THE PROCESS: Part 5 (Presenting Your Designs) – Episode 092

It’s week 5 of our series on Brandi’s *patented* process. This week we continue our series on Brandi’s design process. This is the sixth and final episode in the series! Brandi gives an in-depth look at 3 different ways of presenting your work. Putting your work out there, digitally presenting it to a client, and formally presenting it to a group. Hope you enjoy this final installment of our process series!

Our Week Recap 

Brandi’s week:

Brandi loves Valentine’s day! It’s not just a greeting card holiday to her. She is loving that the same day they are recording this, they interviewed James Victore. Which that episode is up so you can listen to it hereif you haven’t.

Michelle’s week:

Michelle has a lot going on in her life. She brings a song this week and she has been learning more about the Enneagram. She works with a bunch of type nines and type sevens, and her husband is a type seven.

Step 5 of Brandi’s process/Presenting your ideas:

1. If this is for yourself, presenting would be just putting your design out there

You need an account to show your work. Whether it be social media or a website. This helps with confidence in showing your work because can be a space where you are consistently sharing.

2. If this is for a client, it’s presenting to the client (digitally or in person)

Presenting digitally means a nicely put together PDF.

• How to do this in the preliminary stage, page one tells the client, here’s what I was trying to solve, here’s how I believe I solved it, here’s the reason I did this, this, and this. Please let me know your thoughts. Have each page numbered so the client can easily state which page they are referring to.
• The communication needs to be very clear. And never ask the client “do you like it”.
• When presenting the final product to the client, keep all the first round designs in black and white when possible (logos, etc.). This keeps the client from being swayed by color. Put in your notes to the client that appropriate colors will be chosen once the direction is chosen.
• Then once the final direction is chosen, you send the client another PDF, numbered pages, here’s the problem I tried to solve, here’s how I solved it, here are the words that put me in the direction.
• After this, you’re good to go and you give the client the logo (or whatever you have done for them) on every possible file form and in every possible size, they would need.

3. If for a group of people, presenting in front of a group of people (a formal presentation)

This is the most difficult kind of presenting.

• The most important things to remember are who, what, when, why, where, and how.
• Who is who you are and why you are here. Then talk about your target story. You wrap your whole presentation around your target story, because that’s the most important who in design, who you design for.
• The what, you talk about the thing you have brought to the group. This is where you talk about your problem and the concept statement. When this is going to be a bit fluid depending on what you are designing.
• When is when will the design launch and why it will be at that time.
• Then the where will be where the design will “live” (ads, billboards, posters, etc.). Your audience needs to have a clear understanding of where your design will be in order to know if it will work when they see your design.
  • At this point, you still have not shown them the design. This gives the audience a clear understanding of all the information so that they can know all the facts and decide on the design.
• Why is when you talk about the problem you were trying to solve and the answer to that problem. The answer is your design.
• That then leads you into how, which is the execution. It is explaining your type choices, the colors, the images, everything in the design and how it will solve your problem.
• Finally, find a way to end the presentation without saying “I’m done”. Usually pausing and just saying, “Thank You” works perfectly.

Michelle’s Song:

Eight by Sleeping at Last

This Quarter’s Book:

We are doing book reviews on the podcast every quarter!

If you would like to read along, THIS QUARTER, we’ve been reading, Called to Create, by Jordan Raynor.

Want to support us?

Go to Patreon and help support our podcast!

Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.

THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.

TRANSCRIPTION

Intro: 00:02 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being, AKA a non-designer. We’re here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically, whatever we feel is relevant.

Brandi Sea: 00:19 Hey guys, I’m Brandi Sea.

Michelle: 00:21 And I Michelle.

Brandi Sea: 00:22 And you’re listening to an epic episode 92. I don’t know why I said that. I just felt like it.

Michelle: 00:27 Feels right.

Brandi Sea: 00:28 Of Design Speaks.

Michelle: 00:29 Welcome to it. On today’s episode, we are going to be talking about the final step of Brandi’s process.

Brandi Sea: 00:36 My brain was, my brain went to the final count.

Michelle: 00:39 (singing) It’s the Final countdown!

Brandi Sea: 00:42 I mean it kind of is the final countdown. This is the last episode in our process series. You guys, holy moly.

Michelle: 00:48 The crowd goes wild. So stay tuned for that. First, we’re going to talk a little bit about our lives and things that are going on.

Brandi Sea: 00:56 Cuz you care so much.

Michelle: 00:57 I know, you Care, you care. And I thank you for that.

Brandi Sea: 01:00 I really think you do care. Sorry.

Michelle: 01:02 Um, well I guess I don’t have a whole lot going on. Well, I have a lot going on in my life. I have a lot going on in my life. Um, but right now I just have like a song. Um, there’s

Brandi Sea: 01:13 We have a song we’d been talking, both of us together have been talking a lot about RN. We always, we, we generally talk a lot about the Enneagram, but I think it’s been more this week for some reason.

Michelle: 01:22 I find that the enneagram like reignites every so often there’ll be like a period of time where I’m like, why haven’t like read about it and like a second and I haven’t thought about it. Like I’m always kind of thinking about it, but really I haven’t focused on it.

Brandi Sea: 01:37 Yeah.

Michelle: 01:37 And then all of a sudden something happens and I’m like, oh my gosh, what’s your like I more people at work have, I know what more people are at work right now and I’m finding out we were, I work with a bunch of nines and a bunch of sevens for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the enneagram is

Brandi Sea: 01:53 A thing and we have an episode, two-part episode to episode two, part two, part

Michelle: 01:59 A two-part interview.

Brandi Sea: 02:00 There we go. That’s the one.

Michelle: 02:02 Two episodes. It’s a two-part interview with

Brandi Sea: 02:05 Enneagram expert

Michelle: 02:06 Enneagram expert, Chris Heureurtz go back. I think it’s like in the 60s somewhere. I think it’s like episode 68

Brandi Sea: 02:12 Something, something like that. I think that’s right. Look at you, Sean Wes!

New Speaker: 02:15 Oh, I know. Um, so go back and listen to what the enneagram is, it’s for lack of a better term, it’s uh, a way to tell who you are at your core. So it’s not a personality type, but

Brandi Sea: 02:29 It’s like what frames you who like the things about you that you might not understand but wanting to know more about

New Speaker: 02:34 And instead of, um, instead of identifying you with words and it identifies you with numbers. Um, so I am a type nine anyway. I working with a bunch of type nines and a bunch of sevens kind of crazy.

Brandi Sea: 02:47 And your husband’s a seven.

New Speaker: 02:48 Yeah. And I live with a seven. So, um, recently this song, um, released sleep, a band Sleeping at Last. We’ve talked about him as well. Um, his name is Ryan O’Neal. Goes by the band name Sleeping at Last. That’s what he creates things under. And he has been doing a series on the Enneagram. He releases a type, um a song for each specific type. He is slowly but surely making his way through all of these types

Brandi Sea: 03:15 To the final number, which is the nine

New Speaker: 03:16 Final countdown.

Brandi Sea: 03:18 It’s a theme.

New Speaker: 03:20 Um and he has just recently released eight as well as a podcast on the breakdown of eight, which I have not listened to and I’m so excited to listen to it.

