“Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them.”
From Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.
Most designers look at regulations the way that Don Quixote looked at windmills – as an adversary that must be defeated or circumvented. In fact, regulations are just one of several boundaries on any designer of business communications. Designs are also restricted by:
- Corporate Identity Guidelines
- Postal Regulations
- Production Processes
And just as windmills are not giants, boundaries don’t need to be the designer’s enemy. In fact, identifying these factors in advance can help to focus attention on the goals of the design and also apply a filter to the process of finding solutions. The ability to understand and design for these constraints can actually become a strategic advantage for the designer. If you invest the time to understand the regulations that impact business communications in the industries you serve you will find that expertise to be a strategic differentiator. I’ll be sending holiday cards to the SEC, FTC, DOL, CFPB and all the state insurance commissioners that keep my business hopping.
Elizabeth Gooding is the editor of the Insight Forums blog and president of Gooding Communications Group www.GoodComm.net
