The ability to draw a crying baby is probably not a prerequisite in this respect but.... well, I like the picture and it's my blog!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Line drawing (images)
When producing drawings for instructional diagrams and illustrations, it helps considerably to be able to draw hands; particularly if hand positions are an important factor (as in the guitar chord illustrations). The instructions of far too many flatpacks imply that it is necessary to have hands that resemble a bunch of bananas in order to complete the task. Put an end to this nonsense, I say! Hire me.
The ability to draw a crying baby is probably not a prerequisite in this respect but.... well, I like the picture and it's my blog!
The ability to draw a crying baby is probably not a prerequisite in this respect but.... well, I like the picture and it's my blog!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The design process (article)
One of the problems I have with the blog format is that it's a little like reading a magazine backwards. If you're starting a new business and just beginning to think about design (a logo, brochures, stationary signage etc.), you should definitely read the earlier posts.
Here, I want to talk about the design process once you've decided that your business is going to grow. As stated in the last post (Do I need a designer?), if your business is one that is going to expand in the future rather than simply maintain an income, it's important to establish the right Corporate Identity now.
You may only have limited resources to spend on premises but, as your business grows, moving to larger premises should not, in itself pose a problem. However, if you don't establish the right Corporate Identity now, trying to change it later will present huge problems. The premises you have now need only be appropriate for the current level of your business. The design elements you introduce now must be appropriate for the level of business you plan for the future. Consequently, this actually requires more consideration than your premises.
The design process is not simply finding a designer in Yellow Pages and hoping they can sort everything out for you. I can tell you now.... they can't. You have to do quite a bit of work before you even contact a designer. The first stage of the design process begins with you.
You need to clearly identify what you want to achieve through design. You know your business better than a designer so the initial factors have to be established by you. Hopefully, market research will have been part of the process of establishing your business in the first place and you should have a certain amount of data to hand. Who are your customers? What are their likes and dislikes? What do they like to watch on TV? Where do they go on holiday? Do they like to cook or do they eat out? Even information that is not obviously directly related to your business is useful. You need a customer profile of some sort and the more detailed this can be, the better you can target them.
Whatever market research you may have done, you may have to add to. Yes, yes. I know. You've got enough on your plate without traipsing around town with a clipboard. Well, you're the boss; delegate. Identify someone within the team to take responsibility for the design process.
You need initially to know who your customers are, what they buy and why they buy it. If you are selling products or services to other businesses, you need to get to know the decision-makers.
OK. You know who your customers are. You know what they want now and you know what they're likely to want in the future. Don't put your clipboard away just yet but, for the moment, you can take a respite from market research. It's now time to establish a budget and a timescale.
You now have your customer profile, you know how much you're able to spend and you have decided upon a timescale. You now need to get together a team of key people from across the board (sales, engineering, marketing and, ideally, selected key representatives of your target customer group).
Now you're ready to pick up Yellow Pages although this is probably not the best way of selecting a designer. Just as your most effective form of advertising is word-of-mouth, this is also the most effective way of selecting a designer. Get advice from other business people on designers they have used. Don't just go for the cheapest as there are a number of factors to consider such as turnaround time, ability to understand the needs of the client, coming up with creative ideas that work, meeting deadlines and so on. Networking meetings are great for this purpose.
Don't just select one designer at this stage. You want a shortlist of two or three designers; present the brief to each of them and invite them to bid. Your selections should not be based on whether or not you like their work so much as a track record of successful projects. Set aside times and dates for each to present their pitch. After the pitch, you will be invited to put forward any questions and this is where you do your Dragon's Den bit.
You'll want to know a number of factors that relate specifically to the brief but there are also general questions you should be asking that apply in general:
If they are designing software solutions, you'll want to know if their IT systems are compatible with yours. Obvious but frequently overlooked until it's too late. You'll also want to know what they will be providing themselves and what they'll be outsourcing. Few designers have every skill that may be required in a brief and many typically outsource photography, illustration, copywriting and so on. Make sure that the designers will be bringing key skills to the table themselves. There's little point in paying someone to outsource all the main skills. You could do that yourself. Ask to see samples of work from contributers likely to be commissioned by the designer.
