Design strategy is a very important part of every marketing strategy. Every company should have its design strategy firmly aligned with the brand strategy. Why? Because, according to research, visual content is processed 60,000 faster by the brain, in comparison to text content. In this article, we take a look at Understanding Design Strategy for Effective Graphic Design for Clients
The visuals of your company should reflect its personality and they should be created according to the audience you are talking to. If you are selling rock-themed t-shirts, having Lady Muerta artwork on your website will not be a problem. Even more, it will add a dash of authenticity to it, but if you are selling kids clothes, you might want to reconsider having this kind of artwork on your website.
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Defining Business Goals and Their Personality
According to Kayden Lennon, a Lead Designer “It’s not a designer’s job to define the business goals and personality, but it’s his job to transpose them into a work of art. This being said, before you even start making the first logo design sketches, you need to have all the information needed.”
When you are sketching visuals for your client, you need to have all the information, business goals, target audience, brand voice, you name it. That’s because, as we said in our example, you might end up placing inappropriate visual elements on communication channels.
A tip you should offer to your clients is the fact that a business should reflect the personality of the team behind the project. For this, there are several tools which they can use to define their team’s personality.
Logos for the Win
“The logo is one of the most important aspects of a company’s visual presence. It will be placed on all visuals, be it website cover, social media posts or outdoor banners. That’s why you should give your best when coming up with logo proposals.” emphasized Tristan Brock, Branding Strategist at Ninja Essays.
If you want to create an effective logo, you should invest and hire a professional logo designer, but you should keep in mind these very important aspects:
- The Logo Should get Your Audience’s Attention
- Strong First Impression is Key
- It’s Your Brand’s Identity Support
- It Should Stand Out
- Differentiate Yourself from Your Competitions
- This Should Encourage Brand Loyalty
Deliver a Strong Message in Cool Fashion
Even though we are talking about design strategy and graphic design, Global graphics, Toronto based logo designers revealed you should also deliver a very strong, memorable message inside your designs or attached to them. No, you don’t add the logo to your signature or the brand message in the attachment of your email. You can place the message right below the logo or in a visible area.
Also, when delivering these messages you shouldn’t focus solely on its copy, but on its typography, also. Typography is a very important element of design because it adds more weight to the message sent by the logo. You can deliver a dull message in a very cool fashion and turn it into a very effective one.
Key Visuals
Having a very playful brand book is one thing, but transposing it into visual content is as important as the brand book.
Basically, key visuals are the content your customers will see during your marketing campaigns. It uses elements from the brand book, such as logos, colours, fonts, and such elements, and creates a visual for the marketing campaign.
Here’s a very good key visual example.
Here is the Michelin logo and here is the key visual.
Long story short, key visuals are the content elements your audience will remember most, they create a story for your company. They use the elements used to define your company and create the story behind them.
Content Management Systems
Design strategy and graphic design are very important, but how can you deliver to your clients the content you create, your logo, your key visuals, fancy messages written in a very appealing fashion?
The company website is at the forefront, it needs to be top-notch! You might have eye-dropping design elements, such as logos and key visuals, but if they are not rendered correctly on mobile, how can they impact your audience? We mentioned mobile traffic because according to research it represents more than 50% of the total web traffic. That’s why it is so important.
If you want to have user-friendly, responsive websites, you should use content management systems, such as WordPress or Squarespace. They are state-of-the-art technology in terms of content management systems.
Incorporate SEO Graphic Design
When it comes to graphic design, make sure that it’s incorporated with your SEO and general web content. By having compelling call-to-action buttons or CTA buttons, you can drive your audience to explore and stay on your website.
Having appealing graphic design elements makes a good impression without overwhelming your site visitors. Hiring a designer can help you achieve your website design goals using the right graphic design elements.
Here are some helpful tips for when incorporating essential SEO graphic elements:
- Avoid Using Stock Photography: Always use high-quality images. Unique pictures, like people’s facial expressions, are more personalized and inspiring.
Online users usually see the same stock images all over the web, so professionally-shot photos are highly valued, making your website unique and stand above the rest.
- Eliminate Sliders: Sliders tend to have lower click-through rates as compared to other graphic design elements. Even the best WordPress sliders usually push down essential content that an online user uses to enter your website, which can hurt your business. They’re like advertisements that can be a nuisance to your visitors.
Change moving sliders to static images to avoid hampering your implemented SEO strategies and boosting your website’s performance.
- Content Above the Fold: Your content should be seen immediately whenever an online user opens your web page.
The “above the fold” is a part of your screen that’s viewed readily and more often. The content below the screen is called “below the fold.” The content found “above the fold” influences how visitors search for your products or find information about your business.
That’s why it’s not advisable to place ads anywhere “above the fold.” Otherwise, ads can strain the user experience and make visitors leave your website, leading to a high bounce rate. When placing essential graphic elements, put them on visible locations, such as a donate button placed on your homepage.
- Use Call-to-action (CTA) Buttons: CTAs prompt and inspire visitors to do something, directing them to the next actionable step they need to take. Some examples include “Click here” or “Get 10% off Signing Up.”
When adding CTA, make sure to place them throughout your website and don’t place them at the bottom to avoid being overlooked. Make your CTA buttons appeal to increase your conversion rates.
Next time you are looking to create a design strategy in order to improve your graphic design skills, you should definitely keep these five tools in mind. They will ease your path and will help you create more impactful designs, key visuals, logos, and brand identities overall. We hope you have found this article about Understanding Design Strategy for Effective Graphic Design for Clients useful and be sure to leave your comments below.
Author bio
Becky Holton is a journalist and a blogger at essay writing service. She is interested in education technologies and is always ready to support informative speaking.