Doing what we do well …

At Swish Design we are constantly examining our processes and systems to ensure that we are consistently in a position to deliver our services at the level our clients have come to expect.

A recent examination highlighted for us that there are certain things we do really well, and hence are really efficient at. The things we are most efficient at save our clients money because we bill in time. Conversely, there are things that don’t come so naturally to us and hence introduce inefficiencies into our workflow and slow us down.  So what specifically did we identify?

Well obviously, anything involved with design – we’re pretty good at that. When we are given a solid design brief, with all the relevant copy and required imagery, we absolutely fly! Clients that brief us at this high level are rewarded with high quality design at a great price.

The other side of the coin is the situation where we have to justify to a client why a simple DL Flyer took up four hours of design time when it really should have taken two.  This situation arises when we are given bits and pieces and asked to “drop in whatever you think” or “grab any extra text you need from our website” or “do you mind finding images for us”. What occurs here is effectively guess work on our part. We have to guess what text the client wants us to grab off their website. We have to hope that our idea of a “funky image” matches the client’s idea of a funky image. Even when we nail it there still exists the obvious inefficiencies involved with having to go searching for something. When we don’t nail it, usually what we hear is “oh no, that’s not what I had in mind, put this in there instead”. So not only have we spent time creating a design around copy and imagery that is inappropriate, we then have to re-do the design with the correct imagery and copy. This obviously all takes up valuable time and needs to be charged out … and can often make a very simple job quite expensive.

So this may be a good time to define exactly what it is we do. We are designers. We are very good at taking your ideas and concepts and making them look good no matter the medium – be it a flyer or logo or website or poster or annual report.

The “ideas people” … they’re called marketing professionals. Their job is to figure out what you are trying to achieve and come up with a concept around which your campaign will be built. The marketing professional then takes their concept to a designer (that’s us) whose job it is to bring their concept to life in the required medium.

Some of our clients do their own marketing work. They are very good at coming to us with their concept, they provide all the necessary copy and either provide us with the exact imagery they want to use, or they tell us precisely what kind of imagery is appropriate. Some of our clients don’t have these skills, but we have job briefing forms that allow us to tease the necessary information out of them. Then we get clients who like to give us a blank piece of paper, they’re not sure what they’re trying to achieve with their flyer or poster and they’re not sure what they want to put on there! In this situation we are loathe to perform the “marketing” work because it’s not our core business, it introduces inefficiencies into our workflows and most importantly, if the client’s campaign is not successful – exposes us to possible liability. We’re happy to take responsibility for poor design work, but not for poor marketing work.

So what to do in this situation? Well Swish Design has access to all types of marketing professionals – Creatives, Copy Writers, Brand Specialists, Public Relations – you name it, we know someone! So please don’t be offended if we point you in the direction of one of these people when you are unable to brief us properly. Ultimately, it will save you money. Because you will be paying someone to do what they are most qualified to do, they’ll be doing the job as quickly as it can be done which means you will be paying less at the end of it all!