What is Graphic Design Thinking?
Why would we take Graphic Design and Design Thinking and merge them together into one new term? For us at Unbeaten Studio, it made the most sense. It exactly summarises in three words what we do, it’s easy to explain and understand. Here we go!
Graphic Design Thinking is the logical merging of our skills as designers. Jeroen is the human centered designer, problem solver, systems thinker & maker. Marcela is the graphic designer with a Masters in Research for design and innovation. With a great imaginary mind and a keen eye for typography, she puts soul into every project.
For us there could be only one outcome of what we do as Unbeaten Studio: Graphic Design Thinking. This has been our way of working since we started together in 2017. Now in 2020 we found the perfect name for it! Creating the term “Graphic Design Thinking” made our individual set of skills richer, and for us it became easier to divide our tasks in our magnificent team of two.
What is Graphic Design Thinking?
We say Graphic Design Thinking is a life centered approach to innovation & problem solving with the use of graphic design. Why life centered? Well it is no longer enough to just focus on humans. We need to think about the planet and the eco systems we live in.
This means that although we work remote, we always start with the curiosity to discover the needs of our customers and often more importantly their customers, audience and to unveil the real problem at hand.
We don’t stop at the solution, we help you make the solution come to live.
A design project is an exploratory conversation with our client, their audience and their ecosystem. We listen to what they are saying and not saying, we translate the information in solutions presented via mood boards, visualized concepts, infographics, branding, websites etc. Through out this collaborative process we share what we made to hear if we understand what they are looking for. The designed solution doesn’t always need to be made graphical or digital visualization. It can also be three dimensional. Depending on what the we collectively think is the best outcome for the specific design challenge .
We don’t stop at the solution, we help you make the solution come to live. We let it sprout from your soil. Together we give it the right nutritions and energy to make it grow. We captured this in our Graphic Design Thinking process.
Our UNBEATEN studio Graphic Design Thinking Process
The Dementia journey project is a great example of how we use our Graphic Design Thinking approach in the real world.
We don’t always follow the complete process. It all depends on the needs of our clients. But we do make sure it is always in co-creation with our clients. We are not your traditional graphic design agency or your traditional design thinking consultancy. We are Unbeaten Studio.
Where we start in the process or which steps we use depends on the needs of the client. The process is never linear although this image might suggest it.
Author: Jeroen Spoelstra
Images: Jeroen Spoelstra & Marcela Xirinachs