HOW BAD DESIGN CAN HURT YOUR BUSINESS

Let's start with the basics. Just what is design? I'll tell you what it's not! Design is not about making things look pretty. It's not an afterthought. It's not adding a bit of clipart or grabbing an off-the-shelf template because it's cheap and "does the job!"

Design is fundamental to the success of your business, it gives your business a personality, a voice, an image of who you are. Design is the difference between "buy" and "goodbye".

Good design can inspire, bad design can humiliate.
Good design can communicate, bad design can confuse.
Good design can make you stand out, bad design can make you invisible.

4 SIMPLE STEPS TO GOOD DESIGN...

We create effective design that works for our clients every week. The best way to evaluate and improve your own business image is to follow these four simple steps...

1. Gather together all your printed materials; brochures, business cards, forms, letters, invoices, leaflets, etc.

2. Take photos of larger materials such as posters, exhibition stands, signage, etc and take screen shots of your website.

3. Pin all the materials to a wall in order of sequence that a customer will see them (from making an initial enquiry through to them receiving an invoice).

4. Stand back. Do you like what you see? Does it all look like it's from the same company? Is it all in the same "voice"? Most importantly, does it look professional and covey a sense of trust? If it is, well done. If it isn't, then you need to make the decision to change, sooner rather than later - a little bit at a time.

SO WHAT NOW?

Write down all the things that are wrong, this will help greatly when you come to brief a designer, things such as; the logo's don't match, the wording sounds a bit unfriendly, the forms are hard to follow, the brochures have old pictures and out of date copy, the web site hasn't been updated for ages! If you're short on inspiration, get a close friend to do it, this way you will get an honest and unbiased opinion. Sometimes it can be difficult to critique what you're used to seeing day in day out!

If you still feel you need a helping hand and a bit of inspiration, then we would be happy to meet with you and discuss how we can help your business benefit from the use of good design. To arrange a FREE design consultation please contact here at Creative Orange

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