Pitch This! How To present design work to clients like a pro!
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2017
- How do you talk about design work? How do you develop your design vocabulary? If the work is good, shouldn't it speak for itself? How can you use words to fill the mental gaps of imagination.
“Paint the picture for your client , make them feel the boat rock, make them smell the saltiness in the breeze, make them visualize the structure. Prepare them for a meal so that when they open their eyes they are ready to eat.”
Ever have trouble pitching your idea to the client and want to improve? You are not the only one. Chris and Ben each have to sell their idea in Pitch This!
These are style frames for 450 Alaskan in Seattle. It's a new real estate development in historic Pioneer Square.
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0:10 What is Pitch This?
1:15 The work does not speak for itself - use the power of language/terminology to articulate your thinking and to paint in the gaps in imagination.
4:42 What was your reaction to that presentation/pitch?
7:16 Use a more straightforward approach to communicate what really matters to the client/audience
8:12 What do you mean when you say visual vocabulary?
10:38 Include descriptions of texture and the other senses in your presentation.
11:05 Be deliberate and intentional about what you include in your stylescapes.
More on Stylescapes here:
• How To Design Brand Id...
Translating Stylescapes into design:
• How to Translate Style...
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I loved this. It brings me back to when I was in my mock agency class. My professor said “Paint the picture for your client , make them feel the boat rock, make them smell the saltiness in the breeze, make them visualize the structure. Prepare before them a meal so that when they open their eyes they are ready to eat.”
that's a great description. i'm going to add that to the show notes. sounds like you had a great professor.
As a self taught designer this video is just pure gold. I don't have any ideas or suggestions right now, just wanted to say thanks.
that works for me!
These ‘bite size’ videos are really handy. When watching a live stream, I find some of the points can wash over as we’re consuming a lot of info in 1-2 hours. So these shorts to use as a quick recap and to reference again and again is brilliant. Thanks :)
we're aware of the fried circuit or information overload. we have many more cutdown segments for that reason.
The Futur awesome :)
I recently moved into the advertising world from the editorial world. I made basic pitches but nothing on the level I need to now. These videos have been invaluable in learning how to pitch my work in a more informative and professional way. Thanks for doing these sir!
This is one of the many videos you HAVE to watch a second time (and beyond). Literally every word from Chris has a form of intent and information behind it! Like when will you NOT learn from the futur???
hopefully never Mason. :)
6:59 No need to be a jerk when your employee makes a very human error.
I missed that but yeah that was really shitty of him
TOTALLY!
I stopped watching it half way through because I couldn't stand to watch the familiar scene unfold of a boss abusing his employees. He starts out putting them on the spot so that what - he can be elevated by their groveling in the dirt? The whole context of the whole thing is disgusting.
He’s the reason I haven’t subscribed. His energy is trash. I was desperate for a video to show my students, but NOT this desperate. Hopefully the employees will do a “ Why I Left TheFutur” 😂
this is funny
To hear & see the two contrasting presentation styles is insanely valuable for tons of designers like myself, who are self-taught, as well as, those who come into this field from different backgrounds and disciplines. Well done. Keep this up!
"Salty" in any nautical context means experienced, masterful, and established as a seaman.
Not in a popular context.
@@thefutur “popular context” = “ignorant, dopamine-addicted bugmen”
Chris i like you and the content of this video, however can u please be bit easy on Molly? i don't know to me you might a little hard on her just my 2 cents. Love the video btw!
alright. i'll go easier.
What it boils down to for me, like in sales, is the power of storytelling. Connecting to the audience through story
yes.
Chris' comment about taking something someone doesn't know and translating it to something they can relate to is such a good point. I've tried to do this in all aspects of my life - from teaching my parents and older sisters how to use computers, explaining The Cloud to people and especially when defending or presenting design work.
I am so happy to have found Chris Do and the Futur. Great content to help me learn, help validate my thoughts or process to coworkers and to share to teach fellow designers and business people.
we are glad you found us too.
I really love videos like this. Really enjoyed having Ben Burns describe it first, then getting feedback, and then Chris closing it off. Ben was really good, but he has a different approach, which I like to see in contrast to Chris'
This was an amazing pitch and I have learned a lot from you guys. I have a design home assignment job interview tomorrow and I really wish that I will speak like you guys and make my interviewer impressed!! Thank you so much. This channel is awesome for all designers who want to gain confidence and self-trust.
Great video, super helpful! It's not about "pitching", but rather clearly articulating design decisions in a way non-designers can resonate with.
yep. that's it Sean.