Brandi Sea: 03:27 Same it after this recording session is done, we’re both going to do that.

New Speaker: 03:32 Exactly. Um, so my song that I brought to you today is eight and take a listen to it.I I, I’m just going to say right off the bat, it is my favorite.

Brandi Sea: 03:44 Oh

New Speaker: 03:45 It is my favorite so far.

Brandi Sea: 03:47 Bold words

New Speaker: 03:47 So here it is.

Brandi Sea: 03:48 Okay.

Michelle: 04:55 I could let this go on forever because this is this part of the song right here is where it gets like, it started out incredible. Like took my breath away immediately, but oh my gosh. When those, when that beat kicks in, it’s amazing.

Brandi Sea: 05:09 The first word that came to my mind when I heard it, the day it came out was drama.

Michelle: 05:13 Yeah. It’s intense. Um, and I think I love that. So I love that so much because that means as a creative, um, as a, as the songwriter, he really dove deep into who the type eight is

Brandi Sea: 05:27 Which is what he does for everyone.

Michelle: 05:29 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 05:31 Which is incredible

Michelle: 05:31 All of them. But he has shifted. So if you listen to the other songs that are in this, um, in this

Brandi Sea: 05:39 Series

Michelle: 05:39 Series, thank you. He has been assuming the role of that person, which is great cause he’s also a type nine and nines are at the top of the Enneagram and they can kind of absorb any of the types. It’s kind of a one fun thing about me that I enjoy. Like I like being a nine because, so this one was really, really cool and I’ve seen the shift. So if you listen to seven, it’s very lighthearted and fun. And, um, it talks about the seven a lot, obviously, but it’s got a completely different feel and eight has shifted entirely. It’s intense. It’s dramatic. It’s um, straight to the heart and also vulnerable and a really weird way.

Brandi Sea: 06:26 Yeah.

Michelle: 06:26 And I think that’s an eight. So I messaged him on Instagram and I didn’t get a response back, but I said because I’m nine wing eight, which is don’t worry about the wings guys. Don’t even worry about it. Um, I, but I said, my eight wing doesn’t deserve eight. Thank you for obviously pouring your heart and soul into it. I can feel it. And I said, I’m a nine and just want to encourage you, you’re in the home stretch. You can do this one more.

Brandi Sea: 06:46 And he’s an eight isn’t he?

Michelle: 06:47 He’s a nine.

Brandi Sea: 06:47 He’s a nine

Michelle: 06:48 Uh Chris Heuertz. It’s who we interviewed is an eight.

Brandi Sea: 06:51 Oh okay. That’s who I thought you messaged.

Michelle: 06:52 Oh No.

Brandi Sea: 06:53 Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Michelle: 06:54 But I did actually mess message Chris and we talked for a bit. Um, I said, um, Hey Chris, since our interview I’ve discovered I’m a nine wing eight. Previously I thought it was a nine-week one. I said I was really confused and my world was a bit shaken because the combination of eights and nine scared me. And I just told them I overall love the the song by Ryan O’Neal and I’m really excited to listen to him on the podcast because Chris Heuertz is on the podcast with Ryan O’Neal for Sleeping at Last and

Brandi Sea: 07:22 Every episode

Michelle: 07:22 Of this series. Um, I said, I can’t wait to listen to the podcast and what you have to say about it on Friday. I’m sure you had a blast and like Asterix talking about your type and I noted the heavy sarcasm and he responded with a bunch of hand claps and he said Nines Make Ma, he said nines might take the longest to self-type, so you’re solid. Um, like it, it took me a very long time and I said, if I’m anything but a nine wing eight, I’m just want to die. I just want to rip my hair out because I’ve like figured this out. But anyway, so that song has been really, really great for me to listen to because I kind of resonate with it a bit and I can just see all of the hard work that he’s put into each of his songs. And I especially feel it now.

Brandi Sea: 08:11 That makes sense

Michelle: 08:12 Because I get it.

Brandi Sea: 08:13 I just really enjoy it.

Michelle: 08:14 Yeah you just really enjoy it

Brandi Sea: 08:15 I’m not anywhere near the eight, like in any possible way.

Michelle: 08:19 You said you listen to three cause you are a type three and you, you

Brandi Sea: 08:24 Cried

Michelle: 08:24 Cried and you don’t do that. And so for me, finally hearing something about me, I’m like, this is it.

Brandi Sea: 08:31 You get it.

Michelle: 08:32 This is it. Like I’ve, I love, um, the four song. I love  one song. Um, all the other songs I’ve thought of are really good, but the four and one have been the ones that I’ve been able to be like, oh yeah, that’s so cool. I get it because I have friends who are and I can kind of, I like, I get it, you know, but eight has been like, no, no,

Brandi Sea: 08:52 Oh, this is part of me.

Michelle: 08:54 I get it. So it’s been really cool.

Brandi Sea: 08:56 That’s great.

Michelle: 08:57 And I’ve talked for too long about it.

Brandi Sea: 08:58 That’s okay. I mean, I didn’t bring a song because I’ve been listening to eight a lot as well. Um, I have less to say about it outside of the fact that it’s like super cool and very dramatic and, um, I love the horns. I love this, the difference of, you know, the feel of it. It even sounds very different from just Sleeping at Last in a lot of ways. It’s not as a theorial and all that stuff, but it’s really great. Um, so yeah, that’s okay that you talked because I didn’t talk.

Michelle: 09:23 Do you have something that you’re loving right now?

Brandi Sea: 09:25 Something that I’m loving right now. I’m Valentines.

Michelle: 09:28 Yeah. It, even when Valentine’s Day is over as it is right now, you still love it. Like the house is still decorated.

Brandi Sea: 09:34 We’re recording these episodes a little bit ahead of time. Um, because uh, full disclosure, like I’m going out of town, Joelle’s going out of town, we had a lot of stuff going on, so we just wanted to make sure that we had time to do all the logistical backend stuff. But yeah, Valentine’s is my favorite holiday. I don’t think it’s a greeting card holiday if you don’t let it be like, I’m not a get 12 roses and get me a pretty card, I want a card of some kind. I want a post-it that says I love you and I appreciate you. Like, I just think that Valentine’s is a really great opportunity to reflect on what love really is and the people that you care about and love them and the way that they want to be loved. And, um, it’s just, it’s a really valuable time for me. I cherish it more than virtually any other holiday. And, uh, so yeah, my house and my family and Valentine’s is like a second Christmas morning around here.

Michelle: 10:25 I was going to say that.

Brandi Sea: 10:27 Yeah.

Michelle: 10:27 I love it.

Brandi Sea: 10:28 I’m just like posting all the things like with my kid

Michelle: 10:31 And see, I worked in a flower shop where I saw Valentine’s Day as the day I have to work really, really hard. And so I’ve, I’ve from, I remember, um, one of the guys, the guy that I worked with, his parents actually own the the, um, flower shop before I started working there. He was, we were talking about how we don’t understand Valentine’s Day. And I was like, I don’t either. Like, don’t buy me flowers, buy me groceries, buy me something I can, I need. Flowers are just going to die. And I’ve held that with me this entire time of like, no 17 year old me is so right. And that was

Brandi Sea: 11:04 Which is a great thing for me though because I really enjoy bringing people over to my view on whatever.

