Written by Prajesh SJB Rana.
Saedi Works, another creative agency based in Nepal, are also headed by a design student-turned-professional who has spent years refining her craft. The creative director of Saedi works, Himsheela Bharati, leads a team of designers who create products that represent the core values of their clients. Although Saedi Works are a relatively new company, they have already designed information products for clients like the Natural Resource Development Centre and JuJu Wears.
Saedi Works too believe in producing designs that reflect their clients’ values. These creative agencies start their design process by issuing questionnaires to their clients and spending a lot of time with them on the ideation phase of the design.
Good Design Comes From An In-Depth Understanding Of A Client’S Ideals And Philosophy
There are many issues that creative agencies have to take into account during the initial ideation phase. Sometimes clients arrive with preconceived, flawed notions of design principles, and sometimes they don’t understand the intricacies of design language. Educating clients is thus paramount in the ideation stage.
Because of their in-depth understanding of creative design theory, the designers at these firms know that design, for example, actually has to be invisible. That is, the design, rather than calling attention to itself, needs to be a vehicle for carrying the client’s message to their target group. In the brochures, websites and smartphone apps designed by Saedi Works, the design’s architecture helps guide readers through a labyrinth of information rendered visually.
The design phase starts with a simple wireframe draft of the website or print design, and after approval from the client, the firm moves on to the graphic design phase. A couple of drafts are created based on the wireframe, which are then presented to the client, who in turn approves one of them. The firm then works through considerable redesigns, after which they will work on the development phase. During the development phase, the designers use a Content Management System (CMS) and juxtapose their approved design on top of the CMS platform. CMS is used to make the website’s backend management relatively easy for the client. With easy-to-use CMS like Wordpress and Drupal, the clients can then handle their websites by themselves, even if they have limited technical understanding. Much as with a blog, adding text and images to the website is made much easier with a CMS base. After a considerable amount of coding, a beta version of the product is then delivered to the client for testing.
There Are Many Issues That Creative Agencies Have To Take Into Account During The Initial Ideation Phase
During the testing phase, the client as well as the agencies’ quality assurance teams beta test the website for bugs. Saedi Works outsources their testing to close friends. After all the bugs have been ironed out, the finished product is delivered to the client. Here, the (initial) creative process ends.
But for the creative agencies, their interaction with their client does not end here. They maintain a constant stream of communication with the clients, to gain insight into their work and to tweak their product if need be. And since creative agencies haven’t been going out of their way to market themselves, their exposure to the local client base happens solely through their work. The product markets itself, say both Kazi Studios and Saedi Works. But to be able to attract new clients, they need to deliver exceptionally well-designed information products that the agency can stand by. Their portfolio is essentially their work, and through their work, they attract newer clients.
The information portals and products that INGOS, NGOS and other organisations today want need to be of the same calibre as the ones that the organisations are wont to seeing on the web. They will not settle for kitschy products of the kind that used to be produced in Nepal earlier. Luckily for them, the country now has a new breed of creative agencies who can cater to their demands.
Read the full article here: http://mnsvmag.com/news/2017-10-11/form-meets-function.html