Ask The Expert :: Graphic Designer Kimberly Schwede

Good Monday Morning!
Today we have a special treat for all of you, an interview with Graphic Designer extraordinaire, Kimberly Schwede! Kim is the amazing art director who designed both issues of Flirty Fleurs Magazine, plus my book Bella Bouquets, and many of the graphic images you see here on the Flirty Fleurs blog.
‘Tis the season that many floral designers are updating their marketing materials – website/blog updates, new business cards, stationary, heck a whole new business identity – so I’ve asked Kim to answer a few questions y’all have sent into Flirty Fleurs.

Question –
When working with a floral designer, what helps you to understand the client’s brand so that you can create a logo or website for the client?

Kim – A great place to start is to research the competition. What is the competition doing? How can we improve and beat the competition! Below are some questions I often send new clients to help them better understand their business wants and needs.

YOUR COMPANY
Describe your business: What do you do? Who is your main competition? How do you differ?

YOUR PROJECT
Who is your target market? Age groups and demographics?

Who are you currently marketing to? How do your clients find you? What makes your company unique?

Question –
What type of input materials do you like to see when designing a logo or web site…photos, other designs, etc.

Kim – These are some questions to get the creative juices flowing…

Describe in a few words the feelings you wish your brand to evoke: Beautiful, Modern, Feminine, Humorous, Fresh, Classic, High End, Friendly, etc…?

Which companies (design wise) do you like and dislike and why? Does not have to be in your market.

Are there particular designs you like in my portfolio? www.kimberlyschwede.com

For print materials photos need to be 300DPI resolution and for a website 72DPI resolution. The larger in size the better because I like to be able to crop and focus in on the key image.

Question –
What do you find most helpful when trying to bring to life someone’s business or brand?

Kim –
I like to see their reaction once the design process goes under way. There are usually 3 phases of design drafts. After the first phase the client chooses a direction to move forward with and from there we finesse the design until its satisfactory. To see a clients excitement and hear feedback on the various design phases leads to a beautiful final product. In the end its a lot of creative collaboration between the designer and client.

Question –
We are redesigning our website this year – exciting! We have decided on a template and have taken an inventory of our current site. We are figuring out what we would like to keep, what to remove and what to add. My question is, at what point in the process do you recommend bringing on the graphic designer? We were thinking we would figure out the written and visual content and then pull in the graphic designer, but I would love to hear your take.

Kim – It’s great for the client to organize their thoughts and content before meeting with a graphic designer. You’re off to a good start! Upon meeting a designer they will likely ask you the following questions:

*What is the focus of your website? Informational, Portfolio/Gallery, e-Commerce/Online Store?

*What feelings would you like a visitor to experience while visiting your site? Do you have a logo, color palette or font guidelines/style guide?

*Is there a particular product/service you want to draw the most attention to? What are your biggest money-makers?

*Please list a few websites you find compelling, interesting or similar to what you hope to achieve. What are the strengths of each of these sites?

*What does the outline of the website look like? What pages and sub-pages would you like? (i.e. Home, About, Gallery, Services, Press, Blog, Contact, etc)

*Then when gathering content a Word document of the text for each website page and 72DPI JPEG photos can be sent via Dropbox or email.

 
Thank you, Kim, for joining us today on the blog and for answering some questions from our readers! We really appreciate you expertise!!
For our readers, if you’d like more information about how to freshen up your business identity be sure to check out Kim’s design portfolio at: www.KimberlySchwede.com