Design Project Management: Meet Your Mentors

Phil Lohmeyer

Phil Lohmeyer

Designs exist to serve a purpose, or perform a function. This series of posts will improve your Design Project Management skills. With these pages from WAVE THE FLAG: Project Management with Mr. Lohmeyer’s Design Flags (2017), designers can find common ground here, in the brainstorming process. View all posts here.


Some people might be hesitant to believe the full impact that these Design Flags can have. But, after using this flag with a symmetric cross that will help you gain inspiration from existing products, I think you’ll be sold.  It’s possible that you know very little about the existing designs in your category, this sheet should help you to learn more. 

 To identify the existing products that may inspire you, it always helps to find some visuals.  What does your design category look like?

You might think, “I already know my inspirations,” or, “I can’t think of 4 different existing products,” but I would encourage you to try.  Putting images of 4 different existing designs right in front of you, and looking at them all together while brainstorming, can really help to spark inspiration.  Using the Symmetric Cross flag design, with the rectangles in the four corners of the flag, should help to inspire multiple solutions to your design problems.  This can be used during the third stage of Inquiring and Analysingjust like 8th grader Quinn H. did at the end of this post!

Use a Chisel Tip Sharpie to outline the flag, then a Fine Point Sharpie for the headlines (Existing Product 1, 2 3, and 4).  A printed image is best, but if an image is not available, info will do. In the middle, add solutions that these products have inspired. The flag is multifunctional, dividing your page so you can brainstorm in an organized way, in a memorable pattern, so you can study more than 1 existing product, and brainstorm potential solutions.

8th grader Quinn H. (Class of '18) writes...

"To create our 60th Logo contest, the first existing products we studied were the Principles of Design (Balance, Pattern, Movement, Rhythm, Unity, Contrast). This inspired us to make a rule that the entry must show a clear understanding of at least 3 Principles. We also looked at crest and flag examples, as many entries would be in the style of a crest of flag.  Another product we look at was a Logo Contest at Wellesley College.  It was original, included deadlines, advertising, and "How To" enter the contest.  This help me to see that our contest must be as innovative and new, and that Logos must be submitted according to the dates advertised!

Link to download "10 Things to Look For In an Inspirational Classroom"

Phil Lohmeyer

Phil Lohmeyer

Phil Lohmeyer is an Upper School Design teacher with a passion for storytelling through comic strips and animation. He has been teaching Cartooning in Greenwich since 2003, and began leading animation workshops at Whitby School in 2014. His areas of expertise include stream-of-consciousness drawing, outlandish premise creation, and funny voice mimickry!