Excavators of the Design World
A client came to us with an urgent request for a digital signage campaign for a trade show. The theme: golf. Now I don't know much about golf, but resignation was never my style. To assuage this, our department made a trip to a national golfing goods store and did our own market research. Through this process, we were able to gather valuable consumer behavior information:
What products customers are interested in, how they shop, and most importantly, how our client's products will be useful to the business and the clientele.
Armed with this information, The Weird Box set out to form an interactive media campaign (print and video production) that's both captivating and informative. The journey wasn't an easy one - as anyone in the design industry would know. There were numerous instances of design and redesign. Ideas were still being sorted out on the client end, and we had to wait on direction from multiple parties. Instead of just sitting around and playing the waiting game, though, we were proactive and produced a few ideas we thought the client would be interested in. In the end, the collaboration led us to produce a piece that made them happy while staying true to the overarching concept we initially presented.
The point is this: as content developers, we're often placed in a situation where we have to deal with unknown territories and clients that appear to know what they want, but may be unable to convey it effectively. However, it's our job not only to create a working product, but also to be able to interpret client and market needs. We're designers, researchers, counselors, students and educators. The job description continues to grow each day, whether we want it or not, but the job itself is a heck of a fun one.
As for the final outcome? The campaign received quite a positive reception. In addition to the targeted audience, it drew attention from other companies as well. Our client met the goal of garnering interest from several potential customers and was rewarded in the form of RFPs. We couldn’t have asked for a better result.
