Graphic design: every picture tells a story
“Design should never say, ‘Look at me.’ It should always say, ‘Look at this.’” DAVID CRAIB
Design is an art form. If you want your website to be a true work of art, this is an element you don’t want to leave to someone inexperienced. Only an experienced designer can creatively and tastefully use colours, typography, and proportions, and other elements that reflect your business and truly capture your brand.
Careful consideration of proportion, colour hues, organization, and information flow results in a website that evokes emotion, establishes trust, and attracts the clients you want.
design: A Powerful first impression
The advantage of a great website design is that it can tell a story more quickly than words. It’s your first line of communication. First impressions are made in seconds, or even in a split second, and design works at the speed of light while words work at the speed of reading.
People do judge books by their covers. If the design of your website doesn’t reel them in, they’ll never “open the book.”
Graphic Design & Your Brand finding the balance
However, design can’t be done in isolation. Its true power is a combination of good design practice and its ability to reflect your brand and key messages in the simplest but most compelling way. A design missing either of these ingredients can thwart your marketing efforts because there won’t be consistency between it and your written messages.
A good design should:
- Enhance and reinforce your content, not overwhelm it. There has to be a balance between the two for maximum effect. When the content dominates the design, viewers will feel like reading the content will be an ordeal. When the reverse is true, the viewer may not even get to the content.
- Reflect and enhance your company’s brand and key messages when it’s used in conjunction with a good layout and effective written communication. An experienced, skilled, and creative designer knows how to create a well-balanced site with a simple, elegant layout, and effective use of colours and typography.
Contribute to making the overall user experience engaging and positive.
Other Benefits of a great website design
- Your business looks professional, credible, and trustworthy. If you care about how you look, your audience knows that you care about what you do. If you don’t care about how you look, potential customers won’t trust you to look after their needs.
- It distinguishes you from your competitors. Not only will you be unique, you’ll be more memorable and look better than most, if not all, of your competitors. You’ll be the name people think of the next time they need what you have to offer, and your offerings will be perceived as being worth more.
- It makes your products and services more compelling. Think of the difference between a brand name product and a generic product on the shelves.
- It becomes a way for your audience to immediately recognize you and creates the confidence that they’re making the right decision by choosing you.
Custom design vs Status Quo Themes
Avoid the use of themes. There are many decent free or inexpensive themes on the market. Some of these are very customizable so that no two websites are quite the same. But templates still limit a good designer’s creative ability. If you’re truly serious about your business, you will want the site customized to your business and your brand, without constraints.
design is not trendiness
For those of you who are interested in reading a great discussion on the state of contemporary design, here’s an article by the legendary designer Paul Rand:
Confusion and Chaos: The Seduction of Contemporary Graphic Design