You also want to know their turnaround time. Experienced designers know it's unwise to be unrealistic about this even at the risk of losing a brief. Better to lose a brief than compromise a reputation for meeting deadlines. You'll want to know how many roughs they can provide and how many amendments they're prepared to accommodate.
Here, I need to make a point about roughs: You should bear in mind that you'll not only be getting roughs from the designer, whose finished work you will have seen, but you may also be getting roughs from outsourced illustrators if applicable to the brief. You'll want these roughs to be of a fairly high standard as you may not be so familiar with the standard of their finished artwork. As an illustrator, when working with a new client who may not be so familiar with my work, I tend to provide a rough to give an overall impression of the concept and one detailed section rendered to finished artwork standard. I find this helps to give the client confidence and it wouldn't hurt to ask if something along these lines could be provided.
Finally, you should consider the fact that, however good a designer is, personality also plays a part. You need to be fairly confident that your project team and the designer (who will effectively be part of your project team for the duration of the project) can work well together.
Once you've selected a designer to work with, you need to agree on a timetable for each stage of the project. You also need to agree on a payment system. For short projects, designers are sometimes happy to be paid at the end of the project. However, for long projects that are likely to span a period of months, the designer is going to want to be paid in regular increments, usually at the completion of each stage.
Although the designer will be working closely with your project team, you'll want to ensure that the direction that work is going is still in line with what your customers look for when choosing what to spend their money on. Take design samples at each stage and..... well..... Remember that clipboard? Have fun.
Here, I want to talk about the design process once you've decided that your business is going to grow. As stated in the last post (Do I need a designer?), if your business is one that is going to expand in the future rather than simply maintain an income, it's important to establish the right Corporate Identity now.
You may only have limited resources to spend on premises but, as your business grows, moving to larger premises should not, in itself pose a problem. However, if you don't establish the right Corporate Identity now, trying to change it later will present huge problems. The premises you have now need only be appropriate for the current level of your business. The design elements you introduce now must be appropriate for the level of business you plan for the future. Consequently, this actually requires more consideration than your premises.
The design process is not simply finding a designer in Yellow Pages and hoping they can sort everything out for you. I can tell you now.... they can't. You have to do quite a bit of work before you even contact a designer. The first stage of the design process begins with you.
You need to clearly identify what you want to achieve through design. You know your business better than a designer so the initial factors have to be established by you. Hopefully, market research will have been part of the process of establishing your business in the first place and you should have a certain amount of data to hand. Who are your customers? What are their likes and dislikes? What do they like to watch on TV? Where do they go on holiday? Do they like to cook or do they eat out? Even information that is not obviously directly related to your business is useful. You need a customer profile of some sort and the more detailed this can be, the better you can target them.
Whatever market research you may have done, you may have to add to. Yes, yes. I know. You've got enough on your plate without traipsing around town with a clipboard. Well, you're the boss; delegate. Identify someone within the team to take responsibility for the design process.
You need initially to know who your customers are, what they buy and why they buy it. If you are selling products or services to other businesses, you need to get to know the decision-makers.
OK. You know who your customers are. You know what they want now and you know what they're likely to want in the future. Don't put your clipboard away just yet but, for the moment, you can take a respite from market research. It's now time to establish a budget and a timescale.
You now have your customer profile, you know how much you're able to spend and you have decided upon a timescale. You now need to get together a team of key people from across the board (sales, engineering, marketing and, ideally, selected key representatives of your target customer group).
Now you're ready to pick up Yellow Pages although this is probably not the best way of selecting a designer. Just as your most effective form of advertising is word-of-mouth, this is also the most effective way of selecting a designer. Get advice from other business people on designers they have used. Don't just go for the cheapest as there are a number of factors to consider such as turnaround time, ability to understand the needs of the client, coming up with creative ideas that work, meeting deadlines and so on. Networking meetings are great for this purpose.
Don't just select one designer at this stage. You want a shortlist of two or three designers; present the brief to each of them and invite them to bid. Your selections should not be based on whether or not you like their work so much as a track record of successful projects. Set aside times and dates for each to present their pitch. After the pitch, you will be invited to put forward any questions and this is where you do your Dragon's Den bit.
