3 Things to Do
Before You Design Anything
I Lead-in. Think of the answers to the
questions.
a) What is the first step in your
work process when you want to design something? Take 2 minutes to note down the
three things you do when you get a new design project.
b) What questions should a designer
ask a client before the work on a project begins? Think of at least 3 questions
you need to ask a client.
c) What information should a
designer know before the work on a design project begins?
II
Vocabulary focus. Match
the words to the definitions
distil; kick-off meeting; objective; a needle in a
haystack; break down; accomplish; competitive; define; narrow; pitch; motion
design
1.
to finish something successfully
2.
someone or something that is very hard to find
3.
the first meeting with the project team and the client of the project
4.
to get or show only the most important part of something
5.
to explain the meaning of something
6.
to separate something into smaller parts
7.
to present or advertise
8.
something that you plan to do or achieve
9.
as good as or better than other prices, services
10.to make something less wide
11.discipline that applies graphic design
principles to film-making and video production
III Watch
the video and mark the statements as True or False. Correct the false statements.
1. In the video the speaker gives
advice on presenting ideas to clients, he speaks about pitching.
2. There are four important things
every designer should think about before presenting ideas to clients.
3. Kick-off meeting with a client is
not necessary.
4. The goal of the first meeting
with a client is to discuss the stages and techniques of the design project
development.
5. The speaker suggests the
following order of steps every designer should take during the meeting with a
client: 1) diagnose the problem; 2) narrow your design exploration; 3) define
the goal.
easiest; fine; information;
distil; describe; interpretation; simple; clients;
accomplish; critical; diagnose; driven; inherent; design;
prioritize; hierarchy; provide; clarity; organize
[ɪ]
|
[aɪ]
|
fit
|
like
|
V Watch the video above and fill in the
gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.
Realise; client; information; project; message; announce;
hopes; release; good; problem; thoughts; goal; tired; educate; value; prioritize;
easiest;
thinks; audience; easy; hierarchy; meeting; trying;
design
The number one: define the 1)______. In one sentence: “What is the project and what does it
need to do?” This is probably one of the
2)______ones to get out of your
clients. Now, sometimes they like to go on and on all about their 3)______and dreams, and that's fine. Be
present, listen, and then take that 4)______and
distil that into one sentence. The tricky thing is if you use more than one
sentence to describe the goal of a 5)______,
the interpretation of it and the proposed solutions will get watered down. Just
keep it simple and focused. Here are a few examples of what that can sound
like. Example one: “This video will 6)______our
new product X at CES”. Example 2: “This branded content video will 7)______consumers about Wi-Fi
technology”. Example 3: “This teaser should build hype around the upcoming 8)______of our new sneakers”. Now that you have the clients’ goal and what
they're 9)______to accomplish,
what's getting in the way of that. So let's move on to our next critical thing
you'll need to do during the kick-off 10)______.
Number 2:
diagnose the 11)______: “What is the
challenge you need to solve and what's getting in the way of the 12)______accomplishing their goals?”
There are going to be a lot of challenges driven by a few things inherent with
any good 13)______problem. Here’s
what you need to know to diagnose the problem: ‘the who’, ‘the what’, and ‘the
how’. So first ‘the who’. Who is the target 14)______, aka the user? Who's going to see this and why is it
important to them? Why do they even care?
There’s going to be more than one user, so try and identify the top
three and then 15)______the one
that's the most important.
So the second thing ‘the what’. What does this
project need to communicate? What's the key takeaway 16)______and how should the audience feel after? If they (the
client) have too many things to say in a short amount of time, prioritize the
message and define the 17)______with
them. By doing that you'll begin to show your 18)______as a partner because you're using your core design skills
to provide clarity and organize their 19)______.