Michelle: 11:09 Yeah. And so it helps me see a different perspective.

Brandi Sea: 11:12 Every Valentine’s I like make you a Valentine.

Michelle: 11:15 It’s good. And it’s, you don’t do it in like a, love Valentine’s Day.

Brandi Sea: 11:19 No. I like to embrace your snarkiness.

Michelle: 11:22 Yeah. It’s good. You, you love me and the way I need to be loved. So thank you.

Brandi Sea: 11:26 That’s what I tried to do. So yeah. Um, so yeah, that’s, I mean Valentine’s, I have a toothache. That’s not inspiring me right now. Um, and uh, we interviewed James Victore earlier today.

Michelle: 11:37 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 11:37 So that was pretty, that was, I was, I’m loving the fact that we finally got to do that.

Michelle: 11:42 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 11:42 Um, so you guys will get to hear that one if you didn’t?

Michelle: 11:46 If you didn’t already question mark. We need to figure out the order of these episodes. But,

Brandi Sea: 11:51 But it happened and it was something loved.

Michelle: 11:53 We know this is episode 92.

Brandi Sea: 11:56 Yes.

Michelle: 11:56 And I think he’s before that. So you’re welcome for the interview with James Victore.

Brandi Sea: 12:00 Hope it was something you are loving right now.

Michelle: 12:03 Exactly.

Brandi Sea: 12:03 Um, so today

Michelle: 12:05 Today we’re going to be talking about the last step of your process, which is

Brandi Sea: 12:09 Present

Michelle: 12:10 Presenting

Brandi Sea: 12:10 Presenting your ideas.

Michelle: 12:10 Ooh.

Brandi Sea: 12:11 Um, and then we’ll just do like a quick recap of all of the things that we talked about the past weeks.

Michelle: 12:17 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 12:17 Like a month and a half.

Michelle: 12:18 Holy moly.

Brandi Sea: 12:18 I don’t know. We stretched this thing out as long as we could, didn’t we?

Michelle: 12:21 I know we really did. We milked this thing, but hopefully not to the point of it not being interesting.

Brandi Sea: 12:28 Yeah.

Michelle: 12:28 We’ve had so much to talk about on every single episode that we even made one, two parts because we didn’t feel like we were giving it justice. So hopefully you’ve enjoyed it thus far.

Brandi Sea: 12:40 Yeah. So, um, I dunno

Michelle: 12:42 Let’s go for it.

Brandi Sea: 12:43 Um, so once, I mean, okay, so up to now you’ve basically done all the work. It’s done, you finished the thing and now it’s like, okay, time to present it. So I think I have like three different angles on presenting that I just decided I was going to have.

Michelle: 13:00 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 13:00 Cause that’s what I do. Um, one is like basically showing your work. So if this is just something that you’re doing for yourself, like just putting it out there. Um, the other one is, uh, presenting to a client, maybe digitally or in person. Um, so I guess I would say like presenting to clients. Um, I’m writing, I’m literally writing this down so I don’t forget it. Um presenting to clients digitally and then I’m presenting your ideas more like more formally, like in front of a, either the client in front of a group of people in front of your boss, like a formal presentation

Michelle: 13:41 For a grade. And, um, also for just having criticism back?

Brandi Sea: 13:48 I would say just like a formal presentation because, um, yes, for, for class or, um, or if you are going to like present to a board room full of people, that’s a formal presentation

Michelle: 14:03 And getting them on board with whatever you’re giving them

Brandi Sea: 14:05 Onboard,

Michelle: 14:06 Onboard.

Brandi Sea: 14:07 So yeah. So I’m going to go over like just putting it out there, um, presenting to clients digitally, which is probably 90% of how I do it. And then formal presentations, which rarely happened, but those are the hardest.

Michelle: 14:21 I imagine there’s like graphs there and everybody’s sitting around a long table in business suits

Brandi Sea: 14:26 Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes it depends on your, depends on your clients. Um, so, uh, the, the the first part is like, I think it seems easy, but it’s honestly like one of the harder parts for me and part of, part of just finishing and showing your work is just getting over yourself, kind of. Um, it’s something that I’ve had to kind of embrace and go, okay, I finished this thing, now what do I do with it? Um, so this is a very easy step. The only real hint I have for you on this is to just share it.

Michelle: 15:01 Just do it like Nike, just do it.

Brandi Sea: 15:03 Have a platform. So if you always post like cats and like what you made for dinner,

Michelle: 15:10 It’s probably not your platform.

Brandi Sea: 15:11 You probably need a new account.

Michelle: 15:12 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 15:13 So sidebar, you need an account to show your work, whether that’s on Instagram or Behance. Um, I really think that even if you have a website and you don’t have a social media platform and you just kind of like sprinkle it inside of you, like your personal life

Michelle: 15:27 It’s going to get buried.

Brandi Sea: 15:28 It’s, it’s not gonna, it’s gonna just look really weird, and out of place. So, it also gives you a place where you feel you, you will start to feel more confident in showing your work because this page is for your work. So you want to fill it up with things. So um showing it there is for you, for your personal account, for showing people what you can do. Um, that’s one way of presenting your, your designs, your ideas. Um, the second one is, uh, presenting to clients digitally. So, um, what I do is, um sorry, Jasmine just texted me. Okay. Sorry. I just want make sure she’s okay. Good. Um, presenting to clients digitally for me basically involves, uh, a really nicely put together pdf. Um, so what I do is I have a page. Um, so, so I guess kind of like side sidebar for this one  depends on whether you’re presenting your final idea or like, here’s my idea, here’s my two executions. What do you want to do now? Um, both of them for me and evolve PDFs. So for the first stage, so say I’ve got two versions of this that I want to show them. Here’s two book covers. They’re both the same concept. They both are different executed versions of that concept. Page one of the PDF is a nicely designed, um, page that says, um here, here was the problem I was trying to solve. Here’s how I believe that both of these executions can solve that problem. Here’s the reasons I did this, that, and the other. And please let me know your thoughts. And then number them page one is execution one, page two is execution two. So then when we’re getting feedback over email, they can say in regards to number one, it’s not just like, here’s a whole bunch of stuff. Tell me what you think. You know, it, it really keeps the the whole idea behind presenting your ideas, um, digitally is the communication needs to be very clear.

Michelle: 17:36 It creates a paper trail. It creates accountability

Brandi Sea: 17:41 Reduces misunderstandings.

Michelle: 17:43 It’s, it’s why, I mean, I, I’ve never had to present something digitally to a client just because that’s not my line of work. Um, but in regards to what I do as well as what a lot of people do throughout their day, um, I send a lot of emails and texts. Um, and I prefer that because of what I just said. It’s, it’s digital, so it creates a paper trail. I quote paper obviously, um, and I, I, they, they, I can’t, I can’t go back on it and they can’t go back on it. Sure, tone isn’t there, but maybe I keep tone out of this.

Brandi Sea: 18:21 Yeah, it doesn’t, it’s not,

Michelle: 18:22 It’s just information.

