Getting noticed using eye-catching design

Great design is an important part of the communications mix – it’s what gets you noticed. I talk to Jane Comben owner of Pogo Design about the basics of good design.

Q: When people are thinking about graphic design, what are the things that they need to remember?

A: I always start with audience, so who you’re trying to talk to, or communicate with. And then I always think about what do you want to achieve? What do you want to tell them? Or what do you want them to do? And then the other useful thing is what are the limitations? So is there a time frame or a budget limitation? That kind of thing.

Q: So it’s kind of like a whole lot of stuff before you even start thinking about how it’s going to look or what pictures you’re going to use, you know, that’s more that sort of strategy stuff, isn’t it?

A: Yeah, it’s finding the parameters so you can get the solution that fits the job.

Q: And what’s a common sort of mistake that you deal with some of your clients with design?

A: A common one is around the images. So often it’s being supplied images that are too small, too low resolution to be used in a bigger scale.

For example, if you want to do a pull up pull-up banner or a great big poster, a lovely image that you’ve got on your website won’t necessarily work in that bigger format. It will turn out and fuzzy and sort of like pixelated and stuff like that.

Q: Those are some of the things I guess if you decide you want to do stuff yourself, and you know, there’s a lot more to it than just slapping a picture on a page but in terms of the DIY options that are about what are your thoughts on that?

A: I think they’re really useful. I think it’s helpful if you start with a good toolbox of items. So if you’ve got a professionally made, logo, and you know what your colours are, and what sort of impression you want to give and what sort of typefaces you use then you can sometimes find a template that will match that, or you can just amend something that exists. And so there are options.

But I think the trick is to keep it simple and not to go with whatever style is around at the moment, you need to make it so it suits your business.

Q: And have you ever had to fix up something that someone’s done themselves or seen something that you just saw and thought… I wish they hadn’t?

A: I think the main one that I’ve done is where they’ve made a document in-house hoping that they can do it internally. And then they’ve realised that it’s actually a bit more complicated, and it just doesn’t look as good as they would like it to look.

So then I’ll often get given the job, and then I can do it quickly.

Comment: Yeah, so it’s kind of a bit of a false economy where you think you’ll do it yourself and then end up taking twice as long and having to pay someone else to get it done anyway.

A: Yeah, because what you’re doing is you’re paying for experience. So something that takes me a quick time could take someone a long time, and also not necessarily look good.

Q: And what would be the sort of most important take out or something you’d like to leave people with.

A: One of the little trip ups that often happens is when someone’s signing off a document, I usually send a low-resolution PDF to be signed off. And then sometimes that has been sent to the printer. Whereas when a document is signed off I then need to artwork it so it’s a print ready PDF. And that’s just a technical thing, but it involves high resolution images so it will print out nice and sharply, but the low resolution one won’t necessarily print well.

Comment: I always kind of think of the art working as a sort of little magic secret, something that goes on behind the scenes. I actually have no clue what it is, but I know that it’s a really important final step before anything goes to print.

A: It’s just prepping the file so you know it will print as well as you want it to and that’s usually just making sure it’s going to print clear and crisp and be of high resolution.

Q: Jane if someone would like to get in touch with you, what’s the best way to do that?

A: www.pogodesign.co.nz, or Pogo Deign on Facebook or Instagram, and Jane Comben on LinkedIn.