The success of any creative project relies heavily on a solid and well thought out creative process. GRAPHIC MINT's creative process is made up of 8 phases, Discovery, Research, Analysis, Strategy, Design / Realign, Development, Evaluation, Debrief; each of which is outlined and explained below.

Discovery Phase

Process that establishes circumstances, needs, targets, goals, objectives and expectations that in turn help develop a project plan with specific word orders, scopes, and time schedules that form an integral part in every category of the typical GRAPHIC MINT creative process described herein.
        Examples: expectations, goals, objectives, budgets, circumstances, target demographic

Research Phase 

Process that aids in the investigation of past, present, and future trends, while providing intelligence in the form of reports from primary and/or secondary research, data collection and/or various methodologies that would be determined depending on the requirements set forth in the discovery phase.
        Examples: traffic data, user and trade research, competitor, internal/external database

Analysis Phase

Process that examines the importance of research findings, sorting thourgh results in a parallel manner – while determining relevance to the overall goals and objectives of the project. The final result provides an outline of key findings across all methodologies explored divided categorically and by order of importance.
        Examples: diagnostics, task analysis, heuristics, expert review, requirements, standards

Strategy Phase

Process that aids in the development of a strategic action plan for achieving the set forth goals and objectives of the overall project. Results from the analysis phase should estipulate a clear path towards a strategy that will in turn energize the creative, messaging, and development process. The framework of the project at hand will be developed in the form of wireframes, mock-ups, drafts, concepts, etc. to aid in the design process.
        Examples: patterns, personas, weaknesses, opportunities, advantages, messaging

Design / Realign Phase

Process that establishes the function, layout, color, type, and style of the overall project via a design brief that itemizes look and feel attributes aquired from the strategy phase. Weather a completely new design or the realignment of an existing design is in order, this phase requires extensive exploration, repurposing and re-adaptation in order to bring about memorable, highly conceptual, balanced, and unique pieces of visual communication.
        Examples: brainstorm, usability, interaction, interface, prototypes, architecture, style

Development Phase

Process in which all of the previously mentioned phases kick in to gear to bring about the development of every aspect of the project into the final stage, including the incorporation of all the content, imagery, design, functionality, interactivity, architecture, etc. Having planned and documented all of the previous stages of the creative process with as much detail as possible will help expedite the development process, while delivering a comprehensive final project for the evaluation stage.
        Examples: measuring, executing, repurposing, realigning, programming, retouching

Evaluation Phase

Process where the final project is evaluated pre and post public exposure. Evaluation of project pre-public exposure enables one last set of minor changes or edits to the overall look and feel, copy, or interactivity to help aid unforeseen circumstances prior to launch. Evaluation post-public exposure enables the ability to track and analyze public responses to the overall final project, which in turn serves as a measurement avenue to weigh in the accomplished goals and objectives set forth in the discovery phase.
        Examples: benchmarks, metrics, testing, customer experience, surveys

Debrief Phase

Process that enables all parties involved throughout the workflow stages of the project to express sucesses, new ideas, open-ended issues, and ongoing maintenance. At this stage future plans for further enhancement and next stages in product, service, website or application development are documented to be acted upon at the next stage.
        Examples: team review, client feedback, next steps, improvements, successes