Graphic Design

It’s a tough one, we know. We’ll give you a minute.

Ready?

We’re guessing in the end you choose door number 1. Even if you didn’t (maybe you just really enjoy being bored?), we’re confident that the majority of your customers would. And their preferences are the ones that really matter, after all.

So right away, there’s an obvious argument for good graphic design. People like pretty things more than boring things. So make more pretty things, right?

I mean, that’s not wrong, exactly.

But it’s only a fraction of what good graphic design can do, and why it matters so much to your business, branding, and bottom line.

We humans like to think of ourselves as masters of the universe. Top of the food chain.

But when you get down to it, our thought processes are not as complex as we think they are. We make decisions (or rather, our brain makes decisions for us) fast. You really only have a matter of seconds—a couple of words, a flash of images—to hook somebody before they move on to the next thing.

And with all due respect to words, the visual language of your marketing often makes a bigger first impression than the written language.

The visual vocabulary of course includes colors, images, graphics, and the like. But it also includes a lot of things you might not think about.

These sorts of decisions should never be made carelessly. Because if your design is boring, cluttered, or confusing, you aren’t going to keep your customer’s attention and you aren’t going to make that sale.

How many times have you struggled to explain something to a friend or a colleague, before finally saying “I’ll just show you.”

Countless times, right?

While we’re not sure a picture is worth exactly a thousand words, sometimes images are just much easier to understand.

I could tell you about how beautiful my trip to Greece was, or I could show you my pictures.

I could try to explain a series of statistics and research about an important topic, or I could show you a chart or infographic that displays that data in an easy-to-understand, visual way.

Graphics and images can often communicate important information, and even emotions, in a way that really resonates with people. And it often communicates those things completely, just at a glance.

But there’s even more to this story.

Often, simply by adding relevant images to an existing piece of content, the words that are already there are more likely to connect and stick.

It all comes back to keeping the reader interested. Notice how we’ve filled this webpage—the one you’re currently reading—with images, graphical flourishes, bolded text, and the like?

Imagine if, instead, it was just one solid wall of text.

Incorporating graphic elements into you text at regular—and frequent—intervals makes viewers much more likely to stay with you to the end and actually read what you have to say, rather than giving up partway through.