The 7 Steps to Your Perfect Project

An easy seven step deep dive into the design process for life and work. Get all those ducks in a row, avoid procrastination pit falls and help quiet the mind and keep your focus.

‘Be regular and orderly in your life,
so that you may be violent and original in your work.’
Gustave Flaubert

One Step at a Time
My creative mind can wander, go down rabbit holes and divert down paths for hours before I realise, I’ve taken a wrong turn and wasted my time. To save myself from those hours of flow (in entirely the wrong direction) I work to a process that helps me with personal and work projects. This helps break big Designerating plans down into chunks that can be completed one step at a time, in a logical, repeatable, manageable order. Single tasking is much better for your mental health than multitasking and you can feel a sense of achievement as you ‘complete’ each step on the way to your larger goal. This has the added benefit of being able to set a project to one side without it living in your head rent-free until the day it is fully done.

I’ve distilled the steps down into the following (and yes! I did shoehorn in descriptive words that started with ‘D’ so that it was ‘straight’, thanks for noticing!). Read on to find out more about each of the seven stages and roughly how long they take.

• Define
• Discover
• Display
• Dissect
• Develop
• Decide
• Deliver

Step 1: Define
Briefing Agreement + Estimate + Deposit (48 – 72 hours)

Plato said, ‘The beginning is the most important part of the work’. Now, he was a wise old owl so let’s trust that this step is (at the very least) a big one.

The briefing process is where I work together with a client (or my own mind for personal projects) to agree a ‘statement of works’, as it were. I tend to chat this through on the phone, cuppa in hand, and get a real understanding of what success in this project would feel and look like (and what failure would too). I often write individual points and draw quick thumb nail (small) sketches on Post It notes so that I can rearrange them later to link up ideas. If you would like to fill out a guided briefing form for your project you can download one free at the link at the bottom of this blog.

I then step back and write those ideas and important points down in an understandable order. Et voila! The brief. This includes a description of what is wanted as I understand it and the plan of action to get there—the number of design concepts I’ll provide, how many rounds of amends are included, a suggested timetable of deadlines, and the estimated cost of the project. This either gets the thumbs up straight away or shortly after some minor adjustments and clarifications.

When everyone is happy we’re good to go! Depending on the scale of the work required I may ask for a deposit of up to 50% of the estimated final cost to secure my time.

If it’s a personal project, I’ll plan my reward for completing each stage – this is usually biscuit based. The very important final part here is where many an avid project starter (who often don’t become project finishers) fall down. . . Pop the time you will need to spend on this into your diary and give yourself a deadline. If you would like to formally brief your project to yourself (and increase your chance of finishing it) download your project brief sheet here, fill it out, and stick it up somewhere you can see it.

Step 2: Discover
Research + Concept Creation (<1 – 2 weeks)

Like a little creative Magpie, I fly away to gather images that spark inspiration and research the subject matter. This becomes the foundation of my creative experiments with different approaches and outcomes that answer the brief. I then distil (ooh another ‘d’ word) this work down to the very best visual representations that answer the brief. Graphic design and illustration are different beasts here. While graphics can end up looking very close to finished at this stage, illustration work will be sketchy layouts where details are added in stages.

Personal projects can often hit the breaks here because research is fun, and making a decision is scary. When choosing a final direction, or layout, or colour of sofa cushion, it’s really important to remember a few key things for yourself here.

1. Done is better than perfect
2. If you’re afraid it will go wrong, ask yourself, What is the worst that could happen?
3. Not going for something because you’re afraid you’ll fail, is not success.

Step 3: Display
Visual Concept Presentation

On a date agreed with you I’ll email a PDF presentation of the graphic concepts, sketches or mock ups I’ve created for you. This is a great moment where you start to see your vision existing before your very eyes. I generally send work out digitally to save time and keep costs down. Waiting around for the postman or next available carrier pigeon is a bore. This is usually between one and three solutions depending on your budget and deadlines.

If this is a personal project bring all your research together into one place, I would do this visually by dragging images into One Note (these can link back to the websites you copy them from which is super useful) or set up a designated Pinterest board for the project inspiration.

Step 4: Dissect
Client Feedback Window (<1 – 2 weeks)

Okay, so maybe this stage is the most important, Plato!? This is where my clients absorb and digest what they’ve been presented, consult with other stakeholders, and pull together all the relevant feedback for me (I’m afraid if your cat looked at it funny, I probably won’t consider that in any reworking—unless it’s for your cat). This can be over the phone or in an email, as a stream of consciousness or a bullet pointed list. What I’m looking for here is gut reactions and feelings rather than design knowledge about line spacing, so fear not.

Luckily, if this is a personal project you may not need to garner the opinion of anyone but your fabulous self. If your project does affect others or you want a second opinion on anything, now is the time to get it. You never know, bright ideas are everywhere and sometimes another set of eyes is exactly what you need. Share where you are with your family and friends (we all love a before and after shot). Letting people know your working on something can make you feel more accountable and help motivate you to finish it. Maybe don’t tell your mum though if she’s the type to constantly enquire about when you’re going to finish that home improvement project and how great ‘so and so’ down the road is at completing stuff.

Step 5: Develop
Amends and Adjustments (<1-2 weeks)

This is where your project really starts to take shape. A combination of a good brief, good ideas, and your focused input get us to the finished product. I include two rounds of revisions in my cost and time estimates (so we actually repeat steps 3 to 5—the Dissect and Develop stages—a couple of times). The average turnaround time is up to 1 week to get the revises back and I try to give you a week to review any designs (if the deadline allows).

If you’re working on something for you and it has developed into a super project monster you can’t get your head around. Just focus on one part you can complete first and shelf the rest for now. Small wins are still very much wins! If you want to renovate your whole house, maybe focusing in on Project Hallway will help you clear the fog. Still too big? Then let’s go for Project Entry Way and focus on front door styling and a welcome matt.

Step 6: Decide
Approval of Final Design (<1 week)

All final amends are taken in and at this point you will be sent 1 finished option to sign off, again, depending on budget.

For your personal project this is crunch time, you’ve done the research, you’ve saved the web links, you know what you’re going to do, now choose that light switch cover, order that picture frame and circle that paint swatch.

Step 7: Deliver
Provide Final Files (<3 days)

The final stage! We made it! Preparing and providing final files doesn’t take creativity, but it does take a keen eye, attention to detail and industry experience to get it right. These are usually in a digital format for both my design work and my illustration work, ready to send off to your chosen manufacturing channel: a printing house; clothing manufacturer; typesetter, or your home printer to name a few.

Delivering a personal project means actually sitting down and doing it after you’ve done the really hard work. The best way is to chop the task up into small manageable chunks and schedule the first task into your calendar for the next week. If you only have 15 minutes spare, make sure that next step will take less than 15 minutes and you’re on your way!

Now You’ve Earned a Biscuit!
These 7 steps from Defining the brief to Delivering the finished designs, apply across most creative projects weather working on graphics, illustrations or personal projects, so they’re universal. If you’d like to have a chat through your project and get an estimate of costs from me I’d love to hear from you (or fill out my online brief here). All in all the time line for an average project is 4-5 weeks. However, I can provide faster turn around times, just let me know.

If you want more clarity on single tasking your own passion projects or have any questions or ideas of what you’d like to hear from me on in the future, let me know.

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FREEBEES! YAY!

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