Presented by Brandpad: how to create a compelling case study, with Studio Dumbar and Studio Nari

Welcome back to The Finishing Line, presented in collaboration with the digital brand guidelines platform Brandpad. Over the course of six articles, we’ll be talking to creative industry leaders about what is often seen as one of the most challenging, fiddly, frustrating and complicated elements of brand design: getting it over the line. In this third entry, we’ve spoken to design heavyweights Studio Dumbar/DEPT® and Studio Nari about making case studies – the (often dreaded) finale of seeing a project over the finishing line. Together, we investigate the features to focus on, how to navigate what to include – and avoid – and what the point of case studies even is. “Lately, there has been a noticeable shift in the way studios approach the crafting of case studies,” Studio Nari’s Caterina Bianchini tells us, contextualising the graphic design industry’s potential new-found drive for documenting their projects. “It has resulted in an increased recognition of their significance,” she continues, “I think case studies provide studios with a valuable opportunity to demonstrate their team’s capabilities.” They can champion the “standout design moments” of a project, whilst shaping their desired creative narrative. “The major shift I have noticed, however, is the element of playfulness within them,” the London-based founder notes, from more abstract expressions of merchandise to the “secondary elements” of brand deliverables. “For instance, a project’s bespoke glyphs or textural elements within the brand system,” Bianchini suggests. “At Nari, we see our case studies as an important part of the project deliverables, almost like an internal deliverable,” as such, becoming an integral, concluding element to a project’s production. Taking a step back, Creative Director & Partner Liza Enebeis and Lead Designer Christopher Noort of Rotterdam’s Studio Dumbar/DEPT® remark that “documentation and archiving are crucial aspects of any design project,” noting, however, that “the emphasis on these activities can vary among studios,” acting in some way as a marker of a studio’s synthesis of process and practice. “At Studio Dumbar/DEPT®, we always have a consistent way of naming and filing projects,” the duo detail, revising how they archive projects every two years to keep up with developing software and working methods. “At the end of a project, we allocate time to make sure a project is archived correctly,” Enebeis and Noort suggest, “in the end, this saves a lot of time in the long run, especially for recurring clients,” integrating the process immediately into the project’s development, similar to Nari, ensuring each project gets the resources and time it needs.