By: Zeus Perez

"You're hired" are two words in any industry everyone loves to hear. But in the art industry it becomes an inevitable challenge. The hardest part is getting the initial artwork concept agreement, especially when reinventing their image. The best way to take on a new assignment is to really ask simple questions in the beginning therefore allowing you to build simple solutions. As you create the relationship between yourself, the client and the art you are then able to execute works more freely. Learn to gauge your client. Ask for products or services offered that resemble what they currently have. Ask them whom their competition is and do the legwork of getting as much information as possible.

One quick trick to re-engineering their product is to use 'friendly' people images. Consumers are attracted to images of consumers they can identify with so always attempt to find positive images. If at all possible, find a similar theme for the photographs. This helps build the campaign for the client. Try and stay away from items you may have used with other clients unless you absolutely have no choice or if the client requests a similar set up.

When conceptualizing the products build one identity item for the client yet offer them two other suggestions to choose from. Options are always grateful and you can always pull material from one of the other items. This also proves to them that your working hard to get the best fit for them. Always show them the first two kind ' okay' pieces first then the one you believe to be strongest. This has always worked for me. Don't make the first two really horrible, put effort in, but remember to always keep the effort to a minimal amount since we still aren't sure how they will react. When delivering the pieces do not just acquiesce to their judgement if they don't pick the one you thought was the best. Ask them what they like about the piece. Regardless it's their choice, but you should explain to them the pro's and con's of each piece if there are any.

Start off with a generic piece. Almost all current graphics software offers built-in templates you can use as starting pieces, even MS Word does. Here's a simple example to the left of an Illustrator template before and after anyone can do to get started.

You'll notice the first two are lame and simple, but it took me 4 minutes to do and now I have something to work with. The piece still needs images and I added those along with an air conditioning product.

Lastly, whatever the client had before, you shouldn't criticize, even if it's third grade material. It has gotten them where they are, and maybe their clients are third graders. Ppossibly, they did it themselves and criticisms are best kept to yourself. As production goes, you normally have a set of colors to work with that are introduced in the logo somewhere, if not start off black and white. As the old-age testament goes, if it works well in black and white it will work well in color. If your lost for inspiration, which sometimes happens to me, visit Visual Thesaurus for some verbal help or stock.xchnge for the visual.