August 24, 2023
MOYO Studio (this is our affiliate link)
Mockup Maison (they also have some cute mockup filters on Instagram @mockup.maison)
Kris: Hello and welcome to the Design and Prosper podcast. This is episode 91 and today is an ask Kris and Don episode where we are answering a question about mockups.
[Intro Music]
Kris: Hello and welcome!
Donna: Hello everybody.
Kris: Okay, so we have a question that’s been submitted to us, and it is, where are your favorite places to find mockups?
Donna: Yes, it’s a lovely little question actually, so thank you for asking. But before we give our recommendations on where to find them, we have some thoughts on why mockups are really important in the whole process of getting that full body yes from a client.
Kris: Yes, because mockups are so beautiful. They really do bring a concept to life and we absolutely love them.
Like you couldn’t run a design business without them, right? Because your clients really should be able to visualize the whole concept rolling out into production. Like what is it gonna be like when it’s finished?
Donna: Absolutely and mockups add a tangible aspect, even if they’re digital. We’ll talk about that in a second, but they add a tangible aspect that elevates the experience and makes that feel really palpable. Like you can feel it, you can see it, and you can feel it. Now you might be thinking, oh yeah, how can you, See it and feel it in a digital presentation.
Well, Kris and I are big believers of including a hand or some sort of human element in a mock-up presentation if it’s via a digital platform.
Kris: Yeah, if possible.
Donna: If possible, yeah. Because it, with this whole digital landscape where we’re in Zoom land and we are pres presenting via digital means all the time, we sort of don’t have the experience that Kris and I had with our businesses where.
Mocking up actual mockups, trimmed to size, beautifully presented, handed over where we’re handing over. This is quite close to the end result. This is what you’re going to get or on a board where the client got to feel and touch and hold that. Doesn’t exist so much anymore. but we have found that including a hand holding a mockup or that that human element on the screen has really helped to bridge that gap.
Kris: Yeah, especially with printed material, because we used to always mock stuff up. It was like, you know, spray glue and you know, scalpels going everywhere. You know, it was like a hazardous work environment back in the day.
But we still love a good old mockup, especially if we’re meeting with somebody. But when you have like a hand holding, a brochure or a, you know, business card or whatever printed collateral it is. It just helps to give a sense of scale as well. And it just helps to give a more visceral response.
Like, there’s a part of the brain that’s switching on, it’s like, ah, okay, can actually feel that in my hand. Yeah. I can see that coming to life.
Donna: Yeah. Even having legs, walking past an A-frame where you can see a little bit of movement and you can, it helps with scale, but it also helps to put yourself in the picture. I can see how that would work. So that little, that little humanistic element really does bridge the gap.
Kris: Yeah. There’s also, mockups available now that are motion mockups. So they have that, that feeling of motion as well, which is lovely.
Donna: Yeah. Love that.
Kris: And it’s next level. So another thing that we wanted to talk about when it comes to presenting mockups is never present just a mockup alone.
Donna: No.
Kris: Or by itself. Like, here you go, client. Yep. Beautiful mockup.
Donna: Yep, there it is. Good luck with it.
Kris: Yeah. Off you go.
Donna: The mockup always has to be accompanied by your rationale ex. You need to explain what’s going on with the mockup, and the client needs to actually have a bit of a slow reveal up to the mock up as well. So rather than just go, boom, here it is, we teach the slow reveal method where we take you through the rationale first and then reveal. And that way the client is always looking at the end result through your lens, your rationale, your reason why rather than holding something or looking at something and just completely being subjective about it.
So we wanna eliminate that subjectivity by making sure that you have a mockup, being accompanied by a rationale, an explanation, why is it there? What’s going on?
Kris: You’re leaving a piece of yourself behind. So if it gets into somebody else’s hands, They’re gonna understand it. They’re gonna go, oh, I see why they did that. And because you can have the most gorgeous mockup in the world, but if it doesn’t have that, explanation. Yeah. Behind it, it could really fall flat. Yeah. So don’t just rely on the beauty of a mockup.
Yeah. And we’ve noticed that happening a bit with designers where like, the mockups are incredible, but they’re not, they’re not even realistic. So you’re going to set yourself up for failure because once it’s actually produced, they’re going to be disappointed.
Donna: They’re gonna be disappointed. That’s such a good point. We really want you to make sure that you don’t overpromise and under-deliver with a mockup.
The mockups need to be as close as possible to the reality of what’s going to be produced, because that way it builds authority and trust. They go, wow. Look at how close you got that. That’s what I thought I was getting, and that’s what I got. Yeah, and they’ll be, they’ll love you for it.
Kris: and then that trust will go onto the next project.
Donna: Yeah.
Kris: That what this designer presented to me last time was exactly what I got. It’s a no brainer.
Donna: It’s a no brainer. They delivered. You know, you want to be known as the designer that delivers on what they say they’re going to do. So make sure that you don’t over promise with your mockups.
Kris: So another thing that we wanted to mention before we get into our recommendations is to make sure that your mockups aren’t too overdone. Less is more. Don’t let the mockup take over your concept or, or take the spotlight off your concept. You don’t want be screaming so loudly that miss the actual design in there.
Donna: Yeah, Kris is talking about, there is exaggerated shadows, extra elements, uh, you know, your brochures are on a coffee table with, lamps and vases and a whole heap of different things. What we want to make sure is that your mockup is speaking to the design of the piece.
Kris: Yeah. The design is the hero.
Donna: The design is the hero. That’s right. So less is absolutely more in the world of the mockup
Kris: Yeah. When trying to sell a design, don’t be confusing the eyes and the brain with all these other visual elements like it. Even with say, a signage mockup, you could really have a lot of confusing elements in the background. Just be careful not to overdo it. Less is more. We do that even with our presentations. We keep everything quite paired back because we are wanting.
