As humans, we all strive for excellence. Whether it is within relationships, careers, or even proving greatness amongst ourselves – we all strive for it. We’re not perfect, and excellence does not always come easy, but our efforts, including the failures and successes, are what move us forward to take on more challenges within life to prove our worth.
Excellence in design
When you think of popular products, businesses, companies, etc., you not only think of their merchandise or service; you picture their brand. It takes time, exposure, and recognition for brands to make that impression. From a designer’s perspective, it takes talent, effort, risk, and reason.
As a graphic designer, I always strive for excellence. There is either great design or not-so-great design. Creating a brand for a client is a challenging task as it is the foundation of all of its design elements and identity. It includes certain elements such as representation, reason, emotion, and an idea, all of which the client and their audiences need to love. It is our job to prove to the client that not only do successful businesses need great products or services, but they need great branding, too. Their design elements represent their brand. Their brand represents their business. And audiences always remember great design.
It is even more challenging to keep design simple while still fulfilling the client’s requests. Sometimes there are no requests, directions, or guidelines. Creating a graphic mark with no specific order is no less of a challenge than one with direction. What most people don’t understand is that design takes courage. It is here where we try our very best to exceed all expectations to go beyond “normal” design. Everything we do from this point is driven to provide excellent graphics. My efforts are sometimes proven successful, and other times, they are not. That takes courage to put your hard work out there for it sometimes to be critiqued (sometimes harshly) and never to be looked at again. Regardless – I always do my best. There is never a good time for a designer to lack any effort!
Every client is different. It is up to me as a designer to adapt to the client’s needs, not only with what they need design-wise but when they need it. Proving excellence goes beyond design work. Designers also need to provide exceptional service to their clients. That includes design changes, content edits, deadlines, proper file setups, and let’s not forget the last minute projects.
Excellence at Leverage
Leverage Marketing always has a goal to do the right thing when it comes to our clients. It is our job to provide excellent advice, strategies, and design. As a team, we can give our clients what they need…even if they don’t know exactly what their business needs. Sometimes, you have to show them what they want before they also realize it themselves.
When it comes to design work, I strive for excellence to not only prove greatness within myself as a creative, or to take my part in the Leverage team as we all kick ass when it comes to marketing. But most importantly, so my team knows they can rely on me as their graphic designer and that I would never let them down.
Overall, we ALL have this goal to do outstanding work to prove to all of our clients that hiring Leverage Marketing was the best thing they could have done for their business.