Brandi Sea: 18:24 This is just, here’s what I did, here’s why I did it. Here’s two options that I know will work for you. Which direction would you like to take? And that’s only if I present it two. If it’s one, sometimes I only present one, then it’s here’s this, here’s why I did it. Here’s why it works. Um, let me know if you have any feedback. So it’s not like, do you like it? I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ask anyone, do you like it?

Michelle: 18:51 Right.

Brandi Sea: 18:52 Because it doesn’t matter.

Michelle: 18:53 It’s that it’s not to not, it’s not an option right now.

Brandi Sea: 18:55 Does it, does it work to solve the problem that we’re trying? You know, we talked with James Victore about objective and subjective. It’s like, does this solve your objective? Yes or no? Like,

Michelle: 19:06 Right

Brandi Sea: 19:07 What’s your feedback? And if they say, um, by this time working with me, I’m, I’m definitely not getting questions. Like, I don’t, I don’t like this color. Can you change it?

Michelle: 19:17 Hmm.

Brandi Sea: 19:18 I don’t because I don’t, I don’t take those kinds of clients on. And also I already addressed in every step of this process, why I’ve chosen whatever colors or typefaces or whatever.

Michelle: 19:29 And as said in a previous episode, um, if they have any aversion to a specific color they need to tell you and why, and then you will actually take that into consideration and let them know why or why not will or will not be that color.

Brandi Sea: 19:44 Right. And so that’s already been part of the conversations way before this. So the potential for there being any really like client from hell moments are slim at this point. Slim to none. And I’ve had almost none because almost none.

Michelle: 19:59 And also we’ve addressed this in a previous episode. There are no clients from hell.

Brandi Sea: 20:03 Yeah, there are none. They’re only bad designers who take clients.

Michelle: 20:08 Yes. The end.

Brandi Sea: 20:09 Um, so all that being said, that’s how I present the preliminary part. And then once we’ve gone from there, the final, final presenting is, um, okay. So let’s take the book idea out of this one and replaced that with logo presentation. The first few rounds are all black and white period the end.

Michelle: 20:33 That’s it.

Brandi Sea: 20:33 And when I, when they’re choosing, I don’t want them to have color sway them because color will sway. So present only in black and white. I put in my notes, appropriate colors will be chosen once you choose a direction. And then I will show you what those look like and explained my reasoning. And then the final one is, first page is, then here was the problem. Here’s how I solved it. Here’s the words I used to find this direction and basically, Tada,

Michelle: 21:05 There it is.

Brandi Sea: 21:05 Here it is. Here’s exactly what you wanted and you didn’t know it.

Michelle: 21:08 Yes. How is the sending that email go for you? Like how does that go for you? Um, are you nervous? What does it look like?

Brandi Sea: 21:17 Yeah, I mean, even if I know that this is the, like say this is like the best worker I’ve ever created, which I never feel like that. Once I’m done, I’m like, I could do better, but I got to send it anyway. Um, I’m always just a little bit like, okay, I’m going to hit send.

Michelle: 21:32 And that’s that. Let me read the email one more time.

Brandi Sea: 21:34 Honestly, my biggest fear is not that they won’t like it. It’s that I haven’t explained myself fully. It’s that I have not, um, basically backed up my reasoning enough to them so that they can’t question me. Like my worst

Michelle: 21:48 There’s a loophole somewhere.

Brandi Sea: 21:49 Yeah. My worst fear is that I missed something and that they’re going to go, here’s why this doesn’t actually work

Michelle: 21:55 And then they’re going to be right.

Brandi Sea: 21:56 It’s never, I can honestly say it’s never worked. It’s never happened. Um, the, the one major time that I’ve had pushback back on this was because, um, they just decided,

Michelle: 22:06 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 22:06 You know, they just decided that they didn’t want what, what we had already discussed and that’s outside of this sphere altogether. That’s just a glitch in the matrix. So

Michelle: 22:16 It’s not Deja Vu.

Brandi Sea: 22:17 Yeah. There was not a black cat walking by twice. Um, so

Michelle: 22:22 Anybody born after 1995 go watch the matrix.

Brandi Sea: 22:25 Anyone born after 1995? I’m sorry, but you’re missing out on something.

Michelle: 22:29 Although I have decided sidebar, this is such a sidebar and I’m sorry, I’ve decided that the reason world like dying from all these like cancer is because of the 90s. I’m like, it’s because you may see Wonderbread and like fish sticks and like a healthy version of a drink to you was a Snapple.

Brandi Sea: 22:46 Yeah, right.

Michelle: 22:48 That’s why we’re dying anyway. Sorry, continue.

Brandi Sea: 22:51 So many things.

Michelle: 22:52 Rabbit trail back.

Brandi Sea: 22:53 It’s okay. It’s okay. That’s how works

Michelle: 22:54 I digress.

Brandi Sea: 22:56 Rabbits, trails

Michelle: 22:58 The rabbit that leads you back to the Matrix. Back to what we were just talking about.

Brandi Sea: 23:01 I was, I was taking, that’s where I was trying to take that, but my brain stopped cause we hadn’t eaten any lunch. Um, okay. So, so that’s the other one. So, um, it’s basically putting together and it needs to be really nicely designed. You should, you should always put, and this is, this is my, my very strong personal opinion, but I really do feel like it’s the best way if you’re not working in some other kind of program like Monday or you know

Michelle: 23:25 Some productivity website.

Brandi Sea: 23:27 I think that a pdf shows that you know what you’re doing and it allows you to have complete control over how that looks on their end. So if you’re just like, blah, blah, blah, email dear so and so blah blah blah,

Michelle: 23:39 Hope you enjoy

Brandi Sea: 23:40 Here’s this. Let me know what you think. Signed me attached five Jpeg

Michelle: 23:45 No

Brandi Sea: 23:45 Like jpegs, jpegs. Um, I mean that’s fine, but

Michelle: 23:50 It’s not thorough.

Brandi Sea: 23:51 It’s not thorough. It doesn’t allow, you know, that requires you. You kinda got to think about their use on the other end. Okay. So that requires them opening five different pictures, weeding through them, referencing your email back and forth, back and forth, as opposed to having everything that they could possibly need on the first page. And I keep it in like a six by six square.

Michelle: 24:12 Okay.

Brandi Sea: 24:13 And if it doesn’t fit in that I edit down what I’m saying because

Michelle: 24:17 It’s like a resume

Brandi Sea: 24:17 I don’t need to say more, say only what you have to say and nothing more.

Michelle: 24:21 If your resume is longer than a page, you have a problem. So it’s the same that goes along with this.

Brandi Sea: 24:26 So here’s, and then, um, you know, here’s the versions I also put, I sometimes attach, um, like a, like a style board. Like here’s the typefaces I used

Michelle: 24:37 Oh yeah, I’ve seen that

Brandi Sea: 24:38 Here’s the colors, here’s your new Pantone colors for your brand.

Michelle: 24:41 And it’s usually in some weird like Latin terms

Brandi Sea: 24:45 Lorem Ipsum.

