Help:Law Firm Boredom
- Started
- Last post
- 21 Responses
- Beeswax
I hate Law firms, let me say that first. I'm preparing a catalog for one.
Every material that they have is washed with stock images and so boring. So I wanted to give a little flavor, I'd used historical monuments at first but they said it looks like a tourist guide now I changed the images to some stock images but gave them an oil paint effect. Now they said it looks like they have some artistic business.
What do you think? Is it really not appropriate to use images like this for a law firm?
What should I say to them?
- d_rek0
The images are.. whatever.
What's more problematic is the god awful typesetting. Control those rags and cut those line lengths if you ever want anyone to ever read any of that nonsense.
Address all of this:
-Type heirarchy
-Leading and wordspacing on the full-justified text
-Rags, Gutters and Margins
-Line lengthAnd the images... Well, It's a law firm. Why not just get some good headshots and maybe some interior / exterior photos of the practice? Those stock images look super-contrived.
- thanks. I haven't worked on the typesetting yet. I'll address these.Beeswax
- mg330
Man, I worked in the legal industry for 10 years - half in marketing at a law firm, half at an interactive agency where I worked with more than 35 law firms over 5+ years.
Photography is the worst process - you are not going through anything new. Attorneys are incredibly literal, and mostly unable to understand visual metaphors.
- < I feel your pain. Biggest client is a law firm. They are also the client we want to ditch most.HomeCreative
- How big are they?mg33
- Aus / UK wideHomeCreative
- Josev0
You could make the images small on large fields of color, try a better use negative space, callouts in a nice font, etc. The images have too much emphasis in your current layout but they're not very interesting/meaningful visually.
- The typeface is too neutral, try something with more character (unless that's your corporate ID font)Josev
- goldieboy0
duotones and creative use of space... plus what everyone else has said.
- 23kon0
One of my favourite clients is a law firm. Very forward thinking when it comes to online stuff. Their homepage is a fullscreen webcam feed, have made games and interactive 'cartoons' for them in Flash as their xmas cards.
Just did a really fun thing for them for April fools day too.
YOU are the creative so should be guiding them and making suggestions that will give the best outcome.
Why not get them to commission some shots? Instead of having you trying millions of things that they just rubber anyway!
Good photographer taking candid shots around their offices is always a good bet and always work well in B&W/Duotone.
- Josev0
I dont know what your budget is but you could also try working with a different paper stock (dark, highly textured, etc.) and simple type for the cover.
- Aa770
looks like they offer law services as well as hotel room paintings. nice!
- monospaced0
I don't know why, but a photo over a solid color always bugs me. Even more so if the color is dark (burgundy, for example), and even more so if it is outlined in another color. That being said, I agree with d_rek regarding photography. The catalog is for them, their brand, their services. The best images would be of them, which personalizes an otherwise unpersonable law firm. Black and white also sounds formal and can help control quality.
- eatbreathdrive0
Sorry buddy, not to be too harsh, but the photos, effects, typo etc is sll crap##. It had to be said, folks. Sorry but jesus h. christ..
- harsh, but truemonospaced
- I went to AAU at the same time as you, Beeswax. Guess they don't have the same standards in New Mediamonospaced
- Beeswax0
Well thanks for all.
I've been doing web design a lot lately and my indesign skills suck at this point. There's not enough time for this job so I can't use custom photos so I'm using stock images.
Like many of you said the client liked the b/w images and it looks better with their solid colors.
Typo is not my problem they have to send me a correct copy.
Have you even noticed the english? Horrible.@mono . Lookit here... Really? Did you study Graphic Design?
They thought us every shit out there in New Media, from Php to Printmaking.
Actually our typography teacher was also our Director and everybody called him 'the type nazi'. So these comments are not enough harsh next to his.
But when you're thought everything you struggle getting really good at one thing. And obviously editorial design is not my best.Here's the last version. I hope it's better.
- uneven line spacingalbums
- This looks like a website template. Where is the love and care?fredddddd
- Tell the law firm to hire a proper graphic designer who can do a nice layout.fredddddd
- That logo is placed very poorly and "Practices" doesn't need to be italic.fredddddd
- Yeah. GD student. New media definitely didn't get the same design focus. You guys did do some cool shit though.monospaced
- The full justification is awful. Stop doing that.Josev
- fredddddd0
It's boring because you don't know how to design.
Don't just throw type on ugly colors and ugly images. Play with whitespace, smaller fonts, consistent line spacing. Italics look like crap.
- fredddddd0
Effort man.
- fredddddd0
This is boring, but decent design:
http://www.baincapital.com/
- mg330
Are you looking at the other creative work that law firms are doing? Do you know of other people or agencies doing work in legal?
Speaking from experience, legal is always more conservative than other professional service industries. Many marketers would like to be more edgy, but it's hard. Lawyers get freaked out sometimes by design and typography and visuals that are too left field. That is changing across the industry, but slowly. Our agency did - and they continue to do - really good work that clients like - but it's a shame to see the really nice work that uses out-of-industry inspiration and is really slick not get chosen. That's tough in any industry I'm sure.
I'm definitely curious what you're looking to for inspiration. Would be glad to help with some examples if you'd like. Just shoot me a message.
I'd add that your latest mockups are getting better.
- I'm browsing online but I'll be glad to see more examples.Beeswax
- Llyod0
Ditch the maroon and urea.
