By Trade I am a graphic designer, I went to art school and did my hard time in print production. As my career advanced, I had to continue to seek challenges to keep my brain motivated. My first move out of the graphic design department was into business strategy. I became intrigued with the data that proves why an audience will gravitate toward a specific look and feel.
This gave me the opportunity to see that all good design can be successful, the numbers don’t lie. One must dig into the demographic, design for the right audience and then prove to the client why the direction will be well received. This really helped me to get ahead of clients with big egos that wanted to creative direct, spending budget for no reason and allowing the right-side and the left-side of the brain to work in harmony. Often one persons, right-side of the brain and another person's left-side of the brain were required and this is what creates true creative team work.
The first experience for events is often Invitation design. The first inkling of the event… the first look and feel. Here is a step-by-step process that will help you reach your demographic.
List out the event details: Who, what, where, why and when. So many designers get so excited about creating a branded look and feel, often the important destination logistics are ignored. Start here.
Determine the attendee audience and desired demographic: List out what your attendee likes to do. How old they are, male or female, what they care about, how they spend time and money. Then use this as a guide and refer every idea back to the target demographic.
Pay attention to current trends and events: Keep your head up and intune to what’s out there! Your attendee is being influenced by current trends and events all day, know what they are being exposed to and how it affects them.
Design for form and function: An old design school favorite! Make sure that your invitation is functional, it captures the event in a nutshell in how it looks and feels in content and always provide two to four initial concepts. Run a think tank of qualified and trusted people before sharing with clients and be open to feedback. No single person has all the answers and that is ok, in-fact it is better.
Take a step back: Always step away and see what resonates from the invitation design. You’ll surprise yourself at what sticks.
Set realistic deadlines: Always pad your internal deadlines with the client, dev team, printer and online applications.
Every creative has the ability to really nail an invitation, with the right parameters and considerations in place, you just can’t lose, happy creating!