Gotham Graphic Design Sydney asked:


A design brief is something that is vital to any design project, as it will provide the designer(s) with all the information needed to create a great visual design solution.

There is no single, off-the-shelf format for a design brief but there are a number of key points the agency MUST understand. The project team should create the brief focusing on the results and the business objectives of the design project. All stakeholders should unanimously agree on the content prior to starting the design process. This ensures an effective design solution as well as keeps the expected changes to a minimum.

What are the specifications?

What is the finished size of the completed design?

How is it going to be printed or used?

What other information should the designer know in regards to finished specifications?

Company profile

• What your business does

• What is you USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

• How you fit into your industry sector

Project overview and background

• What are you trying to communicate and why?

• What is the ‘call to action’ or business objective

• Who are your competitors and how do you differ from them?

• Does it need to match existing material, conform to Brand guidelines or is it a new direction for your company?

Benchmark

It is just as important to provide us with what you DON’T want to see along with what you DO want to see in the designs. Provide us with some examples of what you consider to be effective or relevant design even if it is from your main competitors. This will set a benchmark for your project.

This will give the designer an idea of what to steer clear of and will avoid disappointment on your behalf.

Target audience

Provide demographic figures about your audience (in order of importance) that may be useful to the designer. These may include: age, gender, income, tastes, views, attitudes, employment, lifestyle.

Business objectives and strategy

• Generate sales?

• Encourage enquiries?

• Gain newsletter subscribers?

• Obtain information from your audience?

• Encourage them to tell a friend?

What is the time scale / deadline?

Provide a ball-park figure, a budget expectation will give the designer a good idea of the type of solution they will realistically be able to provide. Providing a budget prevents designers wasting valuable time and resources when trying to maximise your budget.

Give the designer a detailed schedule of the project and agree on a realistic deadline for the completion of the work. You should take into account the various stages of the design project such as brief, concept approvals, development, production and delivery.

What copy (text) and pictures are needed?

Tip: The copy and pictures used in a design are as crucial as the design itself and you should clearly state who is going to be providing the copy and pictures if needed. You may need to look into getting a professional copywriter / photographer – ask your designer for some recommendations.

• What copy needs to be included in the design? Who is providing the copy?

• What pictures / photographs / diagrams etc need to be used?

• Who is providing these?

Roberto Luongo asked:


Graphic design is a specialized form of visual representation of sales oriented policies and planning. It is used for a variety of reasons including commercial, advertising or for education purposes. Graphic representation involves visual effects that will improve information, products or other services so that a healthy relationship with customers can be maintained for a considerable long period of time. When attached with the internet, the usage of corporate graphic design can be used for a lot more reasons.

You can find a number of websites running effectively online that use professional graphic design just to make it quite professional and effective. In addition, professional graphic designers and creators work offline for other media of communications such as television, magazines, and other companies just to gain visual aids. You can find many other people who work online for corporations and even individuals that need graphics for their business sites.

Nowadays, graphic designs can be seen in forms of logos, brochures, charts, graphs and even diagrams. However, there are a few graphics that you will see online and off. You can easily spot an advertisement in a billboard or in online, flaunting the magic of graphic design company everywhere. These are all done by a graphic artist.

Graphic Designer Services

There are many professional graphic designing companies, working effectively in the corporate market. They employ professional and expert graphic designers who possess adequate knowledge and experience in creating wonderful visual creatures online. However, many designers work independently and set up their own home business. The fashion of working independently has been catching up the fever with more and more people putting their efforts on individual projects.

Graphic design is a growing voice in today’s developing world. It requires great creativity talent, adequate knowledge of computers and powerful graphic design software programs to gain success in the free world.

Mohammad Sarfaraz Khan asked:


A professional graphic design is surely one of the best tools you could ever use to uphold and bolster the effectiveness of your dear and lucrative Website. If you are running and maintaining your online presence for the purpose of generating income and revenue, it is time you invest in tools and systems that would help boost the attractiveness and profitability of your online presence.

If you are operating and maintaining a Website, it should always be your goal to make the site as interesting as possible. To help you gauge and assess the attractiveness and overall appeal of your own site, it would be helpful if you would let friends and colleagues critique your Website. Be reminded that in Websites, as always, a professional graphic design is one important factor or element that is essential to the overall success of the business.

When you establish and roll out an online site, it follows that you have goals and aims for the site. In general, almost all online sites designed and created online are made to invoke higher traffic and eventually great revenues. The use of proper and appropriate professional graphic design is one sure way how you could make the endeavor work more effectively.

What is a professional graphic design?