You'll want to know a number of factors that relate specifically to the brief but there are also general questions you should be asking that apply in general:
If they are designing software solutions, you'll want to know if their IT systems are compatible with yours. Obvious but frequently overlooked until it's too late. You'll also want to know what they will be providing themselves and what they'll be outsourcing. Few designers have every skill that may be required in a brief and many typically outsource photography, illustration, copywriting and so on. Make sure that the designers will be bringing key skills to the table themselves. There's little point in paying someone to outsource all the main skills. You could do that yourself. Ask to see samples of work from contributers likely to be commissioned by the designer.
You also want to know their turnaround time. Experienced designers know it's unwise to be unrealistic about this even at the risk of losing a brief. Better to lose a brief than compromise a reputation for meeting deadlines. You'll want to know how many roughs they can provide and how many amendments they're prepared to accommodate.
Here, I need to make a point about roughs: You should bear in mind that you'll not only be getting roughs from the designer, whose finished work you will have seen, but you may also be getting roughs from outsourced illustrators if applicable to the brief. You'll want these roughs to be of a fairly high standard as you may not be so familiar with the standard of their finished artwork. As an illustrator, when working with a new client who may not be so familiar with my work, I tend to provide a rough to give an overall impression of the concept and one detailed section rendered to finished artwork standard. I find this helps to give the client confidence and it wouldn't hurt to ask if something along these lines could be provided.
Finally, you should consider the fact that, however good a designer is, personality also plays a part. You need to be fairly confident that your project team and the designer (who will effectively be part of your project team for the duration of the project) can work well together.
Once you've selected a designer to work with, you need to agree on a timetable for each stage of the project. You also need to agree on a payment system. For short projects, designers are sometimes happy to be paid at the end of the project. However, for long projects that are likely to span a period of months, the designer is going to want to be paid in regular increments, usually at the completion of each stage.
Although the designer will be working closely with your project team, you'll want to ensure that the direction that work is going is still in line with what your customers look for when choosing what to spend their money on. Take design samples at each stage and..... well..... Remember that clipboard? Have fun.
Photorealism (collection of images)
I am occasionally asked "What's the point of creating photorealistic images? Why not just settle with a photo?" Well, apart from the fact that they are a joy to do (which is reason enough in my books), an airbrushed image offers a quality that no amount of retouching can bring to a photograph. Although applications such as Adobe Photoshop enable photos to be manipulated a greater extent than was possible before, advertising agencies still like to employ the skills of an airbrush artist (although Photoshop's airbrush tool has largely replaced the old DeVebliss, which is now useful for blowing dust out of mechanical parts) because of this very quality. Note the reflective surfaces of the Buick hood. No car ever left a factory with such a flawless surface.
Click on an image to see an enlarged view.
Click on an image to see an enlarged view.
Do I need a designer? (article)
For the sake of continuity, I would advise reading "So who needs design?" before reading this post but it isn't a critical factor. Pick 'n' mix to your heart's content, I say.
The answer to this question depends on your design needs and that, in turn depends on the kind of business you are running. If you are providing a small, one-man window cleaning service, you are unlikely to have the kind of budget to spend on design services. However, the good news is that you won't need to. Few, if any of your competitors will be splashing out on a swanky, cutting-edge Corporate Identity. You will, however, need to acquire some design skills yourself in order to produce leaflets, flyers and press ads that stand out from the crowd.
As stated in the previous post, you need to decide whether your marketing edge is quality or economy. It doesn't matter which as both have equal market pulling power. However, you need to be able to offer one or the other otherwise it's a little like fishing without bait.
Do you go the extra yard to satisfy your customers?
Do you provide customer services that your competitors don't?
Do you provide an after sales service (ie; additional service that you are not billing your customers for)?
Do you have additional skills that give your work an edge over the competition?
If your answer to any or all of the above is yes, then your marketing edge is quality and you must charge a rate that reflects this. You cannot be the best and the cheapest and remain in business for very long. Don't try to undercut your competitors who are probably not putting in the time that you are. Customers will come to you because you're the best choice and won't mind paying a little extra for the benefit of the advantages you offer above your competitors.