VI Match
the words to their definitions. There are some words you don’t need to use. Use
four words in your sentences.
tiny; inherent; core; aka; target audience; watered
down; delicious; educate; takeaway; challenge; explain; hype; goal
1.
a problem
2.
most important
3.
also known as: used when someone or something has another name
4.
existing as a basic part of something
5.
a particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is
aimed
6.
a main message that you learn from something you hear or read
7.
made less extreme
8.
to provide with information
9.
a situation in which something is advertised and discussed a lot in
order to attract everyone's interest
10.an aim or purpose
VII Match
the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used
in the text. Use four collocations in
your sentences.
1.
|
tricky
|
a)
|
content
|
2.
|
keep it
|
b)
|
the problem
|
3.
|
branded
|
c)
|
release
|
4.
|
build
|
d)
|
the goal
|
5.
|
upcoming
|
e)
|
thing
|
6.
|
get
|
f)
|
message
|
7.
|
critical
|
g)
|
simple
|
8.
|
kick-off
|
h)
|
clarity
|
9.
|
accomplish
|
i)
|
audience
|
10.
|
design
|
j)
|
thoughts
|
11.
|
diagnose
|
k)
|
design skill
|
12.
|
target
|
l)
|
hype
|
13.
|
takeaway
|
m)
|
problem
|
14.
|
core
|
n)
|
in the way
|
15.
|
provide
|
o)
|
meeting
|
16.
|
organize
|
p)
|
thing
|
VIII Watch the part of the video and answer the questions.
1)
What
is the first thing a designer should define during a meeting with a client?
2)
What
strategy can a designer use if a client does not give a short answer and talks
for a long time?
3)
How
many sentences should the goal statement include? What are the examples of
goals given in the video?
4)
What are
‘the who’, ‘the what’, and ‘the how’ that a designer need to know before the
work on a project begins?
5)
Why
is it important to think about a takeaway message? What question helps a
designer to learn about the takeaway message?
IX Watch
the words and phrases to their synonyms. Use four words from the left-hand
column in your sentences.
1.
|
to hook
|
A.
|
conference centre
|
2.
|
to skip
|
B.
|
difficult
|
3.
|
convention hall
|
C.
|
space for experimentation
|
4.
|
to take your time
|
D.
|
to be important
|
5.
|
to be made aware of
|
E.
|
hard work
|
6.
|
solution
|
F.
|
to pay attention to
|
7.
|
sandbox
|
G.
|
to attract attention
|
8.
|
effort
|
H.
|
instructions
|
9.
|
valuable
|
I.
|
to remove
|
10.
|
to matter
|
J.
|
space
|
11.
|
to filter out
|
K.
|
to avoid
|
12.
|
tricky
|
L.
|
extremely good
|
13.
|
to look out for
|
M.
|
answer
|
14.
|
epic
|
N.
|
not to hurry
|
15.
|
room
|
O.
|
important
|
16.
|
guidelines
|
P.
|
to be informed
|
Now that you have a clarity/clearer/clear
message, where and how will this be shown, in what context/contextual/contextualize? What part of the sales cyclone/cycle/cyclic will the viewer were be in? Well, depending on the context the viewer
will have a different/differentiate/deter
state of mind and a different attention span. Is this a pre-roll ad on YouTube?
Well, then you’d better look/book/hook them in the next five seconds or
they're going to skip this ad. Are they sitting in a convention hall or a
theatre? Well, then maybe you could take your time. Depending on what stage/staged/age of the sales cycle the
viewer’s in, they'll have different needs and intentions. If it's early in the
sales cycle, they'll need to be made aware of the production/product/productive
or service. If it's late, they're ready to buy.
Now that
you've identified what you need to say, who to say it to, and how you need to
say it, you have identification/identity/identified the challenge. For most of
you designers out there, I know, you're ready to go off and make something,
right? Well, it's not time yet. Why? Well, because there are way too many possibly/possibilities/impossible that this solution could be. So, now comes
in our third step: narrow your decision/design/designer exploration, establish
the critter/crater/criteria and define your sandbox. Look,
design thinking and problem-solving takes a lot of time and effort. But if you
narrow down the possibilities/possible/impossibly
upfront of what's valuable to explore, you're going to save a lot of time.
