How I Use Design Insight to Help Clients

Info source: Creative Strategy & the Business of Design by Douglas Davis

Hi there. This time around I'd love to briefly discuss the left-brained side of design strategy known in many circles as "insight".

While art is a personal expression of ones ideas, design/advertising is an art with a commercial purpose.

In order to give yourself a fighting chance as a designer, you'll need not only sound execution but also sound strategy. This is where insight is key. Insight is the information gathered from company data, target-market research or brand history to influence creative concepts.

Observation:

In Malcom Gladwell's book "Outliers", he asserts that it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to master something.

Insight:

Someone just starting out will need to overcome a great deal of insecurity, a mountain of rewrites, and the overall temptation to quit.

Concept:

Behind every great speech, book, or script are a ton of revisions, and though people are familiar with the finished versions of the "I Have A Dream Speech" or the screenplay of "The Dark Knight", new writers (our target) are less familiar with the process it takes to get to greatness.

Execution:

Introduce new writers to the development process by showing the potential phases well-known lines went through to get to what we all know, recognize and may love.

Good questions to task for insight

What is it telling us about the people we are observing and the decisions they make?

Does the data point to an underlying truth about the values of the people we are observing?

Does the data contradict what we assume to be true or confirm something we didn't know was there?If so, how could we quantify and articulate that information on a broader scale?

Thank you for reading. I hope this makes your left brained side of design strategy more clear. If you don't already, I encourage you to thoroughly understand the information and ask yourself the aforementioned questions given. Insight is among many various tools, elements and concepts in order to bring more success into your design endeavors.

Reminder that I offer a FREE one on one preliminary session with me to discuss all of your design needs. Click here to book the session.