However, any promotional literature you provide must reflect this in design as well as content and your rate needs to accommodate the additional expense that your promotional literature represents. It's no good listing all the the benefits that your superb service provides on a black-and-white, photocopied flyer that looks amateurish and cheap. You may well get enquiries from it but they'll put the phone down as soon as you quote your prices. They'll be looking for bargains and you can't deliver on that.
It's a common mistake with new businesses that provide a quality service which is not reflected in their promotional material to fall into the illusion that the reason customers aren't beating a path to their door is because their charges are too high. They drop their charges while trying to continue to provide the same high quality service. The result is working long hours for little return and they either go under or their health suffers. These things have a knock-on effect.
Instead of dropping your charges to compete with the economy providers who don't put in the extra time and effort, look at your promotional literature. Are you actually targeting the wrong market? Give your promotional literature a design makeover so that it reflects the quality of the service you offer. Don't worry if it makes you look expensive; you are expensive, and for good reason. People who look for quality services will be put off by cheap-looking flyers and people who look for economy and savings will be put off by your prices.
This brings us back to the question: Do I need a designer?
Probably not if you're running a small business and competing with other small businesses. But you do need some design skills applied to your advertising. If you don't have an eye for design, maybe you know someone who does. If this isn't an option, try one of the High Street Print Shops who can often offer some design services and will print out far more professional looking material than you are likely to be able to produce yourself. It will, of course, be more expensive than producing your own with basic word processing and DTP software and this is one of the reasons your charges need to be higher to accommodate this.
However, this is still a cheaper option than employing a graphic designer. How can they work cheaper than freelance graphic designers? It comes back to the marketing edge issue. Print shops offer economy, graphic designers offer quality. A graphic designer will discuss your needs at length either face-to-face, by telephone, by email or all three. The designer won't begin to work on the brief until he or she has a thorough understanding of your needs. If designing a logo, this will be designed from scratch and based on the overall message you need to convey. The designer will produce an agreed number of roughs which can range from pencil sketches to partly rendered designs to give you an idea of the concept. You then make decisions based on these, perhaps combining elements of one with those of another and the finished artwork is worked up from your final decisions. The designer then gets to work on the finished artwork and the final bill reflects the amount of work put into the project.
A print shop, on the other hand, will offer a brochure of stock template layouts and design elements. Even something as individual as logo design is often assembled from stock elements and rarely is a pencil brought into play. It's a little like the difference between hiring a website designer and customising a template on one of the many free website hosts who make their money from selling advertising on members' sites.
If you're a small business, a totally unique and tailored Corporate Identity is probably not a high priority so this may be an acceptable compromise. The objective here is to provide promotional literature that will target the customers who are prepared to pay for the services you offer so it needs to look professional.
However, one word of warning here: why do the big companies go to the expense of hiring designers instead of using a print shop?
Stock layouts are all very well but, when you are competing in the larger field, you need a totally unique, individually tailored Corporate Identity to reflect this. The question you need to ask yourself is: Is this always going to be a small business? Is yours the kind business that will simply provide you with an income until you retire or is it something that you plan to grow into a large company?
If you are planning to expand and become one of the Big Players, you need to think very carefully about the kind of Corporate Identity you establish now. It's never a good idea to start changing your logo and Corporate Identity after the current one has already been established. This would have to be done very gradually over a period of years if not decades. Establishing a small business identity now may actually fix you into that league. If you are planning to expand in the future then the answer to the title of this post is yes. You definitely need a designer.
It is expensive but, at this stage in your business, it will be a one-off expenditure and should be given the same level of priority as acquiring a premises.... if not actually more so. You can move to bigger premises as your business grows but you're going to be stuck with the Corporate Identity you establish now for many decades to come. Settling for the wrong ID now can actually prevent you from moving up in the market.
Good Corporate Design that sets you apart from the rest is an investment you can't afford to put off. You should set aside a budget of at least two to three thousand pounds (in the UK. Rates and costs tend to differ in the US) just to get a small business started. It might sound like a lot and possibly your business could get away with spending a less. But you'll need well designed corporate literature, stationary, signage and maybe vehicle livery. You may even find that 2-3 grand doesn't stretch far enough.