You're going to focus your efforts on the things that matter and you'll stop
guessing what the lenient/client/latent wants.
So how do you filter out possible solve/absolute/solutions? Well, there're a few key questions you can ask your
client. Question 1: “What are the creation/creative/recreate parameters to work
within? What can it look like and what can it sound like?” Things will get a
little tricky here and you have to look out for what we like to call ‘coded
language’. What is coded languid/language/linguist?
Well, coded language is words like ‘epic’, and ‘elegant’, and ‘neurotic/energetic/energize’. These are words that have a lot of room for
subjective interpretation. You need to get super specification/specify/specific
with them and cite examples and use really simple language. Actually I wrote an
article about this on ‘Medium’ a few weeks ago on how to translate/translator/transcribe coded language so you can walk away
with clear actionable guidelines.
1)
The
context is important for a design project because clients have different needs
and interests at different stages of a sales cycle.
2)
In
early stages of a sales cycle clients are ready to buy.
3)
At
later stages of a sales cycle it’s important to hook the clients very quickly.
4)
Early in
the sales cycle clients need to be made aware of the product or service.
5)
Designers
need to narrow their design exploration not to waste time.
6)
Narrowing
design exploration helps designers to focus efforts on the things that matter.
7)
Clients
like to use ‘coded’ language when they describe their project.
8)
Designers
need to learn French if they want to understand clients’ ‘coded language’.
9)
If
designer asks quests and uses simple words he or she can understand what a
client wants.
10)
Coded
language is words like ‘faux pas’,
and ‘flabbergasted’, and ‘hors-oeuvre’.
11)
Coded
language is difficult to understand because it is very subjective.
XII Vocabulary focus. Match the words to the definitions. Use
three words in your sentences.
North Star; target; obvious; blueprint; to get
along with; to shop for; cheating; rate; rapport; to recap
1.
a goal
2.
the number of times something happens
3.
a friendly relationship
4.
dishonest act that gives an advantage
5.
to repeat the main points
6.
easy to understand
7.
a model or guidance
8.
to like someone and be friendly with someone
9.
to look for
10.the most important component
XIII Watch the video above and fill in
the gaps with the words.
After you have clear parameters
made up of simple actionable 1)_______,
move on to the most important question: “How will you make your decision on who
to 2)_______with?” And when I say
‘you’ I mean ‘the client’. This sounds super obvious, but for years I didn't
bother to ask this question. And I wasted so much time guessing on my pitches
what they wanted to 3)_______. But
if you ask this question, you'll have the answer to the test. I feel like it's
almost like 4)_______. The client,
if you ask this, will tell you exactly what is the most 5)_______thing that they need to see or hear to make their
decision. Is it money: are they shopping for the lowest price? Is that the 6)_______: are they looking for the
best quality? Or is it rapport: are they trying to find the 7)_______they get along with best? When
you have the answer to this, you must make sure that this is a 8)_______to address during the pitch
phase. Now you have all the key ingredients you need to go off and synthesize
an effective 9)_______during the
pitch phase.
Let’s recap those three things
you need to do before any 10)_______one
more time:
1) Define
the goal. What is it? What does it need to do? Remember: one sentence. Keep it 11)_______.
2) Diagnose
the problems. What is the challenge you need to solve?
3)
Narrow your design exploration. Define what it can and can't be, so you don't
waste your time guessing what the client 12)_______.
With these three things established you now
have a 13)_______and very narrow
target to hit when you pitch. This should be your North Star and your blueprint
for everything you and your 14)_______create.
All of it should be driven by the goal and filtered through these criteria
you've established. With this your pitch will deliver real value to your 15)_______and hopefully you'll increase
your win rate.
XIV Match the words from two columns to make
collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use two collocations in your sentences.