A professional graphic design is a design or structural style that defines the overall appeal of the Website. You would find that the most complex and difficult designs could be costly and tedious, but alas, most of such exhilarating designs are futile and are less effective. In contrast, a simple and very basic professional graphic design can be modest but very effective and attractive especially among the members of the business community.

If you are putting up your own online business, you should always strive to use the most effective and appealing professional graphic design in the market. You will not have to fret because there are surely numerous professional graphic designs available to meet your requirements.

Your Website

Your Website is no different from all other online sites in existence. You may argue that you are striving to make you site as unique as possible. But always be reminded that that is also the argument and claim of all other Website creator and operator. At the end of the day, your Website may not be truly unique, but you can make it stand out and become truly outstanding.

You can start in this endeavor by investing and capitalizing on a good professional graphic design. The design gives the overall look and feel of the Website. In this way, it should always be made very appropriate and useful for the overall content and structure of the entire Website.

If you are aiming to make your Website lucrative and profitable, which for sure you are intending to do, you can start the initiative by investing into a good and functional professional graphic design. There are many graphic designs available in the market. The best ones are those that are suited and tailored for your needs and preferences and for the overall demand in the market. Your Website is regularly viewed and checked out by clients and consumers. Isn’t it just appropriate to make it really effective and appealing? Using a good and useful professional graphic design would be the initial and basic way to do so.

Anirban Bhattacharya asked:


If Michelangelo time travels to the 21st century he would probably have a hard time earning his living with his paint brush. The modern day artist can no long work with brushes and paints; rather he uses his refined artistic sensibilities to create dazzling images using the medium of computers and software.

Professional designers working with ad agencies use software like Photoshop, Illustrator and Corel draw to create mesmerizing images, which accentuate the value of worth of the written words which accompany them.

Professional graphic design is a very rewarding field in which designers come up with new and innovative ways of getting the desired message across to the masses through various mediums, like print, film, TV and of course the web. The online media is by the most dynamic of the mediums since it’s an arena that’s open to all. Professional graphic design for the web is considered to be the most innovative and yet the easiest of ways to gather followers and customers.

Professional graphic design uses cognitive and imaginative skills and combines it with visual arts for creating breathtaking array of artworks in a variety of forms.

Corporate graphic design plays a huge role in determining the impression of the people during brand building initiatives, like endorsements of products;.

Professional graphic designers carefully study your internet marketing plan and combine it with your business requirements, and then come up with a workable solution that would both fit your budget and also help you reap huge profits.

Corporate graphic design solutions offered differs from business to business as per their budget and their domain.

Sky is literally the limit for these creative wizards known as corporate graphic designers. They can create spectacular designs by cleverly blending images, colors, sounds etc. When software like Dreamweaver is used to create your website, it gives your online address (your site) a sophisticated look. In short, impress your prospective clients with professional graphic design!

Cristina Gomes asked:


We all know that the website is always the hidden face of your business and the entire business growth depends on it while you search business through the internet. A website is simply not the gathering of some web pages which will describe your products or services but a website is the platform through which you are communicating with your customers or selling your business product or services.

A professional freelance graphic design can enlarge your existence towards the visitors, they can feel you as a reputed concern and that can help to increase the visitor faith on you. Only through freelance graphic design appeal you can create a different scenario at the visitors mind that can differs you from your competitors and that can also haul up the graph of your business growth to fulfill your annual goals.

A professional web graphic designer have the power to design a website for you which look normal but having a mild plea that can smartly differs you from other competitors and can easily attract visitors at your website while they are searching something at the internet. The designing capability of such affordable graphic designers is undoubtedly the best but the main thing is their confidence which is reflected from their graphic and web design templates.

Experienced freelance web graphic designers has vast experience on designing superb templates for various business markets i.e. the template for real estate should not looks alike the template of a pharmaceuticals industry based business. These designers are doing a quality research on the needs of a website before start the designing and then sketch down those results of that research work into the web template.

Affordable graphic designers are always ready to produce eye catching unique logos for your website, they are ready to plant noticeable good looking icons, they enable you to place special business announcements or offers at fascinated glowing colorful boxes at a negotiable rate. These affordable graphic design features can easily attract the concentration of visitor while they passing through your website. If visitor show their confidence to stay at your site for long time then ultimately your business will cheer up.

Professional graphic designers are keener to build superb navigation system at your site while they designing your web pages. Quality navigation system of any site enables visitor to access all important pages of that site from the main page very easily, that means you can rotate your incoming audience at different important pages as per your wish through a proper navigation system. Website usability factor is also simultaneously maintained at the time of graphic design by those creative graphic designers.

