#9. Find a design firm / designer that is current and understands the ad market.

Design & creativity are key:

Here is the thing:
The people you are promoting to and wanting to work with, eat, sleep, even dream design.

So much so, they collect design books, read design magazines (Communication Arts, ID, How), they collect these magazines and read them cover to cover, especially those featuring design awards. They make movies about typefaces (i.e, “Helvetica” by Gary Hustwit). They buy every apple gadget, because its design worthy. They covet any house featured in Dwell Magazine. They collect furniture from modern gods including Charles & Ray Eames, Philip Stark, Heywood & Wakefied to name a few. And, when shopping for food, wine, cosmetics, etc a vast majority of what makes its way into their cart is based on packaging design.

And look around. Design is everywhere, and important to just about everyone. This is why brands like Target or H&M bring in top name designers to create lines of clothes, housewares, etc. that all can afford.

A good designer will guide you and your brand into a place that resonates with the creative world, and makes you memorable.

And creatives will love it and you.
They will call you when they get your promo.
They will comment on your business card.
…and they will appreciate that you have an eye for design.

Your designer should be aware of all this, bring solutions to the table that will resonate with this market, and be willing to give you good design that matches your budget.



Tip on how to begin working with your designer:

• Provide your designer with a clear understanding of your likes and dislikes and where you are in the market place.
• Show them 2-3 of your competitors: commercial photographers who you feel like you lose business to (not who you admire or hope to be)
• Do your own design research, look at brands, websites and marketing materials you admire and present them to your designer
(include examples that are not photographers)



Here are a few I like:

Retail:
http://www.diesel.com/ (fabulous look at culture, and great give aways every year that we collect)
http://www.jackspade.com/shop/home.php (clean simple site product and focus is clear)
http://www.louisvuitton.com/ - very strong and well executed brand
http://www.mossonline.com/ - one of the coolest design stores
http://www.eieiostudio.com/index.html - started by designers
http://www.papress.com/ - these guys put out the best design books

Design: these are the places designers / ad guys comb through
http://www.commarts.com/
http://www.aiga.org/
http://www.adclub.org/

Photographers who have a rockin’ brands
http://www.markzibert.com/
http://www.redpathstudios.com/
http://www.margecasey.com/
http://www.sharpeonline.com/ - John Sharpe is a very smart man, he uses a different, hip design firms every year to do his marketing materials
http://www.zacharyscottphoto.com/
http://www.davidemmite.com/



Q&A with Suzanne:

I asked Suzanne Sease to contribute a weekly comment. My question was: Coming from your background at the Martin Agency, what do you feel is the focus for ad agencies when receiving materials?

“Long before I became a consultant, I was a senior art buyer at The Martin Agency (as a freelancer at Kaplan-Thaler and Capital I dodged the mailers). I was your target in your mailer marketing efforts. So many mailers, so little time. I found myself looking at postcard or self mailers as I could review them quickly but I did not necessarily keep them unless the images were something special that I felt I could use sometime in the near future. The mailers that were always kept were the ones that I could tell were thought out in image selection, design and execution. If your mailer got my attention and I had time to check out your website, I wanted it to be fast and user friendly. Don't use some "clever" navigation tool that I have to figure out. And if you get past all that and I call in your portfolio, it better be great. In many cases, your printed portfolio is what seals the deal. Imagine your portfolio called in for a big meeting with all the agency folks presenting to the client and your competition just blows you out of the water. I have seen it happen. The whole package is what is crucial to your success.”