We go into client engagements, hoping that they’ll give us the credit we’re due. We want a budget big enough to accomplish their goals. A timeline long enough that we can work a 40 hour week. We want them to trust us regarding the color scheme and logo placement (and size). We want them to treat us like the experts we are. But most of the time they don’t. We may be lucky enough to get lip service, but all too often the client acts like they are the designer.  We demand respect (demand them as much as we can without actually turning down work). So we take the work, gripe about the client and hope for no scope creep.

We say creatives should be respected, the process should be respected, but then we turn around and ask the same from our freelancers who are helping us get our projects done. This makes sense on the work where we were already given the short end of the stick. What doesn’t make sense is when we do get the rare project in which we do have a long enough timeline, or a big enough budget or creative freedom. We still turn around an tell a freelancer, “it finished piece has to look exactly like this”, “Are you sure you can’t do it for cheaper?”, “are you busy this weekend?”. We all do it, you know it. Anyone who has subbed out part of a project has treated their sub like crap, at least once.

I am at a point in my career where I have great clients, and great people helping me get those projects done, but the above scenario is far too common.

Why? There are no real good excuses. We can plan ahead, we know that value of the creative process, we know we’re know other designers can help make a project better…or at least we say we do.

Testing different initiatives in a campaign can be a great way for brands to drive an ROI, per Mr. Cook. For example, in a multichannel campaign that includes television and mobile video components, turning off one of the channels can show what is working.

Additionally, segmenting a campaign into a control and test market by location can be a great way for brands to see what the impact is for individual DMAs.

“[Mobile] works enough to convince the client to keep doing it,” Mr. Cook said.

“And in some markets, it is interesting because it’s not always the same percentage of sales in a test versus control market,” he said.

“But we are seeing either from a couple percentage points to the high single or double percentage points of sales being impacted.”

via Heineken exec: Mobile is powerful lever for brand building – Strategy – Mobile Marketer.

Because of our limited comprehension, just hearing the number one billion or ten billion doesn’t do justice to the actual number. What we think of as “just another zero” actually means “ten times the number.” The recent financial crises, with billions of dollars mentioned here and there, has created a wealth of examples.  (Some of these are slanted politically, but they are still useful in learning visual storytelling techniques.)

Comparing large numbers to each other:

In this example, shot with extremely low production values, the creator compares two huge numbers by reducing a couple million dollars to a few pennies.

$1 Billion, in $100 bills looks like this:

Simple and concrete. What does $1 trillion look like if it were $100 dollar bills? Just how big is the vault at Fort Knox?

But what will $1 trillion buy you?

Sending everyone in the country on an 11 week vacation doesn’t sound bad to me. Moving beyond a percentage comparison, this example compares a large dollar number to the value of things we are familiar with. This is one of our favorite examples.

Visualizing $4 trillion:

Another comparison piece, but this time by using charts in a visually attractive way and adding animation to show the scale of $4 trillion compared to other large expenditures.

No visuals

All of our examples before now have used visuals, but you can show a sense of scale with out showing anything.

But it’s not all about dollars:

Part of the Virtual Water Project, the premise is to illustrate inefficient uses of water. The unexpectedly large numbers, compared to things as concrete as a piece of cheese, can make a big impact. The simple icons allow quick understanding from a glance.

So how do we do it?

Popular designer Jeffrey Veen gave a great talk at the Web 2.0 conference a few years ago on “Designing for Big Data.”

The Heath Brothers, the guys behind the influential book Made to Stick, have some of their own recommendations for how to make data matter.

What we call this

Visual storytelling is highly effective in communicating hard-to-comprehend information, whether it be big numbers or complex processes.

I find a space away from my computer and other things that may try to tempt my attention to wonder on to other tasks. Whereever the space chosen for the day is I only take with me the Brand Architecture and my sketch book. I read over the Brand Architecture carefully and then start to jot down ideas. When I feel like I have a sufficient understanding of the Brand Architecture I begin to focus my sights on the sketchbook, filling up about a page or two with ideas, mostly written. I then return to the Brand Architecture and cross out any ideas that don’t align with the brand.

After I feel like I have some respectable ideas down, I’ll browse competitors, seeing what they’re doing well and were they are falling short reaching the same basic audience we’re going for. A lot of times this will reveal openings in the market (such as demographics or messaging that no one else is targeting).

By this time, definitely a break is in order. I believe that breaks are essential to the creative process, and I should probably blog more about why I think they’re important. It may be a 15 minute milkshake run or just coming back to my ideas in a day or two. Whenever it is, I then revisit my sketchbook, jot down new ideas, revise old ones and generally review where I’m at. After that I like to carve out some time for a meeting, either formally or informally to bounce ideas off of others who are working on the project.

Rinse and repeat as necessary.

When I’m brainstorming alone or in a group meeting with others, the process is still basically the same.

What’s your process look like?

1. What’s one thing that you could have done to make the end product better?
2. What one thing you could have done to come in farther under budget?
3. Can you apply what you learned to any current project?

Because of our limited comprehension, just hearing the number one billion or ten billion doesn’t do justice to the actual number. What we think of as “just another zero” actually means “ten times the number.” The recent financial crises, with billions of dollars mentioned here and there, has created a wealth of examples.  (Some of these are slanted politically, but they are still useful in learning visual storytelling techniques.)

Comparing large numbers to each other:

In this example, shot with extremely low production values, the creator compares two huge numbers by reducing a couple million dollars to a few pennies.

$1 Billion, in $100 bills looks like this:

Simple and concrete. What does $1 trillion look like if it were $100 dollar bills? Just how big is the vault at Fort Knox?

But what will $1 trillion buy you?

Sending everyone in the country on an 11 week vacation doesn’t sound bad to me. Moving beyond a percentage comparison, this example compares a large dollar number to the value of things we are familiar with. This is one of our favorite examples.

Visualizing $4 trillion:

Another comparison piece, but this time by using charts in a visually attractive way and adding animation to show the scale of $4 trillion compared to other large expenditures.

No visuals

All of our examples before now have used visuals, but you can show a sense of scale with out showing anything.

But it’s not all about dollars:

Part of the Virtual Water Project, the premise is to illustrate inefficient uses of water. The unexpectedly large numbers, compared to things as concrete as a piece of cheese, can make a big impact. The simple icons allow quick understanding from a glance.

So how do we do it?

Popular designer Jeffrey Veen gave a great talk at the Web 2.0 conference a few years ago on “Designing for Big Data.”

The Heath Brothers, the guys behind the influential book Made to Stick, have some of their own recommendations for how to make data matter.

What we call this

Visual storytelling is highly effective in communicating hard-to-comprehend information, whether it be big numbers or complex processes.