First things first

By Stuart Fairbrother

We're always keen to encourage our clients to spend less money. We believe that delivering value leads to return business.

Quite often, we are asked to provide numerous design options for a particular project, whether it be advertising materials, sales collateral, a new website or something else. We understand why this is attractive to the client, as it provides choice. Having a number of options allows them to clearly see a favourite, the design that stands out from the crowd.

However, what it also does is rapidly multiply the design costs associated with the project. To provide two or three design alternatives will usually incur two or three times the time and therefore two or three times the cost.

We usually propose a different approach; and suggest a single design as the starting point. More often than not, the first design is successful, and we've avoided the potential cost of creating multiple alternatives.

But even if the first design isn't quite spot on, it gives us a useful basis for additional feedback, helping us to gain an even better insight into what will and won't work for the client. So an alternative design, if required, is based on additional information and ideas that were generated as a result of seeing the first design.

From our point of view at Tudor Rose, the good thing about working this way is that we end up with happy clients who get the most out of the projects they commission us to undertake for them and are likely to come back for more. And there’s nothing we like better than that.

Stuart Fairbrother is a project manager at Tudor Rose. To receive articles like this directly to your inbox, please sign up for our newsletter