Michelle: 24:47 Yeah

Brandi Sea: 24:47 I don’t usually put lorem ipsum, I usually put a, b, c, d, e so they can just see the typeface

Michelle: 24:51 That’s good

Brandi Sea: 24:51 All the letters. Unless it’s like sidebar if it’s like a brochure than they do probably need lorem ipsum some because it needs to show what walk tech.

Michelle: 25:00 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 25:01 Otherwise, so I include that if it’s if it’s applicable. Um, and then I show them the thing and if we’re good to go after that, I give them a file with, if it’s logos, I give them every single possible file version they could need. Jpeg, eps, PNG, all of the different file formats in various sizes, web size, large web size, small, medium, large, extra large resolution. So that I give them this little package of everything they need. If I’ve committed to giving them social media graphics, if I’ve committed to giving them

Michelle: 25:39 They don’t have to edit anything themselves

Brandi Sea: 25:41 They should not have to touch anything.

Michelle: 25:43 And they really shouldn’t. I know that many photographers that I’ve known as well as worked with is um, their, their, their thing is you can use my pictures anywhere because you bought them. However, you are not allowed to edit. No filters. No taking up the contrast, taking it down, adding a shadow or cropping it in any way. This is mine and I’m, I’m releasing it to you on these conditions. You sign the contract, you get the stuff you do as they say.

Brandi Sea: 26:11 Right. Exactly. And I’ve, I’ve honestly had to let clients go. Um, midway through a process because they wanted what we call the native files, the the raw editable. I can do what I want with this and potentially screw it up files, all the layers. Um, because, and I make it very clear that you will never receive those from me unless you give me an extra percentage fee. Like I will release those two with the understanding that you will not change anything important. You are only using those to keep for your files and that requires a premium fee in order for me to release that to you

Michelle: 26:49 It’s like turbo tax when you get to talk to the people who are helping you with your taxes.

Brandi Sea: 26:54 Yeah. Yeah. So I, I hate that I’ve had to let clients go for that, but it’s like, what’s the big deal? I’m paying you. I’m like,

Michelle: 27:00 Not enough.

Brandi Sea: 27:01 I’m sorry. This is my work. This is my stuff. So

Michelle: 27:04 It’s like you’re paying as as if you’ve already listened to the James Victore interview. As James Victoria said, you’re getting paid once and they’re using those files over and over and over again. So that

Brandi Sea: 27:16 Which is also a value-based pricing issue too.

Michelle: 27:18 Yeah. Anyway

Brandi Sea: 27:19 So um, so that’s the presenting digitally. Um, I think that I mean it’s pretty self-explanatory. The last one is, is really more difficult one and is the one that I kind of have developed a system for and teaching my students how to present their ideas. Um, I grade. I have in the past graded and attended, I don’t know, 40 or 50 present, probably more than that, senior presentations, um, upper-level presentations, way more than that. And, um, there are things that in this line of work, you need to make sure that you’re hitting. And so I was, I was getting frustrated, um, as an outsider before I started teaching at the school thinking like, why don’t like they’re missing so many things. Why, why are they still missing these points on presenting? And, um, as I was teaching, it just kind of revealed this, this sort of like system that I’ve come up with for planning. Your presentation just kind of came out naturally and it’s the who, what, when, where, why and how

Michelle: 28:24 TNL RSTLNE

Brandi Sea: 28:26 Sure. What?

Michelle: 28:28 You know, what is it called? Not The prices, right. The wheel of fortune. Like a person, place or thing and noun.

Brandi Sea: 28:33 Yeah. Sorta like that. Um, so I’m going to just kind of go over like what this means. Um, I have a couple of other insights that I want to share that I, I had previously written a blog post on presenting as part of my process before I found this like kind of simplified version of how to do this. So, um, the who is you and your target story. So you want to start, we talked about the target story a lot. You want to start with telling us who you are first and why you’re here. So if you’re presenting to a class, you basically have to always assume that the people you’re presenting to know nothing about you and know nothing about what you’re about to say because the chances are that maybe, maybe one of the people, maybe the person that hired you has been working on it with you and knows you and knows the things that you’re going to talk about. But maybe there were six people, 12 people, two other people in the room that actually just know that you’re, you’re the designer bringing the thing that’s all they know.

Michelle: 29:33 Yeah, exactly.

Brandi Sea: 29:34 Hey, so and so we have a meeting, the designers bring in the thing

Michelle: 29:38 You’re like an anomaly.

Brandi Sea: 29:39 And so then you know, so, so you can’t assume that people just know like what you’re about to talk about.

Michelle: 29:45 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 29:45 Um, so you talk about you and the target story. You thank people for coming, introduce the client, and then you talk about your target story and that’s the part where you get them engaged. Let me tell you about Simon.

Michelle: 29:57 And you’ve created, Simon

Brandi Sea: 29:58 And you’ve already created Simon. You know who he is. You know why he’s important to your client and he becomes the thing that you wrap your presentation around. Um, he basically becomes the concept of your presentation.

Michelle: 30:10 He’s the character.

Brandi Sea: 30:11 Yeah. He’s the character. He’s the main character

Michelle: 30:12 That could easily and should be based off of very real life.

Brandi Sea: 30:16 Yeah. Well, and that’s why part of the process, to begin with, is coming up with this target story because you will need it. Whether it’s only for your understanding of who the person is that needs the thing or the service that you’re designing for. You eventually might need to present who this person is and why they matter.

Michelle: 30:35 I think that’s why I am never satisfied with like enough Harry Potter books. Um like, I want to know that. I want to know Harry Potter from the point of, or the wizarding world from the point of Seamus Finnegan because Seamus is a character in the books and I know that JK has a whole backstory on who Seamus is. I want to know about Seamus.

Brandi Sea: 30:56 Yeah.

Michelle: 30:56 And so, and I know she’s got that in her back pocket

Brandi Sea: 30:58 And it’s definitely a literary device to come and, I think it comes out clearly. And I, I think that everybody’s realizing by now that we’re towards the end of this process that a lot of my process, my design ideologies are backed in literature in some way. It’s like so many things that I do are literary devices like telling a target story. You have to tell a narrative like that’s just flat out literature. Like you’re, you’re just writing this about this person. Um, so excuse me. The the next thing is the what and I call it quote the thing am I said I’m gonna present the thing, the thing, I’m to go present the thing, the design. Um, so this part is where you talk about your problem and the concept statement. So I didn’t, I didn’t go into it all of the concept statement. It’s um, when we talked about concepts because it’s, it’s honestly more of like a, a college just learning about concept thing. Um, and I may talk about concept statements later, but it’s basically like, here’s, here’s what I did, here’s the concept and here’s a definition of why this is. Um, so the, what is the thing, the problem in the concept statement, the concept. Here’s what I’m presenting. So Hi, I’m Brandi. Let me tell you about Simon. Simon is blank. The problem is this and here’s the design that we’re going to be talking about today. Um, does that make sense?

Michelle: 32:24 Yes, very clear.

