Another installment in the "how to get your creative work approved" today. It's wildly direct and wildly simple. But it WILL make it way faster to get to concept approval.
Ready?
DO NOT SHOW YOUR CLIENT A DESIGN WITH FAKE CONTENT.
ALWAYS USE real (or believable) content in your mockup.
Specifically:
Don't use Lorem Ipsum for every single text placement. Even for body copy, start with something believable even if you have to fill the rest in with placeholder content.
Don't use any kind of "FPO" photo that doesn't relate to the material and that couldn't feasibly be part of what's going to be used.
Don't mock up a row of thumbnails or a carousel on a webpage JUST because you like the way a certain type of component looks or functions.
Don't mock up branding on collateral that your client isn't actually going to be using just because you think it looks cool.
Don't use "jokey" content.
Sorry to pull out the all-caps on you, but I see this kind of thing a lot and it makes me wince, every time.
Why is it important to use real content?
Even though Lorem Ipsum is really useful for filling out a paragragh or a headline, its use obstructs the viewer from understanding what the text field is actually supposed to be used for. So it becomes confusing for a client who's trying to understand how to apply this to their brand. Example: Is that "eyebrow" text a label, a category, or it is for displaying the expiration date of an offer?
You might also be disguising the fact that they don't really have the text or the imagery to build the design out in a way that's going to be visually satisfying. Meaning, even if the client ok's this version, when you get to the stage of swapping out their real actual content, it's going to feel like a bait-and-switch to them.
Using a generic (thematically not relevant) stock photo is even worse, because it makes the brand feel generic. When you use a placeholder or stock photo, it should feel tonally like something they would REALLY use.
If you want to create trust with your client, you need go to the lengths of researching what kind of content the brand ALREADY has, how they arrange it themselves, and then make a design recommendation that pulls all of that in. You need to solve their problem, that being: "I have a bunch of stuff and ideas and I don't know how to put it together in a beautiful way" - not just give them another beautiful, but disparate, item.
If you work on an agency or a brand team, you might have a partner whose job it is to make the content real. If you're freelancing, you'll have to do it on your own (but ChatGPT helps).
Ultimately, if you want to show up as a higher-level creative, these kinds of details and research are what get you there. It's how you tell your client, "I see you, I respect you, and I have a smart solution for you."
Final note before I leave you: this isn't just an individual-designer issue. I remember a time at when I was at HBO where a well-respected agency brought these kinds of "placeholdery" designs to an executive-level meeting. It was impossible to approve them, because no one could figure out if the pretty components they'd designed would work with the content strategy for the hundreds of brands and sub-brands under the brand's umbrella. They didn't end up getting hired back. So, this stuff's REALLY important on a macro level as well.
TTFN,
-Cathy