If You Build Your Brand, They Will Come
You know as a web designer nothing is more disheartening then working on a website that has a truly horrible logo and accompanying outdated marketing materials. Usually it’s a bad hand drawn of artwork or something that looks like it was rushed out by a highschool kid with his first PC. It’s not just that it makes designing so much more difficult to work around that sore spot but you get so frustrated because you know that small business or organization is doing some great things and their visual identity quite frankly says the opposite. Often the client is like “well we’ve had that logo for 30 years, it’s what people know us for, but we want a website that really shows us as leaders” Do you see the disconnect? They want a great website that really reflects their amazing organization but they never looked at a root problem, their brand and more specifically the anchor that is their visual identity. They almost feel personally attached to it and it’s human nature to oppose change even for the better.
Listen, it’s time to let that 70’s disco inspired abstract symbol with the courier font to go to pasture. It’s not what your company is…it may have been what your company was when everyone in your office was in leisure suits smoking cigarettes and drove without seat belts but this isn’t who you are any more nor how you want to be portrayed. Your competition is utilizing social media, is taking fresh approaches in how they market themselves and you continue to trudge along in the trenches not realizing your getting passed by everyone else. It’s time to set yourself apart and take your branding to the next level.
Your brand needs to have a strong visual identity that not only can reach out to your existing customers and potential new customers but your own employees as well. It solidifies your direction and connects the points in the intangibles ways about describing your business, it’s energy, it’s advantages. It helps create brand loyalty among your customers. Just remember you need a great business/product or the logo is just lying. the new brand has to be truthful and open just like your business has to be.
Since I’ve been doing logo design in tangent with developing an online presence, I’ve seen clients renewed and energized about their business again. They love being involved with the creative process of creating a logo and more importantly clearly laying out what their business is about and how it should be represented. My job as a designer is just to focus that and make it easily communicated visually. I’m not saying every business needs a logo redesign but I think a lot of companies could use a brand makeover. It might not be redesigning their logo but sometimes an evaluation of a business goals and direction can unmask some unforeseen problems in their visual identity that can be tweaked. Even if its font usage, colors or simple thematics around it which can better support their logo both in their print materials and the web. In the end a company or business that is excited about what they’re doing makes the world a little better in my opinion. I’m glad I can try to help in that.
Great Design Makes a Great Company
Great design is the best means of building an indirect relationship with your customers and giving them value with your service. It encompasses everything about your business and how it interacts with the client not simply the aesethtic treatments and it should be honest and authentic and demonstrate a company’s core values. Remember that your employees are just important as your customers. How do they perceive themselves as contributing to the customer and to bettering their own life experience as part of your organization?
This approach has to be engrained with everyone in the company from the top down as a primary strategic approach of your business. It’s the responsibility of everyone not just the designer to creates an enriching customer experience. It doesn’t happen overnight and you continue to have to fight for the quality of design across the board. Listen to your designers because they are the people who best can help you understand the human element in your market and how to connect to your customers needs in unarticulated ways on emotional levels.
Just look at how your clients respond to designs. This is an emotional connection. Design can uncover new markets or client needs you weren’t even aware of. Give your designers the time and ability to experiment and even fail as long as they’re moving forward. If we look to learn rather than just being right than we’re already succeeding. It’s not something you can quantify in a spreadsheet but it can truly transform your business into a leading powerhouse of creative ingenuity and a successful design culture.