Advicetap Blog

Last week we linked up with Christina Peressini, a Vancouver brand identity designer and small business owner. We talked crowdsourcing, design in a digital era, and much more…Check it out!

Hi there Christina, thanks for stopping by the Advicetap towers! Can you start off by introducing your businesses to the readers?

Thanks for having me Sam.

As a freelance graphic designer and strategist, I have been “giving visual form to important ideas” since 2001. I’ve been working in a range of media (print, web, packaging, signage) for clients primarily in Vancouver but as far away as New York. I invite your Advicetap network to check out my work at www.Disegnostudio.com

Ok let’s talk a bit about how you do the marketing of Disegnostudio. You have a large list of clients and projects and have built up an extensive portfolio of branding work. Any tips on promotion and marketing you can share with us?

My clients have almost all come to me by word of mouth.

The tips I would share with you are communicate, communicate, communicate and when you do, be yourself and be sincere. Tell those who are interested, what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

In the beginning I put the word on the street that I was transitioning into a new career as a graphic designer. It was encouraging to see how many people responded by sending work my way or by passing my name to others. I still do this when I’m looking to generate new work and it inevitably yields results. I also keep in regular touch with my clients by way of email, phone calls, my quarterly newsletter, holiday cards, and the like, especially those clients I might not have worked with for a while.

When I left my job with the federal government and ventured into graphic design, a good bit of that early freelance work was done for the very group of people I’d just been employed with, and almost ten years later I am still doing work for the civil service on a regular basis. So another piece of advice I would give is to go above and beyond to nurture relationships with those you respect and who respect you.

I have also found clients in the most unlikely places: dog park, house party, community centre, temp admin assignment, and pottery class to name a few, so never underestimate the impact you might have on people in any circumstance. The biggest client I’ve had to date is someone I met at a social event where I didn’t have a single business card on me – a classic blunder. But we ended up working together for four and a half years. Good things can happen when you least expect it. I tend to strike up conversations with strangers quite easily. This sort of friendliness can be both a blessing and a curse.

When we were chatting earlier you mentioned one big challenge you’re facing as a specialized print designer is the whole shift in the print design market to digital/online design. Can you reflect a bit on this shift and how as a print designer you’re dealing with this?

Print is not dead as people may have you believe, but over the past few years there has been a marked decline in the amount of print work I am being asked to design. This trend is also reflected in the closure of many reputable print shops in the city. It pains me a little to see this shift away from print because I know first hand how a really effective print piece will beg to be interacted with, can pack a hefty wallop and can deliver a strong message effectively. I just wish people would be more discerning about what they print and how much they print. There is no doubt that less printed material means less waste, and I’m certainly a supporter of less waste, but sometimes circumstances require you to create something tactile and sumptuous that will allow you to hold someone’s attention longer than an email or a webpage can.

Despite all the wonderful qualities of paper though, there’s no denying that new technologies are making the online experience more and more memorable and are catering to a growing population that is demanding pixels over paper. The print designer has to stay current by taking on a variety of work, both print and web-based. Over the years I’ve been happy to count among my professional network, a series of web developers and programmers who have worked collaboratively to help me deliver digital projects to my clients’ specifications. My recent schooling in web-based technologies is helping me stay current, and I will continue in this direction for the forseesable future. Having said that, if I ever have an opportunity to learn how to operate a letterpress (think Gutenberg), I’ll gladly jump at that chance too. I rarely limit the options. I’ve always got my hands in a bunch of creative pies.

Very interesting stuff…Let’s stay on this digital shift in the design industry for a minute here. There are now many online services around where businesses can post their design projects and then get back a bunch of design options from “designers” from all over the world for a low price. What do you think about these kinds of services and have they affected your business at all in terms of clients expecting lower prices or comparing these online services to what you offer?

That’s called “crowdsourcing” and I believe it is affecting our industry as a whole and affecting some designers individually. At the very least, it’s affecting the smaller designers or firms who cater to those smaller clients who might be inclined to give crowdsourcing a try. Clients are getting wind of these $99 logo sites that allow them to see a multitude of “designs” and choose the one they like best thereby awarding one person with a financial “prize” of sorts, and the rest get nothing for their effort. What these clients aren’t getting is the close collaboration you get when you hire a professional to undertake a professional design process. The proof is in the pudding. If you look at logos on these sites, you’ll see that they are often so generic that they would work equally as well for a plastic surgeon as they would for a landscaper, which is to say, not very well at all.

