As Infusionsoft’s senior graphic designer who puts together all the design you see from our company, I thought it was time to help share a little bit of my expertise with you. A common question entrepreneurs and small businesses ask me is if design matters for their business. Trust me, I pick my battles between copy and design on a healthy basis, but I want to elaborate on why design matters for small business.
Take a look around you right now. What do you see? Maybe a computer, product packaging, pens, pictures on the wall, logos, ads and a cell phone? All of these things have been designed. Some better designed than others, but all have had thought put into them whether simple or complex.
The first scenario that comes to my mind when thinking about design (or lack thereof) in a small business is restaurants. When I sit down to eat at a Mom-and-Pop restaurant I’m excited for the possibility of finding a diamond in the rough that provides better food and service than your typical franchise. I get a little apprehensive (more so than others as I’m a designer) when they hand me the menu that has obviously been designed in Word. I start thinking this can go one of two ways – either the food is amazing and I won’t care what the menu looks like or it will be obvious to me why they can’t afford to get the menus designed.
What does this mean? It means that design makes me form opinions and judgments before I have the means to establish a true judgment on the company. This is true of all businesses. We are all visual people even if we are not all designers. People can make false assumptions about you and your business based on your appearance and branding.
Furthermore, a well-designed piece that doesn’t convey the right message is not a well designed piece. In this case, if fewer design gets the correct message across then it is the better choice. Remember you can always test designs before you make a final choice and once you are using something, you can always improve from there.
SMALL BUSINESS DESIGN EXERCISE:
Go collect your business collateral and take an objective hard look at it again for the first time. (Ideally, take it to someone you know who doesn’t know much about your business.)
- What does it make you/them think of?
- How does it make you/them feel?
- What is the message you/they are getting?
- Are these thoughts and feelings the ones that you want to portray?
- If not, consider what you can change to improve the image of your company.
Not everyone will have the same impression, but you want to do your best to convey your message through design.
Does design matter for small businesses? The short answer is “yes.” Design does matter in small business; good design contributes to the bottom line because people need to understand how to use and interact with a brand.
In order to help your business succeed, I plan to periodically offer you design tips and ideas that will be helpful to you. If you have any topics or ideas you’d specifically like me to cover please feel free to leave a comment to let me know.
[Editor’s note: Elisa can bake a mean batch of goodies and can be found blogging her latest recipes at elisacooks.wordpress.com. -Joe]
Posted In: Small Business