Brandi Sea: 32:26 Um, so then the when, so, uh, the, when is basically this one, can be a little bit fluid depending on the thing you’re designing. So let’s say you’re designing an ad and you, you talk about when, so you’re talking about, okay, so here’s the design that I made. This will launch spring of 2020, and here’s the, here’s why we decided to do this time. So you’re talking about when your work will go into play basically. And like I said, these are all very formal. This is a formal presentation. So maybe for you guys it’s like, okay, pastor, whatever, here’s, here’s this person that we are trying to reach. Here’s the youth that we’re trying to reach. Um, here’s what they do. Here’s what they like. Um, this is our concept for the design and this will launch for Easter of this year. So that’s kind of the context.

Michelle: 33:25 Yes. Got it.

Brandi Sea: 33:27 Um, and then the where will be where it will be. So here’s when it will be here’s physically and this design will be on postcards. This is going to need to be on mugs for Mother’s Day. This is going to need to be on the big screen

Michelle: 33:41 On social media. Whatever you choose.

Brandi Sea: 33:44 And it’s really important that you don’t skip this, this phase because they need to have a complete under your audience needs to have a complete understanding of where your design is going to be in order to adequately say whether it works when they see the design.

Michelle: 33:59 That’s good.

Brandi Sea: 33:59 Um, so you haven’t shown them the design yet. Ps,

Michelle: 34:03 hat’s, that’s like the unveiling.

Brandi Sea: 34:04 It’s, yeah, it’s on madmen. Do watch mad men. They have it flipped backward. So all you see is like the back of the blackboard. You don’t see anything. You’re just talking, the focus at this point needs to be on you and the information you’re presenting so that they have a full contextual picture of what you’re about to show them so that they have an understanding of when you, when you do the Tada moment, it’s like, oh, okay, I can see that on a billboard. I can see that on a business card. I can see that in a magazine or on a book cover or on the side of a bus in times square, like whatever it is. They now have a full understanding. It’s not like, Hi guys, I’m Brandi and today I’m going to show you my design for the billboard. Here it is. Does anybody have any questions?

Michelle: 34:47 And yeah, they do, but they don’t know the questions they have

Brandi Sea: 34:50 Do you know how many times I have attended presentations that are like,

Michelle: 34:53 Yikes, that sounds like a disaster.

Brandi Sea: 34:55 Here’s what I did.

Michelle: 34:59 Great.

Brandi Sea: 34:59 The end. Yeah, they didn’t like, you know, and I

Michelle: 35:02 They didn’t try because they didn’t, maybe they didn’t know how to

Brandi Sea: 35:05 Or they’re nervous. And so I make my students do this because

Michelle: 35:08 I feel the nerves

Brandi Sea: 35:09 Because it takes away some of the anxiety. You have a plan. You have a plan, you’ve written out who you are, why you’re here. Um, so if you are not good at ad-libbing and you can’t just go, okay, who, what, when, where, why, how, and that be enough.

Michelle: 35:23 No, not many people are good at ad-libbing. Under pressure. Not many.

Brandi Sea: 35:28 Right. And I mean I know that I am in the minority for that for the most part. Like if I, I feel like if I’ve prepared and I know what I’m talking about.

Michelle: 35:36 You got it.

Brandi Sea: 35:37 Yeah. So this is like, okay, you should be prepared to handle questions, but by the time you even get to question part, you’ve probably already answered most of them if you do this. Um, so that’s, that’s the where

Michelle: 35:50 When

Brandi Sea: 35:52 we talked about the, when,

Michelle: 35:53 When

Brandi Sea: 35:53 We talked about the, where

Michelle: 35:54 I just have this all out of order then, continue

Brandi Sea: 35:56 Who, what, when,

Michelle: 35:57 Who, when, where,

Brandi Sea: 35:59 Why and how

Michelle: 36:01 Why, how. That’s the one I’m missing. I’m missing how.

Brandi Sea: 36:03 So the why is next. That is where you address the problem and the questions that needed to be answered with your design. Design is about problem-solving. What is the problem that you tried to overcome here? Is it we need more people in the seats for Easter or mom’s always bring their kids on Mother’s Day. Dads don’t care as much to bring their kids to church or this movie or whatever it is.

Michelle: 36:32 Right

Brandi Sea: 36:33 Um, the problem is that we need to attract more people like Simon. We no, not even people like Simon, sorry, I misspoke. We need to attract Simon.

Michelle: 36:43 We need, yeah, Simon.

Brandi Sea: 36:45 So how do we get Simon to come andby by going back to that person and wrapping them into the problem, you humanize it and you begin to help people understand that you are designing for a person, not just a faceless group of people. Um, so whatever your problem is, put a name to that person.

Michelle: 37:04 That’s good.

Brandi Sea: 37:04 And that helps you. So you talk about the problem and the answer. That will be your design.

Michelle: 37:11 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 37:11 Okay. Then you go into

Michelle: 37:13 The how

Brandi Sea: 37:14 Tada, here’s my design. Okay. So now you flip it, you look at it and you say, here’s the design that I created to attract Simon to solve blank problem of whatever.

Michelle: 37:25 And it was the unveiling. The tada.

Brandi Sea: 37:28 Yes. And now you get to go into the how. So this is all the detail things, the type, the colors, the images, the graphics, and how it solves the problem. So now you go, here’s the design for, I dunno, I’m like mixing metaphors all over the place

Michelle: 37:46 That’s fine

Brandi Sea: 37:46 Not staying on any one kind of track. Here’s the movie poster for

Michelle: 37:52 Simon

Brandi Sea: 37:52 Simon and here’s why I did it this way. Here’s the reason I chose this typeface. This is why I chose this kind of photograph. Simon likes these kinds of things and this is why we put this in here and here’s how it will solve the problem. This poster makes Simon feel like he can connect to it in this way. And that’s why he wants to come. And that’s why he wants to bring people like him. And so you’ve basically said like, okay, who are you basically, why are you here? What are you going to be presenting? You’ve addressed all the little sticking points that usually people have questions about, okay, well how is this going to work? Where’s this gonna go? Um, you know, how do you know that Simon is the target? All the things you’ve already addressed.

Michelle: 38:38 You, you’ve gotten rid of any possibility of a loophole.

Brandi Sea: 38:41 Yeah. And the chances are that there may be a loophole there, you know, depending on, especially depending on the number of people that you are presenting to

Michelle: 38:49 The more  chefs in the kitchen type thing.

Brandi Sea: 38:53 There might be lots of questions about random things, but the chances that they’re going to really negate something that you did if you have a reason. So I’ve also attended presentations by students that have done this because I told them to but didn’t actually have real reasons. They were just making stuff up and trying to bs their way through it. And then I can find all kinds of loopholes cause I’m like, okay, you said you did this because Simon likes black. But actually what you said in your target story was that Simon really likes dark blue, whatever. That’s stupid. But you know what I mean?

Michelle: 39:28 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 39:28 It’s like, okay, I can tell that you didn’t actually have a reason.

Michelle: 39:32 Right.

Brandi Sea: 39:33 You just made one up. So you also, you also can’t just go through this and think, okay, if I present this way, no one’s going to have questions and it’s going to work and everyone’s going to love it.

Michelle: 39:43 You’re reasoning has to be legitimate.