Crowdsourcing, much like a logo contest, entices primarily low level graphic designers and amateurs which is why a great many in our industry feel unaffected by it. My big concern however is how the proliferation of contests and crowdsourcing will affect our industry over time. I worry that clients will start to lower their standards and choose inexpensive mediocre design over most costly strategic professional design. So, it will be incumbent upon designers to educate their clients about the benefits of hiring a professional designer and entering into a professional and ethical process. Designers have always had to do that but the need will be even greater. Before crowdsourcing, designers had to explain to their clients why the receptionist, who has Photoshop installed on her computer, may not be the best person to design the company’s identity. Our friends at Apple have also made it relatively affordable for the non-designer to own the designer’s tools which means designers have the added task of explaining, in the most diplomatic way possible, that the software does not a designer make. People don’t like hearing that especially after shelling out good money for Adobe Creative Suite.

The real kicker though is when you hear about an established and successful organization asking designers to work in this way. I won’t name them here but they know who they are and you probably know some of them too. I’m grateful that my professional organization, the GDC (The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada), has spoken up and defended their ‘no spec’ stance. This has led to some wonderful and respectful dialogue and, in some cases, a complete change in the mindset of the companies looking for design.

Most recently, the American design community put pressure on One Reel, the organizers of the Seattle music festival Bumbershoot, to reconsider their logo design contest and One Reel announced in late May that they are no longer holding that contest due to the outcry it generated. Sometimes the unethical aspect of this practice just needs to be pointed out and organizations will respond positively. Communication is always at the core.

As we sipped our first round of espresso you mentioned to me that something you’ve started to explore more is “bringing the human element into design”. What exactly do you mean by that and what are your thoughts on that.

By “bringing the human element into design” I mean bringing imagination, wonder and renewed contemplation to the forefront of design. So much of Canadian design is not doing that right now. Most designers don’t have the opportunity to undertake such work because their clients, understandably, don’t want to deviate too far from what’s safe. There is risk in change. But I also think a lot of designers have defaulted to finding safe visual solutions for clients without challenging them to consider a more unique approach. It’s a vicious cycle so I’ve joining the campaign and call on both designers and clients to open themselves up to incremental shifts in what is coming to be known as “design thinking”. This sort of design is a little more risky but by allowing the human element to reveal itself more in the work, it stands to bring a fresh perspective to otherwise predictable visual messages.

The Canadian design community has in its midst a spectacular graphic artist by the name of Marian Bantjes. She embodies this idea and in fact spoke a bit about it during her talk at the Icograda Design Week Conference which was held in Vancouver in April 2010. Her work is about as extreme as any Canadian designer has currently ventured into this direction of wonder and imagination, but evident at the core of it, is the human element. No font can replace her meticulously crafted letterforms and ornaments which she has created in materials as diverse as white granulated sugar and tinfoil. So, it is my hope that more people will be receptive to seeing what wonderful new designs might emerge with even the most tiny of steps in this direction. The result will be design that is stunningly original and elevates the message beyond the typical and the expected.

[Note: The Globe and Mail recently published an article (http://bit.ly/bK3RY3) about just this topic. It explains this concept in detail for those who are interested in reading more about it.]

I always love meeting consultants with the entrepreneurial spirit in them and I know that you have another side business called Nib + Tuck, tell us about this business idea and how it’s been going for you.

Nib and Tuck is my line of die-cut greeting cards (nibandtuck.com) which I sell primarily to corporate clients and almost exclusively around the holiday season. I like to say that the design is not on the paper, the design is the paper.

I started designing these cards in 2005 because I knew, given all the generic, uninspired foil stamped snow scene cards my financial institution and others had sent to me over the years, that there was a market for a more original and inspired corporate card collection. Even the most sincere message when printed inside a cheeseball card is not going to be well-received, and most of the e-cards I’ve seen fall short too.

I’ve had people tell me that my cards have been tacked to bulletin boards and kept on display long after the holidays are over. It’s incredibly galvanizing to know that this work is proving to be a strong and long-lasting carrier for my clients’ messages. I love hearing feedback of this sort. I would hazard to bet that there aren’t too many people tacking e-cards to cubicle walls in downtown Vancouver.

With the cards, I collaborate with clients to customize the inside of an existing design with their logo, corporate colours, signatures, and sentiment. Thus far I’ve found architecture and interior design firms seem to be gravitating most strongly toward the designs. Must be that mutual love of form and function. Price Waterhouse Coopers, Colliers International, Musson Cattell Mackey, Solus Decor, Parkin Architects and Wolski Design are a few who have customized my cards.

If anyone in the Advicetap network would like to be added to my Christmas card mailing list please drop me a line christina (at) peressini.ca. I’m working on new designs as I write this, and will be sending out samples in the fall to promote the line in time for holiday 2010 sales.

Very cool stuff! Lastly and very importantly you’re Italian so please tell us the best place in town to find real olive oil.

It’s about time. I was wondering when you were going to get to the really important questions. Hands down, Bosa Foods on Kootenay Street is the best place for all things Eye-talian. And no, I’m not related to the owners, nor am I getting salami kickbacks.

Thanks Christina!

Thank you Sam!