“You know the one with the blue sign?” We’ve all said it when trying to describe the business you’re thinking of. People remember 80% of what they see, compared to ten percent of what they hear and 20 percent of what they read. Design plays a crucial part in every business. Whether your business is fashion, nutrition or even biochemical engineering, whatever product or service you’re offering needs to be captured accurately to truly be seen and attract your ideal customers. Good design will ensure your brand is represented well and stand out to your ideal clients.
Think about when you’re about to buy a new product, you’re usually comparing various brands. Unless you’re doing a speedy grocery shop where you’re throwing things in the trolley as quickly as an Aldi checkout chick, you’ll be drawn to certain colours and design elements that represent brands before making your choice. When it comes to bigger purchases I’m sure more research goes into your comparisons, however, you need to be seen to be in the running. Good design has that function, it will attract attention and communicate to your audience. It’s like a silent job interview. Your brand image is usually the first impression people get and first impressions are everything in business.
It’s not just about making something look ‘pretty’. Good design is often seamless. If it’s done well sometimes it can go unnoticed. Unless some of your ideal customers are like me who will occasionally buy something because it’s so bad it’s actually adorable (like a cartoon character that looks like it’s drawn by my 3 year old or a really terribly hand drawn logo) then you’re going to want to steer clear of bad designs when branding your business.
A lot of research has gone into the link between design aesthetics and psychology. Our brains make a decision on how we feel about a brand in less than a second. That blue sign you were describing, it’s so much more than that. While you think you’re just remembering the colour, your brain has subconsciously recognised trustworthy, calm, professional and intelligent.
A picture is worth a thousand words. There’s a reason this saying exists but have you ever wondered why? Humans can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words. Everything from the psychology of colour and shapes to the intricate details of different typography play a part in how we communicate visually. A Bachelor of Visual Communication will have designers studying the history of certain typefaces down to the size and shape of the serif and ligatures (pointy-outy bits and joins), and how they are perceived.
Humans are visual creatures and design is a universal language. Think about how much information we read instantly looking at a pie graph rather than reading a list of facts. Subconsciously we are interpreting millions of visual messages per second. Different people are obviously drawn to different things but generally good designs will capture the visual interest of your target market. They stand out to your ideal clients and give a perfect snapshot of what your brand represents in a visually saturated market.
You see during the process of designing for your business, only about a fifth of the time is spent actually producing the logo and visual elements. The majority of the time is spent researching, building a strategy, developing concepts etc. ( a pie chart could show you this instantly- wink!) They say you’ve got to spend money to make money. Investing in good design is good for your business. There are so many apps and programs to use now to create logos and visuals for your brand. But if you’re not in the know, do yourself a favour and hire a designer to at least get you started. Good design is definitely well worth investing in.
Quality design is something you’ll be proud to share, and something which helps you connect with your ideal customer. Win-win.
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