OUGD602 - Working With A Client - Communication, Research and Development

6A2 / 6D2.

POGSEE Logo Design:

Contact / Communication:

The client initially contacted me in regards to this brief due to an existing knowledge of myself as a designer, my practice and education in design, showing the value of networking and putting your work out there for other people to find. In order to get a better idea of what the client wanted in regards to this brief, I sent off a copy of a brief template designed for extended practice which the client could fill in himself. This brief asked about the nature of the brief in a bit more detail, backgrounds/considerations, meaning things I should consider when designing the client's logo, mandatory requirements, and a rough deadline for when they wanted or needed me to have the logo designed by which was useful in gaining a better understanding on what the client required without too much back-and-forth to figure this out, which made the communication process much easier, since most of this communication was done via email due to the distance between the both of us which made it hard to meet up face-to-face throughout the process.

Research:

Based on the completed brief template sent back to me from the client, one of the background considerations was that 'the logo should reflect the style of music POGSEE produces - does not necessarily stick to genres, but incorporates synthesizers and samples from older music into a lot of his work'. Initial research was therefore conducted into synthesizers and the music production process, which influenced a lot of my idea sketches along with research into the micro-genre of music, Vaporwave, which POGSEE told of being mostly influenced by in this use of synthesizers.

Development Process:

Based on research, visual mood boards were initially created to get a rough sense of some of the characteristics of certain elements which could potentially be incorporated or used to influence the logo design. These initial boards were showed to the client so that they had a rough idea of what I was working with and gave them the opportunity to pick out further elements they would like to see experimented with in their logo, as well as those elements which they did not. Sketches which used these different elements were then produced and all were sent to the client of which he chose his favourite. Based on this, various digital developments were produced which focused on more professionally visualising the chosen sketch, and again sent back to the client for them to again choose their favourite of which was refined.

The strategies used throughout this whole process of communication, research and development allowed me to get a clearer understanding of what the client wanted which in turn allowed me to more effectively produce designs which suited what the client was looking for in a time-effective manner to meet their deadline, as well as helping to overcome certain problems which could typically occur when communicating only via email, such as miscommunication. This brief also taught me the importance of working to a client's wants and needs rather than simply doing what you think will look best, something which instills a notion of trust from client in yourself as a designer, and therefore potentially also more likely to recommend you to others.