Photography, illustration, typography and motion graphics—graphic design creates and blends these elements into appealing images that capture attention, sell products and services, and open new markets. In other words, graphic design helps your business in several ways. Some may even surprise you:
1. Employee pride and productivity All happy, healthy workplaces have a strong core of brand identity. Employees embrace and commit to the organization’s brand, and are proud to be a part of it. In turn, that buy-in commitment leads to more satisfied, productive employees. Good graphic design cultivates a positive brand identity—by reflecting a company’s vision—that permeates everything from company websites and communications to business cards and staff apparel. The opposite is true too. For example, if you’ve ever worked at a company whose poorly designed website is difficult to read, navigate, search or purchase from, you know how annoying and frustrating that experience is for both staff and grumbling customers. If your employees aren’t happy with your company logo or website, why would your customers be any different?
2. Saves time JPG, TIF, EPS, PDF or GIF—which file formats do you need for your website photos and images? What about your business cards? A graphic designer knows which file format to use, and when, for the best results. Same goes for RGB vs. CMYK color modes, paper weights and uses, types of website content management systems (CMS), and whether your web or magazine ad is scaled properly and has enough color contrast to be easily readable when it’s published. Thanks to their in-depth training, mastery of industry software, and years of hands-on experience, graphic design professionals know all of this so you don’t have to waste time trying to figure it out yourself.
3. Saves money Even if you have a limited marketing budget, it pays to invest in good graphic design. Cheap design often means poor design. And poorly designed graphics can be expensive. That may sound counter-intuitive, but without the expertise of a professional graphic designer you may end up with a product that does not print clearly, is expensive to print due to color management or layout problems, or is not formatted properly for print or online publishing. Changes, delays and redesigns cost money, so that cheaper crowd-sourced logo you bought may end up costing you more than one from the higher-priced experienced graphic designer.
4. High-quality visuals increase viewer interaction Want to increase your company’s social media views, shares and followers? How about product sales and customer base? Whether it’s e-newsletters and websites, blogs and social media, or printed materials—high-quality visuals grab attention at a much higher rate than applications using low-quality, stock or nonexistent imaging. Online shoppers, especially B2B buyers, cite image quality as one of the most important criteria in their purchasing decisions. Graphic design uses high-quality photography, infographics, illustrations and video to create more successful marketing tools.
5. Graphic communication: it’s more than a trend Every waking hour, most of us are inundated with information from mobile phones, computers, TV, radio, billboards, magazines and more. And our attention spans are getting shorter because of it. To keep marketing efforts effective in spite of this cultural change, companies now have only a few seconds to capture viewers’ attention and keep it. Images are the perfect solution. They have the power to communicate complex messages much faster than words can. But, in order to do this—as well as improve your appeal to automated audiences (search engines) to optimize your web rankings—images must be unique, relevant and high quality. Graphics design can help your business successfully transition into this new era of concise, high-speed communication.
6. Attract and keep customers interested Whether you’re redesigning your website, creating a new logo or launching a campaign, it’s best to use fresh graphic design created especially for you. This ensures you maintain a unique identity that attracts attention, differentiates your offerings, and will keep your customers coming back to check for new content. Food packaging is a great example of the importance of attention-getting design. Grocery stores carry hundreds of snack chip brands. And even though many of us review nutrition labels, it’s likely our purchases rely heavily on the appetizing attractiveness of a chip bag’s design and how quickly and accurately it tells us what we’re buying.
7. Strengthens your brand Can you think of a strong company/brand that doesn’t have a highly recognizable logo, color scheme or typeface? Not likely. Graphic design creates a quickly identifiable “face” for your brand that helps differentiate and promote your company. If you have no competition, you may be able to get by without good graphic design and branding since you’re the only source in town. But, for the rest of us high-quality branding is vital for maximizing our potential and success.
Your company logo, typeface, colors, website layout and marketing materials establish an immediate impression of what your company is like—traditional vs. trendy, serious vs. fun, powerful vs. laid back, etc. Graphic designers work with you to pull these visual elements together in a way that will positively brand and convey your desired company image.
Since “consistent” means reliable, make sure your graphic design identity is used consistently throughout your company in internal/external communications, marketing and advertising materials, websites, and products. Inconsistency, such as using multiple versions of logos, typefaces and colors in your various business applications will make your company appear sloppy and unprofessional.
Now that you know more about the benefits of graphic design, what are you waiting for?
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