Over the past 3.5 years Container Creative has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with the Group by managing their brand and design work.

Container Creative was commissioned to create a logo and brand that was optimistic and gave people the feeling that they could do something about this cause without a sense of helplessness.

I realise that the client is just trying to gauge how much time they may need to set aside, or maybe that they need to report back to other stake holders about the process. I don’t intentionally try to irritate anyone. The truth is you need to have goals and timelines to keep things on track and stick to a good working schedule to keep the momentum going, but ultimately hurdles appear.

Here are a few areas to take into consideration when jumping into a new
design project:

Client and designer schedules – How much attention can you (the client) give to answer questions, review drafts and supply information at any given time during the project? If it is not much, then ultimately the project time can drag out to get the best result. Likewise with the designer, if there are many projects on at the same time, then a longer schedule may be required. What most people don’t understand is that most design projects require a commitment from the client to be involved and think about the suggestions or visuals being presented. It is what makes the design… well, design.

Time for supplier schedules – If you need to get something printed on paper, products, vehicles or signs they each require a time frame to complete and need to be signed off before production commences. Give yourself plenty of time to carefully check things before production. It can be very costly to skim over this stage if something
is not right.

Variations to the solution –  The design may not resolve itself as quickly as first hoped. Sometimes it just takes time to work through many designs to get to the correct one. It is neither the client or designer that is at fault, it is variable each time and is a natural part of the process. You don’t know what you’re in for until you get started.

So this is why my dreaded answer of: ‘It depends’ is sometimes a necessary evil. I like to manage expectations as best I can, however it can become a reality that the initial timeline goal may not have been so realistic.

A big tip during the design process:
Do not showcase the information or visuals you get back from the designer to as many people as you can to get their feedback to help your decisions along the way. This will ultimately water down the end result if done all throughout the project. Design is a solution to your communication issues. You must get your key message in order and the visual that relates to it sorted before you can involve others. As the old saying goes ‘a camel was a horse designed by a committee’. Everyone has a visual opinion and unless they have the full story they wont make an educated response to that visual. Just think of the differences in fashion, music and food that appeal to different people. It can be huge, so asking your friends who will all have varying tastes, backgrounds and may not be your direct target market, is an unwise decision to help you make yours.

People can also react badly to change without a story behind it. It is out of their comfort zone, so they don’t feel they can relate to it. This especially applies to re-brands, where sometimes a whole campaign is needed to educate people of the change and why. Even then, it may still take some time for them to adjust to the change. Have you ever had a song that you didn’t really like when you first heard it, but it grew on you after a while? Visual trends come and go, but if the logo relates to its market and relates to the message the organisation stands behind, you have somewhat future proofed your brand. People can accept that the design isn’t really for them, but if it communicates the right message then they tend to get used to it and accept it’s position in their world.

Content: Historical account of the school over 150 years. Includes historical scans, photographs and students from Winters Flat Primary School located in the regional town of Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia.

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