Outsourcing work to a third party firm can be daunting. While it's a great way to effectively get work expertly done, there can be a lot of unknowns. How will the agency or freelancer spend their time? What exactly will I get in the end? Am I getting a fair price?
At Šek, we've intentionally kept our studio small to provide our clients open and personalized service in addition to great design work. Today, we want to bring that openness here to all of you - whether you're a client or not.
While every client is different (how boring would it be if they weren't!), our overall process when partnering with an organization is more or less the same. Below you'll see that process mapped out. From this you'll know exactly what to expect when working with us and what we'll be doing behind the scene in between our meetings together.
Our Process, Step By Step
Now Let's Break It Down
Connect
Starting from the top, the Inquiry phase is simply outreach to Šek to explain a project need.
Project Alignment is where we get to learn more about you and your project: the objective, specific needs, timelines, budgets, etc. This gets us on the same page for how we can best partner together.
We then put together a Quote outlining the various elements we talked about and their cost. We view the initial quote as a first draft for us to further hone in on which elements should be left in or removed from the final scope of work.
Once we're all in alignment on the quote, clients simply have to Accept the quote and we're off to the races.
The last housekeeping piece we nail down before we begin the design work is setting up an Invoice Structure. We require a deposit on all projects but can be flexible with how payment is received for the remainder.
Discover
Expanding on the information we collected during our first meeting, we'll send over an In-Take Brand Identity Questionaire (BIQ) for clients to complete. Your answers help give us a good understanding of your business to work from.
You know your business inside and out, and we want to too. During the Brand Meeting, we'll learn the details of your business so we design creative that fits with your brand and your vision for the business.
Projects typically include some Collection of information to get started. This could be pieces like access to brand guidlines or photo galleries, examples of work you like or don't like, etc.
Learn
During this step we're busy behind the scenes. We get deep in the weeds and Research everything from your business' audience, its industry and its competitors.
Utilizing all the information you provided plus the research we do on our end, we'll begin to Brainstorm ideas for how to bring your project to life. The ideas we come up with focus on setting you apart and showcasing what makes your business unique.
Create
Next, we'll Sketch our brainstormed ideas into visual representation to weed out weaker ideas.
Building on the strongest ideas from the sketch stage, holistic, larger scale Concepts are Created.
Those concepts are then Mocked-Up to see how they each perform in context. We push to try to "break" concepts by developing the design to be used across multiple mediums to make sure it remains strong no matter the platform it's used in.
Align
Through mock-ups and testing, we'll narrow down our idea even further. We'll take the top 1-3 concept and Present them to the appropriate group of stakeholders for consideration.
You'll be given time to select which concept direction you'd like to move forward with as well as share any Feedback you have.
We'll implement the Revisions you'd like to see made and share the updated designs with you for your final approval.
And there you have it, your final files Delivered in all the formats you'll need for use going forward!
Wrap-Up
With your final assets in hand, we'll collect Payment for the remaining invoice balance.
Our clients' feedback help us provide better service in the future. So after a project we'll ask you to provide your feedback (good, bad and ugly) and suggestions on your Experience working with us.
Branding and design touch so many aspects of a business. So as a step of our wrap-up phase, we check to see if you have any Additional Needs. We'd love to help you connect with your customers and differentiate from your competitors any way we can.