After having worked in healthcare for 10 years, I've now move away towards a creative career where I'm a motion designer and video editor. This video was extremely informative and must admit, intimidating. Chris Do is a badass at what he does. No bullshit type of guy. LOVE IT!
Thank you 😊
The content you guys are putting out is so valuable and impressive. I’m trying to make daily videos right now and to do it proper (nice thumbs, solid description etc) is a tough job.
Respect ✊ team futur!
Chris, I love your perfectionism.
thanks young human! those that do, realize how tough it is.
Love the straightforwardness of Chris Do! We could use more of that in the world!
i'll give ya more.
Thanks for uploading this. I didn't go to design school and at my current job I'm just making banners for an E-commerce site. But I have a design pitch for a landing page in a few days and this really gave me some good pointers on how to sell it.
This is the kind of content that keeps me a fan of the futur. Great upload! Thank you!
Thanks! more on the way.
Very helpful and great concept for a show. I feel as though many, myself included, would present as the first person did and miss the other senses and repeat ourselves using technical terms. Being able to bridge the gap between art and the viewer is an important aspect in marketing yourself.
This type of content is super import yet really hard to find. Thanks for creating this video. Would love to see more of the same. I could honestly see this being expanded into a successful course on a Lynda or CreativeLive type site. Not being able to confidently articulate ones own work is a common Achilles heel amongst creatives. If anyone has suggestions for books, videos or articles on the topic please let me know!
My favorite part was the emphasis of the "hero" mark. The man in the image being the overall encapsulating physical representation of the brand identity.
Would love to see this become a frequent feature. Thanks for the great content.
you got it.
More of these please, need to step up my presentation acumen.
Love it. Hard to accept because most times I don't want to know about my own shortfall but this is like military school.
Absolutely loving these videos 🙌🏻
Thanks guys
good stuff. I've made it a new habit to describe things in terms of more than just visuals, but including all the senses. Nice pitching, you hit it out of the park (pun intended).
This was great, one of my fav. episodes so far!
Hey guys! I love this. Would love to see this applied to something really standard like a savings card or a brochure that doesn't have that many photos. We often have to present little things that have to follow the brand guidelines and don't have a big back story or room for a lot of creativity. When asked to present I just want to be like "here's the savings card" - but obviously I need to say more. How do you talk about things like that??
send me a link. i'll pitch it.
Wow, Awesome stuff. Ben you did amazing stuff in your own way. It was interesting to see the way chris did the scaffolding for the story to flow. Thanks Guys. - raGz
Forgive me if you've already done a video on the subject, but I've never fully understood the process in creating a "stylescape." I see tremendous value in the idea, but just don't know how to introduce it into my own process, and especially how to involve the client in a sort of pre-presentation before full exploration. I'm sure it could save a huge amount of time and offer great value as the client may better understand why and how it makes the thinking stronger. Any chance you'll have a video on stylescapes?
we already have one. there's a deeper dive into how to make one in the pro group.
Where can we find out more about the pro group?
Aviva Darab There you go, I guess there is all the information you need!
www.thefutur.com/product/futur-pro-group-membership/
Have a good one
Chris, you're amazing and an inspiration. Gotta work on my pitching skills!
nana&mz thanks.
This is definitely something that I’m going to dive deeper into. Thanks for sharing
WOW! Now i just want to start doing a stylescape. It's just beautiful. I haven't even heard of this term before and only learned it here from your channel. I don't know how it will come out when i start doing it, because my lay-out game needs a lot of work just like my editorial game. Feeling inspired though!
excellent
This is the content i've waiting for. Real stuff how to share our work for clients
and here it is.
Really enjoying what you're providing Chris Do! Some good crit that reminds me of when I was in school. Keep it up the futur team
thanks Keith.
Pitch it!!! Awesome bitesize information..really helpful. Thanks guys!
Geoffrey Tajonera you bet.
“Salty” used to mean “seasoned” and “experienced” before Twitter and and MLG e-sports changed it into “upset”.
Right. I actually think in this context salty could probably work. Their clients and audience are not Chris' kids.
Hey guys, I just wanna appreciate your efforts. Love the concept of comparing and contrasting pitches.
Thank you
Super valuable conversation. Great for inspiration and teaching. Make this a series.
already is William. we have another segment that's waiting for a cutdown.
This is such a great insight. Thank you for this one.
How am I just seeing this? Pure gold, as always, Chris!
