I'm currently working on a pretty massive website redesign for a client.
We're over a month into the project, and guess what?
I'm JUST NOW getting into the actual design.
Literally. Four weeks of work, and I'm only now starting to map out the hierarchy and flow of key website pages.
And before you think I've just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, let me explain.
Because this is exactly what I mean when I say great design starts with clarity.
The Design Is NOT the Starting Line
It's easy to get caught up in the fun stuff.
The Pinterest of it all—beautiful websites, badass packaging, color palettes, typography, and visuals that make you stop scrolling and think, damn, that's sooo sick!
Trust me, I'm a designer. I LOVE that shit. I LIVE FOR that shit.
But here's the thing.
If you jump straight into making something look good before figuring out what it actually needs to accomplish, you're designing blind.
For this website redesign, I've spent the past month digging into market data, reviewing historical website sales, understanding customer behavior, and mapping out all the different pathways someone might take through the site.
What are people looking for?
How do they find it?
Where do we want them to go next?
How do we make sure different user journeys flow together seamlessly without sending someone down a digital dead end?
And most importantly—
What does success actually look like for this project?
Because if we don't know what we're trying to accomplish, how the hell are we supposed to design something that accomplishes it?
This is why research, discovery, and strategy aren't just preliminary steps in the design process. They're what inform every creative decision that follows.
Why Strategy Matters in Every Design Project
This approach isn't exclusive to website design.
Whether you're building a brand identity, launching a new product, or redesigning existing packaging, the same principle applies: Understand the problem before you start designing the solution.
Website Design: Build Around the User Experience
A successful website needs to do more than look beautiful.
You need to understand how people navigate, what information they're looking for, and what actions you want them to take.
Whether that's booking a meeting, filling out a form, or making a purchase, the design should make that journey feel effortless.
That means thinking through content hierarchy, user pathways, functionality, and business objectives before getting caught up in visual details.
Packaging Design: Know the Rules Before You Break Them
Packaging design is about a hell of a lot more than creating something that looks great on a shelf.
You need to understand your industry's legal requirements before you start laying things out.
Mandatory disclaimers, regulatory symbols, minimum text sizes, required product information—all of it.
This is especially important in regulated industries like cannabis, alcohol, and other consumer packaged goods.
Those elements should be purposefully integrated into the design, not awkwardly slapped on at the end because someone forgot to account for them.
Great packaging needs to attract attention, communicate clearly, meet applicable requirements, and function in the real world.
Brand Identity: Design for Where You're Going
When developing a brand identity, you need to understand your audience, competitors, market positioning, and where your business is headed.
What makes your business different?
Who are you trying to reach?
How do you want people to perceive your brand?
And what happens when your business grows?
You want an identity that stands out for the RIGHT reasons and has room to evolve without needing to reinvent itself every time you launch something new.
The same goes for flyers, advertisements, marketing materials, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
The strategy changes depending on the project, but the principle stays the same.
Get clear on the problem before you start designing the solution.
Clarity Doesn't Kill Creativity. It Gives It Direction.
I think sometimes people see strategy, requirements, and limitations as things that restrict creativity.
I see them as the rules of the game.
When you know what you're solving for, who you're solving it for, and what boundaries you need to work within, you can get a hell of a lot more intentional with your creative decisions.
You're not just picking a font because it's trendy.
You're not choosing a layout because you saw something similar online.
You're making decisions that have actual purpose behind them.
And when you've done that groundwork upfront, you're not constantly backtracking, redesigning, and trying to force a beautiful idea to solve a problem it was never built to solve.
You get to create something that looks fucking badass AND actually works.
That's where strategy and creativity become a pretty powerful combination.
The Work Nobody Sees Is Often the Work That Matters Most
Research. Discovery. Planning. Strategy.
It's not sexy. It's not the stuff that ends up in a portfolio mockup or gets a bunch of likes on Instagram.
But it's the foundation that makes the final design successful.
And it's why, even though I'm a designer, the value I bring to a project goes way beyond making things look good.
A beautiful design might catch someone's attention, but a strategic design knows what to do with that attention.
It communicates the right message, connects with the right people, and supports the goals of the business behind it.
That's what separates design that simply looks good from design that actually does its job.
Before You Start Your Next Design Project, Get Clear
Whether you're a business owner preparing for a rebrand, a founder launching a new product, or a designer diving into your next creative project, start by asking yourself three questions:
1. What does success look like?
Define what you're actually trying to accomplish. More sales? Better brand recognition? A clearer customer experience? A stronger shelf presence?
2. Who is this for?
Understand the people you're trying to reach, what matters to them, and how they'll interact with what you're creating.
3. What absolutely has to work?
Identify the non-negotiables. The functional requirements, technical constraints, business objectives, and details that will ultimately determine whether the project succeeds.
Get clear on those three things before you start worrying about how pretty it's going to be.
Because the goal isn't just good design.
It's the right design, for the right reasons.
Ready to Build Something With Purpose?
I'm Katie Mont, a brand and packaging designer helping ambitious businesses turn big ideas into strategic, visually compelling identities and experiences.
Whether you're launching something new or rethinking what you've already built, let's make sure your design looks badass and works for your business.
