Graphic Design Services - London, UK

A bit of smart thinking in innovative graphic design services - business cards which look like sports trading cards  - Kudos goes out to show off cards for coming up with these. Though I doubt they would find any room in more conservative business markets such as we have in the UK and Europe, but I imagine in their market (pre-recession) America (where a fair proportion of adults absolutely love sports trading cards) it could take off.

In times of doom and gloom - revitalising your services and sales could be vital to survival

In these times of projected economic hardship - the initial instinct of many businesses is to batton down the hatches and try to ride out the storm. At the same time, we know that people become more particular in what they need in terms of services and products, and being able to differentiate yourself from the competition is vital in order to make sure that you survive in the increasingly difficult market conditions, which is why we are going to be seeing many large brands relaunching/ rebranding themselves in the coming months. 

Proof from the Design Council that businesses that utilise design do better than those that do no, based upon the Value of Design Factfinder which shows the positive impact of design on practically every measure of business performance in terms of market share, growth, productivity, share price and competitiveness. Here is a brief list of some of their finding - 

• Two thirds of companies who ignore design have to compete mainly on price. In companies where design is integral, just one third do so.
• More than eight out of ten design-led companies have introduced a new product or service in the last three years, compared to just 40 per cent of UK companies overall. 83% of companies in which design is integral have seen their market share increase, compared to the UK average of 46%.
• Design is integral to 39% of rapidly growing companies but to only 7% of static ones.
• 80 per cent of design-led businesses have opened up new markets in the last three years. Only 42% of UK businesses overall have done so.
• A business that increases its investment in design is more than twice as likely to see its turnover grow as a business that does not do so.
  

Continuing our series demonstrating innovate uses of graphic design services - in this case the infamous exploding billboard. Used by a courier firm in a marketing campaign that supposedly only cost them $20000 NZ dollars, and yet attracted a million viewers to the youtube recording of the event when it eventually took place.

The concept is of course that deadlines matter, and the consequences of missing the appointed time can be drastic. The exploding billboard was used to reinforce the brand promise of the firm Deadline Couriers - "when we give you a time we mean it".

The campaign, run in 2007, has since received several Asia Pacific awards including a Gold at the Spike Awards and Best in Show titles at New Zealand's Axis award

How do graphic design services tie in with a company's positioning? We can take a look at a large corporate as a case study, to see what importance they attach to their logo design within their brand image.

According to the CISCO creative standards handbook "Positioning is how our company is viewed by others in our target marketplace. While we have goals for positioning ourselves, ultimately our position is what others think and say about us. We can, however, greatly influence how we are positioned by communicating to our external audiences in a clear and consistent way."

Within the handbook guidelines are given with respect to the writing style you should use when communicating with your customers, how the company tag line fits into the overall branding and positioning. And of course, the logo -

"The Cisco Systems logo is our signature to the world and must not be compromised. It is integral to our worldwide corporate identity."

The right place to start off exploring what makes good graphic design - would be to first restate what we mean by graphic design.

 So here goes with a defination as written by Jacci Howard Bear -

"Graphic design is the process and art of combining text and graphics and communicating an effective message in the design of logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any other type of visual communication. "

As you can see - the definition pretty much encompasses the graphic design services put down in the last post.

The key issue to take from the definition would be "communicating an effective message" - the be all and end all of any design project.

Graphic Design is not simply an art form, created for aesthetic pleasure or simply for people to stare at and wonder whether their 3 year old could do any better and also make millions by having a drawing of a pink square on a blue background hung up in the Tate - it is not just about any type of communication.

No successful business owner  would commision a new brand identity simply to look pretty or impress the neighbours (note the keyword "successful"). Rather, the brand would be created in order to effectively communicate the service/ product/ added value being provided.

In other words, the message must be received at the other end.

So most definately - the first rule of Good Graphic Design - it has to communicate an effective message.