Scary? Heck! You're starting your own business and planning to compete with the Big Guys! It's supposed to be scary! Scary is good. Adrenaline brings out the best in you. If design is pretty low on your list of priorities now, do yourself a big favour, shunt it up to somewhere near the top. An effective Corporate Identity now will be your passport to the Big Boys' Club later on.
The answer to this question depends on your design needs and that, in turn depends on the kind of business you are running. If you are providing a small, one-man window cleaning service, you are unlikely to have the kind of budget to spend on design services. However, the good news is that you won't need to. Few, if any of your competitors will be splashing out on a swanky, cutting-edge Corporate Identity. You will, however, need to acquire some design skills yourself in order to produce leaflets, flyers and press ads that stand out from the crowd.
As stated in the previous post, you need to decide whether your marketing edge is quality or economy. It doesn't matter which as both have equal market pulling power. However, you need to be able to offer one or the other otherwise it's a little like fishing without bait.
Do you go the extra yard to satisfy your customers?
Do you provide customer services that your competitors don't?
Do you provide an after sales service (ie; additional service that you are not billing your customers for)?
Do you have additional skills that give your work an edge over the competition?
If your answer to any or all of the above is yes, then your marketing edge is quality and you must charge a rate that reflects this. You cannot be the best and the cheapest and remain in business for very long. Don't try to undercut your competitors who are probably not putting in the time that you are. Customers will come to you because you're the best choice and won't mind paying a little extra for the benefit of the advantages you offer above your competitors.
However, any promotional literature you provide must reflect this in design as well as content and your rate needs to accommodate the additional expense that your promotional literature represents. It's no good listing all the the benefits that your superb service provides on a black-and-white, photocopied flyer that looks amateurish and cheap. You may well get enquiries from it but they'll put the phone down as soon as you quote your prices. They'll be looking for bargains and you can't deliver on that.
It's a common mistake with new businesses that provide a quality service which is not reflected in their promotional material to fall into the illusion that the reason customers aren't beating a path to their door is because their charges are too high. They drop their charges while trying to continue to provide the same high quality service. The result is working long hours for little return and they either go under or their health suffers. These things have a knock-on effect.
Instead of dropping your charges to compete with the economy providers who don't put in the extra time and effort, look at your promotional literature. Are you actually targeting the wrong market? Give your promotional literature a design makeover so that it reflects the quality of the service you offer. Don't worry if it makes you look expensive; you are expensive, and for good reason. People who look for quality services will be put off by cheap-looking flyers and people who look for economy and savings will be put off by your prices.
This brings us back to the question: Do I need a designer?
Probably not if you're running a small business and competing with other small businesses. But you do need some design skills applied to your advertising. If you don't have an eye for design, maybe you know someone who does. If this isn't an option, try one of the High Street Print Shops who can often offer some design services and will print out far more professional looking material than you are likely to be able to produce yourself. It will, of course, be more expensive than producing your own with basic word processing and DTP software and this is one of the reasons your charges need to be higher to accommodate this.
However, this is still a cheaper option than employing a graphic designer. How can they work cheaper than freelance graphic designers? It comes back to the marketing edge issue. Print shops offer economy, graphic designers offer quality. A graphic designer will discuss your needs at length either face-to-face, by telephone, by email or all three. The designer won't begin to work on the brief until he or she has a thorough understanding of your needs. If designing a logo, this will be designed from scratch and based on the overall message you need to convey. The designer will produce an agreed number of roughs which can range from pencil sketches to partly rendered designs to give you an idea of the concept. You then make decisions based on these, perhaps combining elements of one with those of another and the finished artwork is worked up from your final decisions. The designer then gets to work on the finished artwork and the final bill reflects the amount of work put into the project.
A print shop, on the other hand, will offer a brochure of stock template layouts and design elements. Even something as individual as logo design is often assembled from stock elements and rarely is a pencil brought into play. It's a little like the difference between hiring a website designer and customising a template on one of the many free website hosts who make their money from selling advertising on members' sites.
If you're a small business, a totally unique and tailored Corporate Identity is probably not a high priority so this may be an acceptable compromise. The objective here is to provide promotional literature that will target the customers who are prepared to pay for the services you offer so it needs to look professional.
However, one word of warning here: why do the big companies go to the expense of hiring designers instead of using a print shop?
