Rohith MM

Hi, my name is Rohit. I'm working as a senior graphic designer with 9 years of experience. I mainly work on brochures, posters, flyers, emailers, etc. Before that, I was working in the hospitality industry, and that's where I worked on mainly social media ads or promotions for their websites and so on.

So I use Photoshop and Illustrator mainly for creating all the social media posts. First thing, I create a social media post.

We want to design a website country marketing message. So the first thing I need to receive is a copy on what exactly needs to be done. I need a brief word, the content is going to be used based on that. I'll create the design and I'm also gonna need the dimensions. So once I get that, I'll create the creatives that need to be done for the specific market. For example, if it's something related to a promotion, I need a copy. Based on that, I'll design a banner or a small post with the specified height and post size dimension as per the requirement. You're creating the content using the copy provided to me.

So the tools I use are Photoshop and Illustrator. So if you want icons, those are will be created using Illustrator. And if you are looking for something like a Social media post, and want creators, it'll be a mix of both. I'll be using Photoshop and Illustrator. But the main tool in that social media post will be Photoshop. While photo editing, everything will be done in Photoshop. While the icons or any kind of vector elements or CTAs, everything will be created using Illustrator. And everything is linked when I work, at the end of the day, both the tools will be linked together.

Sir, would you take tonshow.com? Before we design any kind of materials for or any kind of brochures or flyers or anything, we follow a brand guideline. So that's the main thing. Before a designer starts working on anything, that person should have a brand guideline with them. So based on the brand guideline, before we decide the kind of fonts, the logo - some companies might have 2 logos. For example, let's say one will be the colorful logo, and one will be the logo that can be used on a darker background. So, for example, it might be a white color logo or a grayscale logo. Everything and the logo size will be mentioned in the brand guideline. All those things, the fonts that can be used for print and digital might be different. So based on that, we'll be creating the material. But when it comes to the design, that will be a generic design that designers will come up with. But at the same time, that design will also have to match up with the company guidelines. Maybe, like, for example, let's say, images. Designers cannot go and pick some random images and say, okay. This is part of the company. No. Every company has their own guidelines. So as for that, the designer will have to choose the images because there won't be a guideline where the image might be in the background, or maybe there should be a specific kind of lighting for the images. So that'll be done as per the guideline provided by the company.

So one thing is, we will be going through the older creatives that were done by the company for advertising. We'll use that as a reference to know how you follow your style and everything. As for that, we will be doing a little bit of research on how to make it look more modern while being consistent with the brand identity. At the same time, we'll also make sure the fonts and everything will match up with the guidelines. But the image, we might do a little bit of an option, maybe try a different style or give it a little bit of a change compared to the company's previous ads. And again, at the end of the day, everything will depend on the copy that the designers receive. Based on that, the creativity will be unleashed in such a way that it will also be consistent with the brand identity.

So for campaign objectives into visual appealing designs, first thing is we need to understand what this campaign is for and who we are targeting. Based on that, we'll follow a design. The way I do this is especially when it's a campaign objective, I try to keep it to one style, and then if it's five campaigns that are all for the same objective, I use the same design, same layout, everything. The only thing that will keep changing is the visuals. If there's a change, for example, let's say there's a mobile phone image. Maybe in the next email, I may not use the same mobile image. I'll make it different. Maybe the angle of the phone will change a little bit, or I'll show a little bit more of the screenshot inside. Sometimes we don't have to show the screen at all. Instead, we can just show a mockup of a screen where the screenshot of that particular requirement can be highlighted a bit more. This way, we can make the campaign look cohesive. At the same time, I would recommend sticking with one style for each campaign so that the audience doesn't get confused about why the design looks different. It will be easier for the audience to connect with the previous design, and they will know that this is part of the same design or part of the same campaign rather than giving them a confusion or making them think, "What is this?" Then later, they have to figure it out. This is part of the previous campaign, which is already established.

Sales such as presentation and collaterals align with the campaign creator type. When it comes to creating presentations for creatives, one thing is we'll create a standard template. We'll be creating a template for each campaign. As per that, as per the copy, as per the topics, and as per the details you wanted inside the presentation. As per that, we'll be modifying and creating it. And all those, if there are any kinds of graphs, if you want it to be properly infographic kind of PPT, everything can be incorporated as per the campaign and the kind of copy we are receiving. As per our requirement, we can increase or reduce the copy, or maybe the number of bullet points can be reduced, or maybe some slides can be merged into one. So all those things can be taken care of.

The way I see things is that all teams are integrated and connected together. So let's say, it can be a developer. It can be a copy team. It can be a design team. So these three things will be integrated into all the campaign objectives. For example, let's say it's an email. As a designer, I only take care of the design part, while it's being converted into an externalization, that is done by the developer. So the designer has to speak to the developer. Right, same thing goes with the copy. The first thing, the copy has to come to the designer. And if designers feel that there's any section where the copy is too much, we designers will definitely speak to the copy team and ask if there's any possibility of reducing the copy or maybe we can have the copy done in a certain manner so that it'll look better in the design. All those things are taken care of. So at the end of the day, designers, copy, and developers all have to work together with whoever is getting involved in this campaign has to get involved together. That's the best way to get things done. That'll be easy and open communication. That means there is no kind of unwanted doubt or miscommunication happening between each team members.

When it comes to applying brand guidelines, there are certain sizes of logos or colors we can use, and fonts we can use. And second, I would suggest that for social media campaigns or creators, let's say three sizes. For example, 1080 by 1080, 1920 by 1080, and 1200 by 620. And another thing is that we create a template in such a way that the logo placement and any additional text is standard in all the templates, keeping that as a base layout. That means all the creatives from this campaign will have the same template, with the logo placement and everything placed. Now, when it comes to the guidelines, we're going to do is use the fonts, colors, and everything that we can play around with within the creative and the size, but within those limits. And fonts are something we have to be very careful about because every brand has its own fonts. There are times where we can play around with the fonts, but up to a certain limit, there is a limitation. But in lower placements, the color combination, everything should match up with the brand guideline so that it will have consistency with the company's overall brand and all the creatives we're sending out for the campaigns.