Design

How to create design communication that works for your business

  • Conceptstore

design communication

You may have dabbled with design communication to market your business, producing some flyers, business cards, or maybe even a website but was it something you really invested in. 

When I say invested, I’m not talking budget, I mean did you really spend time to hire a good designer, plan the design of your document and your marketing campaign.

In any case, could you measure the results? It’s hard to measure the results of any marketing unless it directly yields a sale, and this is when Jeffrey Veens quote comes into mind.

Math is easy; design is hard.”

Jeffrey Veens

Maths uses set numbers and symbols to create a single result.  There’s no interpretation or gut instinct involved when following a formula, the result of doing any math is the answer to your question.

On the other hand, there’s design communication which has numerous variables like colour, shape, balance, tone and personal opinion.  Two different people may have two totally different reactions to any given design.

This makes it hard to figure out what good design is and how to utilise it for your business.  To figure that out, let’s explore further.

Why invest in good design communication

Many people have warped ideas of graphic design and business.  Some small businesses invest in graphic design and get no results, claiming it to be a waste of time and money.

Others invest in graphic design and think that it will automatically generate sales.

The truth is that graphic design is not the be all and end all of business success.  It won’t boost your business growth alone but it will help you to get there as long as you utilise good design communication coupled with a good design strategy.  To allow design to have a successful impact on your business, you have to be open-minded, a little daring and actually let design become a part of your business and marketing.  To sum up

Good design is good business”

Thomas J. Watson Jr

Solving your business problems with Design Communication

Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose. 

Charles Eames

Figure out how graphic design can help your business and what problem can it solve? 

Typically, graphic design may be used for marketing communication but utilising graphic or digital design for your small business may not be a case of public relations. It could solve internal communication problems as well. It may even play a big part in providing your business services.

eg. All of our project proposals and quotes are produced as professional graphically designed documents.  Because of that, they seal deals and make sales.

Large, corporate businesses all over the world useillustration as a marketing tool but also as a core aspect of their business services.

“Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king”

Mark Van Doren

God forbid if I sound like a design guru, but “Good Design can solve any problem”.  By implementing and practising good design within your whether it be for an internal document or billboard advert, will only enhance your business, not deteriorate it.

The idea is to make design work for you, not the over way round.

Utilising creative design communication

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford to hire a designer, then the best advice I can give you as a small business is to keep it clean and simple. You don’t have to go over the top and be over creative or over design anything.  Don’t have ideas of grandeur, no special effects, just communicate clearly. It’s the best cost-effective solution to usingdesign communication for your business until you’re ready to evolve with design.

Use graphic design to develop relationships

The whole point of good graphic design is to create relationships with the viewer.  To do this you need to be consistent with your imagery so your branding and message become familiar and identifiable to past, present and potential customers.

Using Design Communication to evolve your business

As well as being consistent with your imagery you also need to be open to change.  Most small businesses invest in design just once and don’t adapt their design to suit the changing times.  This often leads to businesses going stale, looking outdated and often just closing down.  Effective graphic design communicates change.

People ignore design that ignores people.

Frank Chimero

To make design work for your business, you have to evolve design. Make constant changes to it, don’t let it or your business become dormant. In essence, reflect on your business and react with design whether it be visual or strategic.

Graphic Design is actually a lot like maths

Chaten Parmar – Conceptstore Design Studio

At the beginning of this article, I said that unlike Maths, Graphic Design has too many variables to create one definitive answer but the truth is that good and effective graphic design uses data and a formula to get an answer, much like Maths does.  To make good graphic design work for your small business, use it like math.

Before commissioning any piece of design communication, gather any and all data you can get such as demographics, geographic and trends to figure out who the audience is and what problem your small business is trying to solve for them and then use design communication to solve the problem of communicating the answer to them.

This means that there is no guessing game as to what sort of graphic design or digital design will or will not work for your small business.

“Most [clients] expect experience design to be a discrete activity, solving all their problems with a single functional specification or a single research study. It must be an ongoing effort, a process of continually learning about users, responding to their behaviors, and evolving the product or service.”

Dan Brown

How to market your small business with graphic design

  • Invest in good design communication for your Business
  • Highlight your business problems
  • Solve them with the application of Graphic Design & Digital Design
  • Be consistent with your Design Communication & Branding
  • Adapt with time
  • Use data for effective design communication


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