When you hire a designer for just about anything, they’ll probably ask you for project content. A problem we frequently face is that the phrase “project content” is intimidating to people. They don’t know what we need or want, so they don’t know what to give us. Or they have so much in mind but don’t know where to start.
So what happens? They don’t give us anything, hoping we’ll (…we don’t know, make stuff up?) and figure it out as we go. After all, it’s much easier to look at something you don’t want and make corrections than it is to pinpoint what it is you do want.
Unfortunately, we can’t read your mind. And it’s a waste of billable hours (and therefore your money) for us to guess, entering a stream of revisions as we try to make our way through the absolute hardest way imaginable to come up with what you want, with the content you need.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of what we may mean when we ask for project content.
Keep in mind that not every project will need every one of these, but it should give you a good idea of where to start.
Brand New Company Project Content
Don’t be intimidated if you’re just starting out and don’t have all the items below. Our complimentary consultation will evaluate where you’re at, what you have, and what we need to get started. If you’re at ground zero, we will help you develop the below items so you have them on hand for future projects, whether or not you continue business with us as you grow.
General Design Project Content
- Company Logo/Assets
- Branding Info/Style Guide
These two items mean: the color codes for your company, fonts used, image of your company, etc. In a dream world, you have a Style Guide to hand us that breaks down your brand to the T. A Style Guide will explain spacing between the content and logos, when to use your main logo vs. a submark, when to use each color, etc. If you’re just starting out, you may not have a style guide and that’s ok. It’s a great idea to work with your designer to put one together to make future projects easier.
- Company Info
A typed up ‘About Us’ is great to put on websites, flyers, advertisements, etc. Trust us when we say you want to be the one writing about you, rather than leaving it up to our interpretation. Even if we’re only making a business card, knowing what your company is and what it does is helpful in putting together a design that matches your brand.
- Product/Service Info
Obviously no one knows your products and services like you do. If you’re putting together a service menu or list of products offered, give us the title and a little description of each one. We can’t name your services for you, and have no way of knowing the intricacies of each one. Descriptions are helpful because if you offer a “Deluxe Facial,” an “Acne Facial” and a “High Frequency Facial”, your clients want to know what they get with each one and what the differences are.
- Pricing
It may seem obvious, but especially in ecommerce sites, product brochures, and service menus, pricing is an important piece of project content that we need from you.
Website Project Content
If we are building a new website:
- Domain and Login Information
If you already have a domain, we need to know who it’s with and what the login information is so we can get in there and build the site. The same goes for hosting and maintenance. If you have someone else for hosting/maintenance, we need that information as well.
If you don’t have these yet (which is great! Don’t sweat it), we’ll get you set up with one that’s available and makes sense.
- Primary Purpose of Your Site
Think of your website as one of your sales tools. Are we selling product? Capturing leads? Simply providing information? Once we have the primary purpose we can build the site (and the content provided) around that purpose.
- Logo/Asset/Branding Information
We’ll need vector logo files if they have them. If they only have raster (.jpeg and .png files pixelate when enlarged), it should be fine for web only, but will likely not work for other projects.
- About Page/Contact Page
It’s ideal to have a vision/mission/culture statement for an About Page. At bare minimum, a blurb about who you are and what you do is needed as part of your project content.
Do you want to be contacted through a contact form? Email? Phone? Text? Let us know if we need to build a contact form, or if you just need contact information listed for phone calls.
- Privacy Policy/Cookies Notice
There are templates and plugins we can use to put these on your site if necessary. However, if you have a specific privacy policy or something unique about your cookie use, you’ll need to provide that to us.
- E-Commerce Policies
If you’re selling products, provide us with your Terms and Conditions. This includes your policies regarding Shipping and Delivery and Returns and Refunds.
If we’re updating your existing website:
We need to know which platform your site was built on (WordPress? Wix? Squarespace?) and the login information to get in so that we can update your site as needed.
Paying for Project Content Creation
Polarity Design Team offers content writing services for those who are busy, do not want to write it all up, or don’t feel confident in their writing skills. Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t mean we don’t need some participation from you. As stated above, we can’t magically produce project content with no direction. Plus, it’s not our place to name and price services or make up your return and refund policies. We do try to make your participation easy, however. We’ll have you fill out a simple form telling us about yourself and giving us the relevant information. We’ll use those bullet points to put together the content in a beautiful, professional way for you.
The Bottom Line
Not all of the above project content will be needed every time. However, it’s good to know which types of information you need so your project is completed quickly and efficiently. The pile of projects waiting on content tends to be where we see projects go to die, to disappointment on both ends. The beautiful part is, if you need something added later on, you only need to ask, so don’t feel the need to have it all perfect before we begin. And, of course, if you have any questions about the kind of information we need, we’re happy to help!
