WHY GRAPHIC DESIGN IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BRAND IDENTITY

Graphic design creates a first impression

A good first impression is crucial to obtaining new customers and retaining them following their first experience with a business.

You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and poor design is not going to communicate your message.

Creates a long-term brand image

Graphic design visually delivers a message. All businesses have a message or an ethos. This message can be powerfully portrayed through images, typography, illustrations, colours, and more.

Take a moment to consider brands that you deem to be instantly recognisable. You might consider Apple for its sleek aesthetics. Red Bull for its distinctive little character. Maybe Cadbury’s for its rich trademark purple colour.

The key to good graphic design is creating something that becomes instantly identifiable. This requires a well-thought-out design that’s unique to stand out, but also simple to be remembered. Customers are often swayed by visual representations, so it’s important to have a memorable and identifiable brand within your market.

Brand guidelines ensure consistency

If you’re constantly changing elements of your brand, like fonts and colours, your brand will appear disjointed, unorganised and less memorable. Be cohesive throughout your logo, social media, print products, website and marketing collateral. Consistency will ensure a memorable, reliable and trustworthy perception.

Good graphic design is done well the first time, and then evolved or added on to with time. Evolving your brand and design from time to time is okay (maybe even recommended). But this only if it remains true to the original theme and keeps consistency and recognisability.

Graphic design is more than a logo

Graphic design often entails much more than creating a logo and fonts. Great graphic designers can apply their knowledge to all areas of a brand, like website design, social media graphics, and print.

Good design helps drive sales

Enhance sales by considering the efficacy of graphic design. By having an appealing and user-friendly online presence and attractive marketing collateral, you will draw more clients and ensure a great user experience.

For example, if a major goal of your business is to ensure more online sales or enquiries, you need to have a website that can sustain the traffic and encourage an action by a client once they’ve reached your site. Consider investing in graphic design to fine-tune your online user-experience to achieve your business goals.

Consumers are inherently susceptible to things that are aesthetically pleasing, a West Rock study shows that 63% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on design, and 75% of customers judge the credibility of a company based on their website design.

Good design creates brand loyalty

By having a memorable brand identity through effective graphic design, consumers are more likely to return to your products or services time and time again. This is because your brand provides them with familiarity and reliability. Being memorable means being the first business in the mind of a consumer, and therefore being their first port of call.

Graphic design can reach everybody

In marketing and branding, images can be powerful as words. The benefit of a great logo, colour palette and distinct design style – is that it has the power to communicate with every audience regardless of language. Graphic design is a multilingual medium for communication.

“You have 7 seconds to make an impression” – Forbes

EXAMPLES OF GREAT BRANDING

Airbnb

Airbnb is an American online lodging marketplace. In 2013 they began their rebrand process, and in 2014 they emerged with all new designs across their website and mobile apps introducing their new logo: “Belo”

The “Belo” symbol stemmed from the concept of “Belong together” and it encompasses all of the core values and intentions of Airbnb. The logo consists of four elements; a head to represent people, a location pin that represents places, a heart to symbolise love, and the letter A, standing for the company’s name.

The symbol can be drawn by hand by anybody, and it can be understood across all languages and cultures. This rebrand shaped the brand in its new image and vision, and this design move launched them into global success. The rebrand and logo won a host of awards and it propelled their valuation to $29 billion above their closest competitor in four years. The rebrand was executed by London-based firm DesignStudio. Their rebrand is a great example of the impact a strong brand identity can have on the success of a business.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is one of the largest beverage companies in the world, and among the most recognisable. 94% of the world is able to identify the Coca-Cola logo and explain the product it represents. 

The signature red colour has not changed since the company’s inception, and it was chosen as it was thought to represent energy, excitement and passion. The script of the logo has remained consistent throughout the decades, although the logo has been tweaked a few times. The packaging design and infamous glass bottle design has also played a major role in the success of Coca-Cola’s branding.

Their Christmas campaigns and Coca-Cola truck have also made a major global impact, and all of these elements have been the result of conceptual graphic design. The feel and impact of their branding have always followed a cohesive thread, creating recognisability around the world, they have always appeared to sell an experience or a feeling rather than just a product.