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Shopping around for a graphic designer? Curious how Design Kompany is different from people you’ve met or hired in the past?
Big questions I get asked all the time are: how do we work, and how much do we cost.
Been thinking, and wanted to share these notes from a recent conversation with a Seattle software entrepreneur.
Q: What’s your approach to working with clients?
A: Honestly, it’s different every time.
But the overlapping part is that we get into a deep conversation about what it is that makes a product or service really interesting, memorable, and different. Can you summarize these for your business in two sentences?
The other creative director at Design Kompany, Akira Morita, and I are really good at drawing out your story. Especially points that may not be obvious to you, but are really strong. We offer fresh eyes, and perspective.
Then we give the strongest of these (your unique selling point, or USP), real shape and clarity.
That’s where we begin to build your brand identity, which includes your fresh new logo and what designers like to call “look and feel.”
Most people really like talking with us because we help them arrive at that two sentence “This is who I am!” a-ha moment.
Slating your brand positioning, in other words.
Every design we ever make stems from the core, your brand message.
To date, there’ve never been clients who have a totally clear idea of what their brand positioning is before they commission us.
With one notable exception:
The father of a restauranteur who commissioned Design Kompany for a logo design some years ago when we were based in Cork, Ireland, had been a marketing/agency guy in London for many years.
He was helping the startup get going, and at our first meeting, handed Akira and me a bullet-point, line-by-line, “creative brief.”
The CB spells out the details of tone, audience, and brand message. Pretty amazing. So much so that we’ve used his example as a skeleton to build out the goals for each DK project since.
Q: When do you get to designing things? I want to see pictures.
A: Once it’s about 80% clear about your audience and positioning, Akira and I put together a draft brand statement to get everyone on the same page.
This statement doesn’t ever have to be in the public eye, it’s just useful in helping propel everyone towards 100% clarity on audience and positioning and tone. When we’re talking about two or more people coming to consensus, this is super important.
A lot of what makes a design “good” is getting a strong concept down first–that’s why we do a preliminary “concept” sketch presentation before getting down to specifics like shape, font, color.
Concept is a big deal, because if the idea isn’t strong, who cares what it looks like.
So we do some major thinking on concept based on the brand message stuff we’ve worked out and arrived at in the formal brand statement.
Sometimes one or two rounds are needed, but honestly, the design comes together pretty quickly after that. The Northwest Asian Weekly’s new logo design came straight out of DK’s concept development phase, actually.
Here’s some other examples of brand identity designs Design Kompany’s made.
Q: Give me an example of this “concept” stuff.
A: Sure. Right now we’re working on an architect’s logo. He is really interested in pyramids, geometry, symmetry and space–but these things only came up when we started really talking about what he’s excited about.
So we’re using the Fibonacci sequence as the baseboard for a brand identity design, but it shows up in a subtle way that’s not corny or overt. Subtle, yet strong and confident is good.
We’ll be able to share the new design with you in about a month.
Q: How expensive are Design Kompany’s services?
A: About costs, we’re not cheap. Sorry to be vague, but I can answer specifics once I get a good sense of your project’s scope. Call or e-mail us, and we can set up a 10-15 minute conversation and give you a ballpark figure at the end. Our office number is 919.381.5364, or you can e-mail letsplay@designkompany.com.
Q: How long does it take, start to finish?
A: A good timeline is 3 months, just to give you time to live with ideas and incubate them. Along the way we usually think up reading assignments and ask you to give us things to read, too. Just another way to better get to know you as our client, how you think about things, and what’s important to you.
Q: Anything else you can tell me to help me make a decision about choosing DK?
A: Yeah, there’s one other thing.
To date, all our clients have been businesses of less than 20 people, so the owners’ personalities are pretty intimately tied to what they want people to perceive as “traits” of their offerings.
Still, Akira and I like to guide you to realizing that your business is ultimately its own thing, with its own personality and destiny.
So much of this business is fuzzy and intuitive, isn’t it? But when something’s right, you just know.
Q: How can I find out more?
A: Stop by one of our monthly happy hours at Stumbling Monk to meet us informally (we’re there first Mondays), or write or call us and we’ll get back to you within 3 business days.
More from Design Kompany’s portfolio >
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