Veda Technology Website
We’ve been working with the smart/savvy guys at Veda Technology on their upcoming website. We initially designed and built a holding page for them in May which you can find here www.veda.com.ng.
It has been a great challenging project and we came out with a design we were all very happy with. The design has now been sent off to the developers Antigravity who are coding away all the HTML/CSS goodness. Can’t wait for it to go live.
What are your thoughts?
NB: Logo not designed by inden.
Clean! And excellent matching font. Nice colour too.
Thanks Gbenga! We do try to keep it “simple”
Now this shows quite clearly that design principles are at work, use of type, spaces, grids etc. Minimalism at its finest. The only challenge for me is that “typical” Nigerian Clients don’t want it kept simple. They want everything and anything to be included. How did you manage past that?It’s really easy to communicate facts/figures through RFP’s and what not. But how do you communicate creativity, especially to a client who is stiffling yours?
Thanks Jae!
The problem with Nigerian Clients or Clients generally is a lot of them don’t know what makes good design, they want everything they can without an understand of what is needed and have no idea what design should cost (post on this coming shortly!). I think two things can help with this, first please please don’t let me bring out my RFP bazooka! Read this (a must) on RFPs – http://www.andyrutledge.com/rfp-idiocy.php.
Clients need to be interviewed, assesed, not all clients are viable for a designer and vice versa! It’s like a real job, you can’t just work with ANY company, with ANY philophosy. So I think the first part is learning to say NO! And not compromising yourself!
Once you have that star client: the budget is right (or you’ve worked out requirements to suit the budget), the client is aware of the number of revisions available and the cost, the client loves your work (very important) and you’ve come to common ground on what works, you have an understanding of the clients business, target market, you have a moodboard of websites in their landscape and they’ve identified what they like, you’ve told them what works and what doesn’t (from an objective point of view), the timeline is right – I think then you would have developed some level of trust to educate the client on what makes up good design. Frankly I wouldn’t take on rush work and I wouldn’t even have a second meeting if the client is bent on having two features I am totally against. Learn to say no! And learn to run! More work will come
With Nigeria’s tight economic landscape, it’s quite hard to adopt what you preach above as much as it’s the bitter truth. Some clients outrightly call for what I call a ‘design beauty contest’ and choose the best design to work with.
You are thus caught in the web of free pitching and clients throwing their budget at you on a take it or leave it basis.
I really look forward to the day when designers can dictate to clients
Hi Dante
I understand this frustrating but I assure you it doesn’t have to be the case.
Whilst the economic landscape might be tight, it always boils down to appreciation which is based on how informed a client is. A client is unable to make an informed decision without understanding the importance of a designer/client fit and what aspects of the process they lose using pitch work.
Without delving into the contentious topic that is crowdsourcing/pitchwork, you will find visual communication is impossible without a clear exploration of the market, the process and the message – all of which require time in Nigeria and the world over. And for this reason like in any industry your reputation, which is fuelled by the great work you put out there, is extremely critical – so that the client feels secured knowing that your style is a good fit and knowing that you will deliver.
It is also up to you as a designer to “take it or leave it”.