At Young Zeck, all print projects start with research and a plan. We don’t presume to know what we should say until we’ve talked with you awhile. Scoured your current literature. Scouted out the competition. Spoken to a few customers, often.
Nor do we presume to know what the design should look like.
We don’t start with purple or green or yellow or red. (The monstrous design approach too many use!) Or the buzzwords everyone is using. (We’re not content providers, we’re writers! Not cliché-mongers, but originals.)
So we start with research that emphasizes the logical foundation of your product and services. And only then, supported, do we discover what needs to be said about you. And say it with a flair.
In creating a company brochure, for example, we first collect data about you and your products / services. We scour your current literature. Scout out the competition and the industry in general. Speak to a few customers, it could be.
Then we fit these data into a pattern. Without such pattern-making, all you have, after all, is disparate data. Bullet points. Stray remarks.
Nothing that adds up to much.
But with the pattern, you get attention. Retention. And action.
It’s this pattern or theme — branding tools — that guides both writing and design as we move into the creative phase.
The theme that enables you to concentrate on one message.
And drive home your brand like a hammer drives a nail.
Like brochures, collateral works best if it rests on a solid research foundation.
If you’re going to a trade show, for example, you need solid literature that puts first things first. It explains, as it may need to, what your new products or services are. It romances them, then, and works up the point of difference.
If you’re selling direct to the consumer, pamphlets and leave-behinds in the store can distinguish between purchase and rejection.
All things being equal, it pays to create a system of literature that looks and reads the same from one related product to the next. And that reinforces your brand and your identity.