Creative design projects can be incredibly complex to manage. Especially if you’re trying to complete one under the direction of more than one individual in a client’s business, or if you’re completing a design project for your own business. It can be a grueling process to coordinate all that’s necessary to ensure things finish without a hitch.
With that in mind, we’d like to share our best tips for managing a successful design project. It’s often a critical component of success in these projects to follow clear, systematic processes which can apply equally to any kind of project, and our first steps involve creating those processes.
Identifying the Stages of a Design Project
No matter what kind of design project you’re managing (web, video, etc.), there are usually two clear stages of the project.
The conceptual stage of a design project is the stage where you decide on overall themes, lay out potential ideas, brainstorm information, and finalize your direction. Often, the creative process can pose enough challenges without needing to worry about managing other processes and steps on top of that workload, so having a clear structure for the conceptual stage is key.
The execution stage is when you begin bringing your ideas to life. You’ll finalize layouts, fonts, and choose and confirm all the options necessary to make a completed product ready for delivery.
You should, for any project, be able to separate it into these stages, and from there begin building your processes. This will help ensure repeatable successes, produce less anxiety for you, employees, and clients because you will always know where you are in each process, and have a clear direction to completion.
Creating Processes for Your Design Project
Different classes of design project are likely to require different processes: for example, designing a brochure might not require the same processes as designing a website. But there are specific kinds of processes which can be shared between all kinds of projects. For example, you can make certain to interview clients at the beginning of conceptual stage to determine what they’re looking for: what kinds of design they like, get samples of other work they might want to emulate, find out the purpose and intended impact of the piece is, and so forth.
You should also incorporate getting client feedback on your design at the end of both the conceptual stage and execution stage, to ensure that you’re not wasting time and creating a product the client won’t be satisfied with. You should also crowdsource opinions from all individuals related to a project at various points: for example, individuals helping with printing a piece of print collateral may have valuable information for the conceptual stage, such as text safety overhang requirements near edges or folds, and web developers may be able to suggest design choices which are more easy to fabricate than others.
In general, your process should follow this rough outline:
- Interview the client to get basic guidance on the conceptual stage
- Produce a few broad concepts
- Gather opinions from everyone working on the project
- Winnow down to two or three concepts
- Get input from the client
- Begin the execution stage
- Gather opinions from everyone working on the project
- Complete the project
- Get input from the client
These steps form the bare bones elements of completing a design which has been thoroughly tested and vetted, and meets all expectations.
Understand Your Limits
It’s important to understand your own personal limitations. Are you an impeccably organized individual who always comes in on-time and under-budget? Great! You’re probably going to have no trouble managing a successful design project. But if, like most of us, you’re not? Don’t be afraid to admit that to yourself. Play to your strengths: not your weaknesses! If you need help managing projects, or creating processes, there are plenty of apps and software out there to help you. Clarizen is a good example of a program flexible enough to work for enterprises or teams, and can manage resources, tasks, and even aspects of planning.
In Summary
Big projects are often a headache, and design projects especially so: simply because the creative process can be so daunting! But there are simple, measurable steps any firm can take to reduce those headaches, and establish a seamless system to ensure that they are consistently producing quality works.
