In the previous lecture you learned about the importance of getting to know
your client including learning from their website, their competition, their
ideas, what they need to have in a logo and what they don't want to have in a logo
as well as their current and potential customers. In this lesson you'll learn the
necessity of field research. So you might be thinking to yourself: well, I associate the
term of field research with academics doing focus group interviews or a
scientist taking samples from a field or social scientist talking to a group of
people in a village, but graphic design and logo design should also involve
field research. Field research is research basically done outside of your office or
home. It can involve researching the business itself in this context if it
has a physical presence, but it's also a way to get more ideas. So I'll explain one example
as a freelance graphic designer, when I was redesigning the website for a golf
course and a camping grounds business, I went to the business and not only
met the client at their office, talked about logo ideas, website ideas,
things like that. We also went outside and took a tour on the golf cart and just looked
at the golf courses itself, took a tour of the grounds, just for me to become more
familiar with the business. I looked at the campground. I took note of the layout of
the business, their signage along the street and so on.
Doing field research is important when designing a logo or other components of
a client's branding identity and it can involve doing research, not just on the
place of business, but also primary components that they feature in the
branding so it's a good way to learn more about the client of course but it's
also an effective way to get design ideas. For example, when I was working at
an advertising design firm, we worked on a website for a branding company. The theme
of the website was going to feature an elevator where each part of the website
corresponded to a different floor of the building and when a user clicked on a
button rollover, it would navigate to the section for that website. So in order
to do research on elevator buttons, it's best practice not just to look online for
examples. In fact we went outside and went to some large buildings downtown
and took photos of elevator buttons and this can form a basis of your design.
It's not that you're ripping it off, it's just you're looking to see what's out there and get
some ideas. So if your client is an outdoor clothing company, for example,
you know, go wander in nature
or check out some National Parks, take photos, take notes. You might use some of
the photos later such as photos of trees or waves and so on, if you're going do a
simple trace of that, basically to use those as inspiration.
Another part of field research is learning even more about the demographic of the current and potential
customers of your clients, so spend some time with those clients. So if you're
not in the same demographic already, and even if you are, I suggest hanging
out with the intended audience. For example, if you're not in your twenties
but your client is a musician who wants to reach twenty-somethings, then go to
concerts and shows to learn more that appeal to this demographic. The kind of
bands or artists that twenty-somethings would go to. If your client wants to appeal to
thirty-somethings who are in the market for a new car and you're in a different age
group or from a different state or province or even a different country
than the client's intended audience, then do research by visiting dealerships
in those areas if possible. If this isn't possible, then just do interviews of
people in that age group. You can do this over video conferencing on the phone or
even email and besides field research, interviewing is another method that can
yield valuable insight into a demographic. So you'll learn more about
interviewing and focus groups in the next lesson. So to summarize, make sure
you do field research, go out and visit the company or business if it has a
physical location. If it doesn't, just do research on related companies and go
out and hang out with that demographic if possible. Thanks