Before you build it, you've got to design it. Before your client says yes, they will most likely want to see your ideas, first. The concept visualized, communicated and understood is the key to earning the kinds of projects that I refer to as "building impressions." They're the ones that stand out and are put into their own category. They can be anything from signs and displays to exhibits or structures. In my experience it doesn't matter if it's printed flat or produced dimensionally. If it's going to build impressions, it needs a good design as a first step and as the means to winning the project.
在制作标识之前，你必须要先将其设计出来。在客户赞同你的方案之前，他们会先了解你的想法。可视化、可传达、易理解的设计概念是确定项目类型的关键，我称之为“建筑印象”。它能让你的建筑标识看起来与众不同，并且有自己独特的风格。它们覆盖了从标识、显示屏到展览展示、建筑等领域。根据我的经验，无论它是平面喷印或是立体产品，都是无关紧要的。如果想要有独特的建筑印象，首先要有一个完美的设计，然后才能做出独具匠心的标识项目。
Here are seven points to consider when it comes to design and the benefits it can provide to your clients, your team and the bottom line of your business.
本文为你提供设计需要考虑的七个因素，以及该设计能为你的客户、团队和业务带来哪些好处。
Design Provides Confidence
独特设计增强自信心
If your shop is not as strong in the area of design as you'd like it to be, this should be at the top of the list. The reasons are numerous. But one of the main ones has to do with confidence. The better your designs, the more confidence you'll have and the more your customers will have in you.
如果你的商铺在设计方面达不到你的期望值，那么就更要将设计放在首位了。造成这种情况的原因有很多，但是其中一个主要原因是关于信心的。你的设计越好，你的信心就越强，进而客户就会越多。
Better doesn't just mean in the creative and aesthetic sense. It involves the mechanical and common senses as well. Just because something looks beautiful or cool doesn't mean it will work or can be produced. The best designs will take a concept and develop it all the way through an application of the design that includes staying within the budget while specifying materials, sizes, and how the item(s) will be installed.
更好的设计并不仅仅意味着创意和美观。它还涉及到机械和常识。正是由于看起来美观酷炫的事物，但它并不一定能工作或被生产出来。最佳设计会秉持一种理念，并通过该设计的应用对这种理念进行全方位的改进，同时要在预算时间内确定材料、尺寸以及安装方式。
Design Leads to Commitment
独特设计增加业务量
Design has the ability to generate excitement, enthusiasm and positive energy -- especially when it pertains to the brand of your customer or their organization, product or service being branded. What you create will enhance their image. Once they start to see what they like, they also start to buy in. Before you even close the sale, you've already begun to secure a commitment. The faster you can do this, the sooner that commitment will flow more toward you and away from your competitors.
独特的设计能够带给人们兴奋感、积极性和正能量——尤其是当它与客户或其组织的品牌、产品相关时。你的设计会提升他们品牌的形象。一旦他们看到了他们喜欢的，就一定会购买的。甚至在你完成交易之前，就收到了业务委托。你越早这样做，你得到的业务委托都越多，相反，竞争对手的业务就会越少。
Along with great design at a quick pace, in order to maintain that commitment, you'll have to make sure you are designing something that the customer will be willing pay for. I've also found that by winning my customer's confidence and commitment early in the game through the design process, that they will also tend to open up and be more comfortable and willing to communicate their budget as well as provide the necessary input that will drive the design to the next rounds or revisions.
在快速进行设计过程的同时，为了保住这项业务，你必须确保你的设计是客户想要的。同时我也意识到，通过早期设计过程来获取客户的信任和承诺，他们也会更加愿意公开交流其预算，并为推动该设计进入后续环节提供必要的帮助。
Commitment leads to collaboration and teamwork where you and your customer are working together rather than you having to figure everything out on your own with back and forth presentations trying to figure out how to win them over. Give them great designs up front and you'll increase the chances of gaining favor and commitment.
