Design Thinking – Discovering and defining your problem

Branding Reading Time: 2 minutes

It can be very daunting starting a design project, whether you’re a designer yourself or a client. However by ensuring you have a firm design process in place, you can streamline the development and create far superior results.

Each design agency will have a unique design process but we will always start in the same place, understanding you as the client and defining your problem. Understanding your business entails grasping your beliefs, needs and values. This is immensely important as it can help generate ideas and even create design solutions.

Identifying where the problem lies will make creating a design solution easier, to do this we may directly ask what you want to solve or if you cannot identity it yourself, use in-depth research. Its also crucial to make sense of that research and use it effectively.

Ask questions such as:

Is this information useful?

Does it benefit the project in any way?

How can it be used to define the creative brief?

This is an example of the stages we go through to begin developing your brand:

1. Determine what you want to achieve.

Whether this is a completely new identity or a refresh on your existing design. How will this impact your business?

2. Define the problem you’re having achieving your goals.

This needs to be as critical as possible and will focus on in-depth research into your competitors and designs you feel represent your company.

3. Establish some potential solutions.

We will begin the design process and present you with some initial concepts.

4. Deliver you the final design.

Once we have gone through the design process, we will present you with he finalised designs. But we don’t just disappear after that, we will then continue an ongoing relationship to help you nurture and develop your brand.

At the end of this initial process we will have a clearly defined brief that will provide us as a team with the direction thats needed to keep to deadlines and produce high quality outcomes. These  will not only impress you but also your clients.

Using this information at the start of a project can gives us the knowledge and direction to deliver some beautiful, dynamic and compelling designs. It ensures the designs have a comprehensive meaning and are in touch with your company values and your customers needs. Finally it can help you understand why design is one of the most important elements of a project and should never be overlooked.

If you have a design problem that you can’t quite solve, get in touch with us here on our website or give us a call on 01329565001.