Production

The design workflow

A design workflow is a diagram that shows the design process of your work.  It shows the inputs and outputs of each person involved in the design from the client through to the finisher.  The inputs are what they receive during their process in the job, and the outputs are what they put into the job process, be that price estimates, design or prototypes.  This creates an easy to understand diagram of where the workflow is going.

Above is an example of what a typical design workflow diagram would look like for a normal design company.  With the Client, Designer, Repo house, Printer and Finisher being the five main areas of the design process, each with their own inputs and outputs. 

Above is a design workflow diagram for my latest design project.  My diagram is a lot simpler as I am all of the processes resulting in there being is less information passed between processes.

I think that in a big design company with several different processes with lots of different inputs and outputs a design workflow diagram would be quite useful at keeping track of which stage the current job is at, and also at seeing where time or money is wasted in a job.  But in smaller companies or solo practitioners a diagram might be a waste of time as there are few processes that you would need to keep track of as you are involved in most or all of them.    

From Novice to Expert

The novice to expert scale gives a good indication of where you’re are in relation to the novice and expert.  It gives you a good idea of what you need to improve on or what you need to be able to achieve if you want to reach the next level of your chosen area. 

I believe that I am in the beginner section, as I have a working knowledge of key aspects of Graphic Design.  And hopefully through University I can progress to up the next stages. 

My evidence for being at this level of expertise is that I can complete most straight forward tasks unsupervised, like with my Brandon Flowers advertisement but when a project of more complexity like creating my University safety advice campaign I need a few crits to keep me on course and to help develop my ideas.