Hey Chris,
Although I totally enjoyed this video, there is one point that I strongly disagree with - correct me if I am wrong, but you said Ben's presentation sounded a little pitchy and you preferred a more straightforward approach. From my perspective, the presentation should be neither just pitchy or just concrete and detail interpretative, but a complementary mix of those both approaches. Why - because what Ben did was giving the picture of the overall idea and brought the inspiration on. The two other guys (sorry, I can't recall their names) looked excited. I was excited! The inspiration makes you dream/imagine and desire. If you skip this part and go directly to the specifics and technical details, you risk to sound too dry and might completely miss the stated effect. And everybody knows that if you succeed to hit someone's emotions then what's coming next most likely would be very favorable for you in comparison with the option to just mess with their brains and logics.
Cheers! :)
yes i agree. you need to get your client excited about the potential design, but i find that in my experience, that comes from speaking about something more concrete as opposed to making stuff up. it's that "fine art" speak that i have a reaction to.
it's unfair to ben and the audience because i actually did the strategy on this particular assignment a year ago. i also don't think i was just describing mechanical details, but to each their own. you get to choose la style that works for you and it sounds like you prefer a little of both.
just curious, would you like to come on the air with us and play the game? i'm curious to hear how you pitch.
Thank you very much Chris, I appreciate the opportunity but as the idea of going on air is increasing my anxiety levels by approx. 80%, I'd rather stick to occasional writing ;))
Best lighting. Valuable content as always.
That made me buy Stylescapes just now, I literally paused bought the course continued that video then hit back to Stylescapes course, I think my biggest struggle right now is how to present my work without sounding weirdly talking, am writing down every word coming from Chris on a notepad right now :D
I have a belief that if we know how to replicate 10% of the knowledge of Chris in 'our world' we will be rich!
Keep geting notes, im at the same boat!
My god that was a great pitch. Perfect delivery.
thanks. hope you can apply that to your next pitch.
Even the way Chris presents himself is a, wonderfully cultured presentation of design. Chris needs to be put in a GQ mag...
Agreed. Haha. GQ you listening?
That's great! I'm watching this because I would also like to learn how to talk about design work
Easy on Molly.
yes. sorry.
Hi, I'm not sure if this comment will be read as this video is a year old, but I just recently discovered this channel and started to incorporate stylescapes in my design process. It totally changed the way I present my brand ideas. I do have a question tho: should we only use royalty-free works and photos in the stylescape? Or can we put other designer's work in it as an inspiration? Such as iconography, or mockups, etc, considering it's not yet a final work. I'm a bit confused if it's fine to present this to a client, or at least upload the stylescape I made in my portfolio as part of the design process.
Thank you for a good dose of useful knowledge.
However,
I'm not staying on this channel any longer, I am put off by the strange energy between you guys.
The inspiration for the type from sailboat typography was super cool
@the Futur
Topography, not topology.
topography is related to geography as topology related to math.
thanks!
love the concept for a new show!!
would you like to play along?
pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! for real, though, i'd love to but i'm kind of maxed to the tits right now. just landed a job. quoted a month. but i also promised my dad last month that i'd help him outfit an apartment building downtown with new hardware which should be arriving near the end of the month. and the job with my dad will be a 2-3 week job which is going to eat into the timeframe i quoted, so i gotta try and get as much done as i can before then :( out of curiosity what would've it entailed?
amazing! what was the original video for this stream? I missed it!
i don't recall.
Dang! More of these videos please?
we got another one.
I loved this bit!
Sorry Chris but Bens pitch was much more engaging. He has a very Seattle look as well which helps the sell. Nice episode Blind team.
no need to be sorry. Ben did a great job.
really need this thank you
Hi- we have many overseas clients and end up presenting via video conference, when presenting stylescapes digitally what would yr recommendations be .. since obviously u cant see everything at once on a screen. What do u do?
I think I've watched this episode before, but it was longer. Are you re-airing old ones that were locked away in the archives or cutting long videos into short ones?
we are cutting down live streams since so many people asked for it.
What an epic pitch.
Amazing video. Again. I've watched almost 30 to 40 videos by now on TheFutur. I understand the theory by now, more or less but it would be fun to get some more practical tips. What do you use to create these presentations (Keynote, Photoshop, ...), some more technical details like size of the document, etc. Would be cool to see a whole process of creation but nice videos anyway!
Keynote. All the way.
@@thefutur Thanks for replying on a video from months ago and... on a Saturday. Much respect and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Excuse my terrible memory but is there some context to differentiate the situation where the "Win Without Pitching Manifesto" comes into play and the situations where you're presenting your work to your client?
