Graphic Design 101
What exactly is graphic design and why is it an important part of an efficient marketing strategy? Graphic design very simply put is a visual representation of your brand. The AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Art) defines graphic design as a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. This means that the graphic designer will work with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to their particular audience. It is up to your marketing team to work with your graphic designer and vice versa to ensure that the content being put out benefits your company and clearly represents your brand.
What Does Graphic Design Do for You?
A graphic designer takes the time to learn about your company, your style and products, and what it is you are trying to achieve and will create content that promotes that. They can even help you to develop a style guide or a brand guide in order to allow there to be consistency amongst your look, content, and marketing style. This will include things such as your color schemes, fonts, and visual content. Very simply put, this will help you establish your branding and keep it the same amongst all platforms and marketing materials.
The Many Facets of Graphic Design
Graphic design is especially important when it comes to your website design. Your website is your virtual storefront and is where most of your clientele will learn about whether they want to invest in your brand or not. In fact, 46.1% of people surveyed stated that they attributed a website’s credibility to the design layout of the site. Have a site that is not aesthetically pleasing or eye catching and you will miss out on lots of potential customers. This will tie into your website blog as well (if your site does not have a blog you should consider having one as it is a great tool for creating engagement) as a graphic designer can help you choose relevant and impactful imagery or design it so that your blog drives more traffic to your brand and creates something every business strives for, brand loyalty.
Facebook posts with relevant graphic content get 2.3 times more engagement
Using a graphic designer to help with your social media is also a great investment as having relevant and eye catching content there drags more people to your business as well. In fact, Facebook posts with relevant graphic content get 2.3 times more engagement and tweets with images get 150 times more retweets on Twitter than those without images.
Knowing What Kind of Graphic Designer to Employ
There are several different kinds of graphic designers so it is important to know what your needs are so you can choose the right kind for the job. For instance, a visual identity graphic designer is going to specialize in branding and helping create a style guide, whereas a publication graphic designer is going to specialize in designing for books, magazines, and digital publishing. You wouldn’t want to hire a packaging graphic designer who specializes in consumer goods to do the job of an environmental graphic designer who needs both knowledge in graphic and architectural design. It is important to make sure that your designer understands your business and can execute your needs correctly, otherwise your business could fail simply off of bad graphic design.
Graphic Design for the Win
The message here is clear; graphic design is a huge and vital part of the marketing strategy and should be taken seriously with care and precision. You want your company represented with relevant and impactful content. Here at XPAND Creative Co. we have a team of graphic designers and marketing strategists that can help you achieve just that. Click the link to contact us and get more information on how we can facilitate your success.
Article by Christa McCauley