What design can do for you
We hear this — or something like it — a lot:
“I don’t need bells and whistles. I just want a basic website/logo/business card/brochure/etc.”
Many people think of design as “the fancy stuff” that you can leave out of the transaction, kind of like the undercoating when you’re buying a car. Sure, the salesperson says it’s great, but do you really need it?
Yes. And we’re not just saying it because we employ designers, though that’s true, too. The answer lies in understanding design.
What design is
Design is an integral part of producing most things, especially those you find in the marketing/media world — websites, brochures, logos, and so on. Good design is essentially problem-solving. How do I get product/service/message A to audience B?
In the same way that an entrepreneur writes a business plan by figuring out what the market wants and how to deliver it, designers help you figure out how best to reach your target audiences.
Design is an educated series of choices with one goal in mind. The difference between a “designed” logo and a “non-designed” one is huge. The former is based on solid principles — what people respond to visually — and the latter is basically a shot in the dark.
You might think a drawing of a dog is a drawing of a dog, but myriad factors can influence the viewer:
- line weight — heavy or thin
- color — warm or cool
- posture — facing the viewer or turned away
- style — cartoony, vintage look, traditional, edgy
And the list goes on. When you add type to the illustration, there’s another layer of meaning that design can define:
- serif vs. sans serif
- font style — traditional, decorative, etc.
- weight — solidity vs. lightness
- letterspacing — open vs. closed
With a single drawing and a few words, you’ve already said a lot about your company. Design can help you ensure your brand says what you want it to say. Without it, the message you send to your potential customers can be counterproductive.
What design isn’t
Design isn’t a cure-all. If your company name is Bland Interiors, you have a higher hill to climb than your competitors. No matter how fine a family name “Bland” is (I had some lovely Blands as neighbors in junior high), it’s more than design can do to change a word’s meaning.
Design isn’t a substitute for solid market research. Design reinforces the research and planning you’ve done. If you don’t have a clear idea of who you’re trying to reach and with what message, you don’t have anything real to hang your design on.
We can drop back and punt with some degree of security. The principles of good design can always be put to work, even when some details are unknown. But if you don’t have a clue about your customers, design can’t bridge that knowledge gap.
Design isn’t a button on the computer. If our experience were a kid, it would be in college by now. No matter how wonderful the latest software is, if it’s not put to use with a sense of good design, it won’t help you. We deliver design based on years of real-world experience. That’s more valuable than all the talking paper clips in China.