A font and two design hand-off templates
Design hand-off
I used to do a lot of freelance/consulting work. I had a system down for negotiating contracts, aligning on final agreements, and ensuring clients understood what they were receiving and what to do with it next. I took several years off from that type of work, but lately I've been re-exploring it, starting with some volunteer work.
I designed a set of graphics for the South Peace Historical Society, back home in Dawson Creek, BC. Variations of the Mile "0" post that sits in the center of the city, with and without flags in view, with and without a chain going around the base; all sorts of variations so they can choose what they want. I plopped all the files into a Dropbox and then looked at the folder. Did I really expect them to understand the difference between almost 50 files, total? I'd missed a step.
Digging into the ol' back pocket, I've revived the old hand-off notes. On the Resources page of my website, you can now find templates for providing files to clients in either print or digital jobs. These are meant to be mixed and matched; take what you want from these and throw out the rest. I'm sure you could adapt these beyond design, too.
Covers details like but not limited to:
- Project Overview and basic details
- Summary of deliverables
- Platform
- Design stage
- Software used/required for client to view
- Software required to collaborate
- Links
- Information architecture
- Design system & standards
- Accessibility & content notes
- File structure & naming
- Assets & exports
- Implementation and guidance
- Recommended testing
- Usage, modification, & maintenance
- Limitation of liability & disclaimers
- Version history
Yeah, a lot. Again, you don't use all of it. You grab what you need for one project and delete the rest.
Blockframe Simple
The second thing I want to share helps solve a similar problem. Where hand-off files help solve communication after the fact, this font I created helps with communication during the project.
What I have found, time and again, is that developers, product managers, project managers, and executives all get hung up on the text in a design. Sometimes we have to plan for it, sometimes we know what it will be in part, but don't want to distract someone else in testing or in one particular use-case. So, I found a creative way to temporarily mask out the text in a project with this new font.
Blockframe is a free, open-source font made specifically to help designers either quickly see the flow and weight of a layout while mocking up interfaces or to visually obfuscate information without losing the original data.
Snag it from my website!
