Recently I took a vacation trip abroad. While I was sitting on a tour bus, I noticed the street signs and the advertising around me on billboards and the sides of trucks. And I was struck by the logos I saw. They weren't much different from the logos I see everyday in the U.S. -- they were colorful and creative. But because they were for unfamiliar products (and in a foreign language), I noticed them more. That made me realize just how familiar my favorite U.S. logos are, and how much I take them for granted. And also that creativity is a universal thing -- we don't have a corner on it here in the U.S.
While logos have never been my number one choice for design work, I did come home with new inspiration for trying new things. And I also realized again something I've long believed -- that the best design is simple design. By that I mean good design is not over-designed, and is not design for design's sake. It supports a marketing message, but it is most effective when it does not call attention to itself. Nice to get that reminder while I was halfway around the world. Food for thought...
Simplicity in Design
Making Color Work for You
What’s your favorite color? If you’re like the majority of responders to a recent color survey, you probably answered “blue.”
For some, that means your clothing, car, room décor, and all sorts of everyday items are chosen because they are blue, or whatever you said was your favorite color.
How about your advertising? Web site? Other marketing materials? Those things demand choosing color beyond personal preference.
For starters, we all have psychological reactions to color, heavily influenced by our culture. Some colors have taken on symbolic meanings. For example, the “good guy” wears white and the “bad guy” wears black. Red can mean passion, or it can mean danger. Green conjures visions of grass and nature, or of money.
And I’m talking about Western culture here. In Western culture, for example, it’s traditional for a bride to wear white. But in many parts of Asia, white is a funerary color. Brides there wear red, the color of good fortune. Western brides generally avoid red, because of negative associations (at least in the old days) with “poor morality.”
But maybe you knew this already, so time to move on to my point.
Designers for businesses pay attention to the positive and negative connotations of color when designing something seen by customers. For example, if your product is a financial investment service, it’s better to use a color theme of green (for money) or blue (for trust) then it is to use red (“in the red” or losing money). Seems obvious, right?
Then there’s the way colors make us feel. Some colors keep us calm and relaxed, others make us restless or alert. Some make us happy, others make us angry. At least symbolically they do. Green and blue are both restful colors. Yellows and oranges have more energy. Did you know those two colors are often deliberately used by fast food restaurant chains to give a subliminal message to “hurry up and eat”? The idea is to get customers to eat and leave to make room for more customers!
So as a designer for business, it’s important to understand what a typical customer feels about the product, and support that emotion with the wise choice of color in all marketing materials. You’ll make more sales that way.
Yes, the best marketing does keep a prospect’s attention. It does so with good copy and good design. If done well, it doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles. Color is just one of the tools a designer uses. But ignore the impact of color at your peril. That fuchsia color you love so well in your favorite sweater won’t work for a company making uniforms for security guards. Have you ever seen advertising on a web site for security guards with a fuchsia color theme? Probably not.
In choosing colors for business, keep a balance between the symbolism (obvious or not) of the color choices and the need to attract attention to your company, brand, or product. Choose colors that “play nice together” and aren’t jarring. And choose colors that support the message of the copy rather than detract from it. Never choose an aspect of design for its own sake, whether it be color, line, balance, contrast, or any other element of design.
Oh, and my favorite color? Blue, of course. Just like you, I’ll bet.
“Spheres of Influence” at BNI
Graphic Designers, even freelance ones, rarely work in isolation. They collaborate with other professionals to complete a project. Whereas designers provide concept and design, others on the team may guide production or distribution, for example.
I belong to a chapter of Business Network International (BNI), billed as the largest referral organization in the world. Members pass along referrals to other members, and this reciprocity builds businesses -- many members say their company’s annual retail sales are as much as 30% attributable to the word-of-mouth referrals they get through their BNI memberships. The BNI motto “Givers Gain” certainly is illustrated in those numbers!
My membership is a wonderful marketing tool, since fellow members are all marketing for each other. And I get to share my passion for my work every week in “60-second commercials,” and periodically in a 10-minute presentation to highlight my business.
One of the happy potentials of any chapter is the chance to build “spheres of influence.” Many businesses have a natural “fit” to work together -- such as florists, caterers, and photographers for weddings, or realtors and mortgage brokers to complete real estate transactions. These combinations are particularly likely to refer business to each other.
The most logical “sphere” I belong to within my chapter includes a printer and a sign maker. We’re looking for a representative of a promotional products company, and I’d like to see a web services provider, too. But beyond my sphere, I can also be of service to the realtor, who’s thinking of starting a newsletter, or perhaps the caterer, who wants a new web site home page, to cite two examples. And they are just the “inner ring” of potential customers – they have friends and business contacts who they can point in my direction. Remember the old hair care commercial where “they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on and so on and so on…”? Similar concept.
If you are a business owner, I highly recommend membership in BNI. You’ll likely get more out of it than what you put into it!
