Tips to consider
A designer should ask you lots of questions about your project in order to get to know exactly what it is you are after, and find the most effective solution. Here's some thoughts to consider to help things get off the ground:
What is your message? Have you got a clear 'call to action' something that says to the audience Do this! Buy that! know this! …whatever. Try not to make too many assumptions about what your audience expect.
Who are your audience? Who is it you are pitching your 'sell' or your message at? Try to step out of your own head and see it from their perspective. Sometimes you may need a different approach for different audiences in order to be most effective.
Less is more! Chances are your audience are busy folk. Flicking through papers or dashing past a leaflet rack. Nobody wants to read War and Peace. By including less copy in an advert or leaflet you can actually make your message stronger as you require people to invest less time to take it in.
Hierarchy of message. Not everything needs to shout at the same volume. Your company address can be a quiet whisper compared with the call to action or your brand bellowing like Pavarotti's ghost! Think of it as a journey for your eye - it should see your primary message first then have less attention-grabbing information trickle in once they've started reading or seeing your communication.
Your communication is a shop. Think of your advert, leaflet or article as a shop floor. If anything is superfluous to your message then it doesn't earn it's retail space. Cut out the waffle. Try to adopt the plain English approach in your writing - it's not about dumbing down the language but just making it easy to read for everybody (see Plain English Campaign).
If you'd like more advice on ways to effectively approach your audience give Nick a call or drop him a message. The stuff he's written and audiences he's designed for range from retired bird watchers in London to five year old hyperactive children or busy businessmen commuting in Nigeria to budget strapped educators in Wellington. Let him get inside your head and help transform those ideas.
A designer should ask you lots of questions about your project in order to get to know exactly what it is you are after, and find the most effective solution. Here's some thoughts to consider to help things get off the ground:
What is your message? Have you got a clear 'call to action' something that says to the audience Do this! Buy that! know this! …whatever. Try not to make too many assumptions about what your audience expect.
Who are your audience? Who is it you are pitching your 'sell' or your message at? Try to step out of your own head and see it from their perspective. Sometimes you may need a different approach for different audiences in order to be most effective.
Less is more! Chances are your audience are busy folk. Flicking through papers or dashing past a leaflet rack. Nobody wants to read War and Peace. By including less copy in an advert or leaflet you can actually make your message stronger as you require people to invest less time to take it in.
Hierarchy of message. Not everything needs to shout at the same volume. Your company address can be a quiet whisper compared with the call to action or your brand bellowing like Pavarotti's ghost! Think of it as a journey for your eye - it should see your primary message first then have less attention-grabbing information trickle in once they've started reading or seeing your communication.
Your communication is a shop. Think of your advert, leaflet or article as a shop floor. If anything is superfluous to your message then it doesn't earn it's retail space. Cut out the waffle. Try to adopt the plain English approach in your writing - it's not about dumbing down the language but just making it easy to read for everybody (see Plain English Campaign).
If you'd like more advice on ways to effectively approach your audience give Nick a call or drop him a message. The stuff he's written and audiences he's designed for range from retired bird watchers in London to five year old hyperactive children or busy businessmen commuting in Nigeria to budget strapped educators in Wellington. Let him get inside your head and help transform those ideas.
