Our Design Process

"The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships."

Leo Burnett

Where we start

316 Design understands that your company's success depends on connecting with your clients, customers, and prospects effectively. There are a lot of messages vying for their attention, and it is critical that your message is able to reach its intended audience. This is the time when you need a design company that has substantial design expertise. 316 Design uses a proven design methodology that allows us to create exceptional results for our clients even on the most challenging projects. Our confidence in our ability is evidenced by our successful track record with previous clients. This approach allows us to offer our clients the widest range of options and to design the best material for their unique needs. Our methodology is as follows:

Project Management

Most projects don't fail from a lack of graphics, charts, graphs, stats, or reports, they fail from a lack of clear communication. 316 Design takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration. We use a system called Basecamp. Basecamp is an easy-to-use, web-based project management tool designed around the concept of open, centralized two-way communication. This project management tool provides tools such as message boards, to-do lists, painless file sharing, and flexible scheduling make communicating easy — and natural. You will be able to monitor all work and milestones through this system and participate in the two-way communication. Basecamp solves many problems by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.  Once we win your business and get started on a project, we will send you your log-in information for Basecamp.

Research and Discovery

316 Design begins with a process of discovery. Rushing into a design project before examining the goals and challenges is a sure-fire way to risk failure. 316 Design comes in to listen, learn about your organization, and ask questions to gather the guiding principles to our design process. Good information drives great design. It is collected through several means; questionnaires, interviews, marketing research, investigating industry trends, and collecting data on your competition. Some of this may take place in phone conversations and/or an initial meeting.

Competitive Analysis

316 Design conducts a competitive analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and/or designs the client recommends in the Research and Discovery phase. This allows us to better understand our client's market position, how to communicate, and strengthen the overall message through the design.

Creative Exploration

Creativity and design requires a free flow of ideas and concepts. 316 Design begins to throw around words, phrases, colors, concepts, imagery, and a host of other elements that would best serve the client's message. This exploration is the freedom to think in all directions, guided by the boundaries established in earlier phases.

Drafts, Comps and Thumbnail Sketching

Our team begins to draft more formal concepts of what the end product may look like. These concept drawings can illustrate layouts, design elements, and other ideas gathered together from the first 3 phases. These sketches are fleshed out as certain concepts begin to reflect the design goals of the client.

Typography

After 2-3 concepts have matured, 316 Design begin to evaluate the typography of the design. The typography is a crucial element that carries tremendous visual weight, setting the formalness or informality of a design. A good designer will go through painstaking detail to pick the right typography because it evocates a subliminal, yet powerful message and mood to the reader.

Visual Imagery

316 Design then begins the process to identify the necessary photography or illustration for the design. These elements create enormous visual impact for a design, adding dimension, implication, and a deeper level of understanding far beyond a well-written headline or paragraph of text.

Design Composition

As the elements begin to coalesce, a composition is created to present the visual imagery, text, and the selected layout sketches of the earlier phases. Effectively integrating imagery into a design requires an awareness of balance and tension. Compact areas of motion and activity are countered with spaces for the eye to rest and relax.

Execution and Implementation

When a composition is agreed upon, the final production begins. The finishing touches are applied to each element, from the top of the page, down. The copy goes through final fact-checking, proof-reading, if necessary, high resolution images are placed, and any final adjustments to color and layout are made. A critical part of creativity is attention to detail. Ultimately it must be a strong solution to the original problem to be a success.

We are ready to start when you are. The process is simple just click here to get started.