Those that say printed media is dead are wrong: you could have the best website in the world, but if you haven't got something you can leave on your coffee table you're scuppered.
When working on printed literature we spend stacks of time on the conception process: listening to the client and asking lots of questions until we fully understand their aims and objectives. Once we know what we're doing, we go and find colours, fonts, photos and illustrations and with these in hand we wait until we're feeling particularly creative... and then we set to work.
With a glass of wine in hand, we fiddle with fonts and photos and combine colours and curves, until we've made something we're proud of.
Of course, all this we do in consultation with the client, presenting options, listening to feedback and amending our designs accordingly.