You will get the most value from your project if the content is well thought out, clearly written, well organized, and easy for your intended audience to use.

Taking the time at the beginning of the project to design your content will result in a far more effective outcome. Many pieces that I have designed have become collectors’ items, or have been used again and again by the organizations in ways that they did not anticipate - simply because the pieces wound up being so “on-target.”

Information design is so critical that I have developed a special method for helping clients think through their content. This process results in a focused message that forms the underlying structure upon which the graphics are designed.

What information do you want to get across to your audience?
What information does your audience want from you?
Information you don’t even know you need to consider!
Who is your audience?
What actions do you want your audience to take?
How should you organize the flow of information?
Is your content appropriate for your audience (no unnecessary jargon)?

1 What information do you want to get across to your audience?

You will, of course, know the basic information that you want to include. However, clients often overlook important segments of information. Many a leaflet has been printed without contact information, or critical times and dates! If your program, service, or event will have competition, you will need to make sure that you address all the issues that your competition addresses. . I will take you through a short session designed to identify the information that you should include in your material. We will triage your information and eliminate the parts that are not focused on your message (remember how good you got at padding your school reports with unnecessary verbiage??) and beef up the parts that will actually add to the impact of your message. What information does your audience want from you? Most people are so concerned with saying what they want to say that they forget to consider what their intended audience wants to hear. I will help you see your project through your audience’s eyes to make sure that we include and highlight the information that is important to the people you want to respond to your message. We will identify the people you want to reach and ask the questions that they would ask if they were meeting with you. Understanding the project from your audience’s perspective is perhaps the most important exercise you can do. If your audience doesn’t respond to your message, you have wasted your money. Information you may not realize that you need to consider! If you are mailing your piece, there will be postal regulations to follow. Organizations have spent thousands of dollars to print mailers that the post office has rejected! If you have sponsors, you will sometimes need to follow exact wording provided by the sponsors when you acknowledge them in your materials. (You were going to acknowledge them, weren’t you?) Information about artists and performers as well as other programs, services, or products that you are referencing often need to be “vetted” by the people involved. Sometimes this is merely a courtesy, but other times people will want you to use specific wording (or not use certain words). Contracts have been violated because designers and copy writers have not checked with the appropriate people.

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Website created and maintained by Bobbi Melville / Publicity and Graphic Services
1356 Ashfield Road, Conway, MA 01341 USA
413 369-8022
info@publicityandgraphics.com