WWPM dictates that you should never pitch. that's not the point of this exercise. "pitch this" is in reference to presenting your work. not necessarily as a spec piece done without pay. hope that helps.
good stuff! Watching some old school vids!
More pitch this please!!!!!!!
Would love to see what an update to this segment looks like.
Chris is to graphic design what Shaddy Safadi is to concept art: Brutally honest, slightly impatient and incredibly efficient. I mean that as a compliment.
i'll take it as a compliment. though i don't know who shady safadi is.
He's the founder of concept art studio One Pixel brush, and former Naughty Dog concept artist. Oh, and he sounds exactly like Vince Vaughn. I listened to your latest Collective Podcast with Ash Thorp. I believe they are friends.
Hi guys! Chris explained in a video what's the correct size of a stylescape. It's like 3 times widescreen size. Does anybody remember the concrete px? Thanks a lot :)
Yep. You got it.
Good stuff!
I can see Ben on Shark Tank
should we send him to pitch something?
yessssss!
please can I ask about the music at the beginning ? what is the name of the song or artist, I want to do my design work listening to it :)
Aaron will have to tell you.
I still have problem with understand the pitching .. is there any good book u can recommend !!
I love this! But Salty according to the dictionary literally meant lively or down-to-earth. Even google defines it as that
Have you made a video on how to find inspiration and get motivated to design?
maybe the art of search video for inspiration. the entire channel is about motivation wouldn't you say?
The Futur yeah I really like your videos, they help me alot, especially in pitching and talking to clients, keep it up!, don't stop.
Great Vid!
Why it is better to have stylescapes in that long, horizontal form? Is it better to talk about the design with 3 pages rather than jumping between 10? Am i correct?
you can choose any format that works for you. Jose Caballer introduced the stylescape to me and that's how he did them. they're meant to be super panoramic because it was designed (on purpose) not to look like a web page (which is how he used them for). this way, clients wouldn't immediately think, hey i don't want that for my website.
horizontal layouts give you a lot more freedom for you typography. but that's us. do what works for you.
Thank you for reply. In this example, you have put a finished logotype on all of this materials or just it is pre version of logo which you will be doing later?
I have been making my stylescapes/moodboards before design process by using all of the id examples, photos, fonts and other materials. Is it a "super stylescape" where you put a lot more effort in it and make simple pre designs and mockups?
I feel confused and don't know on what stage o design process you are presenting such detailed stylescape.
thumb up to Ben well done!
I think the first guy did it best!
Hi can we have presentation tutorial for interior design
Big fan. But was really turned off by the way you treated molly. Tho i see that you have apologized in a comment already.
Yeah. I should have handled that better.
gold ...actually diamond
I love it
Beautiful
what do you call that picture as a whole? the one with all of this work collaged together? is it a literal illustrator artboard with long horizontal dimensions? someone tell me what i have to google to make a presentation like this haha
Great!
8:30 the pitch
Wowww
Intro sounds like an Album skit
like from de la soul or something?
Yes! Spot On
The Mood Board
Chris, please don't call yourself older rather say experienced. Good show usual.
i don't mind my age. it's just a number. i celebrate it. older does not equal negative to me.
And I get why you edited out one of my comments so let’s put it another way. I felt Bens discomfort at doing his presentation so as a potential client I became disengaged from what he was pitching.
most likely he wasn't briefed very well on the campaign. if you dont know what youre selling or who youre marketing to, how do you expect to know how to pitch it?
🚀🚀🚀
Poor Molly
I don't get it. is 450 alaskan a brand? what property? is it commercial space? the communication on this one was not very clear, and the whole design is ambiguos when there are branded coffee cups and soap dispensers, but then with a shipping container of Puma
I disagree with the general consensus that the term "salty" should be avoided due in part to a cultural trend of the word. The client is an informed audience. I hope that they would not fear such a word. Besides, a little saltiness adds a ton of flavor; used in moderation of coarse (hehe).
sure. in a big presentation where you're dealing with 6 figure budgets, i would advise on not choosing words that have a negative connotation to describe the client. btw, the user profile of the client was a complete mismatch to the way that Ben described him. but he wasn't privy to that. just some context.
Ahh. Got it. Very true. Always take the humble approach.
Can we be as gold as you are towards Moly please
480p max !?
What?
salty = the one that insults, spiteful
definitely not the word you want to use to describe the prospective client then.
480p squad!
Salt of the earth
But not salty.
@@thefutur It's hard to get away from the negative connotation