1.
|
clear
|
A.
|
the best quality
|
2.
|
simple
|
B.
|
actionable language
|
3.
|
shop
|
C.
|
sure
|
4.
|
look for
|
D.
|
an effective solution
|
5.
|
get along
|
E.
|
for the lowest price
|
6.
|
make
|
F.
|
the goal
|
7.
|
synthesize
|
G.
|
with
|
8.
|
define
|
H.
|
parameters
|
XV Watch the
part of the video and answer the questions.
1)
What
is the next question every designer should ask?
2)
What
does it mean for a designer if a client says that the price is important for
him?
3)
What
does rapport mean for a client? What designer does such a client want to work
with?
4)
What
does it mean if a client says that quality is important?
5)
What are
the three things a designer needs to do
before any pitch?
6)
How long
should a goal sentence be?
7)
What does
diagnosing a problem mean for a designer?
8)
Why
should a designer narrow his design exploration?
XVI Fill
in the gaps with the correct prepositions from the list. Watch all parts of the
video to check your answers.
about; up; for; on; of; in; in; on; along; around; at; of; on; for; on; for;
with
1. Some clients look _____ the best quality.
2. After the meeting
with a client a designer will have a list of parameters made _____of simple actionable language.
3. Designers need to
understand where the ad will be shown, _____what
context.
4. _____the beginning of every competitive
pitch designers have a kick-off meeting with the new potential client.
5. In this episode the
speaker talks _____pitching.
6. Sometimes clients
like to go _____and _____all about their hopes and dreams.
7. After the kick-off
meeting a designer should move _____to
the most important question: “How will you make your decision on who to work
with?”
8. Designers need to
understand what's getting in the way _____the
client accomplishing their goals.
9. For example a teaser
should build hype _____the upcoming
release of our new sneakers.
10.
For designers pitching can feel like finding a needle _____a haystack.
11.
Designers need to focus _____the
three things they have to do before any pitch.
12.
Some clients shop _____the
lowest price.
13.
Some clients are they trying to find the people they get _____
_____best.
14.
These are words that have a lot _____room
_____subjective interpretation.
XVII Vocabulary
focus. Follow
the links. Focus on the
words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earn points, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of
letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of vocabulary. (https://www.studystack.com/flashcard-3205805)
XVIII
OVER TO YOU.
A) Think about a motion design project you
have (it can be an assignment in your design course), a design project you had (a
project you worked in in the past) or a task would like to work on in future
(your dream project). If you have no experience in motion design, you can
choose one of the sample tasks below:
1) your
client (an online clothes shop) needs an animated logo and motion graphics for
social networks.
2) your
client (a local TV company) needs an animated bumper and title that will
accompany its shows on TV and on YouTube.
3) Your
client (a small café that makes healthy desserts) wants an advertisement it
will use on its website and on Instagram to attract new clients.
4) Your
client (a local company that organises birthdays and celebrations) wants a
video that will inform clients about its new service (fireworks, fire show and
flower installations at celebrations).
5) Your
client (a local company that produces sports clothes) wants a video that will
advertise its new t-shirts.
B) Follow the guidelines in the video
and answer the questions (write down your answers) that will be designer
guidelines before you start working on the project:
a) Define the goal of your project. Write
down the answers to the questions: What is it? What does it need to do?
Remember to answer every question in one sentence and keep it simple.
b) Diagnose the problems. What is the challenge you
need to solve? Remember the tree steps you need to take: ‘the who’, ‘the what’,
and ‘the how’. Write down the answers to the questions: Who is the target audience
or the user? Who's going to see this and why is it important to them? Why do
they even care? What does this project need to communicate? What's the key
takeaway message and how should the audience feel after? Where and how will your
design project be shown, in what context? What part of the sales cycle will the
viewer were be in? Is this a pre-roll ad
on YouTube? Are your clients sitting in a convention hall or a theatre?
c) Narrow your design exploration. Define what it
can and can't be. Write down the answer to the questions: What are the creative
parameters to work within? What can it look like and what can it sound like?
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