POSTED 16.11.2020
From six years solo to joining StoryLab
From six years running his own graphic design business to joining StoryLab as senior graphic designer, Kevin Noone chats about what makes strong and impactful graphic design campaigns.
Over six years you learn a lot when running your own design business, from building solid relationships with clients to simple stuff like knowing how much a one man band is capable of taking on. During that time though, I never had the opportunity to sit down and discuss a client brief with other team members. This was something I was used to from my days in college where we constantly conversed as teams about design and used comments and feedback from lectures to better a project. Since joining StoryLab in early 2020 I have really enjoyed having that dynamic back in my daily work life.
This enables me to get instant feedback on design and to bounce ideas off the team. A team who are not only informed but are heavily engaged with the client and have a real understanding of what makes them tick. Sharing ideas with a team is key to the success of a project. Even if a person doesn’t come from a design background their input is helpful and in some cases it is actually better. As a designer you constantly have to take into account who is going to engage with the design. The biggest mistake you can make is to design for yourself and forget about the audience.
At StoryLab we don’t hammer stuff out. We take our time, we research, we test and we refine. To get a real feel for our clients’ needs, we immerse ourselves in their day-to-day business and we look at how they interact with their clients and how we can improve the way they look and feel.
An example of a recent design project for a client campaign is Climate Finance Week Ireland 2020 for Sustainable Nation Ireland. Climate Finance Week, which took place in the first week of November, was a series of events including sustainability and climate-themed talks. This year, with Covid restrictions, all events were delivered online. We created a positive look for this year’s event and created social media content from videos to speaker announcements.
Graphic design has always been an important factor in business and storytelling but it is becoming increasingly important in recent times. With the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe, consumers are depending on visual communications more and more to engage with brands and buy products. Companies have a story to tell and our job is to make that story both readable and inviting. Through written word and visuals, our aim is to make it hit faster. The challenging year of 2020 has shown how this skill is even more important than ever.