The Holum Studio Design Method
Graphic design is a vast and complex industry with a high level of customization. If you compare graphic and web design to other industries graphic and web design will rank in the very top of customization and interchangable elements. If you compare to for example a customo bespoke tailor, most cuts of shirts, pants, piques, coates and vests are templated elements that can change certain elements such as fabric, buttons, width, height, however there are templates in place that make up 80% of the end result. The same way even the most luxurious restaurants will have a pre defined menu with templated items and a streamlined process where the client simply picks and selects from a menu. Even the most luxurious hotels will have identical rooms and suites, once designed the construction begins and 90% of the rooms will be in the same layout. However in graphic and web design, the amount of interchangable elements and possible customization is very high. This is one of the exciting things about this industry and one of the main components that makes it very fun and enjoyable to work with graphic and web design.
However it also creates challenges that we aim to tackle best possible. In graphic and web design work, there is a collaboration of designer and client where there are some tasks for the client, about 10% of all tasks are carried out by client in order to succesfully create an effective process which will mostly revolve around:
The client as the instructor, 10% of the workload
Having an opinion on what the client wants
Creating a brief for the designer
Providing text for the designer
Providing images, or requesting the designer to support with stock images, illustrations, patterns
Revising work
Approving work
The designer as the instructed 90% of the workload
Reading and receiving briefs
Debrief and check that tasks are understood
Aligning with the client in terms of their style preference across colours, layout, fonts
Suggesting references to align best possible with real examples of design
Executing all design creation
Presenting the work best possible with enough context for the client to approve
Brief
Please provide us with your brief
Your brief must contain the following:
01 Item
What exactly do you want and need? A logo / website / social media posts / marketing material / business card ?
02 Format
what is the format? Please specify the height and width of your preferred format, example, do you need a presentation, what size and how many pages do you need?
03 Text content
Please deliver to us the text needed in the item, if its a business card we need your personal data, name, title, phone number, website, e-mail and address, if its an Instagram post we need the text for the content and the caption, if its a business presentation we need the general text and number of pages. Important note we do not write text in Holum Studio, we focus on graphic design so the client must deliver text to their designer. The text is the foundation upon which all “design work” stands and all images, styling, illustrations, icons, layout follow the text. Therefore is text is the main ingredient in graphic design and without the text there is little we can do. Therefore its important for the client to always deliver as much and as complete text as possible.
04 Visual content
Holum Studio and our team can supply and support all design items with: stock images, stock illustrations, patterns, icons, styling, colours, however we can not write text for our clients properly as we do not know the ins and outs of our clients businesses.
If you already have an established brand, sharing your brand materials, images, assets, and providing your logo in a vector format is highly beneficial.
For website projects, please furnish us with essential text content, a site map, and images.
05 References
In order for us the design studio to help you succeed with your style preference its always highly effective and useful for you the client to find, collect and show design you like. Simply focus on design you like that you think is a good match for your brand style preference and your design items. Visual images and example of design is much more effective to show as a direction instead of using words to describe what you imagine. Where to find references? Please try to find references in our portfolio of existing work in www.holumstudio.com/portfolio and also in www.pinterest.com here you can easily find a lot of great design from across the world, collect pins and show us your moodboard. Try to show us “item specific references” if you want a Keynote, search and collect images by searching “presentation design” if you want a logo design search for “logo design” and so on so your references are on point in terms of items we shall deliver.
06 Delivery
When the road ahead and direction is clear we start the design work, execute as best possible and present the work
07 Design Collaboration
After the initial design phase, we welcome your feedback. We'll iterate and revise the design until it meets your approval.
08 Design Options
If you require multiple design options, whether variations of the same design or entirely new concepts, just let us know. We're here to accommodate your creative vision.
09 Revision
You the client can always expect revision, rest assured that we provide unlimited revision and we will revise and change, upgrade, and create new design options until the work is approved. We will do our best and focus on what we can do, and move the process as far towards completion and push the design towards the maximum quality levels. When we present a piece of design work to the client there are always 3 options:
1) Approved - great!
2) Favourite version selected, small changes and upgrades (Revisit the references)
3) Not approved and completely new design will be presented (Revisit the references, consider to provide more)
10 Increased Input, Higher Success
The more input and information you provide, the greater the likelihood of success. Your collaboration and insights are crucial in creating a design that resonates with your brand and audience.