业务委托会促成你与客户相互合作，而不是你自己反复研究最后解决一切问题，从而赢得客户的支持。预先给他们展示出独特的设计，会增加他们对你的支持和承诺。
Three Types of Design
三种类型的设计
A job done right from start to finish will involve three types of design: for sales, for approvals, and for production. Design for each is very different and has distinct reasons.
一个完整的项目从开始到结束包括三种类型的设计：用于销售的、用于审批的和用于生产的。每一种设计都非常重要，并且都有不同的原因。
When you are designing to sell your ideas, the artwork needs to look dynamic and tell the whole story. A complete presentation should show a concept straight on as well as from the side, top and in perspective. It’s even better when you show it from multiple perspectives and even distances of viewing. In this phase, involving dimensions and specifications in the artwork is not that critical; although, they should be considered while generating the layouts. They do eventually come into play. But I tend to focus optically in the beginning. Show the right things first. The customer knows when they see what they like. Do that, then move on.
当你想让别人接受你的想法，那么你的设计作品就需要是动态的，并且能呈现出整个故事。一个完整的展示应该是从正面、侧面以及顶部各个角度都显示出来。如果你能从多重角度甚至是远距离展示出来就再好不过了。在这个阶段，设计作品的尺寸和规格就不那么重要了；尽管在生成布局的时候需要考虑到这些因素，并且它们会在最后阶段发挥作用。但是我更加关注最初的视觉效果。一开始就将正确的设计作品展示出来，客户会发现这就是他们想要的，然后你就可以继续前进了。
Design for approvals and production does not need to be as pretty. In fact, the less fancy the better. This is where those dimensions and notes do become necessary.
用于审批的和用于生产的设计就无需这么美观了。事实上，越普通越好。这就是那些尺寸规格十分必要的原因了。
Artwork for approval should be detailed, to the point, easy to see and understand. Besides the approval from the client, you'll often need it from the local building department in the form of a permit or from a governing board. A city planner wants to see a clean concept with sizes, distances and square feet, not shading and artwork fluff. The same is true in production, but with even more details. Besides seeing what the customer and planner sees, your production team will want to know paint and color references as well as a complete set of instructions and notes on every component involved in the project.
用于审批的设计要非常精细，关键是要易于辨认和理解。除了从客户那里得到认可之外，你也需要获得当地建设部门的允许。城市规划者希望看到一个准确到尺寸、间隔的概念，而不是毫无价值的东西。用于生产的设计也是同样的道理，但是比用于审批的设计要更加精细。除了客户和规划者看到之外，你的生产团队也想要知道喷漆类型和颜色参照，以及该项目包含的每个元件完整的用法说明。
The Design Team
设计团队
The size of your operation and amount of project volume will determine how many designers to have on staff. You might even be the sole designer as well as owner and boss—at first. But if you choose to grow and evolve your business, your design ability will need to keep up.
你的项目规模和数量决定了设计师的人数。你或许是项目唯一的设计师，同时也是公司所有者和老板。但是如果你想要扩展业务，那么你的设计能力就要跟得上节奏。
With my business, I started out as our only designer and had two "vinyl guys" that could do general layouts but were not skilled as designers. I learned the hard way that you can't just turn people into designers just because you decide to grow a business. As we got busier, I put more design responsibility on my vinyl team. But that was a mistake. Though they had industry knowledge, they lacked the kind of creativity (and time) it takes to generate building-impression ideas.
在我的业务项目里，我最开始是唯一的设计师，还有两个会做总体布局但不会设计的员工。我已经吸取了深刻教训，绝对不能因为想要增加业务量就随便将普通员工当做设计师。随着我们业务量的增大，我在乙烯基团队设计中投入了更大的精力。但是事实证明，这是错误的。尽管他们具备专业知识，但是他们缺少形成独特建筑印象的创意。
Hiring the perfect designer with all the goods and qualities you want in your shop is rare. You'll have to be ready and willing to train and invest in your design team in order to keep generating and winning jobs that build impressions.
