Communication is a very essential tool for a designer to have. A designer must be able to clearly and effectively communicate their idea to their audience, which is the client, corporate offices, production staff, and fellow designers. In this chapter of The Design Process, Aspelund goes into great detail of how to present your ideas to your audience. Always be sure to have a plan. When getting ready to have a meeting with your client to present your idea/work, be sure to have the correct type of preparation for whichever venue the meeting will be at, whether it’s at a restaurant, conference room, the clients office, or a hotel room. It’s up to the designer to be fully prepared and have all the correct equipment or handouts as necessary. Even if a client says their office will have the proper equipment needed for the presentation, it’s always a good idea to bring your own backup equipment just in case there is a compatibility issue with the client’s equipment.
Language is also very important. Your presentation should show three types of modes for language, visual, written, and spoken. All three modes should be clear and consistent. A visual does not always give out all the information, so use or writing and verbal description will greatly get across your meaning. Also be very knowledgeable about your idea. Know the ins and outs of this project and if there are flaws, be sure to mention them, because you can always get feedback from the client for a solution but don’t spend too much time on the flaws and don’t hide anything either.
A presentation should have a beginning, middle, and end. Make sure that your presentation is captivating and will really grab the audience’s attention. You want to be able to convince them about your idea and show how excited you are about the project. Don’t be too overly excited though. You want to make sure that your presentation steers your audience in the direction “where everyone is ready and willing to believe in the viability of your design” (Aspelund 164).
In the perspectives section, Mark Zeff, a designer and architect, talks briefly about his experiences as a designer and how important communication is. He mentions that at his design firm, after the first meeting, he creates a design brief, which is another name for a creative brief. He goes to say that in his brief it says something like, “’It’s my understanding in this first encounter that this is what you want, this is what you don’t want, this is how big it is, this is how much it is, and is this true?’ ‘Have we forgotten that?’ and ‘I have been reading your letter, and there were some other things you brought up,’ and so on” (Aspelund 165). I also found it interesting how he has a website where his clients can log into, to check the status of their project. Having that type of website set up is a good means for communication. Also, if there is a problem, Mark wants everyone to hear the solution from him. So he doesn’t only include the specific staff working on that specific project, but includes his entire company on every project so that they can use what they have learned in all these meetings and apply them to the projects they are currently working on and on future projects. I believe this helps the company grow and improve each time a new project arrives. Mark also mentions that drawing by hand is a very important skill as a designer because it allows the designer to put whatever idea they have in their head onto paper within 10 seconds. I also learned that it is good to be a brave designer. A designer should feel intimidated. They should feel brave and be able to speak up if they have a suggestion that they feel will really work for the client. They should just sit idly by and only listen to what the client wants, but should be able to speak up and not be afraid to try something out if they feel it will really work in the client’s best interest.
Aspelund, Karl. The Design Process. Second Edition. New York: Fairchild Books, 2010. 164, 165. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment