In the creative world, research is the backbone of every project.
In one way or another, we’re always doing research. There isn’t ever a time that we start a project without researching first, because that would go against all of our values. It ’s almost like the work equivalent of starting your day by skipping breakfast—it’s too detrimental to our health and growth to ignore.
So what is our research process?
Let’s use an example from a project we had a few weeks ago. One of our clients was in need of a new billboard design to bring his online advertising campaign full-circle.
At first, we used very general search terms related to our client’s industry to pull inspiration. Then we searched for more targeted phrases based on the results we found. We searched not only billboards for inspiration, but websites, print magazine campaigns, and social media as well. We looked to see how others in our client’s industry carried their campaigns across multiple platforms. We analyzed what made some stand out from others and why we liked or didn’t like their approach.
After sifting through this general research, we looked more specifically at what our client’s competitors were doing and throughout this process, we took notes. We took notes on anything and everything—from font choices and colors to syntax and imagery usage. We printed these notes and inspiration images out and hung them on our walls.
Next, we gathered around our conference room – coffee and research in-hand.
Every individual assigned to this project projected their findings – from inspirational images to compelling campaigns for everyone else around the table to see. This part of the process is curcial. Giving every individual an opportunity to share feedback and offer suggestions exponentially increases the scope of our research to see what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t. For instance: What makes this idea dull? How can we make it better? What happens if we remove this word?
Once comfortable, we moved away from the research and began designing.
We presented our ideas to the client. Our research made another appearance in the process: when presenting the billboard to the client, we shared a general idea of what we gathered while researching for his project. This helped the client better understand where we were going with the billboard design and why we made some of the choices we did.
From the beginning to the end, research is a constant in our projects.
We do our everyday research in order to help our clients reach their marketing goals. And guess what? We like doing it. So reach out to us if you need help marketing your business—we’ll do the research so you don’t have to.