An Accessible web site is always the best for any business because color blind visitors are also searching their own requirements into the market. Creative graphic designers are always remembering these things and build your website in such a technical manner that your website is accessible for all kind of visitors.

anton ardjanggi asked:

Few years ago, I had an opportunity to discuss with one of Indonesian well-known ‘branding expert’ about “how we can survive as a graphic designer, specially a freelance graphic designer. Does style affect?” He said, “What is style?! Go to hell with it. Style is killing designer!”

His answer really shocked me, because I am a graphic designer who likes certain style of design, and without I realized people recognized my work by that style.

What he said might be true for graphic designers who work at advertising agency or some creative boutiques, because they have to be able to fulfill what clients need and obey their boss.

It made me think. Do I have to change my style?

Then I tried to trace all the way back. I have been 10 years working on graphic design field, during that time I always design with a certain style which more oriented to German style that has a certain characteristic such as ‘neat, compact, well alignment with strong square or rectangle geometrical shape’. In fact, in my early years I broke the design style one of the biggest local bank which already known as a very conservative bank with ‘minimalism, modern and geometrical’ kind of design.

That makes me sure that graphic design style is not always about era, just like many people think. Style is more related to like or dislike. In other word, a certain style won’t kill designers’ life.

On the other way around, a freelance graphic designer will be able to survive with his/her own style.

A freelance graphic designer, who has his/her own style, unconsciously would create his/her own target market. With their portfolios, prospect clients would see the characteristic of their artworks.

So, to those (future clients) who like our design style will fall in love automatically when they see our artworks without wasting more time to brief us what they want. The only information we need is about product they sell or message they want to deliver. They already trust us on how we will visualize it.

We don’t need to deal with hard to please kind of clients.

But still, it doesn’t mean that we are stuck and stop digging our creativity. Explore and strengthen the style in order to get the personal touch, that way our style will be our identity in graphic design industry.

Design style that becomes identity is very important for freelancers, because it is not easy for freelancers to get new clients. That is how to attract new clients.

Brian Scott asked:


Are you a whiz kid with a pen in your hand? Can you whip up photographic mash-ups that make the Mona Lisa look like illegible scrawl on a bathroom wall? Do you look at album covers and glance at the heavens above, shaking your head knowingly? Then why not put those skills to use and show those rank amateurs how it’s really done?

Whether it’s putting together album covers, posters and logos for the local garage band, doing ensemble flyers for traveling street theatre or producing viral advertising for the world’s largest shoemaker, there’s never been a bigger market for freelance graphic designers, or a better time to be one. The software and hardware that once made digital design and subsequent mass-marketing a rare and expensive medium has cheapened to the extent that anybody with an internet connection, an inexpensive personal computer and an inspired idea can have their work broadcast to tens of millions of people around the world.

Graphic design in its truest form is about conveying a message with a combination of carefully selected colors, symbols, images, shapes and words that, put together, create a unique identity for a product. Those who can do this with rapidity, enthusiasm and a little flair are always in demand. If you’ve got some ability within the realm of traditional fine arts, all the better, but it’s not the be all and end all of your career. Like all artistic pursuits, though, you need the right tools for the job. Specifically, you’re looking for the following:

1. Software. Whether you work with a can of paint and an easel or a mouse and a monitor, you are going to eventually end up with a digitized version of your finished work for delivery to the client. For those of us with liquid assets, I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. If you can’t splurge the high cost for these programs, you can find extremely serviceable replacements in the free, open-source GIMP and Inkscape. Together, these should cover your needs for vector artwork, photo retouching/manipulation, post-processing and final file exports.

2. A good digital (or even film-based!) camera is a useful optional extra. I prefer Canon DSLRs for their aggressively reasonable prices and excellent image quality, but high-end point and shoots can do the job in a pinch. They do, however, lack slightly in credibility while on-site. For those of us nostalgic for the days of 35mm, you can find brilliant film SLRs on eBay for knock-down prices.

3. If, however, photography isn’t your cup of tea, then free stock photo services such as MorgueFile or Stock.xchng are excellent resources that do all the work for you.

4. Finally, a flatbed scanner always comes in handy, whether you’re digitizing hand-drawn designs, scanning client-provided images or transmitting 35mm negatives. The Epson Perfection and Canoscan 8400F have garnered extensive praise for being well-rounded and affordable. Throw in a color inkjet printer or a membership to the local Kinkos, and you’re done.

