Elevate Your Brand, Captivate Your Audience, and Generate Real Business Results.
You’re scrolling through your social media feed, and you come across a visually stunning ad that stops you in your tracks. The colours, layout, and message are all perfectly in sync, leaving a lasting impression.
What you’ve just encountered is the magic of graphic design. From eye-catching logos and persuasive infographics to captivating advertisements and unforgettable packaging, graphic design is the silent hero that speaks volumes about a brand’s identity and purpose. In this blog post, we will dive deep into the world of graphic design used in business communications. We’ll explore the different types of graphic designs. As well as explain how improving your design can lead to positive brand association, which will elevate your brand, captivate your audience, and generate real business results.
What Do We Mean By Graphic Design?
Graphic design, also known as communications design, is the process of creating meaningful visual content. The content is meant to be visually appealing and provoke viewers to take a specific action or feel a specific emotion.
In a business context, graphic design is a strategic tool that’s mainly used to capture attention. Great design can help create a positive association with your brand in the eyes, minds, and hearts of your target audience. A positive association is key to influencing engagement and buying behaviours. There is a wide variety of graphic design types, but in relation to business, we’ll discuss brand identity, marketing and advertising, packaging, and web design.
Brand Identity Design
When developing a brand identity, businesses should consider how they want the public to view their organization. First, they’ll need to establish their business values and goals, and then ensure the visual elements used in their communication efforts represent this image.
Elements of Brand Identity?
There are multiple elements of brand identity. These elements of branding are used to represent the business and its values throughout communications. Some of the main elements include logo creation, graphics, colour scheme, and typology. Once these elements are created, you can use them in all your other graphic design projects. And remember to stay consistent with these elements to maintain brand association.
Marketing and Advertising Design
In the world of graphic design, and the world in general, marketing and advertising are considered to be one and the same. However, they are two different terms not to be used interchangeably.
1. Marketing
Marketing is a complex business process that involves understanding the needs, goals, motivations, and pain points of consumers. Then, it involves creating, promoting, and delivering products or services to satisfy these needs. Market and consumer research is not solely conducted at the initial stage of a business’s operations; it’s constantly necessary.
2. Advertising
Advertising is a part of marketing that involves promoting a product or service. It helps create awareness of a product or service to persuade the audience to take action.
Purpose of Marketing and Advertising Design
Marketing design involves the design that goes into creating, promoting, and delivering products and services. It uses visuals to communicate a brand’s message with the purpose of evoking emotions or action. More specifically, advertising design is the design of visuals that specifically go into advertisements. Its purpose is to sell a product or service by evoking emotion.
Indeed, both of these graphic design types are powerful communication tools. They aim to showcase a business’s visual assets in a way that not only stirs emotions but also compels viewers to take your desired action. The brand identity elements you’ve carefully crafted will play a pivotal role in these persuasive and engaging communication efforts, creating a positive brand association.
Web Design
Web design is the art of creating visually appealing websites. This design focuses on aesthetics and functionality. Since websites are no longer solely viewed on a desktop, web designers must also focus on making a website viewable on tablets and mobile devices. A web designer’s job is to ensure the website represents a brand’s image, using its elements of brand identity, and is easy to navigate.
Packaging Design
If you’re selling a product, the packaging it comes in is a marketing tool itself. Therefore, it must represent the value of your product and brand. Also, product packaging must be designed to distinguish your product from your competitors. Using your brand identity elements to do so.
When shopping in person for a product, customers have a wide range of options to choose from. You want to ensure your product catches their attention. Unique packaging will influence consumers to become excited about your product over others.
Working Together to Create a Positive Brand Association
As you’ve probably noticed, your first step is creating your brand identity elements. Once complete, you will use these elements in your other graphic design projects. Your marketing and advertisements will create brand awareness and provoke action. The success of these efforts will contribute to building positive brand association amongst your audience. Those intrigued by your marketing will be led to your website, which will be visually appealing and easy to navigate on all devices. If you have a tangible product, the packaging will also be a marketing tool consumers should become excited about and resonate with. Combining these elements will create a branding masterpiece that will generate positive brand awareness.
To put it into perspective, consider Apple. Apple is the world’s most valuable brand. Is it because their products and prices are the best? Or is it because they marketed their products the best? Using captivating graphic designs to create a clear and positive brand association. Apple does not necessarily have the best products on the market, and it definitely does not have the best prices. So why are so many of us such loyal customers? It’s simple: we view this brand as desirable based on its genius marketing. Then, we made a positive brand association with Apple in our minds.
What Should You Look for in a Good Graphic Designer?
Graphic designers possess a unique blend of creativity, technical skills, and a keen eye for detail. They have an innate ability to transform ideas into visually compelling artwork using various tools and techniques. When choosing your graphic designer, the first thing you should do is check out their work. Go to their Instagram. Visit their websites. Ask for their portfolio. Do whatever you need to do to get your eyes on their work and identify if it aligns with your vision for your company. For a great example of a professional portfolio, check out Topsites work today!
And remember, if you take anything away from this blog, it’s that a good graphic designer creates visually appealing content, while a great graphic designer evokes emotion and creates a positive brand association.
Ready to start your next project?