We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Zlatina Petrova about their original and creative Website design work. Zlatina Petrova is an award-winning communication designer, that makes our world a better place with their original website works.
Zlatina Petrova ("ZP") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work BuiltForImpact Website. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
ZP : To demonstrate the BuiltForImpact system itself, and how the Mission Narrative structure can enable a company to empathize with a visitor's problem online rather than merely bask in its own majesty.
ZP : We want to make our target audience feel understood, before making them understand. We want them to understand that standing out is difficult, selling better feels confusing, and making a difference is a noble goal. Lastly, we want our audience to see that we've made their problem our problem and that we'll start solving it for them at no cost to them.
ZP : The design has a responsibility to represent the system, and so it will continue to evolve as the needs of our audience change and the systems we've developed are refined by the needs of the market. We'll also continue to interview and learn from the greatest minds in marketing and social entrepreneurship, to ensure the system always remains the best option in the world for those it was designed for.
ZP : The BuiltForImpact system was designed over the course of 12 months, though the learning required that led to the opportunity to build such a system took many years. The BuiltForImpact website is a representation of that work and the work that is still to come.
ZP : There are no more mass markets. Consumers want to support businesses with a cause. Most marketing maps and strategies weren’t drawn for businesses with a cause. This one was. Because our team's goal is to "help difference makers make a difference", we saw it as our responsibility to create this system and reserve it for those using the market to make an impact.
ZP : We produce the work ourselves in collaboration with those we serve in the market. The system itself is something we train people on all the time so that they can either elect to implement it themselves or work with us to get everything implemented.
ZP : It became apparent to us that cause-driven companies are this era's vehicle for change. It used to be philosophers and preachers, now it's the marketplace. Conventional businesses typically out-sell and out-think their charitable or sustainable counterparts, partly due to having better communication strategies. So the BuiltForImpact system was designed to be a blueprint for solving that problem, matching the rising consumer desire to buy ethical/sustainable or social good products and services.
ZP : Through interviews, courses, research and books, we consulted leading marketing minds and cause-driven companies, then organized and distilled our learnings into a single, unified system. None of the base components of the system are "new", rather, they are reconciliation and consolidation of leading ideas, so that those we serve can benefit from that work at a fraction of the time, cost, or understanding.
ZP : Companies that exist for reasons beyond the dollar alone. Cause-driven, sustainable, ethical, triple-bottom-line, social-good, B-Corp, or charitable organizations.
ZP : It does things in a completely different way. Most websites are designed based on what's cool, or what the designer is into at the time, or what that year's trends are. Most copy is written based on what an internal committee would like to say about itself. Conversely, our system is designed to say what the audience wants to hear and is designed to express that message.
ZP : It came from the conversation: we found ourselves saying "their websites should be built to make an impact" and phrases like it. As such, "BuiltForImpact" became the name as a representation of the intent behind the system: "This website was BuiltForImpact."
ZP : Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Sketch, Principle.
ZP : That the entire narrative is based on the intended reader, instead of on itself. The visuals represent emotions the intended reader is experiencing, rather than on shoving our work down their throats.
ZP : This system–and the site that represents it–was created in-house by the Fairhead Creative team. Skills included: marketing strategy, copywriting, visual design, illustration, animation, audio production, video editing, front-end web development, back-end web development.
ZP : Technology is a quarter of the implementation: Strategy, Copy, Design, Development. In order to permit liberal creative and empathic expression, the technology must be able to bring designs to life that weren't made under technical restraints.
ZP : The design is influenced heavily by our ongoing research. Its job is to bring a message to life, and the way we do that is by listening to those the site is for. Every time we use this system, we spend hours with those it is created for, coaching through a series of probing and mind-expanding questions about audience, service, fear, goals, and mission.
ZP : The message is largely emotional, rather than simply displaying physical product shots or portfolio pieces. As such, the design needs to use visual metaphors to articulate its meaning–metaphors that our intended audience will understand and relate to.
ZP : We're lucky people to have positive feedback from the companies we serve. We decided to submit the "BuiltForImpact" system in an international design competition because we also want to see the feedback from our community- the design community. For our team, this is a way to evaluate our work and design decisions.
ZP : Every time we work on this system, we learn more about those we wish to serve. We learn about metaphors and messages they relate to. We learn about how we could improve the varying facets of the system. In short, we improve ourselves because we understand our market even more intimately.
ZP : With design, if "success" is your goal, it's unlikely to be achieved. At Fairhead Creative, we’d like to argue that “success” is a starting point, not a finishing line. An ingredient, not a destination. Success: Trying until you reach a goal in the short/medium/long term. Unwaveringly, with commitment. Failure: Stopping that trying process prior to goal attainment. Giving up and going home. If we try, then stop trying, that’s a failure. If we continue to learn and iterate, then achieve the goal, that’s a success. Great design with a heart for service is never over. Just like this design, it will continue long into the future, as an act of service to those we wish to serve. To us, that's the success.
