, customer base, and the goals of a project one can hypothesize about simulating the user experience with a focus on the objective.
Ask about brand guidelines:
- fonts
- colors
- taglines
- imagery
- logos
- messaging
Ask about key topics:
- company, project goals
- company culture
- customer demographics
- competitors
- voice, feel, impact
- secret ingredient…that “x-factor”
Get to know the audience:
Read customers reviews. Social media platforms are a great source!
Simplify for Higher
Now that the brand is established and understood, focus can turn to conceptualizing solutions. This is where strategy comes to play, creating wireframes, site architecture, the game plan, etc. Continue to reference strategy materials during the project execution. While creating the project, practice and reference all collected information and strategy.
Mobile-up
In web design, artists design with these three things in mind: the look and feel, user experience, and strategy. A wise approach to multitasking these three things is to simplify for higher. This means making a simple website, in order to pay closer attention to user experience. A good way to do this is by designing mobile-up, which is creating the mobile website first and the desktop site last. Producing the mobile design first not only helps with simplification and user experience, it also provides insights for a thoughtful responsive design.
In Summary
With all the potential of design from vast, growing technology platforms, and how many people it’s available to, it’s important to think beyond design. Ask the right questions, understand the brand, construct a strategy, and have a simple approach for function. It is crucial for business-led design solutions. Designers are visual thinkers by nature, and can be total rock stars in the tech field by evolving to gain marketing and business strategy expertise. Aesthetics are no longer the only driver of the designer.
Examples:
- autobahncc.com
- Packerseverywhere.com
- komatsuwalkaround.com
- gurnee.il.us
