TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice Will Mahon Will Mahon is Creative Director of Atticus Design. Atticus Design are a small graphic design studio based in Footscray, offering creative communication solutions in branding, logo design, print design, packaging, and web design. Atticus Design strive to deliver engaging, creative solutions tailored to each of their clients’ needs, in the arts, not for profit, retail and corporate sector. www.atticusdesign.com.au How do you get new business? Since becoming a graphic designer way back when... I’ve come to realise that everyone in this world needs to know a graphic designer. If I had received a dollar for every time after telling people that I’m a graphic designer they say, ‘oooh I know someone who needs a graphic designer’.... well I’d have a full jar of gold coins.
Perfect Black Swan CD Cover © Atticus Design 2010
The majority of projects we’ve been involved in have come about through word of mouth and referrals. Referrals from existing clients, industry contacts, and friends are a good way for people to know a bit more about the business they will potentially hire, as the recommendation is more than likely based on a positive experience from that referee.
It also helps to have a good portfolio of your work on hand to show prospective clients - one which is kept regularly up to date with current work, and is easily adaptable depending on the sort of client you are meeting with. A website showing examples of work is also very effective at capturing the attention of new clients.
Tell us about some of your clients. Well it’s a mixed bag of lollies, and they’re all different flavours. Our clients range from large corporate world-wide organisations to small businesses, community arts organisations, food packaging companies, musicians, law firms, arts festivals, aid organisations and education bodies. We purposely try to keep our client base as varied as possible, with an eye on trying to have both corporate as well as community based arts and cultural organisations and businesses. In working for such a diverse client base it’s important to be flexible in not just the creative ideas you’re communicating, but also being able to work within certain budgets, timeframes and business models.
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Bayside Youth Charter Logo © Atticus Design 2010
TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice How do you establish the needs of your clients/products? At the start of each project we engage with the client to gather as much information about their business and the project at hand. Firstly we discuss the brand personality of their business to get a better idea of the tone of communication that will be most effective to their client base. We talk to them about any aspirational goals for their business and where they see themselves in 1, 5, 10 years time. The next step is dissecting the project and all of the deliverables they require. We pull apart what they are selling / promoting to get a clearer idea of what they want to communicate, and discuss with them directions the project could take. This is an important discussion to have as you can suggest more appropriate devices for getting the message across that the client would never have thought of.
West Festival Brochure Cover © Atticus Design 2010
We also talk about work processes: the timeframe of the project, how the client would like the work presented (face-to-face presentation with story boards; digital files via email), regular meetings - essentially the important account management details that are vital to achieving the needs of the client and ensuring that the project runs smoothly and that lines of communication are clear and open. How do you make use of design briefs in your work? As I hear occasionally over the loud speaker at Dimmeys in Footscray, ‘Briefs Briefs Briefs!!! Everyone needs them!!!’. They are a fundamental tool in the process of graphic design. They are to a graphic designer what a toolbelt is to a carpenter.
Southern Region Industry Forums poster © Atticus Design 2010
Briefs are used to create a guiding document for a project team of creatives, account managers, and the client to make sure everyone is on the same page. They help define the background of the client, the objectives of the project, the deliverables, and a timeline to which everyone follows. Briefs are also an important reference to go back to when you’re going over ideas, to be reminded of the project goals.
Most of the time the client will supply the brief to the designer. However when working with smaller organisations who are time poor or unaccustomed to the process of graphic design, we will often produce a design brief for the client following the initial consultation for them to provide feedback on and essentially sign off on. This is not only to ensure we have interpreted the brief correctly, but is also a good way of educating the client as to how our studio runs and the working processes we have adopted in order to make the fun bit, the creative design, go smoothly. Without briefs... well... ask Denise at Dimmeys.
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TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice What methods of research do you use? Researching any project always begins by talking to the client. They are the best source through which to get to know everything about their target audience and the product. When researching the product itself we try to immerse ourselves in as much visual referencing from competing products, industry trends, and styles of communicating as possible - anything that could be appropriate for the project at hand. Each project is different in its own way, and each designer has a Horse Stories CD Cover © Atticus Design 2010 different way of working. Some go to the library to reference art history and illustration techniques, some scour the internet for bizarre imagery to generate ideas, others put headphones on and get in ‘the zone’.
How do you develop your design ideas?
Table of Plenty Packaging Design © Atticus Design 2010
Ideas are precious, precious things. The generation of ideas in relation to a project starts immediately after reading the brief and discussing the project with others – the client, other designers in the studio, your significant other... Even though you may not be in front of a computer or with pencil in hand, the brain automatically starts processing the scope of the project and the many weird and wonderful solutions that could be generated. We are all influenced by our surroundings, being bombarded with subliminal graphic imagery through our daily activities. As we start our day at home, on the train to the studio, the café where we buy our lunch, even Dimmey’s in Footscray - we absorb smells, sounds, light, colour, images that affect our creative output.
Every idea, or concept starts with a thought and is scribbled down on paper – whether in prose or through rough sketches. After generating enough strong ideas the studio gathers to discuss them as a whole, to weed out the ideas that won’t work, flesh out ideas into new directions, and eventually flag those that we think are strong enough to pursue as possible design solutions. The design team then begin to pull together graphic styles and imagery that will best articulate each direction. Depending on the project, we may go through this process a few times, aiming to refine the designs until they most perfectly articulate what it is we are trying to communicate graphically, and in accordance with the client brief.
How do you decide on the best design option? Tough choice. With the brief in hand it’s time to cull the fat. We circulate the designs to people who will judge them objectively, and who understand what the goal of the project is, and the audience it is directed to. Discussing and sometimes arguing over ideas helps justify why it’s a direction. This is also a helpful process to prepare you when presenting the ideas to the client. Law 554 Solicitors’ Business Card © Atticus Design 2010
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TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice
How involved are you in the production of the final design? Depending on the type of project I will oversee all production of the final design. To use an example of a brochure, before the file is sent to the printer each page will be checked to ensure that the highest attention of detail is made to maintain the design integrity of the project. There are also many technical elements that need to approved internally before a file is sent off to print. This will also be applied when checking proofs from the printer, and when the brochure is being printed by being present at the press to ensure the best result is achieved.
Who What Where Guide Cover Š Atticus Design 2010
Which other professional practitioners do you collaborate with? Illustrators, web designers, printers, accountants, freelance designers, copywriters, photographers, finished artists....
How do you evaluate your work?
Perfect Black Swan CD Cover Š Atticus Design 2010
On two levels. From a selfish point of view that we have created a beautiful piece that will have an effect on someone in a positive way, and secondly whether that piece has succeeded in communicating the goals outlined in the brief. For example this could be a measure of attendance at an event, or the increase in sales of a product - which all can be attributed to effective visual communication.
Another level of evaluation is if the client is happy with the outcome and they have had a positive response to the design. This helps build the relationship that we have with the client, will hopefully lead to more projects, and potentially more referrals to new businesses.
Tin Chef flier Š Atticus Design 2010
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