[arg_discuss] ARG Community & Developer Survey!

[Tony Walsh]

Christy, FWIW, the type of design and production consultation you describe
is the kind I'm most familiar with.  I'd also throw in pre-production
consultation, which I have done during early-stage project development
(often before financing / during proposal stages); can involve creative
brainstorming, delivery strategy, big-picture narrative considerations,
proposal-writing etc.

To Andrea's point, a consultant (in my experience) typically doesn't go as
far as actual execution, e.g. giving creative advice but not actually
getting their hands "dirty" with detailed design or production work.  Once
one gets too far into execution, they stop being a design consultant, for
example, and start becoming a designer.  Semantics, maybe?  I dunno.

--
Tony Walsh, Founding Director of Phantom Compass
email: tonywalsh at phantomcompass.com
mobile: +1 416 894 0894
web: http://www.PhantomCompass.com
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tonywalsh


On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 7:54 PM, Christy Dena <
cdena at cross-mediaentertainment.com> wrote:


>

>

> Andrea, you may have never worked with a consultant who is involved in

> design, but this does happen, quite often.

>

> Perhaps if I explain by splitting the design and production stages for a

> moment. Consultants can come in at that the design stage and work as a

> co-designer. They are not there during production (unless they do iterative

> design consultancy -- which does happen too), but they are heavily involved

> in the ultimate end-product because they have had a role in the ideas and

> decisions about the plot, mechanics, characters, rollout, publicity and so

> on.

>

> Also, another role is to analyse the design before it goes into production.

> This is often paid for by the people who are commissioning or funding a

> project. This involves assessing the effectiveness of all the design

> aspects

> of the project, and depending on the nature of the contract, oftentimes

> involves trouble-shooting solutions to design issues and providing ideas to

> improve it.

>

> Now, I know an analyst/reader is an official position that exists in other

> creative areas, but are the duties I'm describing here not usual for

> consultants? I'm asking seriously. I mean, should these duties not come

> under consultancy? If not, how should they be categorised?

>

> Best,

> Christy

>

>

>