Your Brain on Design: A Graphic Design Blog | Leslie Tane Design » Know How

Parlez-Vous Designer?

Leslie Tane Design — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:26:53 +0000

From my blog entry on the Digital Space blog

RGB. CMYK. Pixels. Serifs. Running heads. Resolution. Wrap-around. Sometimes designers speak a language for insiders only. This is fine when we’re talking to each other, but what about when we’re talking to our clients? Are we expecting them to break the code?

When presenting to a new client, I try to look at the work I’m showing them with a non-designer’s eye. Designers are communicators by profession, but all too often we forget the basics that need to be communicated to our clients so that we’re all speaking the same language. more at Digital Space>>

Is Direct Mail Dead?

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:17:01 +0000

From my blog entry on the Digital Space blog

It’s the age of the Internet — e-mail marketing, social networking, blogs. So why would you do printed, direct mail marketing? No one reads that stuff…do they? more at Digital Space>>

Location, location, location

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:29:31 +0000

It’s always helpful to actually work with clients, preferably at their own computer, and watch the way they use their websites and the internet in general.

What have I noticed? That a lot of my clients are confused between the location bar and Google search. Many people have Google set as their home page, and to get to a web page they type the URL (http://www.somelinkhere.com) into the Google search bar. Then they click “Search” and click on the link to the site they were looking for.

So what’s wrong with this? First of all, it has lots of unnecessary steps. But secondly, and most importantly, many times Google has not indexed the page the client is trying to get to (especially if, as in the case of my beta and building sites, they’re blocked from Google). That’s when I get the panicked calls: “I went to link you sent and there’s nothing there!”

Here’s what I send them:

Do you do this? Don’t feel embarrassed. You are in very smart, very successful company. But make your life easier and use Google for searching and the location bar for URLs.

Designing for NonProfits

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:15:57 +0000

From my blog entry on the Digital Space blog

One of the things I most enjoy is working with non-profit clients — it’s especially satisfying to do design that makes a difference. We specialize in this type of work and our clients include a range of organizations, from those who work with troubled youth, to those who provide food and services for the disadvantaged, to those that work with the disabled, and more. Each organization has different design needs, but there are some things that are almost always true when working with non-profits… more at Digital Space>>

Should I go to an online design school?

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:14:48 +0000

From my mailbag:

My friend’s daughter has some questions about going to school for Web Design. She wanted to know the best way to proceed because she has a baby on the way and wants to make the right decision. She was thinking about taking an online degree program to obtain an AA in web design but wasn’t sure how big companies would perceive an online degree. What would you recommend her to do? Any advice or help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

My answer:

In my opinion, the degree won’t matter as much to a hiring company as a good, strong portfolio and working skills will. The question is whether an online university can get you to a place where your portfolio is strong enough.

I’d suggest looking at whatever student work is available from the school she’s looking at and compare it to the work from excellent design schools like RISD, SVA (in New York), Pratt, Montserrat, and even Mass Art and UMass Dartmouth.

My feeling is that picking the right school is only 50% of it. I didn’t even go to art/design school, but have my degree in English from Colby College. I worked my butt off, though, reading books and magazines about design, finding a good mentor, and taking classes (including an online class on Typography from The New School in New York — that may be a school to look at) to get me up to speed.

I hope that helps!

And a reply from the student in question:

Thanks so much for the info. Now that I think about it, several of the job ads do mention portfolios. I contacted the on-line schools for student work and they claim they are unable to share due to it being considered Academic Dishonesty. However, when I contacted the Art Institute, Ringling College of Art & Design and Savannah College of Art & Design, they sent a ton of examples. I wish I could go to a brick and mortar school, but I think taking a class or two such as the Typography in addition to the online would be very helpful. Thanks so much for your suggestions as they really got me to think a bit differently.

A lovely and gracious reply, don’t you think?

I actually get this question, or a variation on it, a lot which is why I’m posting it here. Have a question you’d like to ask? Fire away.

Your horn was made for tooting

Leslie Tane Design — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:04:02 +0000

“We hired a designer to make the graphics/do the SEO/run the Ad Words program. Oh! I didn’t know you do that.”

In the past three or four weeks, I have had variations of this conversation with different clients.

