In the Begining

Well, I yakked about process in some previous posts, so I thought perhaps as I'm starting a new relatively large project, I would document my process to see what exactly I do. The client is a market research firm. Which designers generally dismiss as bunk, particularly when the research is critical of their designs. In my humble opinion the designers need to occasionally suck it up.

As it turns out I'm doing a bit more than just design. These clients are smart, energetic, genuinely lovely people. As such they have brought me – very early – into the task of rethinking their value proposition, mission and personality as a company. This is the ideal way for me to work, as it's my goal to truly be a partner in this whole thing, and the earlier I get in the better. Also, it should be noted that working with a small business affords the opportunity to do this more easily and work directly with those at the top of the organization.

Meeting One, The Reckoning

This involved essentially getting the nuts and bolts of their service lines, but also is the best place to get a sense of how they currently talk about themselves and how they'd like to talk about themselves. Luckily, they already recognize that they didn't like the way they described their business and knew they wanted a better vocabulary for doing that. Notes from the meeting look as such:

Lists Galore:

So, I've found I can do some really good thinking in the waiting room of my dentist. It doesn't just happen on the toilet or at the bar. Hooray! So I made lists of what I thought made these people and their business particularly awesome. And from there I extrapolated some words for names. I have since sent them the list of these names and random taglines to get the ball rolling. So far this is my process. I can already see I will never be able patent it. What a shame. Further progress will be reported in a timely manner.