Don’t Forget to Brand the Cattle June 22, 2010, by Chris Pelicano in Design
A good graphic design process focuses intently on the client's need to communicate its message, mission, and unique benefits to its target audience.
The concept development and layout stages are considered the most "creative" aspects of the design process, because they are usually the most visually dramatic. These stages begin with conversation and end with the presentation of visual layouts. From that point, the delivery of finished art is usually a matter of subtle refinement.
It is easy to regard the delivery of the finished graphics as the end of the "creative" process—and the completion of the work. However, the implementation of all that wonderful, finished art still lies ahead!
Let’s use cattle ranching as an example. The ranch owner has big plans to make his beef known throughout the territory. He builds his ranch, buys and breeds his cattle, sets up his distribution chain, etc. He hires some creative cowboys to come up with a name for the ranch and develop a brand symbol. After exploring a number of options, he settles on a great name, a memorable symbol, and has a perfectly crafted set of branding irons made. There it is. He is done. Right?
Wrong. He has just started the implementation stage; he still has the hard, time-consuming work of applying the brand to hundreds, perhaps thousands of cattle on the open range (or pasture) and in packaged form, on the way to market. Not to mention the trucks that haul the packages, the drivers who represent the ranch and its products, the sales force, the buildings, the business cards, stationary, newsletters, price sheets, ads, etc., etc., etc.
The bigger the rancher’s operation, the more implementation there is. And, big or small, implementation is an ongoing task.
If you have something to say—and you want to be both heard and remembered—you have to say it, say it again, say it again, and then keep saying it. Implementation puts the creative work...to work! Implementation is where the real effort and expense is put forth. But, if you have invested in a good creative team to craft your identity and message into a perfect symbol, then it is worth the work to spread it far and wide.
So, when you decide to engage the graphic design process to package your uniqueness, remember that your creative investment won't begin to pay off until you put your design to work—or in other words, until you implement it.
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