Hello again, my friend! I see you got some new graphics for your site.
Did you create those yourself?
Yeah, they’re not bad, but with a little work, they could be great. Now, before you tell me about your personal design style (and how unique it is), let’s set some boundaries for this design discussion. In my opinion, and you’re completely allowed to agree or disagree when comes to design, people fall into one of three categories:
- You’re good at it, and you do it well
- You’re terrible at it, and you don’t even think about doing it yourself
- You’re not very good at it, and you really should never do it..but do it anyway because the thought of paying someone to create a logo or a brochure makes you physically ill
While I won’t say your design ability is bad (to your face), I will say that there’s some room for improvement, and I have some tips that can help you.
I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t give you at least a little background on the importance of good design for your local business.
Good design is like that perfectly-chosen outfit you wear on your first date. For your business, this is a lasting impression, and it’s muy importante.
Your design can say, “Welcome to House of Average!” or it can say, “Hey, how you doin’?”
You want people to see your design and feel happy to be doing business at your place. Have you ever been to a site, and within .04 seconds, you knew you were in the WRONG place? That’s what bad design feels like, and if you don’t believe me, try this little gem www.arngren.net. Don’t ask me how I found it, but it’s epic…ly bad!
Good, clean design also helps you stand out from your competition. Oh, look whose attention I got now?! It’s like being the one who shows up to the party in a red dress while everyone else is wearing a black one (thanks for that Hallmark Channel). People remember good, classy design that packs a punch.
Finally, good design helps you connect with your customers in a simple, nonverbal way.
It’s like using a thumbs-up instead of saying, “Oh that was a great text you wrote. I really don’t want to want to respond to it, but I know you’ll want some kind of validation that I saw it and understood it.”
See what I mean?
So let’s get to the nuts of it. How can you add better design to your business without spending money on a high-priced designer?
Steve Jobs said, “Good artists copy, Great artists steal.” Ironically, this quote was a version of Picasso’s quote, “Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal.”
Of course, I don’t mean to steal someone else’s design but rather look at what others have done and use their work as inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with that. Have you ever wondered why almost every burger place is red and yellow? We’ll dig into that another day, but the bottom line is to look at what other businesses are doing. They don’t have to be in your industry. LOOK FOR INSPIRATION EVERYWHERE.
I get it, you want to do this yourself and you’re on a budget. OK, check out online design tools like Canva or Adobe Spark. They have tons of pre-made templates for darn near every kind of social media graphic, poster, flyer or ad design.
One quick note about using these – stay consistent. It’s tempting to try every design style out there but don’t. Choose a style to resonates with you and your business. Make sure you like it, and when you like it, stick to it. Sure, you can have some fun now and then but don’t flip and flop too much on your core design. You don’t want to end up looking like the Partridge Family bus (Google it).
Remember, while the tools available today allow you to do good work with minimal cost, understand that good design is an investment – it’s either your time or someone else’s.
If someone can do it better and faster, let them. It’s money worth spending and it’s your time you’re saving.
Using solid design tools, finding inspiration, and allowing professionals to help when needed, will put you and your business on a path to lasting success. You can BE local, but you can LOOK like the national franchise.
Be well, my friend, and we’ll talk soon!
