Graphic Design

The graphic design handshake 

You don’t get a second chance at a first impression. We are all familiar with the old adage. However, it continues to ring true even today. However, less and less are these first impressions in person. With the rise of online communication and web traffic, customers are meeting businesses for the first time online more than ever before. This is why having great graphic design logo is more important today than any time in the past. You want your business to attract people. Your design is akin to a greeting in the online and print world. If a handshake used to be the way you greet a potential customer, then your brand identity is the new handshake today. Specifically in the online world, you have about ten seconds to attract someone to your brand. After that, people will leave your site with little or no intention of returning to make a purchase.

Graphic design importance for your company 

Graphic design is likely more important to your business than you ever considered. There are a number of ways that it affects you and your company.

• Increased sales. People are inherently attracted to good design. It depicts a message of quality that relates to your products as well. A quality design is the first step in building a relationship with your customers.
• Solidification of a company’s name. If your business is trying to gain a foothold in a specialized market, having a great design will go far to build your brand. The more and more that this image or design is seen, the more that it cement itself into the brain as a representation of a company. A great design on a business card, website, or brochure can be equally effective as advertising can be. 
• Build market share. The public will trust your company more once it has become familiar with you. In other words, your design’s existence alone can make people more apt to see your company as trustworthy and reputable. 
• Conveying a direct statement through your logo. Any designer should ask you right away what message you want to convey to your audience with your logo. With this in mind, your design should reflect this statement which will be reinforced by the public each and every time it is displayed. 
• Encouragement for your employees to take more pride in your company. They will recognize it as a symbol of the business and consequently, give more respect to the entire organization.

Website graphic design 

Are you ready to have your first website built for your company? Or, perhaps you are in need of a revamp to an existing site. Do you need a custom template or just need something unique and eye catching? In order to accomplish a great final product, you should consider a web graphic designer. There are plenty of sites out there that offer free or cheap web design. However, they will not provide you with a stunning product that will increase your reputation and brand awareness. In order to accomplish that, you should select a professional web design firm.

What to do with your new design 

So now that you have a shiny new design, how are you going to make it pay off for you? At this point, you have a fantastic tool at your disposal. You are going to create new business cards and perhaps new brochures or promotional materials. This would be a great opportunity to also consider digital advertising. Digital advertising is a way to reach out to people online and offer your brand in a variety of different ways. As long as you already have the design created, you can market your brand to a larger group of people with a significant ROI. Print or television advertising has a long history of being cost prohibitive to many businesses. Digital advertising can be done for a fraction of that cost though and would be a wise way to increase brand awareness.

How to select a graphic design firm 

This may be a daunting and challenging task for someone who has never hired a professional design firm before. There are lots of things to consider. For example, you need to find out how good the firm is. You need to check their reputation. You need to find out what other services they offer. You need to find out if they will work within your budget. You need to make sure they are the right fit for you.

In order to find out how good a firm is, just ask them for examples of their work. Or, better yet, they should have these designs on their website. Any company that does design will proudly show off examples of their work. If you do not see these examples, or if they do not align with the style you have in mind, move on to the next company.

It is also a good idea to investigate reputation. There are a few ways to accomplish this. One, is to see if they have testimonials from previous clients. These can give you an idea if their clients have been pleased with the products and designs they have purchased. Reviews from Google and Yelp can also help you to get a better sense of the work they provide along with a measure of their customer service. You can also see if the firm has experience working in your field. The more specific experience they have the more likely they are to already have a deeper understanding of your needs. For example, a graphic design firm that specializes in pharmaceuticals may not be the best fit for a hip new coffee shop design. 

In addition to graphic design, it is important to find out what other services a firm offers. This may not seem particularly relevant now. However, imagine that you request a logo design and the designer does not have website experience. What if the product you receive does not scale well to fit on your website? Or, what if it does not look right in print? There could be any of a hundred things that do not work out perfectly. If you are paying for a great design, it needs to look great everywhere. This is why selecting a firm that specializes in multiple fields is important. You will want a design team that has web design experience, graphic design experience, and web development experience to guarantee the best results. 

You certainly want to have the best graphics that money can buy for your business. Realistically though, every business may not be able to afford $20,000.00 in graphic design costs. That is why you need to find a firm that will work with you and your budget. Freelance designers probably do not have the skills and broad experience to deliver the best product and service for you. Larger design companies may not be willing to work with a small business. For these reasons, your best option is a small to medium sized graphic design firm that will cater to you. These sized firms will almost always provide the best customer service as well. Their reputation is their key to success. 

Finally, does the firm feel right to you? If it is a local business (which is almost always a much better option) did they offer to come out to meet you and discuss your project? If yes, did it seem as if they really cared about your design and project, or did they just care about your money? If they did not offer to meet you, then perhaps they are not the firm with the best customer service.

Conclusion 

Once you have decided to grow your business, it is important to use great designers to provide you with a professional looking product. Whether that be a new logo for your letterhead or a new template for your website, choose a graphic design team that will deliver that product to you. SEO Design Chicago has over a decade of graphic and web design experience in order to give you a product that will not only meet but far exceed any expectations that you may have. Contact us today to see what creative and unique solutions we can design for your business.