The 10 Commandments of Design

It’s no secret that we have entered the age of design, perhaps a little later than most of our neighbors. No one can deny, however, that design is a powerful force that manifests itself through branding, websites, exhibitions, and advertisements. This “design-force” is undoubtedly what is distinguishing one product from another. And it’s no secret that the attractive-ness and visual quality of any item is a key factor in determining its market-ability.

Every where you turn, it’s staring at you in the face! Whether it’s an Abu al-Kheir Jewelry billboard on the Mezzeh Highway, the menu you are holding in your hands at Gemini Restaurant, or even an irritating banner that pops up while surfing the Net. There are a few basic preventative measures that will protect you from committing ultimate design blunders. They will ensure the absence of a headache when coming to deal with inevitable issues like creating a website or searching for the most suitable designer for a job. Keep in mind that “most suitable” doesn’t always mean “cheapest.” So here they are: the pillars of Graphic Design; the Ten Commandments. Thou shall allocate a budget for your design needs: Let’s face it, if you haven’t already set aside an amount for design needs, you’re long over-due. Whether it’s for a website, printing packages, or even for your stand at some annual exhibition, there’s always going be some fee to pay the professionals. Even if you’re not yet prepared to do it formally by informing your accountant to allocate a certain amount at your annual budgeting meeting; the least you can do is be psychologically prepared. Nothing is for free nowadays, and if you’re not willing to spend extra pounds on such a powerful marketing tool, which in turn will undoubtedly increase profit and revenue, then what will you spend your money on? Thou shall employ a professional graphic designer: Every field has its specialists. You cannot employ an accountant to draw up some blue prints and maps for your villa in Yaafour, that is, unless he minored in accounting and originally has an Architecture Degree. There are always the inner workings of a complex system that ONLY the professionals will take into consideration. For a graphic designer that could be the resolution of large scale printing or website dimensions, compatible with the Internet speed in Syria. It’s things like these that an accountant who likes to practice his little aside hobby of design would never take into consideration. Your designer doesn’t have to be some New York Parsons graduate, or an international advertising agency. You just have to ind someone who acts like a professional, is organized, and to you, seems talented. These are at-tributes that you can discern from an interview and the designer’s portfolio—the key to the chamber of his talent. If your designer hasn’t heard of the term “portfolio,” then don’t even bother to continue the interview. And again, nothing is for free. Graphic de-sign is a formal profession preceded by a formal education. Most of us worked very hard to reach where we are now. Designers work with the “time-factor”, in which we measure the worth of the design by the time and effort it takes to create it. For instance, the fee of a logo alone, will not be equivalent to the fee of a whole corporate identity. Furthermore, the fee for a 20 second demo CD of your company is not going to be drastically more expensive than the fee of a brochure because animation in its nature is very time consuming and will take much longer to create than most printed material. Working on projects is incredibly time consuming, but we love it. That is why we continue to do it, and why we can sometimes charge high fees for specific designs.

Thou shall develop a corporate

identity: The most basic form of de-sign for your business is your logo; the insignia that best represents your company and what it stands for. The essential elements of a corporate identity are compromised of, a business card, letterheads, envelopes, stickers, CD covers, bloc notes. Furthermore, each one of these elements must work harmoniously within a system in order to ensure unity of your design and increase consumer loyalty. It demonstrates ultimate internal organization and care for external appearance. Thou shall develop a website: As more and more people are getting access to it, the Internet is becoming the most useful promotion and advertising method. Moreover, it’s the cheapest way to obtain international customers. With a few effortless clicks, a 35 year old business mogul in Ku-wait could learn about your firm, get a glimpse of your products, and even more importantly, go on to order this product or service online. Long gone is the mandatory face to face contact that could be rather time-consuming and expensive. Say hello to fairly cheap advertising.

Thou shall perform maintenance and checkups: Like a finely tuned car, you always have to take it back to the dealers to ensure that everything is running smoothly. Designers commonly refer to such maintenance as “tweaking” in which they would want to check up on their designs from time to time. For example it could be that the address of your company has changed and thus changes must follow on the business cards and envelopes. Or perhaps new pictures must be uploaded onto the gallery of your website. Whatever it is that you have done, you must call on your designer to come in and checkup. After all, you can’t take your Volkswagen to the BMW dealer.

Thou shall always be open to up-dates and reinvention: Nowadays time is moving at warp speed. Technology is always developing newer and better ways to make our lives easier. Thus, old designs might not be compatible with developing visual and technological techniques. Your old logo might be outdated simply be-cause it doesn’t look modern, keeping in mind that a logo can be stylistically old yet created with the latest technology. Consequently, a company that updates itself from any aspect, only signifies that it is keeping up with the fast moving pace of the world, and is always “on top of things”.

Thou shall not betray your designer: It’s advisable that once a project is given to a designer or firm, that it remains with them from A to Z. Even the specialists of the same field can-not overtake each other’s work and pick up where the previous one left off. A project is like a designer’s baby in which he or she gives birth to the idea, nurtures it, knows what’s in its best interest, has future plans for it, and eventually knows when to let go of it. If you’re not satisfied with the design, that’s an entirely different is-sue. Either you can work with your existing designer for better results, or seek a new one who should start the project from scratch. But never give leftovers to a designer. Things can go wrong: Because so many people are involved in the design process, the reality of the situation is that things can go wrong. The design of your envelopes might be ready, but perhaps an error occurred during printing and called for a reprint. Your billboard design for the Bloudan highway might be ready to go up the day you wanted it to, but perhaps the billboard company is a little crammed with additional customers and needs another week. Again, there are several people working on ensuring your de-sign needs, and not everyone is always on the same page at the same time.

Thou shall give us A BREAK: A good designer will always take into account that things might go wrong, and the life span he or she will give you for a certain project should include mishaps at the printer’s, or take into consideration that it’s high billboard season. However, at the end of the day, we are humans, not robots that don’t sleep, eat, or watch TV. Because this field is demanding as it is, chances are that we still put up with the graphic designer’s lifestyle because it’s what we love to do. It’s our passion. And chances are, we have been sincerely working day and night to provide you with your project. As we sit in a dimly lit room in a position that’s quite straining for our backs, and reminisce about our long-gone social lives, and sleep filled days, while working on YOUR project, you need to give us a break.