So now you’re well-equipped and looking to set the world on fire as a gun-for-hire designer, but don’t know where to start. Assuming you haven’t done this kind of work before, your first priority would be to produce a varied portfolio guaranteed to blow the socks off any potential employer. A useful technique, I’ve found, is to start by going through your collection of books, video games and CDs, and picking out a few of each with covers you either **** or love. Decide why it is they produce such strong reactions in either case, and what you would have done differently. With this in mind, attempt to redraw as many as you can in your own image. As you come up with successful designs, put them aside.

Similarly, find some eye-catching stock photos and see what comes about when you simply sit and play with them in your chosen image manipulation software. Get to know the functions of the software and the way images respond to different treatments until it’s second nature.

When you think you’ve got a killer portfolio and the mindset to successfully close a deal, it’s time to find a client. Great first-time employers include local musicians and stage acts, as well as neighborhood businesses with uninspiring logos or lackluster advertising material. (You know what we’re talking about when I mention brochures or restaurant menus that look like they were put together by a ten year old using Word Art and MS Paint).

Most potential clients of this caliber don’t know how presentation affects their business, or feel that hiring a graphic designer to do work for them would be too expensive, so offer them a cheap, friendly, local alternative: yourself! For small projects, offer a flat rate; and for larger ones, keep a log of hours you spend and how many designs you produced so that you can bill accordingly.

It helps, too, to do some gratis work to get your name out there. Use your judgment and offer to redesign for free when you think it’s suitable. Networking and subsequently maintaining contacts in the local business community is what can net you, initially, the most lucrative projects, as well as long-term contract work. Graphic designers in the freelance arena have to think of themselves as part-artist, part-salesperson. Pound the pavement, scan the back pages of community newspapers for projects that look interesting, make calls to fashion, art and IT magazines to see if they have any space for an aspiring designer in their ranks.

On a larger scale, attracting corporate clients requires an online presence, and enough of the above to make an impression. Magazine freelancing in particular can generate contacts and assets in the upper tiers of international marketing and design. Spend some time uploading your creations to a website like Flickr.com or DeviantArt.com, where you can get free exhibition space, as well as having a place to call your own that you can point people to for easily accessible examples of your work. This is just an extension of your portfolio; but like your portfolio, make sure it’s a showcase of all your abilities. Indicate especially that you can diversify and handle different mediums and project sizes.

Freelancing as a graphic designer can be initially difficult; more often than not you may find potential clients slamming doors in your face. Take this in stride and persevere. Like most creative positions, as you accumulate paying jobs, more will become available to you. There’s a lot of demand globally for you to carve out a niche for yourself in freelance graphic design.

Ritika asked:


Graphic Design is all about communicating your message through visuals whereby visual information is given form and structure, so as to communicate your unique message and reflect your unique identity.In today’s busy and noisy world, where no one has time to observe things going around, only a good piece of graphics can get you noticed and I strongly believe nothing better than a logo can help you to be remembered for ages.

Logo designing is a mix of engineering and art. The best logos in the world are comprised of simple text and uncomplicated graphics. A logo should have some basic character to qualify as a professional logo. It’s not all about appearance.

When you own a small business, it’s certainly important to spend your marketing budget wisely.Every brochure, advertisement, and business card that you pass out plays an important role in establishing the image of your company. The same is true of your company’s logo and website. The graphic design skills and techniques used to create the materials that represent your company to prospective customers and other individuals establish your company’s corporate identity. Why would you risk sending the wrong message about your business by relying on amateur graphic design work that you create yourself.

The graphic design process is crucial to any business, making it stand out head and shoulders from the competition. Whether it is the design of an entire corporate campaign or the creation of a simple company logo it still has to work effectively for you. The most commonly described elements of design are:



Lines

Shapes

Mass or Size

Texture

Color

Form

Space

Value (lightness or darkness)



Whether yours is a small business organization in its budding stages or already a large scale business, logo always is an essential part of your company.

Some of the benefits of a good logo design are:

Logo helps to give your company and your company website a complete identity. Viewers identify your organization with your company logo.

The main aim of your website is to attract viewers, build their trust and make them come back to your site over and over again. If your company logo has that power which has already been stored in the viewer’s minds in just one or two visits, he might remember your company website whenever he is online in search of some common information.

A logo helps to enhance the personality of your company’s online presence.

It is said that images speak louder than words. A logo which is a graphical presentation of words and images speak more powerfully than the plain text on your site.

Logo helps in brand building for your company and its website.

The list of benefits a good logo would have over a company can be endless. But to summarize, logo designing is the most important element and the first element to lead you to the success ladder.

HiSpirits Technologies provides high end Graphic Designes and Website Design.