Designing a Design Process

November 10, 2011 by Taylor Studios in Design & Planning

We developed a new design process. Translation: we revised our old process to operate more effectively, to give more value to our clients, we renamed a phase or two, and made diagrams and visuals to convey the whole process in lieu of a lengthy write-up. And we can’t wait to take it out for a spin.

As a growing company (our design department has tripled in size over the last four years), we identified that it was time to evaluate, assess, and adjust our process. How did we know? We complained when things weren’t working, we identified a number of instances where we could have done things differently (in hindsight…of course), and we had lots of people offering lots of great ideas and solutions to our issues. One problem was that there were so many small issues that we continually resolved with band-aid solutions. Our process underwent so many small changes that it became difficult to keep everyone on the same page; both clients and staff.

Our New Design Process is three phases long, with a subsequent, collaborative planning phase once we begin production.

Here are some of the key changes in the New Process:

– We moved up concept development into Schematic Design. This way we have both an interpretive structure and conceptual structure at the conclusion of the phase. Schematic concepts will capture both exhibit and graphic concepts to set in place as a visual starting point. This will allow us to treat Design Development as a true development phase. This will also allow us to start budgeting earlier in the game, ensuring that we stay within budget.

– We are requiring ourselves to provide a 50% deliverable during Design Development. This ensures that the whole project team, including the client, is on the same page with all decisions made and designs developed to date.

– We changed the name of Final Design. We are now calling it Pre-Production. In assessing our old process, we realized that we don’t really design during this phase. We tie up loose ends and further detail drawings. The name Final “Design” was misleading. Conceptually, the design is fully complete by the end of Design Development.

– We added a phase at the start of Production called Production Documents. While we operate collaboratively – with design and fabrication under one (technically two) roof(s) – we never formally made it a required part of our process. Now, we’ll be able to hold ourselves even more accountable to utilizing our expertise to the best of our ability. This phase ensures that the fabrication of the exhibits goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

We made several other minor changes – such as changing the format of our copywriting deliverables, moving copy and graphic design up in the process, and prototyping interactives earlier in order to help us maximize the value and quality of the end product. All in all, we anticipate this will be a win-win for us and our clients.

So, after lengthy discussions and development with all departments within the company – design, fabrication, marketing, and accounting – we are proud to announce our “New Design Process.” In retrospect we should have labeled it with some type of covert operation name. Any suggestions?