Brandi Sea: 39:45 Yeah. So by the end of this, then you can present and say thank you for attending my presentation. Um, I’m Brandi, the end, like I tell everybody you need to figure out, you can tell him about it. This, cause I don’t even know how to end the podcast. I have yet to figure this out.

Michelle: 40:02 It’s been two years.

Brandi Sea: 40:03 Yeah, I’ve yet to figure this out. But I tell everybody you need to have, you need to figure out for you and your personality and your audience how to end, how to end your presentation without saying I’m done.

Michelle: 40:16 That’s all.

Brandi Sea: 40:17 That’s it.

Michelle: 40:17 Thank you.

Brandi Sea: 40:18 And I do that all the time. I’m like the end, I don’t know.

Michelle: 40:21 Right.

Brandi Sea: 40:21 I don’t know what to say. So that’s a sticking point for me. But that ending part can sometimes make people feel negatively or positively towards you. The best thing you can do is to just say thank you.

Michelle: 40:37 Yeah

Brandi Sea: 40:39 I can’t do the podcast. It’s weird. But at the end of a presentation, just say thank you.

Michelle: 40:44 Maybe bow.

Brandi Sea: 40:46 Yeah. I mean, be yourself. If you bow or if you say, thank you, I’ll be here all week. Or you know, whatever it is that you saying.

Michelle: 40:52 That’s how the cookie crumbles.

Brandi Sea: 40:53 Yeah. Um, so because if you say, um, if you’re like, that’s it.

Michelle: 40:59 That’s not very, uh, eh climactic.

Brandi Sea: 41:04 That doesn’t give anybody any confidence in what you just presented. Even if you had a great presentation, it’s like, oh, okay.

Michelle: 41:11 Is that it?

Brandi Sea: 41:12 Or you can say, thank you. Does anybody have any feedback? Thank you. Does anybody have any questions?

Michelle: 41:18 That’s good. There you go.

Brandi Sea: 41:19 And usually that’s, that’s the best way to go. Um, so, whew. That’s a lot.

Michelle: 41:24 You got it.

Brandi Sea: 41:25 That’s like the that’s my little, um, my little cheat sheet.

Michelle: 41:29 It’s your tada as well

Brandi Sea: 41:31 My little cheat sheet. Um, so the other things that I have to say about presenting is just little, little tippy things. Um, you want to try and connect and that’s part of why you introduce yourself, um, in the beginning, and you introduce a person as the target as opposed to, my name is Brandi and today I’d like to talk to you about blank and blank. And um, the target for this was males 15 to 35 who make $15,000 a month. Like I’m already, every time, anytime I see I have a student that stands up there and immediately just shows me like bullet points of like these really impersonal facts and I’m done.

Michelle: 42:13 I get it. That is marketing.

Brandi Sea: 42:15 It is

Michelle: 42:15 But that is not what you are doing. These are your connecting.

Brandi Sea: 42:19 You are supposed to connect to people

Michelle: 42:20 With this, with a specific person

Brandi Sea: 42:23 Right. So you want to not only connect with your audience by being, you know, open and friendly and competent but you, you are trying to connect them to what you’re doing. So connecting as a big thing. Um, speaking of being confident, be confident. Pretend like don’t go up there and act like you don’t deserve to be up there presenting your idea because if you don’t believe it, they won’t believe it.

Michelle: 42:48 Right.

Brandi Sea: 42:49 Um, the other thing is you need to have structure and that’s part of where this other thing comes in is having, having some sort of plan for how this is going to go to make sure that you don’t missimportant important things. Um, structure gives you assurance that you won’t get lost and it gives you that confidence because if you lose your place, you know, Oh, I’m in the how. I’m still talking about the how

Michelle: 43:13 And I, that’s my biggest fear. Um, so Kelly, my husband does a lot of public speaking and, um, I am not a good public speaker. I just, I, I’ve never really practiced it. And anytime I’ve been up in front of people, it’s, it’s like deer in headlights. I’ve done it, I’ve gotten through it. Um, sometimes better than others. But my biggest fear and watching people speak is that they don’t know where they’re going. So when, when Kelly would teach or talk to a group of people, um, and he’d pause my heart, would my heart rate would jump?

Brandi Sea: 43:50 Yeah.

Michelle: 43:50 Because I be, or that he has nowhere to go with what he’s saying and his next thought doesn’t exist. It’s not there. Um, but because he’s prepared and he has that structure, he can look back and say, oh, this is where I am.

Brandi Sea: 44:02 Yeah. And it’s not just like planning word for word either, because that’s the worst. When people just like read off their presentations, that’s not good either.

Michelle: 44:09 Yeah. No. That, that shows signs that you just haven’t practiced. Um, and I mean it does.

Brandi Sea: 44:13 Or you don’t trust yourself

Michelle: 44:14 Or you don’t trust yourself. There’s lots of factors, but he can easily refer back to a bullet point and say, that’s where I am.

Brandi Sea: 44:22 Yeah.

Michelle: 44:22 If necessary.

Brandi Sea: 44:23 It’s your little like map.

Michelle: 44:24 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 44:24 Your little map. Um, we all have Google maps now.

Michelle: 44:27 Yeah. I live on it.

Brandi Sea: 44:28 We all understand. Yeah. Um, so in his book, how to sell without selling. This guy named Douglas Davis references seven steps to nailing a client presentation. And I wanted to share those, um, because they, they are so spot on. Um, one is insight. So share your most relevant, relevant observations from your research. So this plays into the, um, the how also what you researched will play into your how. Cause that’s how you did this design, how you came up with your ideas.

Michelle: 44:57 Yep.

Brandi Sea: 44:57 Um, explained conclusions you’ve come to based on the insight. So there’s the insight, the therefore, um, articulate your design concept by revealing your actual idea in a few sentences. And that’s, that’s the concept statement.

Michelle: 45:13 Yes. It’s kind of like, um, your thesis in two sentences. It’s, it’s your hypothesis, you’re educated guests in the science experiment. So it’s that.

Brandi Sea: 45:25 It’s that exact thing. Um, and in the execution, communicate how the concept will, will be conveyed in the design you created benefit, reveal the reason why you’re executing this project in this way and how it relates back to your client or your Simon.

Michelle: 45:42 Simon. In your Simon.

Brandi Sea: 45:45 Message state, the takeaway for them based on the project you’ve described. So that will be in like your final wrap up. And I guess I didn’t talk about that. After you’d say you’re how then it’s, you’re like little I’ve, it’s, it’sthe, the conclusion and your, your report.

Michelle: 46:01 Yup.

Brandi Sea: 46:01 Here’s what I told you. You tell him what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then you tell them what you told them. That whole thing.

Michelle: 46:09 I love the conclusion. The conclusion is always so easy to write.

Brandi Sea: 46:12 Here’s what I did

Michelle: 46:13 Here’s literally what I just said.

Brandi Sea: 46:14 Here’s what I just said. And then the objective, you reiterate the goal that was outlined in the initial brief.

Michelle: 46:18 It’s good.

Brandi Sea: 46:19 So it’s all, it’s all that wrapped into one.

