For small and medium businesses, quality graphic design is a key component in attracting and approaching clients.
In a world where we’re overrun with image pollution and marketing material, it’s vital to stand out from the crowd and to project a professional image of you and your business. For this reason, it’s worth allocating room in your budget to get quality design work done.
Finding the right designer who can achieve this is worth searching for. You need to find someone who understands good design and has the ability and innovation to create exactly what you want. They should also have a strong understanding of business and marketing techniques to create exactly what you need.
Don’t just focus on finding the cheapest one as bad design can really damage your business.
Items of design that are essential for SMBs are: logo, business cards and a website. The business card and website are vital ways of generating contacts and leads while being an efficient source for people to get in touch or find out more information about your business. The logo then ties everything together and builds a strong association with your business and clients.
In addition to the big three, you have other design materials like marketing vehicles (flyers/advertisements/brochures), corporate branding (letterheads and other stationary), merchandising and packaging and so on.
What are the elements of great design?
Great design should be representative of you and your business. It should make a great first impression and a lasting one. It should invoke associations that you want aligned with your business – whether through specific imagery used or just the general feeling of a design.
It should be clear and professional – the message is key. Making it clear and simple to see will garner the most effective success rate. Don’t fill every space with text and imagery.
A good designer will use techniques that manipulate a viewers eye to where it needs to go. A great design will also reference current trends and colours to keep your business looking fresh and up to date.
Great design should be innovative. You should find it impressive, and that’s exactly the reaction you want from the people who’ll see it.
Great design delivers a point of difference from your competitors. It should be clever and eye-catching.
– Brad Anderson is a freelance Graphic Designer from Brisbane and the founder of Brad Anderson Creates. His designs are bold and eye-catching and aim to resonate with the client’s chosen target audience.
