The practice

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Timelines and phasing

Lesson 9 of 11 in The practice.

Branding Project Process - Start to Finish - How to Build and Run a Successful Design Project · Philip VanDusen
Lesson

Design timelines slip for predictable reasons and almost none of them are drawing time. Approvals wait for a person who is travelling, legal review takes three weeks, and content that was promised in week two arrives in week nine.

discoveryaskbriefagreeconceptswidenrefinenarrowhandoverlet gothe widest point is the cheapest place to be wrong
The arc of a project, with the widest point in the middle and one narrowing at each end.
A doodle of a winding road split by three gates, with a designer working on each stretch and waiting at gates where an approver flies away and paperwork piles up.
A project drawn as a road with a gate after each phase. The delays pile up at the gates, waiting for decisions, and not in the drawing between them.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    A founder wants the new pack on shelf in March. Where does the real deadline sit?

    • In March, since artwork is the last stage and can be finished close to launch
    • In January, leaving a few weeks for the client's legal review
    • In November, because print and production lead times are set by the factory
    • Wherever the studio's phase plan puts it, since the studio controls the schedule
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A stage with its own deliverable and its own approval.”

    • Client-side dependency
    • Result
    • Utilisation
    • Phase
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The sequence that decides the end date. Usually involves somebody else's calendar.”

    • Critical path
    • Client-side dependency
    • Result
    • Utilisation

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