Step 4 – create | design | develop

Good visualizations help us to create better drawings and sketches.

With plenty of sketch ideas we can then enhance them in the design stage.

Once we are satisfied with our design we then develop it to finished standards.

Create

Here is that moment we all have been waiting for! The moment we have tried desperately not to do yet, put pencil to paper.

Sometimes it’s impossible to wait this far into the process to put pencil to paper. We would never want to obstruct, inhibit or restrict the creative process, of ourselves or our clients. Oftentimes, the best idea comes to us out of nowhere. Sometimes we see something else in the midst of our lives that sparks the right idea.

We say, put pencil to paper because in 99% of the cases that is how our designs will start.

If a client brings us a specific design to render, we will still often start with a blank page of paper and a pencil. This helps to take us away from the computer, away from staring at a screen and away from tricks and modern techniques using computer manipulation. It can sometimes even provide usable design, elsewhere, or in the few magical cases even the final design.

This stage is about taking the best ideas we decided upon during our visualization stage and making them come alive on paper. Here we attempt slight variations coming up with often pages and pages of sketches and scribbles. Sometimes, we attempt some random freestyle ideas to gain another perspective. Something amazing can happen, just from taking a few minutes to try something else.

A select few of the original drawings will be used, as is, for the final design.

Design

Here is where we take the best of the best of our sketches and ideas and go into more detail.

We may decide on dimensions, colors, systems, scripts, print materials, manufacturers etc., depending on the design.

We often stay in pencil/felt and paper mode and take the best sketches further along, with the detail, to create good copy drafts. In certain instances, regarding packages or remodels, actual diagrams and blueprints are required and desired. Therefore more technical and detailed drawings will be done. We do our best to take every design through this process including the simplest things. Please note in the case of websites, oftentimes, the create and design stages are combined with online back-end work.

Generally speaking, the design stage is where we hash out the particulars and the final stage before the true final implementation and ultimately first final mock up of finished design. We call it a final mock up because we always put our final design as we would deliver to an evaluation and improvement stage.

Develop

When we develop, we essentially take paper and put it into form.

This is similar to a contractor taking a set of blueprints and constructing the actual building.

During this stage, since we are not at final evaluation, we make sure to further and enhance the design at the same time. While we focus on the solutions, problems will occur and different options will arise. These help in making the end result better. Ultimately however this stage is the core of the making of something physical and tangible and the implementation of the design to reality.

This stage generally takes the longest, and is where all the real work takes place. Since what we are developing is almost always as a result to solve some problem, it is inherent that within its creation, problems will arise. With the proper preparation to this point it helps everyone remain calm while pesky problems arise. These problems are generally expected however sometimes unforeseeable, that always happen while working through design projects.

Here we come up with our final design which, in reality thanks to our process, is the first initial soft release or prototype. As a matter of testing, we finish and submit it as if it were the final, we just don’t go public or live with anything.

We do this for a few reasons. Depending on the design and the project it can act as useful preparation for the stressful moment of actually going live and public. We also want to ensure that we treat every design we are doing as of the utmost of importance and to ensure we never get lazy. The more close to the perfect design we can get with our first developed result, the better.

Step 5 – test | evaluate | improve

Step 6 – decide | deliver | launch