Secrecy is important to any firm who wants to launch a new product. By surprising the competitors with a product the firm can increase its market share, reputation and have generally an advantage. If another firm knows about the new product he can potentially launch a competing product earlier. Especially in the B2B world this can be disrupting. As an Art Director you are often directing also the overall communication of your client – so even this topic is of your business. After the break I talk about how I discovered a secret product line through crowd sourcing and how we can prevent such an event. …click here to continue…
Sometimes things just won’t work. You made a nice communication concept, build a campaign and everything the execution was impeccable. But when you and your client look at the results they don’t meet the expectations. Now what should you do? Normally we would think that we would try harder – but you shouldn’t. …click here to continue…
If you are asking this question, then the answer is “no”. Why? You are never in the position to ask this question and if you do it you are not worthy for any client because you are to arrogant. Simple isn’t it. I’m inspired to write this through Seth Godin, the word “deserving” is really huge and in today’s business world I would never use this word. The only phrase, and it is a phrase, I would say is ok with this word is “Everyone gets the client he deserves.” There is much truth in this saying and you should be aware of it from time to time.
If you are complaining about your clients think what you did to get them – did they come to you or did you run after them. Don’t complain that a client is lousy if you run after him to get the job. There was a reason why you run after the job – it doesnt matter if you wanted it for the money of the fame, no that you’ve got it be happy with it and live with the consequences.
If the clients came to you with the job then you had a chance to say no. I must admit that sometimes you can’t work together with some clients and that you have to quit the relationship. But don’t complain during a project, make a mental note to quit after the job is done and go ahead. It’s always better to finish a job without the “hate” always in mind.
Why taking the distance from your work is important
Did you ever get upset because your work has been rejected or was not treated with the “respect” it deserved. Does criticism about your graphic design irritate you and you think sometimes that the feedback was not good because “they” didn’t get it. Maybe you are too attached to your projects. Having the right distance helps react better to criticism and to understand if a feedback is valuable or not. Its the “Watching from outside” perspective. This perspective saves a lot of time and nerves. …click here to continue…
How many times have you seen a folder, website, brochure with poor text? How many times you read a headline and thought what is this all about? How many times did you stop reading a text because it was tedious to read? I’m sure many times. These texts are not written by copywriter but by the client himself. As a graphic designer you don’t care much about the text, it’s not your business – as an art director you must care about it. Here are some tips on how you understand if a text it’s good enough and how you convince your client that is worthwhile having a copywriter do the job. …click here to continue…
You maybe know the saying: “If you don’t know where you are going, the road takes you there.” So you end up somewhere without knowing if its the right place. In the graphic design and advertising business this is the last thing you want to happen. You don’t want to present to your client a product, which doesn’t get the point your client wanted to communicate. Did you misunderstand the briefing? Did your creativity lead you out of the boundaries your client want to accept. To know what happened, and even better to avoid such a thing to happen you need a creative brief. I know what you are thinking, so lets start and destroy some myths about the creative brief. …click here to continue…
If you are not in the situation where you get a good creative brief (how a good one looks like will be a topic of a future lesson) you have to rely on the information you get from the contactor or the client himself. If you have direct contact to the client you will have to make the right questions. Questions related obviously to the project, to the client himself (if it’s the first project you do for him) and on the goals.
The first rule is the following – the client won’t give you all information you need. Why is that? …click here to continue…
In the last lessons I talked about the mindset of an art director. It’s different from a graphic designer in many aspects. It is often difficult to explain what is different, so I will try to make an example – a situation that every graphic designer who is working not just for himself has faced. The “too small font issue“. …click here to continue…
What is the job of an art director anyway. How is it like? And how to learn to do the things the right way in real life. I will present you here some insights and some tutorials about becomming an art director, not just a graphic designer. Tips & Tricks you won't learn in any school and normally you will have to figure them out yourself. So go ahead and start your lessons.
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