Graphic Design & Web Development Processes Explained

Our Design and Web Processes Explained

It’s often the case that we’re asked by clients just what happens to their projects behind the closed doors of our enigmatic and mysterious studio, so we thought we’d put together the following blog explaining our processes in a lot more detail; it’s not as though we get client briefs in and brilliant designs just magically fly out, you know? Think of us like Willy Wonka, and this blog like your personal golden ticket to our very own (albeit a lot less enigmatic and mysterious) virtual chocolate factory.

Stage 1: The Handover
In general, the majority of our new clients will have dealt at length with our new business team, who are responsible for agreeing sales, negotiating price points and such like; they’re the high-flying deal clinchers, if you will. Once you’ve commissioned a project with us (and we’ve completed all the admin that is not nearly interesting enough to feature in our highly entertaining blog), you’ll be passed on to one or more of our project managers, depending on the size of your brief.

These guys function as mediators between clients and the design team; they make sure your project is always getting the care and attention it deserves, and also keep you updated as to how things are rolling along. Once they’ve touched base with you, and everything is hunky dory, your project will be passed on to the relevant branch of SO, whether that be our graphic designers, our web developers, or even our branding specialists.

We even use a fancy CRM system (again, didn’t make the cut for the blog) which basically allows us to keep a track of where everyone is up to with their individual pieces of work, meaning that our projects almost never exceed their predetermined deadlines.

Stage 2: Enter the Studio

From here, your project, on its meandering journey down our chocolate river, will be passed onto our design studio manager. Once it’s arrived into our studio, it’s our policy to make sure we begin working on your project within 5 days. This policy helps our studio manager, and all of his various small, orange-skinned, green-haired workers whom we can’t name for copyright reasons, keep track of the multitude of graphic design or web development projects we’ve got going on.

Again, all of this is done to ensure that every new project we take on receives the same level of time, attention to detail and professional care that sets us aside from other web design agencies. We carefully manage our studio in such a way that projects rarely have a chance to run over deadline, only in the most exceptional of circumstances.

Stage 3: Feedback, Feedback, Feedback!

Feedback, both internally and externally, is one of the most crucial parts of every one of our projects, and is what allows us to develop truly outstanding, unique designs. Once initial proofs have been completed, they then travel up the ladder back to the studio and project manager, and having passed our highly pedantic eyes, eventually land on your desk (or probably, in your inbox).

We even use a purpose built instant messaging service called Slack that has been specifically designed for creative agencies. Using the app, we are able to see where drafts have been sent, who they have had approval/feedback on, and how they’ve progressed from brief to final proofs. Once again this streamlines our service, allowing us to focus our time where it matters; on your projects.

Stage 4: A Waiting Game

Waiting on you guys to give us feedback can sometimes be a very long, drawn out process; getting clients’ input on their designs can usually take anything from a couple of days to a few months! The thing is though, this is probably the most important bit of the project, so we’re happy to wait around a bit.

Once we’ve had feedback from the client, positive or negative, the notes are added to our CRM system, and the project is slotted right back into the same 5 working day schedule as before. When juggling all these web design and branding projects, we need a tightly regimented system such as this one to make sure that everything runs smoothly on a day-to-day basis. Don’t worry though; if you’ve got a tight deadline to make (and you ask really nicely) we’re always happy to put the extra hours in to get things done.

Stage 5: Signing Off

Projects can go through this cycle any number of times, depending on how happy you are with the proofs, and how much helpful feedback you can offer us, but eventually we see the light at the end of the tunnel! The signing off process, however, differs widely depending on what type of project you’ve commissioned us to do.

With our graphic design briefs, it’s all a much more cut and dry affair; once you’ve agreed upon a finalised set of proofs, we can then collate them in the correct file formats and send them on to you or your printers as is required. Happy days!

Web development projects, however, take a little more time. Once everyone’s happy with the designs that our creative team have come up with, they’re then passed onto our development and coding team who make dreams into reality! (Well, actually, they just turn great designs into user friendly websites, you get the picture). And once these guys have finished doing their thing, the website will finally go live, and sign off will be completed.

In truth, from conception through to sign off, it’s a long process that requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears on our part, but that’s all part of being an award winning agency (did we mention that?). We’re a medium agency that thinks big, a concept that feeds into each and every one of our projects (although we’ve not managed to make everlasting bubblegum just yet), so if you like the sound of our style, why not drop us a call?

Photos Taken by Steve at Lumic Photograpahy – www.lumicphoto.co.uk