The way your company makes a first impression, is remembered, or perceived rests partly in the decisions you make about your Branding, Images, and Graphic Design choices.
Dictionary.com defines Graphic Design as
The art or profession of visual communication that combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience, especially to produce a specific effect.
Graphic Design has become much more important than it seems at first glance. Our marketplace demands visual stimulation. From video games and apps, to web sites and Pinterest, people pay attention to pictures. You, as a business owner, need to understand how graphic design can help market your product or service.
Brand is defined in Dictionary.com as
The promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.
Keeping the “look” of your brand the same across all mediums and platforms is important. It goes beyond logo development, to consistent colors, fonts, and even “personality”. I find that small business owners often forget they have a brand that should be consistently represented. They’ll often create flyers or brochures for deadlines and not one marketing piece will look similar to the other. There is nothing in these materials that promotes company recognition and could result in potential clients thinking they’d been marketed to by several different companies instead of one.
Imagine having someone on your side monitoring your best interests: Someone who understands your brand. Consistency is only one reason you should stay loyal to your graphic designer. It’s easier to have one company maintain your files instead of having to recreate them if you go to many different companies for your needs. At the very least you should maintain a copy of your own native image and graphic design files so the next designer isn’t having to recreate your designs from scratch again. Be aware most designers only provide you with the finished product NOT the native (editable) files. Before you work with a designer, ask them for their policy on submitting native files with the finished product. Also keep in mind, the programs designers use cost a significant amount of money – if you don’t own the program, you probably won’t be able to open the native files, but any designer worth their salt will.
Tip: Keep your designs updated with the new software versions or you will find your graphics outdated and beyond editing.
Sure we can create logos, brochures and print ads, but did you know that arrow directing you to read this is a graphic? There are so many little bits and pieces online – even text – that are actually graphics. Banner ads? Created by graphic designers. Need that image resized or saved into a different file type? Graphic design work. Whether you do it or we do it for you, there are some things you should be aware of. We’ll be sharing that information in future articles about various aspects of Branding, Images, and Graphic Design.
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