Mike Partridge of Defy Designs – Guest Blog
// July 18th, 2011 // Guest Blog
I’m quite excited to have my first guest blog post byt designer Mike Partridge. And a good one it is too. I’ll let Mike explain himself, he’s better at it than I am…
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Hello everyone, my name is Michael, I’m a graphic designer and a guest blogger! That’s rather exciting isn’t it!
I was approached by Mei to contribute to his blog, we discussed a few ideas and decided the best thing for me to cover was our professional relationship and the positivity that has spawned from it.
A few years back Mei was approached to take some photographs of a Cardiff band called Zenyth, when they asked him for a recommendation for a designer, he recommended me (wasn’t that nice!). I was excited to be working with Mei for several reasons:
1 – I knew I could rely on getting quality images.
2 – He knew I would handle his contribution to the final product in the best fashion.
and most importantly…
3 – We were both very involved in the project from the early stages.
This is a rare opportunity in terms of a design project. As a designer, you are often the last person to be contacted in the process and it can often yield some difficult results. The worst case scenario’s can include being given portrait images and a landscape space to fill, low res photos that aren’t even good enough quality to use on the internet, images that are of a low enough standard that you would rather reshoot them yourself, or just not use them, have to spend hours photoshopping the images to clean up details that should have corrected by the photographer…but this was a special occasion!
By getting both parties involved from moment one, we could talk with the band about how they wanted to present their image and work together to achieve that result. I was able to get involved in the photo shoot have input on the results, “Can you make sure you get portrait and landscape head shots?” and during the design process Mei was able to say, “I think the image-xxxx will work better on the xxxx, don’t you?”, whilst offering me solid constructive criticism whilst I was working on my contribution.
When faced with photos you are given several and told those are the images to use, but I was able to discuss with Mei what images he had that suited the different parts of the project and we ended up using most of the best images from the shoot. This was a sure fire way to create a stronger result.
So, fair readers, please take a leaf out of our book and whenever possible get all parties you need to create your end product together in the planning stage. Your designer won’t be offended that he has to go to a meeting and then wait a few weeks for the content he needs, a photographer will be much happier knowing he has more input in the uses of his images and above all else, you will be happier with your end result and you will only have to explain your ideas once! You never know, by sitting them together (Skype conference call even?) the creative sparks might fly and your project could turn into something more special than you had considered.
When you give your creative types a chance to feel good about their work and give them as few potential headaches as possible, they will work harder for you as they will care more about the piece and you will see that in the end product.
What has the end result been for Mei and myself I hear you ask? Well apart from being paid to do something we love, we have built a strong friendship and solid professional relationship. We have both been involved in each others ideas/portfolio pieces/hair brained schemes, I learnt more about photography, (I think) Mei learnt a little more about the design process and I know I always have a photographer I can recommend to people and I hope he shares my feelings.
Images
Here are a few of the designs Mike talks about, and a few bonus shots of Zenyth.
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