Since I’m so familiar with my company and the services we provide, I often forget to spell them out for new, and even longtime, clients. Did you know:

I am an award winning graphic designer?
We design brochures, books, annual reports, marketing pieces, direct mail, folders… pretty much anything printed?
We also design logos?
All of the websites we design include a content management system and free tech support for the life-time of the site?
We work with printers both locally and remotely to get the best price and the best fit for your project?
Our partners include videographers, writers, editors, photographers, illustrators, Flash developers, and programmers?
Our websites are based in Wordpress, using it as a content management system?
We keep up with the latest in search engine optimization, and all of our sites researched for keywords and are SEO optimized?
We run several Google Ad Word campaigns for our clients?
We offer non-profit organizations a 10% discount?

Probably not, because I don’t mention those things that often — I’m usually too focused on the project at hand. That’s a major mistake on my part. Our existing clients are already sold on us and usually are more than happy to find out that we can provide extra services. And even if they don’t need them, knowing that we do more helps with our word of mouth marketing when they tell other people about us.

So what are we going to do about this?

First of all, I’m going to get more comfortable with that piece of marketing. It feels odd to toot my own horn, but if I don’t, who will?

Secondly, I am going to distribute our “Soup to Nuts” brochure (already printed, sitting on our bookshelf) to every current and prospective client. I made the brochures for a trade show, but they’re certainly not doing us any good in our office. We already know what we do.

Thirdly, we are planning some promotional pushes (email and direct mail) emphasizing the breadth and depth of services we provide.

Lastly, we are going to focus more on social networking to get the word out. We already have a Twitter account (@LeslieTane) and we’re going to start a Facebook page soon, focusing on the scope of the work we provide.

Hearing “I wish we’d known you do that. We would have hired you” once is one time too many. Let the promoting begin!

Want to toot your own horn? Go ahead and do it in the comments!

In which I ask for advice

Leslie Tane Design — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:41:39 +0000

Over the years I have had many client experiences and I have lots of advice about lots of things. Which I’m happy to share with you (just ask!). However, there is one situation that I’ve run into more than once and have yet to find the solution. Can you help me?

What do you do when you have a client who doesn’t know what he wants? He’s perfectly pleasant and professional, but when presented with some design options after filling out a design brief and meeting about his project says something to the effect of:

I want you to know that I appreciate all the work you are doing, but the first two logos are not working for me. The third is closer, but I’m not in love with it. I wish I could guide you more about what I am looking for, but I’m not sure what I want. I think that it’s important for me to really love a logo and connect with it, but I am not sure what I can do to help you make it happen. Please let me know what can I do to help the process. Should I do more research?

I have no problem with the client asking this. As a professional designer, one of the things people hire me to do is help guide them toward a solution that they may not have known they wanted. I don’t depend on a client to come to me with a fully realized vision (although some do) and I see it as a big part of my job to draw out the information I need to make the client happy. But in this case, the client is stuck, and I’m not sure what to do to free him.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Opinions? I’d love to hear them.

The third design

Leslie Tane Design — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:51:25 +0000

It is standard practice in design to offer three initial design ideas to a client. It doesn’t happen every time or on every project, but it happens enough that if you are a designer, you should know this rule:

If you do three designs, and there’s one you love, one you like, and one you think is crap, nine times out of ten your client will go with the one you think is crap.

Does this mean your client is stupid? Absolutely not. Does this mean that you need to love your third design as much as your other two? Absolutely.

Tips for making a great online store

Leslie Tane Design — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:28:22 +0000

I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I won’t even try. Check out decor8 and the great post Spool Design {& 5 tips for a better shop}. Highly recommended.

For Facebook users

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:55:42 +0000

Here’s something a little off the beaten path for this blog, but it was so useful that I couldn’t resist linking to it. For Facebook users, this is a must read.

Check out 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. Included in this article are:

Use Your Friend Lists
Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results
Remove Yourself From Google
Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake
Protect Your Albums
Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds
Protect Against Published Application Stories
Make Your Contact Information Private
Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts
Keep Your Friendships Private

If you’re not a Facebook user and have been thinking about it, this may help settle your nerves about opening your life up to strangers. Be careful, though: there’s a reason it’s also known as Crackbook. It’s addictive — enroll at your own risk.