ImageFirst News

Ever have a client that wants or needs a new sign, and that’s all the information you are provided?

It’s hard for a client to com­mu­ni­cate what they want, some­times they are not sure on the bud­get (or just won’t share it with you), and have lim­it­ed or no design cri­te­ria at the fore­front of the discussion. 

These are the times you wish you had a mag­ic wand to come up with some­thing awe­some and inspiring. 

We’ve all been there, it can be hard, but they are com­ing to you for help because YOU are the expert.

So, let’s flip this sce­nario on it’s head. 

What a superb oppor­tu­ni­ty to take charge of the process and come up with some­thing amaz­ing, right?

Here’s 10 steps to ​“mag­ic wand” your way to a quote:

1. Images. You can learn a lot from hav­ing a client either bring images of signs they like (or hate) and show­ing them images of exam­ples of either pre­vi­ous­ly made signs or signs you feel might be a good design fit. 
2. Brand­ing. Review the client’s brand guide­lines, logos, and con­tent that is to go on the sign. Is there a hor­i­zon­tal and a ver­ti­cal ver­sion? Fig­ure this out fast, it makes a dif­fer­ence in the look, feel, and obvi­ous­ly the ori­en­ta­tion of the sign.
3. Archi­tec­ture. Is this an inte­ri­or or exte­ri­or sign? Is there sig­nif­i­cant archi­tec­tur­al ele­ments that could be pulled out to cre­ate and enhance the design of the sign? Put a lit­tle thought into this, the sign design could be stand­ing right in front of you; exte­ri­or ele­va­tion, rail­ing detail, cor­nice, build­ing materials/​finish, etc.
4. Sketch. Every­one can draw a box right? Sketch with your client. Take the images and sketch rough con­cepts with your client expand­ing on the com­po­nents that the client liked from one or two of them. 
5. Head nods. Very impor­tant. Don’t force your idea or you’ll go into design and be wast­ing time. Once you get some head nods from the client on your sketch­es you’re on the right track. 
6. Ask. Direct­ly ask your client if they feel com­fort­able mov­ing for­ward with design, share your rates, present a quote for design only. Explain your process of mov­ing forward.
7. Options. Have your design­er pro­vide 3-5 options. Review them before pre­sent­ing to your client, you know the project best so pro­vide feed­back. Elim­i­nate the clut­ter, remove any designs that don’t fit and present only the best designs that fit the project and client. 
8. Present. In per­son is always a good idea to get ini­tial feed­back and a gen­er­al ​“feel” for the con­cepts. Remem­ber, they are pay­ing for these designs, so show them the val­ue of being present. Bring mate­r­i­al sam­ples or addi­tion­al sim­i­lar images too, if rel­e­vant. Help them see what you and your design­er see. 
9. Ask Again. Direct­ly ask your client ​“are you ready to receive a quote on a spe­cif­ic design or would you like fur­ther revisions?”
10. Great job! Quote it and close it, I think you can take it from here.

Need ideas, images, capa­bil­i­ties? We can help. Email us at info@​imagefirstsigns.​com