One of the things with design is that everyone has their own perception of a particular style. Along with actually making designs as a skill set you need to have a bit of the magic 8 ball psychic ability going on. The key is to understand the concepts that are likely to get asked for in a broad sense and use the design consultation to drill down what exactly they are meaning by that term.
Designers are filters
Perhaps the most used style label lately is of course ‘web 2.0′ (let’s put aside the is it real / is it a marketing term for now). Rightly or wrongly this has become a frequent style request, the merits of a particular style aren’t what you should as a designer be so focused on. Let me explain this rather brash statement. I totally agree you can direct and work with a client, however I also believe that when it comes to client work it is there design in the sense that you have to give them what they want – it’s about filtering that into something that isn’t bad looking. As a designer you are a filter in the process and use your skills, your knowledge to offer guidance along the way. With regards to the ‘web 2.0′ design label there is such a wide cross section this can apply to you have to filter what exactly they are referring to. You can take the common elements but you are filtering a very broad visual pigeon holing that is also dependent on the client’s experience and what they have seen that they think is ‘web 2.0′.
Narrowing down the trend
There are a few things you can do when presented with a broad design concept as the brief. Firstly, if you use design questions and a consultation process you can use visual examples to drill down. Often though this is a case of ‘like from x from a and like y from b and oh yes w from f’. You have to be careful in your choices and direct the consultation to key towards what x, y and b are and why they are liked. This is only possible if they don’t become magpies and go ‘ooo and ah’ at everything – yes this often happens. Another simple method is come up with during the design process gauge designs. By taking points on the spectrum and directing your designs to those you will find out exactly what is wanted.
Let’s take the ‘web 2.0′ example in consideration and lets create some groups (often if you group points on the spectrum you come up with a stronger indicator of what they client wants); you could say there are spectrums to that of heavy gloss and gradients, lots of whitespace and focus on text as the image, rounded corners and icons – these are of course serious over generalisations of the concept of web 2.0 in design, this process is about design stereotyping to reach what the client means. From that you have 3 designs you can use to find out where the client wants to go. Even if they say they like the gradients, icons and rounded corners you are in the next wave of designs narrowing down your field by going through the process.
Knowledge is power
One of the key ways to become a filter is by understanding and finding out about style trends. Only by knowing what the terms encompass can you do the type of design profiling I am talking about to find out where on the gauge their understanding is. Just as in user interface design you user profile, design profiling is something that will come in useful. As a designer you should make yourself aware of the current trends – this is not to say you have to adopt them, but client’s will use them so you have to understand and interpret. The interpretation is where you as a designer come in and why they are coming to you and not getting a template. You have to make yourself open to all trends and design styles, this way you are able to comprehend and take note to bring a design your client wants. All designers have their own style, I am not advocating loosing your style as I firmly believe having an individual style is a great benefit to any designer. You have to be flexible and filter the request using your own style.
