Interview with Jaime Merz of The Point Collective

As you may have noticed, I have a jazzy new logo.  I’ve been searching for that perfect logo since I began my business- each logo I’ve had has gone through multiple makeovers as well as complete overhauls in the few short years that I’ve been running a business.  It was time for me to get a great logo that could represent me for the next ten (or more!) years.  The problem was that 1. I am not a graphic designer, and 2. I am extremely picky and judgmental about graphics.

Enter Jaime and the Point Collective.

I met Jaime through the SF Small Business Center and checked out her portfolio.  Her designs are extremely impressive (remember when I said I was judgmental and picky?) and best of all, she’s an independent designer running a small business just like me.  Jaime was able to take a bunch of abstract ideas, distill the essence of my business, and synthesize a gorgeous logo and branding package that perfectly represents me.  I’m still kind of in awe about how well she did this, so I asked her some questions about her background, design process, and business.

 

Me: Can you give me a little about your background, education, and credentials?

Jaime:   I grew up in Saratoga, California, a little suburb close enough to both San Francisco and Santa Cruz to keep me creatively stimulated. I have an amazing family who has always encouraged my artistic expression and celebrated individualism.

I went to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo. After toying around in Social Science classes during my freshman year, I finally recognized that a “passion” could in fact become a “career” and I changed my major to Graphic Communication, or GrC. The GrC program at Cal Poly was a perfect blend of both art and science. The curriculum itself gave purpose to my artistic expression – in other words, instead of just “making things look pretty”, I learned to “make things look pretty” while at the same time solve a problem. In business this translates to building websites that are visually stimulating, easy to navigate and that draw the appropriate audience. Another example would be building logos that not only look professionally created but also that say something about the business they represent whether that be “healthy” or “approachable” or “expensive”. So, I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Communication with a concentration in Design Reproduction Technology. I largely attribute my successes to the quality of education and faculty within the GrC Department at Cal Poly.

Jaime Merz of the Point Collective

How did you become interested in graphic design?

I’ve always been interested in helping people but didn’t always know how I, specifically, could best do that. At one point, I read an article about how a slight modification of the typography on road signs reduced auto collisions in that area by some dramatic figure. While the impact of a good design isn’t always that obvious, I do believe in the general idea that a good design can have profound impacts. I’ve always had a significant urge to create. I started dabbling with graphic design to quench that urge and soon after recognized how my creations where actually helping my clients and their businesses. I was lucky enough to have a design professor who passed along a significant amount of her overflow freelance workload to me. The more opportunities I had to ‘problem solve’ for these clients, the more interested I became in pursuing graphic design as a career and not just a hobby.

What do you like most about working for yourself?

Taking ownership for solving a problem, solving the problem and at the end of the day getting to say “I solved that”. The level of personal fulfillment I feel with a job well done is exactly what I like most about working for myself. I invest my whole heart into each and every project. I am incapable of performing work in any other way. For this I blame my mom. In working for myself, I get to work directly with my clients. Hearing firsthand about the impact my work has on their businesses is the greatest reward.

What are you favorite types of projects to work on?

It’s too tough to choose between project types, as I don’t favor, say, logo design over website design, or vice versa. What makes a project favorable is really the client type. My personal interests and professional experience define the perfect clients for me: 1) fellow creatives of differing expertise (e.g. musicians, photographers, actors, jewelry designers!!!); 2) causes that I can passionately stand up for (e.g. New Orleans re-build, equal rights and many, many, many, many more); and 3) driven business owners whom value the art and impact of a smart graphic design.

My new mark to reinforce the brand

What is your artistic process like?

I aim to be both highly creative and highly strategic. I’ve met a lot of designers that are either one or the other… but rarely both. So also, that is how I aim to be different. Additionally, my clients must ‘love enough to adopt’ the designs I develop for them, whether it be a logo they’ll want to slap on everything or a website they’ll want to send everyone they meet to visit. Those are my goals, and my goals define my artistic process.

This process always begins with an extensive creative briefing because I believe that constructive client input at the start of every project is essential in laying the foundation for a successful solution. Together with my clients we complete a comprehensive questionnaire addressing their graphic design and marketing needs. A completed questionnaire touches on a company’s history, unveils their target markets and available budget, speaks of their creative direction or lack thereof, names a point of contact and clearly defines the scope of the project.

A second step in my process, even before pen hits paper, is always research. I don’t want to just know of my client’s competition and target audiences; I want to really know my client’s competition and target audiences well enough to competitively position them.

The next steps in a creative process like logo design or website design look something like this – initial samples, review with client, comprehensive samples, review with client, final sample, and then implementation.

The next steps in a marketing process that involve, say, a product launch look something like this – budgeting, brainstorming, defining objectives, brainstorming, identifying strategies and tactics, brainstorming, solidifying a plan, implementing a plan, collecting statistics, reporting, evaluating and reevaluating.

If you had one wish for your business, what would it be?

Longevity. I would like to always be in business creating the most successful solutions to support my clients in their business. At least until retirement, I suppose.

How can someone in desperate need of amazing graphic design contact you? What should they think about before they do so?

I can be reached at (408) 892 8737 and by email at jaimemerz@gmail.com. I would say there’s not much to think about before calling. Depending on the scope of the project we’ll think about things together during the creative briefing process.

 

Check out The Point Collective’s Facebook Page.  Shoot Jaime a message and tell her what a great job she did on my graphics!