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Archive for the ‘For Our Clients’ Category

On Our New Website Design

December 5, 2011

If you’re reading this and aren’t using an RSS Feed or other content-repurposing service, you’re looking at V3 of the Paper Leaf Design website. It has been a long time coming – we fell victim to the ol’ shoemaker’s shoes saying – but now we’re live and we’re happy campers. Items to note that may be of interest to you:

we have a new portfolio with a ton of new client work
that new portfolio has a fancy new jQuery sorting capability
we now have pagination from portfolio item to portfolio item
the whole experience has been made more seamless.

Read the whole article >

Our Design Process – An Infographic

May 16, 2011

Over here at Paper Leaf Design, we make much ado about communication & process. In our minds, these two elements are key to a successful design project – whether it be print, identity, web or something else.

A while ago, I made up an infographic detailing our process. The purpose of this infographic was to give our clients a quick overview as to how we work, from meeting through launch, so they know what to expect in a design project. We haven’t really used this infographic yet – our own marketing materials are constantly being pushed to the backburner – but I thought some people may find it interesting. The end version will likely see a few changes to better reflect the direction we’re heading as a business, but overall the process remains more or less the same. Here’s the graphic (click to view large version):

Our process is generally broken down into these elements:

Meet (the client)
Research
Sketch
Concepts (graphic says 3; it depends on the project & budget though)
Present
Revise
Deliver, and
Launch.

Nothing groundbreaking, but if you’re at a loss as to how to maximize your efficiency and keep your projects on point (scope creep is bad! Boo!), give this process a try.

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When, Why & How: One Page Website Designs

June 21, 2010

Web users are bombarded with information on a daily basis, and it’s been shown that the way users read on a computer is completely different to how they read offline. Skimming content is the name of the game, and if the user doesn’t immediately see what he or she wants to see in a few seconds, off they’ll go into the internight to find what they want.

That’s right, website designers and website owners: most people who come to your site will hit & run.

This revelation can be a harsh one, and especially tough for designers to inform clients of. Clients all too frequently get caught up in the excitement of launching a new site, which can lead to major scope creep and feature bloat on a site; all of a sudden, a simple site has turned into a 75-page monolith, despite the designer/developer’s requests to keep it in the tracks.

When, Why & How: One Page Website Designs

But increasingly often, these monolithic sites aren’t required – in fact, they may prove a detriment as unless they are superbly designed, chances are it will be difficult for the user to find what they want within a few clicks, leading to a higher bounce rate than desired. It’s important to remember that a lot – I may even say “most” – viewers aren’t going to be nearly as interested in the website, or the business in general, as the website designer or the business owner. With that in mind, it’s important to embrace brevity, clear information hierarchy and structure in a web design. One (increasingly popular) way to do this is via the one page website.

One-pagers won’t work for all sites, obviously, but they can work for more than you imagine. The benefits to a well-designed one page website include

potentially lower cost to the client
high usability
information brevity
increased conversions
opportunity for unique design decisions and more.

Let’s explore these benefits a bit more deeply. Read the whole article >

Why Rush Work Leads to Average Design

May 10, 2010

No doubt, whether you design for an agency or whether you design as a freelancer, you have had to deal with the aggravation of “rush” work. Usually, rush work is a product of a client’s poor time management, over-eagerness, or lack of understanding of what exactly goes in to a proper design job. It could also be the fault of the novice designer, promising completed work by an unrealistic date. Regardless of what effects caused the “need” for this rush work, one staple remains true in pretty much all rush work cases: the end result will be, at best, average.

Rush Work Equals Rushed Planning & Research

When you have an overly cramped timeline to complete a design project, corners have to be cut. One of the first to be cut is the planning & research stage: essentially, the foundation of the project. Good design is effective design, and discovering what will be effective is a product of logical planning and research – both of which take time.

When we cut corners on the planning & research stage, we are laying a foundation that is already weak.

Rush Work Equals Fewer Concepts

Generally speaking, if a project’s deadline is too soon, fewer concepts will be explored by the designer & other project members. It’s a simple time issue; there really isn’t enough time to fill up your artboard with various concepts, playing around with some, fleshing some out, and so on. The designer’s process, which he or she has honed over the years if they are an effective designer, will be compromised. When compromising the process, we compromise the result.

While I’m not a proponent of quantity over quality, I do believe that some of the best ideas come later in the drafting process. I know I’ve been multiple hours deep in a logo design project, with multiple design concepts that aren’t quite there yet, only to finally come across the winner much later. Had these projects been on an overly tight timeline, chances are I would never have gotten to that point – leading to a final design that isn’t quite what it could have been.

Hit the jump for the rest! Read the whole article >

3 Steps To Improving Client-Designer Relationships

April 19, 2010

Simple but true: the best designs are born from the best client-designer relationships. They aren’t born from relationships where the designer calls all the shots; the best designs aren’t born from when the client tries to play designer. No, the best designs are born from a client-designer relationship that follows these three steps: clear role definition, honest & open communication, and trust.

If you’re a freelance designer, chances are you end up playing creative director with a lot of your clients – project manager with some too, I bet. I know this is the case for Paper Leaf. With that in mind, to adhere to the above-mentioned three steps, you might have to be the one that gets the ball rolling; the one that starts the discussion about roles; the one that practices open & honest communication; the one that embraces the idea of trust. If you are a designer who works with a creative director or a project manager, hopefully they understand the importance of these three steps. If not, you may have to tread carefully and, again, be the one who gets the ball rolling.

All this said, why do these three steps matter? Let me explain.

3 steps to improve client designer relationships Read the whole article >