This is my side project as an individual contractor to design two sets of window graphic for the high-end shopping mall The Shops At The Bravern, in Bellevue.

The final design was printed and used on the temporarily vacant sublets in the mall, in order to maintain aesthetic consistency.

Role: Designer

Design Rewind:

• Researched and communicated with the client about Bravern’s positioning, shoppers’ personas, and design expectation.
• Went to the mall and took photos of the spots, the color of the surroundings, the window settings of neighboring shops, etc.
• Christmas holiday is its peak season when most events will be hosted during that time. I created a mood board for “Bravern Xmas” based on its published social media and marketing collaterals:

• Via another project of modifying Bravern’s fashion week poster design, I further communicated and summarized their design preference on the theme, color tone, and image style.

• Came up with drafts with two optional styles and edited them according to the client’s feedback (to comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information and cannot showcase the whole process).

Reflection:

This design project doesn’t require much “exact design work”, but a lot of research and communication to leverage the actual design with the client’s expectation.

I found it quite true that “the client usually won’t know what they want until they see the draft”. If you start designing and editing just by simply obeying the client’s request, chances are you’ll have to iterate again and again since the client’s need is not fully dug out.

One takeaway from this project is to ask for client’s comments on relevant projects or other published marketing collateral of their company. It’s very helpful for designer to pivot the direction.

When it comes to the “exact design”, please take the environment, mall’s profile, customers’ shopping experience into account. The colors of the wall, floor, and other surroundings are will be synergizing on the final visual effect.