Stock layouts are all very well but, when you are competing in the larger field, you need a totally unique, individually tailored Corporate Identity to reflect this. The question you need to ask yourself is: Is this always going to be a small business? Is yours the kind business that will simply provide you with an income until you retire or is it something that you plan to grow into a large company?
If you are planning to expand and become one of the Big Players, you need to think very carefully about the kind of Corporate Identity you establish now. It's never a good idea to start changing your logo and Corporate Identity after the current one has already been established. This would have to be done very gradually over a period of years if not decades. Establishing a small business identity now may actually fix you into that league. If you are planning to expand in the future then the answer to the title of this post is yes. You definitely need a designer.
It is expensive but, at this stage in your business, it will be a one-off expenditure and should be given the same level of priority as acquiring a premises.... if not actually more so. You can move to bigger premises as your business grows but you're going to be stuck with the Corporate Identity you establish now for many decades to come. Settling for the wrong ID now can actually prevent you from moving up in the market.
Good Corporate Design that sets you apart from the rest is an investment you can't afford to put off. You should set aside a budget of at least two to three thousand pounds (in the UK. Rates and costs tend to differ in the US) just to get a small business started. It might sound like a lot and possibly your business could get away with spending a less. But you'll need well designed corporate literature, stationary, signage and maybe vehicle livery. You may even find that 2-3 grand doesn't stretch far enough.
Scary? Heck! You're starting your own business and planning to compete with the Big Guys! It's supposed to be scary! Scary is good. Adrenaline brings out the best in you. If design is pretty low on your list of priorities now, do yourself a big favour, shunt it up to somewhere near the top. An effective Corporate Identity now will be your passport to the Big Boys' Club later on.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
So who needs design? (article)
Well, in the broadest sense, we all do. Everything in our society is effected by design. Design not only decorates our homes and our dress, it also influences the decisions we make when purchasing anything. Package design has more influence on whether or not we buy the product than any written information on the box. We make our decision before we even hold the actual product in our hands.
OK. The product has to be something that we want in the first place but how do we decide that it’s something we want? Maybe we see an advert on TV. Again, our decision is inflenced by design. Maybe we read a press review in the newspaper. If it’s just editorial copy, we might think Hmmm. That sounds good. But, if there’s no photo, the chances are that the information will be stored somewhere in the back of our minds until we see a photo of the product; then it becomes truly desirable. How a product looks is created by designers and how it looks influences our decision to buy.
But I’m not offering a product. I’m offering a service. How does design influence my clients’ decisions?
Make no mistake: You are offering a product. Your skills, your know-how, your ability to solve your clients’ problems are all part of that product. It has to be packaged the same as any other product. New potential clients who have yet to discover your value will be more influenced by the design of the information you present to them than by the information itself. You want to reflect your marketing edge in the design as well in your promotional literature.
Very basically, you want to convey to your customers one of two things: you’re the best or you’re the cheapest. Either is fine and both have formidable market pulling-power. Your design must reinforce what you are telling your potential customers otherwise you won’t be believed. If your marketing edge is that you are more cost-effective, more economical than anyone else, you don’t want your logo and your corporate ID to suggest upmarket quality. Likewise, if your edge is quality, you don’t want to look like a cut-price discount store.
An obvious example of this is illustrated below.
Let's assume that both ads appeared on the same page in the same local paper on the same day. On the surface, it would appear that they are in competition with each other. Both are offering the same service and both describe their service as "High Class".
However, they are not in competition because they each offer a different marketing edge that is implied in the design. One is a master craftsman who is the only decorator in the area capable of restoring and installing molded plaster cornices. He can produce work to a first class finish and, although he is rather expensive, he is much sought after by those who can afford him. The other is a competent decorator who gets the job done quickly and with little fuss. He charges by the hour but, because he is so quick, he is the cheapest decorator in the area and is much sought after by those who want the job done quickly without too big a hole in the budget. But which is which?
Both ads are the same size and in monochrome so they both cost the same to insert. Yet, despite the mutual claim of "High Class", the sedate and refined tone of Brian Cowles' advert suggests that he would be the more expensive of the two but also that the standard of his work would be higher. He's used a script font for his name and his logo is simply a monogram of his initials. He's used white text against a background of regency stripes, suggesting the kind of wallpaper found in large country estates. He would be the choice of anyone looking for high standards of workmanship.
