Okay lets start by saying this, that baby is not ugly. But it got your attention for the topic! The topic is about working on branding for a business/client. I know for a fact that the baby pictured above is adorable and has more swag that me and you put together, that being said, most if not all businesses that come to designers will have ugly babies… and no I don’t mean that their literal offspring are ugly, I mean their business is ugly. Their work baby, the one thing that they have poured hours and hours of work into and hundreds if not thousands of dollars into to fulfill their American dream. It… is… ugly.
This is not to anyones fault. Unless you have made the conscious decision as a business owner to short yourself on your: visual image, branding, web presence, and business workflow. If you have as a business owner done the above, you are very much so at risk of furthering the ugly of your baby. If there is any bit of advice that a Designer can give a Business Owner, it is that you cannot short your visual presence, your brand, your identity as a company. Spending the time to make sure that your look and work model are cohesive and understandable is an invaluable step in the development of a successful business.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly.
The Good: Business owners that are willing to put forth maximum effort and decent budget towards a cohesive and understandable image, brand, and business message.
The Bad: Wants what “The Good” has but at very minimal budget therefore cutting corners and weakening the overall brand of their business and therefore missing out on profit.
The Ugly: Wants what above two have, however continues to put minimal effort into the appearance of their business and seeks free or traded visuals.
To the defense of many business owners and clients that designers work with, there is plenty of work that is done that is simply NOT SEEN. Often times people overlook the thought that goes into visual graphics, logos, infographics, web design, etc. Much like other trades, strong graphic design elements do not often happen over the course of minutes but often after hours and hours of versions, options, revisions, tweaks, and alterations to the many aspects of the piece. This could include but is not limited to, size, layout, typography, color, texture, weight, emotional feel, photography, etc. Many working parts go into one visually stunning piece. Many working parts go into that small logo, that small postcard, that tiny business card, and even that monster they call a website.
All of these things and more can be driven into so many different directions before a true designer gets a hold of the elements. Creating the largest mess of graphics, and digital elements a person could ever imagine. As designers we are to separate all these previously created items, withhold their integrity, and at the same time visually explain a business or trade all while remembering design trends and visuals that people of the time want to see and will want to digest with their eyes.
I guess the overall message for this is that if as a Designer you do not value the fact that you are working with someones baby, and you do not gently explain why their baby is ugly and how you might be able to give it a facelift, you will not keep clients, they wont come back. On the flip side, if you fail to understand as a business owner that you are putting your time into the future of you baby, and putting money towards the future of your baby, and that any corners you cut are simply hurting the overall appearance and therefore the overall success of your baby, then your business will continue to stay in the same place or even decline. Image and brand is everything. Make sure that your baby isn’t ugly!
Simple comparison, we have all seen the left *gasp*, what we want to see is the right *celebrate, drink beers, celebrate with friends, yay!*.
That is it for now!
-G