Ultimate Graphic Design Reason List.
By James Humphrey, for Branding Effects
Image via Wikipedia
Graphic design alot of times has been put down by many people in the past, current and for the future to come. Alot of people think just because graphic design can be done on a computer that it is quick and easy work. Well guess what, they are wrong. Graphic Design takes a great amount of skill and not everyone can do it. Just because someone installed Photoshop on your computer does NOT make you a designer. It may be a hobby for you, but at times when companies get a little gist of this it brings some designers down in the field. Thus, resulting in a negative action towards designers. The old saying comes right into play, ” You can quickly do that logo on your computer at home, here’s $10 dollars!”. Well I personally take pride in my work and I will never let anyone say that to me ever again. Well okay, they can say it, but don’t expect any work to get done with an attidude like that. Branding Effects is a small independent company with a powerful punch. I think a lot of free lance designers and other companies like Branding Effects are going to like this blog post.
1. Society needs Graphic Design.
Every company in the world has some sort of graphic design involved within their company. Whether it is the brochure that your picking up from the store, the menu you look at when ordering dinner, or the post card you got in the mail promoting your casino free slot plays. It is everywhere. And all companies cannot live and function with out us. It has been proven in the past that the more you advertise the more you get in return. And it has also been proved that if you stop advertising no matter how big of a company you have or how well known your company is that you will slowly see a decrease in sales.
Seriously now, Graphic Design is the sole foundation of any company. If you have a crock pot and looking to make a great meal you would need all the ingredients in order to achieve the “Great” meal. For example, take your meats, vegetables, sauces and spices and mix all together and cook in the crock pot. Now lets replace these words with words that relate to a business. Take your business plan, marketing strategy, sales team and graphic materials ( logo, brochures, business cards, ads…pretty much everything visual of your company ) and mix them all together and cook. Your end result should be a nice company with a solid structure.
2. Digging into a Logo.
The logo is the identity. like human beings, our name is our identity. This is crucial. Brandin
g a company cannot be done with out Graphic Design. Sure a company can have an inside marketing team, but this can only go so far. Brand Identity is what your consumer see’s you as. Its very important to get this right, in the beginning. You want your customers to visual know who you are and remember you with a positive and effective memorable feeling. There are Graphic Designers in the today world that solely specialize in just this.
3. Layout.
Understanding the layout of design is so important. You really have to know why and how you choose the layout your running with. If your layout isn’t correctly understood, the read could totally miss the message and your advertising dollars just went down the drain. One typical standard layout that has a huge proven impact is the “Z” layout. The “Z” layout, for those that do not know, is a layout in which the structure is in the for of the letter Z. Usually in this order: Headline, Photo, Caption, Copy, Signature. If your layout follows this pattern on the page then you have correctly followed the “Z” layout. By nature the human eye tends to follow this pattern when they look at an advertisement. For more information on layouts and structures, one who has mastered layout structures is David Ogilvy and you can find him here.
Layouts usually end with a signature that informs the reader with a contact information section. This in obvious reasoning allows them to find more information about your product or service and to follow through with action resulting in a lead.
4. Research.
Now a days this part of graphic design is usually over looked by free lancers. Just because your project is small and maybe the compensation is not what you expected, research should still be done. By researching the product, that means your going out of your way to find out what the competitors are doing. I have information on this site all about research so I will not get into too much detail. You can read that information here.
5. User Friendly.
This idea is really similair to layouts. This also tends to be more towards web design more than anything. Your layouts even if it is not a web site should be user friendly. At no point in time should your customer feel like they are lost in any form. Keep layouts user friendly and easy to read by following a pattern and not going off track. Taking the time to create negative space within the structure. Creating negative space could simply mean by adding more leading to your copy. Avoid to many drop caps. This can cause the reader to go to something first before following the pattern and then he is no longer on track and will skip the important catch.
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