Guidelines Part I

General Principles & Planning

Market Sector:

Notes & Guidelines V1.0

General Principles

Think of it as a magazine article. You’ve got to catch their eye, draw them in and keep them reading…and get your message across.

For consideration – basic techniques:

  • A clear title and compelling strapline with a visual that supports the messaging.
  • Strong visual cues throughout the article to a) catch the eye of the casual browser and b) keep the more interested reader engaged. The use of layout, white space, descriptive headings and impactful straplines and imagery that help tell the story.
  • Use an easily recognisable structure across all case studies. This will help readers become familiar with the key areas and content across multiple case studies and allow them to quickly scan the article to find a specific point of interest such as technical design.

Planning your case study

Establish the key messages you want to get across in the case study. Whilst there likely to be consistent messages/points that you want to cover across all case studies, use individual case studies to highlight specific points.

Bear in mind who your readers are likely to be. They could be any of the following:

  • A creative agency looking for a company with similar creative flair in a specialist area and with little interest in the technical details
  • A creative agency that is highly experienced in event design and product who want to understand your technical capabilities
  • A potential corporate client looking for a company to help them translate and deliver their vision and help them understand the art of the possible!

 

A technique that works for me! For each section and/or heading:

  • Make a list of the key points you want to get across
  • Re-order the points so that they tell the story and/or are ordered in priority/importance.

Notes on writing your case study

Don’t try to sell to your readers! Other parts of the website take on this role. A case study should be informative and an interesting read.

Set the tone of the language/tone of voice you want to use. Find a balance between:

humility, pride, and understanding

“We are proud of…”, “We have worked hard to achieve…”, “ We understand your….”,

VS

factual, dry, straight to the point – corporate/business-like

My opinion only. Avoid superlatives!

Keep sentences short and to the point.

Make sure each sentence is concise and clearly communicates what you want to get across.

  • It’s better to say slightly too little rather than too much. By saying too little, you keep things short and to the point, and if a reader wants to know more, they’ll likely get in touch! If you say too much, it is more likely that your reader will lose interest or find aspects of the article they don’t agree with.


Use additional subheadings within the main heading framework if you are wanting to discuss multiple disparate topics.

When explaining something technical, make sure it is written in plain English so that all your readers can understand what you are saying.

Project Summary

  • I see this as a sidebar sitting to the right of the Introduction/Overview.
  • Client: Client Name
  • Location: Location Name
  • Date: Date of Event
  • Lead Supplier: Agency Name
  • Technical Production: Agency Name
  • Oher Contributor 1: Another Company Name
  • Oher Contributor 2: And another Company Name

Notes:

  • Easily digestable project overview.
  • With links to external links to client/client project page and third party suppliers (I think including links will stand you in good stead with project partners and the like).
  • Consider including the clients Logo too. Not Necessarirly in theis section, but maybe as part of the page banner?

Disciplines/Solutions:

  • Consider including these as icons with links to the relevant pages
  • Include these within the project summary AND/OR/ALTERNATIVELY as links within the body of the case study where you refer to them.
All Case studies