Donna: They’re designed to shine.
Kris: To be the hero. And if you have got a really tricky mockup, and especially with things like, say packaging 3D things where it’s a little bit, um, the mockup really does warp the design. It’s important to have on the next page just a flat example of what it is, like a, a non mocked up variation. So you’ve got the beautiful mockup first.
Donna: yep, lovely, three dimensional
Kris: Yeah. Bell and whistles, you know? Yeah. And then you’ve got the flat 2D layout.
Donna: Yep, that’s it. So they can really see it, see what’s going on, and there’s absolutely no confusion there, because you don’t want to, of course you’re gonna have proofs and things like that if you’re dealing with print, but just in that initial presentation phase, you want the client to understand the concept as thoroughly as possible.
All right, so we are going to launch into some mock up businesses that are doing a superb job, they’re fabulous. And we’ve, we’ve used some of these resources ourselves and we’ve been told about some of these resources from designers in the academy and our one-to-one clients.
So this is a hot list of places where you can go and get some really beautiful mockups.
Kris: So the first one is Moyo Studio. So M O Y O Moyo Studio. They are brilliant for scene mockups, so if you do need that whole beautiful scene, you’ve got the laptops and the mobile, then they just really are the gold standard when it comes to that.
Donna: Yeah. absolutely.
Kris: We’ll pop the link in. This is actually our affiliate link, but we would sing these people from the rooftops, with an affiliate link or not. They are just beautiful. We use them ourselves.
Donna: Dive into their website and you’ll see why we’re, why what we’re talking about. They’re just such polished mockups, just so beautiful.
Kris: Yes.
[Testimonial]
Hannah: I’m Hannah O’Rourke. I am in the infancy stages of a design studio focused on wedding invitations as well as, branding and business support.
When I first signed up at the academy, I was really just looking for, what the heck am I doing? Like how do I do this? Like where do I even start? I was doing a lot of diy googling stuff and I had done a couple things on Coursera but I still felt like I wasn’t getting the direction I needed and. So I was like, oh, this seems like it has more framework around it. It has more structure to it, and. So that’s why I signed up and obviously I have gotten so much more out of it than just structure. Other online courses, you just do the online modules and you never really get to a interact with the instructors. I think the q and as have been some of the most valuable pieces to like really pulling it all together, going through the course modules, listening to the videos, doing the homework, the worksheets, and then being able to still have an opportunity to be like, you know, I was really stuck on this, or I have this mental block of I can’t get over this piece.
And it makes you feel so supported, that’s the biggest highlight. it’s the same feeling of like being at like a university or something because you do have that like face-to-face instructor interaction like you would at like a professor office hours or whatnot.
Absolutely everything is in there in addition to the just constant community support and the support from Kris and Donna to feel like you’re not alone, which entrepreneurship can be such a silo feeling all of the time. And to be able to have a community rallied around you is just phenomenal.
I just cannot explain the amount of value that is brought from the resources that are there.
I I joke with my therapist, it’s like an extra level of therapy on top of just design and business. It’s so funny cuz it’s a business focused course, but Kris and Donna have challenged me a number of times on some personal mental models and perfectionism and, and things that were actually like getting in my own way, for me, just being able to be successful and be confident, and be willing to be brave enough to take the leap on, doing some of the stuff that I was afraid to do.
[Back to the Episode]
Donna: Okay we are just gonna rattle these off. And we will have the links to all of these in our show notes.
So here we go. First one, We Love Creatives,, Unblast, layers, LS Graphics, Art Board Studio Mockup World, Graphic Burger, Yellow Images, Mr. Mockup, Graphic River, Creative Booster, Mockup Maison. You Work For Them and Envato elements. So there’s a stack there and it was rapid fire.
Kris: Beautiful. We probably should have said grab your pen and paper before going through that list. But you don’t have to worry. Just go to our full show notes and you’ll be able to find all these links. Just on the mockup Maison one, they also have some cute mockup filters on Instagram as well. If you look at their handle is at mockup Maison, so check that out as well.
Donna: Yeah, great. And let us know your favorites. You know, head over to the Design and Prosper Facebook community and share, share with us. Let us know what you think. That’s how we’ve got that lovely long list. That’s from our own experience. It’s from, as we mentioned before, our beautiful academy members or our one-to-one clients. We love sharing resources.
Kris: Yeah. So if you’re looking for our Facebook group and you’re thinking, what, what is this facebook community? So just Search for Design and Prosper podcast, and you’ll find our group there.
Donna: Yeah, head on over. Come and introduce yourself. We’d love to get to know you.
Kris: All right. So that is the list, and that is much longer than we thought we’d go for this.
Donna: Yeah.
Kris: We just couldn’t stop talking about all the great about mockups.
Donna: Yes, that’s right. The why. Kris, we can’t help ourselves. There’s always a reason why we do these things.
Kris: Exactly. All right, so, please do also submit your questions to us.
Donna: Yeah.
Kris: Because we need your questions. ’cause we’re gonna be doing this every week. A little bonus episode. And so head to our podcast page on our website, it’s designandprosper.co/podcast and you can submit a, a little typed out question. You can do it anonymously if you want. And also you can do an audio message. Yeah.
Donna: I’m gonna say, please, please, do the audio, because we just love it. We love hearing everybody’s voices. But don’t let that be block. Just pop question there however you like.
Kris: We know We you have you questions.
Donna: We see you, introverted designer. Yeah. We give you full permission to hide.
Kris: Okay, everybody
Donna: Talk soon.
Kris: Bye!
Donna: Bye!
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