Fred Bloggs actually paid more in advertising costs that Brian Cowles because he paid a friend to produce the cartoon for him whereas Mr. Cowles did his own ad on his PC. Fred has paid that little bit extra to convey the message that he's the cheapest. The look is 'cheap & cheerful'.
So which is the best ad? Well, they both do their job perfectly well by targeting the right market. But, rather than convey the message in words that may not get read, they convey the message with design which is seen in an instant. If you wanted the job done to the highest standard and were prepared to pay the extra for it, you would be contacting Mr. Cowles even if you'd never heard of him. If, on the other hand, you wanted to save money, you may be inclined to give Fred a call.
This is the objective of design. It doesn't have to be read. Just a quick glance is all that it takes for a well designed ad to convey 90% of the message. The rest is just details. Good design is about delivering the right message to the right target.
OK. The product has to be something that we want in the first place but how do we decide that it’s something we want? Maybe we see an advert on TV. Again, our decision is inflenced by design. Maybe we read a press review in the newspaper. If it’s just editorial copy, we might think Hmmm. That sounds good. But, if there’s no photo, the chances are that the information will be stored somewhere in the back of our minds until we see a photo of the product; then it becomes truly desirable. How a product looks is created by designers and how it looks influences our decision to buy.
But I’m not offering a product. I’m offering a service. How does design influence my clients’ decisions?
Make no mistake: You are offering a product. Your skills, your know-how, your ability to solve your clients’ problems are all part of that product. It has to be packaged the same as any other product. New potential clients who have yet to discover your value will be more influenced by the design of the information you present to them than by the information itself. You want to reflect your marketing edge in the design as well in your promotional literature.
Very basically, you want to convey to your customers one of two things: you’re the best or you’re the cheapest. Either is fine and both have formidable market pulling-power. Your design must reinforce what you are telling your potential customers otherwise you won’t be believed. If your marketing edge is that you are more cost-effective, more economical than anyone else, you don’t want your logo and your corporate ID to suggest upmarket quality. Likewise, if your edge is quality, you don’t want to look like a cut-price discount store.
An obvious example of this is illustrated below.
Let's assume that both ads appeared on the same page in the same local paper on the same day. On the surface, it would appear that they are in competition with each other. Both are offering the same service and both describe their service as "High Class".However, they are not in competition because they each offer a different marketing edge that is implied in the design. One is a master craftsman who is the only decorator in the area capable of restoring and installing molded plaster cornices. He can produce work to a first class finish and, although he is rather expensive, he is much sought after by those who can afford him. The other is a competent decorator who gets the job done quickly and with little fuss. He charges by the hour but, because he is so quick, he is the cheapest decorator in the area and is much sought after by those who want the job done quickly without too big a hole in the budget. But which is which?
Both ads are the same size and in monochrome so they both cost the same to insert. Yet, despite the mutual claim of "High Class", the sedate and refined tone of Brian Cowles' advert suggests that he would be the more expensive of the two but also that the standard of his work would be higher. He's used a script font for his name and his logo is simply a monogram of his initials. He's used white text against a background of regency stripes, suggesting the kind of wallpaper found in large country estates. He would be the choice of anyone looking for high standards of workmanship.
Fred Bloggs actually paid more in advertising costs that Brian Cowles because he paid a friend to produce the cartoon for him whereas Mr. Cowles did his own ad on his PC. Fred has paid that little bit extra to convey the message that he's the cheapest. The look is 'cheap & cheerful'.
So which is the best ad? Well, they both do their job perfectly well by targeting the right market. But, rather than convey the message in words that may not get read, they convey the message with design which is seen in an instant. If you wanted the job done to the highest standard and were prepared to pay the extra for it, you would be contacting Mr. Cowles even if you'd never heard of him. If, on the other hand, you wanted to save money, you may be inclined to give Fred a call.
This is the objective of design. It doesn't have to be read. Just a quick glance is all that it takes for a well designed ad to convey 90% of the message. The rest is just details. Good design is about delivering the right message to the right target.
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