Michelle: 46:22 This is basic writing of an essay

Brandi Sea: 46:24 It kind of is. Yeah. And I, like I said, that’s just, I think that’s just how my brain functions. That whole who, what, when, where, why, how thing is, is a story. It’s a report. It is who’s the, who are the main players, what are they doing? Like how, how did this happen

Michelle: 46:39 Breaking it down. You’re breaking it down for the people in front of you.

Brandi Sea: 46:44 So that is my, my three different kinds of presenting. Um, I, I have done the digital one the most.

Michelle: 46:51 Yeah. And that makes sense.

Brandi Sea: 46:53 I have critiqued and watched people present so many times, then I know that this actually works. And when my students have really embraced it, they’re like, oh my gosh, this takes, it takes so much fear and anxiety out of, out of presenting because it gives you a tool to overcome that.

Michelle: 47:11 And it’s not, it’s not spelling everything out for you, but it’s giving you really good guidelines.

Brandi Sea: 47:16 Yeah, it’s just a structure. It’s not like specifics on here’s how you actually say every single thing about, it’s just there’s freedom within this box.

Michelle: 47:25 Yep. Exactly.

Brandi Sea: 47:26 Um, so yeah, that’s that one. Uh, we just have to, I just wanted to really quickly just run through all the steps and see if we had anything else to say about them. And then that will be the end.

Michelle: 47:38 The end

Brandi Sea: 47:39 Of the process. Well, not the end.

Michelle: 47:41 The process series.

Brandi Sea: 47:43 I will always talk about the process. You’re not getting away from this.

Michelle: 47:47 Never ends.

Brandi Sea: 47:48 Even though James Victore might feel negatively towards it. I’m, this is, this is me.

Michelle: 47:53 You know what you do you

Brandi Sea: 47:54 Like greatest showman. This is me. Um, so, okay, so step one was the client meeting and the design brief. I don’t remember how we separated these by episodes. I’m just going to say the steps regardless of where they landed. I don’t even care. Um, to was the word map with where you get your concept and your design elements.

Michelle: 48:10 Yep.

Brandi Sea: 48:11 Three was researching and brainstorming. Four sleep.

Michelle: 48:15 Sleep.

Brandi Sea: 48:16 Five was sketching. Six is narrowing your options. Seven is executing the design and eight is presenting.

Michelle: 48:25 So there it is eight steps, eight easy laid out steps for you to create something awesome which you are immediately capable of doing. But you just didn’t know how. And so here it is.

Brandi Sea: 48:37 So I want to know if you guys try this like even if it’s just like I’m going to do, I don’t have any clients right now or I can’t do this at work because whatever reason, like set aside like some sort of small project that you can practice this on and share it. I want to see if you guys are trying this. If you’re implementing the word map, if you’re doing all the things like I want to see it, just Hashtag it, I dunno

Michelle: 49:02 Tag Brandi tag Design Speaks

Brandi Sea: 49:04 My name

Michelle: 49:05 Just get ahold of her somehow. You can send it to her via email.

Brandi Sea: 49:07 Yeah. Brandi at brandi@brandisea.com we want to see and hear if this is actually doing something for you. I’ve been a little apprehensive about sharing it because I know how people think about process sometimes and how they think that they’re always the best way. And I obviously think my way is the best way to, but I want to know if you guys are having struggles like where this helped you.

Michelle: 49:28 And even if it’s just one thing that you took out of this and you started implementing into your own process, we want to know about it.

Brandi Sea: 49:35 Yeah, for sure. So um, yeah, all that to say thank you for joining us on this long journey they threw this past weeks and um, I’m so happy that I got to share it. It’s actually helped me a little bit, kind of do some self-reflection on some stuff too.

Michelle: 49:50 Yes. And to follow along that, um, we actually got a review on iTunes so

Brandi Sea: 49:57 Yay! A new review.

Michelle: 49:58 A new review. Um, this one is from Kayla_maritia98. Her title is So Inspiring.

Brandi Sea: 50:05 That’s all I want.

Michelle: 50:06 Yes, exactly. She gave us five stars. Thank you.

Brandi Sea: 50:09 Yes, we are all solid five stars so far.

Michelle: 50:11 Um, she says, I’m a third-year graphic design student and I was searching for a podcast to listen to while working my design internship over winter break. I found Design Speaks on Spotify. Thank you. Spotify. I didn’t know if anybody listens on Spotify

Brandi Sea: 50:25 Yeah, right.

Michelle: 50:25 I know. And ended up bingeing the entire thing over the course of a month.

Brandi Sea: 50:30 It takes people a month to get through our episodes. We have that many.

Michelle: 50:33 That’s crazy. Um, it has taught me so many useful things and has left me feeling so inspired and motivated going into the spring semester, which is all like just getting you through the semester. That’s so cool. Brandi and Michelle are so fun and effortless to listen to. I can have this playing in the background while I’m working and it keeps me energized and focused on the task at hand. Plus I love all the new music and TV series recommendations. I’m really looking forward to what’s coming in 2019.

Brandi Sea: 51:00 So are we here!

Michelle: 51:01 We are. Thank you, Kayla. Um, we appreciate that. You can give us a review on iTunes.

Brandi Sea: 51:08 I don’t think Spotify has reviews.

Michelle: 51:09 I don’t think it does either. Yeah. But iTunes does. So go leave us and view a rating. You can share it with your friends from there.

Brandi Sea: 51:17 I’m telling you, you need to share it with your friends.

Michelle: 51:19 Yes. I recently, um, just shared a podcast with a bunch of friends, um, because I listened to it and it blew my mind. It’s, I don’t think you’ll ever listen to it. It’s doctor death.

Brandi Sea: 51:29 I know, but I rolled my eyes because I’m like, go ahead. Talk about doctor death again. It’s okay.

Michelle: 51:33 But it’s, it’s, it was such an enlightening podcast. Not for everyone.

Brandi Sea: 51:39 I can’t listen to it cause that’ll traumatize me.

Michelle: 51:41 Oh, it totally will. You cannot. Um, and some people can’t, but if you’re into weird, awful things that happen around the world, um

Brandi Sea: 51:52 If you like the podcast Lore, you will probably like doctor death.

Michelle: 51:55 Yeah. Netflix just came out with a series on Ted Bundy, which I’ve been watching and so I’m really into that type of stuff. But not everybody is anyway. So it’s kind of that type of podcast. It’s enlightening. So I just shared that from iTunes and

Brandi Sea: 52:11 It’s really easy to say it’s really hard work to share this podcast. We want you to share.

Michelle: 52:17 You can send specific episodes

Brandi Sea: 52:18 And screenshot when you share.

Michelle: 52:20 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 52:20 I have prizes for people if you do that. I had to give one out. So I mean,

Michelle: 52:25 And we know you’re doing it.

Brandi Sea: 52:26 Yeah. So I think we’ll just end this like I tried to end my, my, uh, presentations. Thank you. Just kidding.

Michelle: 52:36 I’m like, we can’t,

Brandi Sea: 52:37 Michelle has to thank other people

Michelle: 52:38 I have to thank other people. I’m like, I’m, but Colin. Okay. So thank you to Vesperteen for allowing us to use his song Shatter in the Night as the intro and outro to our podcast. We love you. And we appreciate you and you think you’re doing great things.