Frequently Asked Questions to ask a Designer Part 2
I loved receiving my first set of really great design-based questions, I jumped at another opportunity for Q&As last week - here are my answers!
What is your favourite font?
Arrrgh - don’t make me choose!!
I have a confession to make - I’m a bit of a typeface addict and regularly buy them even before I have a project in mind! If you were to twist my arm, I’d day Gotham is my favourite Sans Serif typeface and comes in loads of font weights. For Serif, I really like Argent CF and would love to use it in a branding project one day. My current favourite Script typeface is Faustine.
How easy is it to switch a website to Squarespace?
It is pretty straightforward to transfer web platforms nowadays - you can generally export e-commerce products and blog posts for import into Squarespace, although they will need a bit of formatting love just to tidy things up, so if you have hundreds of posts/products it can be cheaper in the short term to leave the blog or shop where it is and just move the website. However, moving it all on to one platform does make things easier in the long run.
There are step-by-step guides on the Squarespace help site about moving Wordpress, Wix or GoDaddy sites to Squarespace. Also for moving products from Etsy, Shopify and Big Cartel e-commerce sites.
When it comes to the normal web pages, we can copy and paste the text from the existing site and if you can extract the images, I can drop them into the new pages in Squarespace. It certainly isn’t a one-click solution, but it is all possible.
Do you review brands?
I certainly can review a brand visual identity to see if it visually represents the key purpose, values and USP of the business/brand. I use colour psychology and strategic typography, photographic and illustrative styles to get this right.
What are your thoughts on CANVA!!
Not as bad as you might think!
I don’t really use it myself, as I’m a long time user of the Adobe Creative suite of incredible and powerful tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. However I do use it to create social media templates for my clients, so they can create their own content and keep it on-brand.
I would say the swear pot gets filled quicker when I’m using Canva…
What do you think is the best thing a strong brand gives a business owner?
Confidence - the confidence to know the visual parts of their business are sending out the same message as other parts of the business.
Clarity - the analysis of the business from a branding perspective makes it really easy to know who you want to appeal to.
Efficiency - knowing your brand makes it much easier to make decisions when you’re creating content. You’ll be far less likely to be distracted or paralysed by all the choices of layout, colour, typography and imagery.
Do you have a monthly package for small businesses?
I don’t have any clients on retainer at the moment. I have done in the past, but the pandemic made it less relevant to my clients. I do have fixed price packages for branding and web design, however I also offer a fixed hourly rate (£75+VAT), which means my regular clients only pay for the hours I’ve worked each month.
My email newsletter clients are on either Monthly subscriptions, or pay-per-recipient rates, depending on which is most cost effective for them and the size of their subscriber list.
Colour is so important, do you have favourite colour "feels", or is it an infinite colour range?
Colour really is important! When you learn about colour psychology and realise that every colour sends out a subliminal message, you really can make your designs communicate whatever feelings the client needs to convey. For example, if a business needs to make its clients feel cared for, supported and nurtured, the colours will be very different from a company that wants its clients to feel excited, energised and raring to go. The colours are wildly different, but the feelings they convey are equally powerful.
If you don’t want to use Squarespace in the future can you stop using it or do you loose your whole website?
Much like the earlier question about importing a site, you can extract the content to be imported into another platform, however Squarespace sites are amazingly adaptable, so your Squarespace site can grow as your business does.
What do people get wrong most often when creating a logo?
Two things:
1: Creating just a logo and letting everything else in the brand be flexible (eg the social posts, printed literature, colours, fonts, tone of voice, image styles). Without a full branding design all the elements will look disjointed and wont work together to build trust, recognition and brand clarity.
2: Creating something they like today (shiny object syndrome), rather than something that is designed to A: appeal to their ideal client, B: feel right and C: stand the test of time - If you change your branding every couple of years, you’ll struggle to build brand recognition. A strategic branding design should last 5-10 years unless your business evolves drastically.
