Techniques For Ordinary Projects

I had an amazing dream one night. I met a high-profile client on the 41st floor in a downtown tower. They wanted a series of full page brochures and postage mailers and informed me their budget was endless. My instructions were to hire the best photographer and illustrators in Houston. They wanted me to track down an industry-specific copy writer to conceptualize all of the content. My client even wanted new font families purchased. With the printing, they wanted full bleed, die-cuts, folds, translucent and metallic papers. And don't forget to use specialty green papers and water-based inks, they told me. I said hallelujah to the heavens and was ready to start.

Then I woke up into reality. Working as both an in-house designer and as a freelance business, I've experienced no such client, well only in my dreams. What I did have was a challenge for a conventional one page ad. My client has written the 380 word content and needs to utilize my copy writing experience for the editing. He and one of his staff members walked the grounds for snapshots with a Wal-Mart purchased Samsung camera. He emailed me the one photo he wanted placed and gave me an end-of-the-day deadline. I sighed and begin to work.

Most designers are faced with challenges like this. When my clients provide bereft elements, I depend on my creative techniques to successfully reconstruct them into a good design.

Client wants to use this title in the ad: Let the Game Begin.

He also emailed me this photo he wants to see in the ad.

Now, working with the photo as it was given, I could easily put this layout together. Not bad, but I've been a designer for 12 years and ordinary is not satisfactory for me.

Ordinary Ad

So, with the techniques I've acquired over the years, I can design something a lot more eye-catching.

Modern
1. Crop or Enlarge the Image
2. Add Structure with Contoured Elements
3. Add Color That Compliments the Ordinary Image

 

Abstract
4. Change the Image to Grayscale/Black & White
5. Work with Angles
6. Add Background Color
7. Try Different Typographic Styles

Corporate
8. Mask the Image and Make it Transparent
9. Make More Use of White Space
10. Bring in Some Borders or Frames and Clean Lines

These are the assortment of techniques I've used consistently over the past 12 years of being a graphic designer in Houston and in Mississippi. When you have to work with photos or images that are uninspiring or shot unprofessionally, try to keep your colors simplistic and in accordance to the company's brand or to the image.