雇佣符合要求的完美设计师是非常困难的。你必须准备好且愿意投资培训设计团队，以获得想要形成独特建筑印象的项目。
Relationships
人际关系
Design leads to new or strengthened relationships. People crave and appreciate well-applied creative talent in the realm of visual experiences. Your customers are in business. They want to establish and maintain a good brand. They depend on you to help deliver those meaningful visual experiences that express their brand and image while driving more sales to their business.
独特的设计会促成新的或强化的人际关系。人们对在视觉领域有经验的实用型人才，是非常渴望且极为欣赏的。如果你的客户想要建立并维护一个优秀的品牌，他们会依靠那些有意义的视觉体验来其宣传自己的品牌，从而增加业务量。
I love it when a client who used to work with me on just a sign project here or there all the sudden starts to refer to me as "their designer." Even better is when the phone rings and the person on the other end wants to discuss design before signs. That's a great way to start a relationship.
我很享受这个过程，因为仅合作过一个标识项目的客户突然找到我，聘我做他们的“专属设计师”。更加让我感到愉悦的是，当电话响起的时候，电话另一端的人想要在制作标识之前，与我讨论设计的事宜。这就是建立人际关系的重要途径。
Design Software
设计软件
I personally use CorelDRAW almost exclusively. I design signs, structures, displays, wraps, logos, print and PR collateral, websites, newsletters and even books and book covers and package design all using Corel and Corel's Photoshop as my design software of first choice. I reluctantly work with some Illustrator as well, but my design team prefers the Adobe Illustrator Creative Cloud suite of design software over Corel, though they gladly put up with my design files. The fact is that Corel and Illustrator, to a tolerable agree, will play nicely together.
我个人几乎只用CorelDRAW设计软件。科立尔绘图软件和图像处理软件是我做设计工作的首选，包括设计标识、建筑物、显示屏、车身贴、商标、喷印及公关抵押品、网站、时事通讯、书籍、封面以及包装等事物。我不愿使用其他图形处理软件，但是我的设计团队更偏向于Adobe Illustrator创意云设计软件套件，尽管他们很乐意接受我的设计文稿。事实上Corel和Illustrator结合起来使用会有更好的效果。
 
On the output side of things, my shop uses the OMEGA and ONYX products by Gerber Technology.
在输出端，我们采用美国格柏科技有限公司的OMEGA和ONYX产品。
Design as a Means of Business Development
独特设计作为发展业务的手段
Similar to developing relationships, design will also drive business. Business opportunities will sometimes come through your door before a relationship is cultivated. Design can help take advantage of the invitations to look at or bid a project, then during the design process you can work on the relationship.
类似于建立人际关系，独特的设计也会促进业务的发展。在你建立好人际关系之前，商业机会有时就会悄然溜走。独特的设计能够帮你利用邀请函来参与或投标一个项目，然后在设计过程中就可以建立人际关系了。
One way you can use your design ability to develop business and project opportunities is by branding yourself as a brand, image and design expert. I've spent my entire adult life and career doing this. Be sure you are ready for this, though. Your design ability has to live up to the reputation. But once design is mastered and you've begun to build a portfolio of projects that build impressions, consider all the options available to get yourself noticed. Write a book, or start a blog. Offer to speak or give presentations. Be willing to do some traveling.
利用你的设计能力来发展业务的一种方法是，将你自己作为设计专家品牌化。我花了整个成年时代和职业生涯来做这项工作。一定要确保你做好了准备，你的设计能力也要与你的声誉相匹配。但是一旦你掌握了设计精髓，并开始建立投资项目，一定要仔细考虑吸引你注意力的所有选项。写一本书或开通博客，向大家展示你的能力。一定要对旅行充满向往。
There is a lot of business out there. Design is your ticket to winning some of it.
市场中的业务数不胜数，独特的设计是你获得这些业务的有力武器。 |
