The Only Three Reasons You Need to Pay Attention to Graphic Design

Are you currently creating content for your business? Writing a blog? How much time do you spend creating the visuals to accompany your content? Are you graphically representing your brand consistently as part of your content strategy?

Alright, enough with the 20 questions. The point is, if you’re spending a ton of time crafting optimized, relevant, and high-quality content and then slapping any old photo on it, it’s time to rethink your graphic design strategy. There are plenty of posts out there highlighting the 15 different ways graphic design can benefit your business. And they’re all (well, a lot of them are) right. But there are only three reasons you should need to invest in better design for your brand. 

Visuals are the Best Way to Communicate

Look at us, coming out swinging. The primary reason you need to dedicate time (and maybe dollars) to your business’s graphic design is purely scientific. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

Too much copy or an image or visual that doesn’t support your content in some way simply requires too much time and effort to process. Strong graphics can convey your message, emotions, and even value in seconds - or less. 

Remember, and we say this with love, people are lazy. They want to find and consume the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. All the major social media networks know this, and it’s why they have all prioritized visual content over text content. (When was the last time a text-only post showed up on your feed? 2009?)

Establishes Brand Recognition

Aside from conveying your message in the clearest way possible, the primary purpose of graphic design is as the foundation of your branding strategy. You need to develop not only a logo but also a consistent set of brand guidelines so that your visual content is consistent and recognizable. Consider branding giant Burger King. They’ve managed to create such a solid set of brand standards that they can stack four solid lines - a tan, brown, red, and green - on top of one another, and without any other context half of the civilized world thinks about a Whopper. 

Build Trust and Professionalism

Let’s face it; people judge books by their cover. You want your company to make a good first impression, but if your designs are disjointed, sloppy, and unprofessional, how do you think that makes your business look? A well-designed brand extends beyond just establishing recognition. It can also effectively attract the attention of your target audience, increase your professional appearance (and therefore your credibility), and can provide an identity for people to rally around. And isn’t that the fundamental point of branding? (Yes, the answer is yes.) 

That’s it—no long-winded list of whys, no complicated strategies. Simply put, great graphic design is critical to the perception of your business. There are some incredible DIY design programs out there (lookin’ at you Canva), but remember, with great power comes great responsibility. If you’re tackling your own design and don’t yet have much experience, take a class. Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, and plenty of other online education platforms have simple, cheap courses to help get you started with the basics. And if you’re ready for the big leagues (i.e. to pay someone else to make you look good), you know where to find us.