Every business owner has many concerns to cope with during each workday, and at first glance graphic design might not seem to be one of them. However, making the most of professional graphic designs is critical to establishing, building, and maintaining your brand voice in a competitive industry. In this post we describe the various ways that smart companies use graphic design to brand their businesses.
Build brand recognition
A memorable logo that can grow with your business is the foundation for your company’s total brand image. The design must target your audience in a way that is attractive, functional, and professional. Your goal is that a glimpse of your logo and brand stimulates a feeling of instant connection in the viewer, one that is automatically connected to your unique and high-quality services or products. Only a remarkable logo steeped in graphic design concepts such as color schemes, shape and color psychology, and typography can achieve these results.
Unity and a cohesive strategy
Your organizational unity can stand or fall depending on the ability of your employees to band together and represent the brand. A strong organizational culture starts with internal brand identity and a sense of understanding and belonging on the part of employees.
Being surrounded by beautifully and purposefully designed collateral materials like brochures, business cards, company web pages, letterhead and stationary, publications, and uniforms makes this process of commitment much easier. It also makes marketing to customers second nature for employees and bolsters a comprehensive, cohesive strategy.
Commercial gain
The systematic use of smart graphic design can produce a range of commercial benefits, including
increased sales, improved market position, fewer customer complaints and greater customer loyalty, a stronger business identity, the ability to open up new markets and create new services and products, and a reduction in time to market for services and products. This is because more careful branding, a cohesive message, more persuasive marketing materials, and more user-friendly experiences all produce measurable commercial results.
Professionalism
Naturally you and your business need to make a strong first impression if you want to gain clients. Well, research shows that 94 percent of first impressions are related to graphic design. Something as simple as a logo that looks cheap or off-message can ruin your business and present an unprofessional image. Customers see these errors, and they don’t want someone who would make those kinds of mistakes handling their business.
Connecting with customers
Graphic design offers you an almost instantaneous opportunity to connect with new people and transform them into customers. You can forge even very strong connections with your brand and communicate lots of information quickly with the right design elements in place. You can also use design to show your customer why they should come to you and not anyone else; in other words, graphic design is the perfect way to differentiate your brand by creating a mood or “feel” for your business, service, or product.
Save money in the long run
Failing to use graphic design can be more expensive than you think. Badly designed materials or products (or those that haven’t really been designed at all) can be very costly, because they can cause you to lose business and get you passed by. They might also cause you to need to invest in a redesign later—once you’ve realized your error.
Conclusion
Professional graphic design is a visual means of separating professional, trustworthy businesses from more amateurish operations. Professional design lets potential customers see that you invest in your business and that you take it and your customers seriously. Graphic design is the key to establishing legitimacy in a sea of scammy, poorly-run businesses, and it is essential to ensuring that you effectively communicate your core values and brand message.