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Our Design Process [VIDEO]

November 13, 2013    Reading Time: 3 Minutes

I’ve created this video to go over our design process and what it’s like to work with us. We’ll start from the initial call or email, all the way through to the final product.

Video: Our Design Process – Graticle Design

 

Video Transcription

Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m with Graticle Design. We’re a web and graphics company.

Today I’d like to go over our process so you can know exactly what to expect when working together. From first contacting us, to a finished project.

Every company is different in their process, and that’s why I want to show you how we work and what you can expect.

So let’s get into it:

You’ve either emailed us through our Request a Quote form on our Contact page, or you’ve simply given us a call.

The first thing we’ll talk about is your project you have in mind.

We’ll have a few questions like:

What is the importance of this project?
Your goals and ambitions for the project?
What does a success of the project look like?
What is your deadline?
What is your budget?

This will help us gather a better understanding and get us both on the same page.

After our initial conversation, we’ll then start researching the various aspects of your project and develop a proposal. We’ll recommend strategies and options and do our best to make sure this project is the success that you are hoping it will be.

We’re not going to take an order and mindlessly pursue it without thinking it through. We’re going to best guide you based on our experience. After all, you wouldn’t be hiring us if you planned on doing this yourself.

With the proposal it can either be a simple email bullet pointing the various aspects of your project and including a price. Or for larger projects, a complete design brief including milestones, deadlines, and a price or estimate for each of these steps.

Almost all projects are different. Although they share basic details such as a WordPress website or brochure, they are all different. With that in mind, we tailor the proposal and project to your needs.

Again, we won’t put together a cookie cutter template, rush through the project, and are off to the next job. We take our time to make sure your experience and the end project is something you can be proud of and see results from.

After we’ve presented our proposal, assuming we’re on track, we put together a contract and terms, and then both of us sign it, and now we’re ready to start on the project.

We ask you for the content that we’ll be using in the design (text and images) and we’ll start the first stage: the wire-frame.

A wire-frame is a simple layout that keep us restricted to basic typography, hierarchy in the design, contrast, and overall balance. You can think of this stage as the foundation of a house, everything else will be built on top of it, so a strong structure is needed. We also use this stage as a chance to keep communication open. Once we’re finished with the wire-frame, we’ll present it to you. After that, we’ll make a revision or two, receive approval from you, and start digging into the design further.

This second stage of design will be where we choose the typeface(s), add color and texture. We’ll go through a similar process as the wire-frame, and then presenting it to you. The majority of the time, this initial design is approved, but we may need to go through a revision or two.

And that’s about it.

We take the final product and deliver it.

If this final product is a website, we move it onto our server for the world to see. If it’s a print project, we’ll take the final design, send it off to print, and have them shipped to you when printing is completed.

All of this is completed within budget and within the deadline that we agreed upon in the contract. You were involved through each step of the project, so the end result is not something that you were surprised by, rather something that you expected.

I hope you’ve found this video to be helpful and was able to better help you understand our process while working together.

Feel free to share this video with anyone that could use our help in pursuing their web and graphics needs.

If you have any questions or would like to talk about your project you have in mind,
you can give us a call at (360) 450-3711 and we’ll help you out.

Written by Shawn Hooghkirk on November 13, 2013

Last updated on August 31, 2016. Shawn is the President of Graticle, Inc.

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My Husband and I set out to create a clean, user-friendly site. Shawn did just that. He was such a delight to work with. He responded quickly, is patient with my lack of computer knowledge, and had a great eye for design. I would recommend him to all my friends and anyone looking web work done.

Kimberly Lugg

iKlugg

www.iKlugg.com

Raleigh, North Carolina

I really can’t fully express how great my experience was working with Shawn and Graticle. I work for a non-profit and our website had fallen into disrepair–we had even lost ownership of our domain name! But Shawn went above and beyond and walked me through the process of getting our domain name back, along with the complete design of the new site. I absolutely LOVED that he developed videos that walked us through the process of managing the website–from logging in, to editing photos, to changing content–he covered all the bases we needed to take care of our new site. This was particularly appreciated because, as a non-profit, we will likely be moving through web managers over the years and having these videos to pass on to each new manager will be an incredible relief, and will (hopefully) help us avoid the trap we fell into with our last site. He is the most responsible businessman I’ve ever worked with, he was extremely prompt in his replies to emails, and I never felt like he left us hanging or confused at any step along the way. I recommend his services with full marks! You won’t regret it!

Katrina

Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex

FriendsWVNWRC.org

Corvallis, Oregon