We often hear the phrase “working within constraints” in the creative world. But what does it truly entail? And, delving deeper, what are the most common types you will encounter? From my experience, I have come across several main ones. These include time constraints, budget constraints, established brand guidelines, access to information, ability to execute, and technical limitations. This is part two of the series, where I discuss some best practices for dealing with these constraints. For this post, I wanted to focus on brand guidelines, access to information, and technical limitations.
How should I effectively work within brand guidelines constraints?
This should be a given, but for the sake of this argument, let’s establish what this means. So what are brand guidelines? Brand guidelines, also known as brand style guides, are a set of rules that define a brand’s look and feel and help to establish a brand identity. As a designer, it is your job to learn what these are, interpret the constraints, and design based on these guidelines.
So what happens if the project you are working on hasn’t established these yet or hasn’t shared them with you? Then it becomes your responsibility to ensure the stakeholders provide you with this information or work with you to get these established first. The guidelines give you a “safe place” to experiment and test ideas. Without them, you may end up doing work that does not adhere to the brand’s identity, which can slow down the delivery of assets.
Do I have the information necessary to make the right decisions and execute?
Piggybacking off the recent point, having all the necessary information is vital to making any meaningful decision. Whether you are working on a product and need to research users to identify the right problems to solve, designing for an event and need to know venue details that may affect your design choices, or building a website and need to understand the client’s goals, having comprehensive information is crucial.
Taking the time to gather this information should always be your priority, so incorporate it into your project planning. Ask as many questions as possible during kick-off meetings and always follow up if you have additional questions. Take the time to know who the stakeholders are and identify your best points of contact for gathering more information.
Is my tech stack up to par for the work that is needed?
Remember, it’s your job to come up with the best possible solutions, but if there is no way to build them within the given time and budget, they will simply remain ideas. Take the time to learn as much as possible from the engineering team and try to establish a strong partnership with other members of your cross-functional team. I hope you find this series useful.
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Stop by the blog to explore more about my insights and experiences as a creative professional. Remember, being a “creative generalist” is not a negative term, so don’t hesitate to delve into multiple creative pursuits.