It’s part art, part science. The analytical artist is a much fabled and highly prized blend. The Hexatrope 3 Phase Strategic Process strives to foster just that delicate fusion. It incorporates just enough of the right structure to bring the creative aspects to life and keep them working in an organized manner toward the goal. Too much structure, and the plodding process can grind the life out of the results. Too little restraint, and well… you’ve seen Frankenstein… it all ends with villagers brandishing torches and pitchforks.
Each project moves sequentially through the three phases (Strategy, Creative, and Execution), and presentation & approval checkpoints are inserted as “airlocks” at key junctures to secure client approval before proceeding. This incremental buy-in process assures that progress is orderly and on-task. This will mean that we are agreeing on strategic objectives up front before ever picking up sketchpad or mouse. Though it is always fun to get to the creative part, we have established this flow because we found that it is the best way to effectively achieve the finest results.
Our philosophy is that all communication design has to be focused on communicating, not just decorating. That’s why we start off in Phase 01 with strategy. It’s all about distilling your brand essence, understanding the audience you need to resonate with, and crafting your narrative to connect the dots. On website projects, this is also where we create the blueprint – the information architecture (sitemap).
In Phase 02, we move into the creative, and turn our findings into designs that express your positioning and messaging both visually and linguistically. Tightly-crafted look & feel designs are created that show exactly what you will be getting. Content is written and inserted in key places to show real messaging, not just “copy goes here” spots.
In Phase 03, the geek side takes over and we carefully hand-craft everything to come together seamlessly. This is the important stage at which the specified functionality comes to life, and it’s also the critical juncture where less integrated processes fail – and the design vision breaks down on the way to functioning bits and bytes. Our Phase 03 contains this explosion of productivity within carefully machined workflows built to tight tolerances. What comes out the other end of the factory is what you saw in the showroom.
To learn more about the process we employ in the design lab, jump to one of the phases: