These days any schmuck can download Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS4, watch a couple online video tutorials and then claim to be a graphic designing Picasso. Maybe if you’re just starting out in a new business and you need a quick logo, a couple business cards, a small flyer even; you can afford to cheap out and get something done up quick style. It’s just a bunch of words and images anyway.
Now if you’ve had your business awhile and you’re looking to stir things up, get sales moving out the gutter, you’re going to need to do a lot better. Basically when graphic designers do their thing, they’ve only got images and typography to work with. When you’re on a budget, you’re probably using free images and played out system fonts; everyone is going to know and there’s no way of hiding it.
The problem is that graphic design is all about sending a message and how you send that message is a message in itself (if that makes sense). In other words, if you don’t spend the money like you should, you’re telling your audience that you don’t have the money to spend for whatever reason (doesn’t matter what it is) and they’re going to start thinking that you’re running a hole in the wall operation.
Believe me, if Nigerian email scams came to inboxes in beautiful, professionally designed templates, click-through rates would be a lot higher. Great designs grab attention, stimulate the mind, perhaps even provide pleasure and most certainly persuade. It’s my job to use what I’ve got and the space around it all to organize meaning for your audience so that they do what you’re asking them to do.
There’s always going to be an unlimited number of ways to present information, whether it’s only through words, images, or a combination of both. It’s up to me to figure out what’s going to work out best for you, to find a balance by evaluating what needs to be said and who it needs to be said to. These kinds of decisions are going to determine how the audience will react to what you’re trying to say.
You don’t just guess and take stabs in the dark though. You’ll need to do some market research, maybe do some testing with pay per click and figure out who you’re trying to talk to. Every graphic designer will want to work with an illustrator or photographer as well as a printer or some other specialist; unless you’re working with me: I’m a one man show. Just do what you need to do to get the job done right.
