Graphic design for small business, your complete guide.
So, you’re interested in graphic design for your small business?
So, you’re interested in graphic design for your small business? Great! Here at Ketchup, we’re born creatives, so we love talking design. We don’t just know how to make your brand look amazing, we know why it’s so important for growing your business.
Savvy marketers acknowledge the importance of quality graphic design. Of course, the whole aim of marketing is to engage more customers and increase sales. But marketing itself is only part of the story.
Graphic design plays an integral role in any rounded marketing plan, particularly highly visual ones, such as with your Instagram marketing strategy. High-quality, appealing design helps attract and retain customers, which is key to increasing sales.
It’s all about building a knockout brand that makes your business stand out amongst your competitors. Graphic design is the very first impression your customers get of your brand, often in the form of your logo on social media or a web landing page, and you want to knock your audience’s socks off with something striking, professional and memorable.
Scientists believe that the brain is able to process images approximately 60,000 times more quickly than it processes a similar amount of written information. This underlines the importance of design and of getting that design right.
Building a brand
When creating a website, logo, newsletter, advertisement, or any other promotional material, you’re exposing your business to the world and building a recognisable brand.
Recognition of your brand, providing it is a positive one, signals to an audience that you’re a trustworthy business, offering a high-quality product or service. If a brand is associated with negative attributes, it can be very difficult to shake these.
Think of all the great brands you know. Apple, McDonald's, BMW, Sony, Penguin… And those are just some of the global brands. Many of us will also have local brands we’re loyal to. Graphic design is just as important for a startup, one-employee business as it is for the industry giants.
Consistent, high-quality and creative graphic design is key to great branding, along with brand voice (but that’s a job for our creative copywriters).
The power of strong branding
One incredible story to prove how powerful branding can be is the tale of ‘New Coke’. Back in 1985, Coca-Cola was losing ground – and sales – to Pepsi. Blind taste tests showed that consumers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi. So, in an effort to maintain their market share, Coca-Cola developed a new recipe, and replaced classic Coca-Cola with this new formula, which they branded ‘New Coke’.
The results were disastrous. Although blind taste tests almost unanimously proved that the taste of New Coke was preferred over classic Coca-Cola, consumers decided to boycott the new product. They were outraged that classic Coca-Cola had disappeared.
Why? Love for the original brand.
Shortly after the release of New Coke, the Coca-Cola company made the decision to backtrack and replace its new product with the original drink. The backlash of abandoning the Coca-Cola brand – even though people didn’t like the taste as much as the new one (or Pepsi)! – was just too damaging.
What are the components of graphic design?
When we’re talking about graphic design, what exactly do we mean? Is it just about making things look pretty?
Aesthetics
Well, we certainly like to create show-stopping designs, but there’s a whole lot more to graphic design, especially when it comes to branding. It’s a mixture of art and psychology.
There is a lot that goes into a great piece of graphic design, including:
- colour
- texture
- shape
- space
- typography
- balance
- brand feel
It’s also about having the ability to read a client’s brief and be able to visualise the end product, the way the customer wants it to look.
Successful graphic design is all about getting in the mindset of a consumer. What kind of design makes it easy for readers/visitors to engage with your content? How can your design make your brand memorable? How does the person feel when they’re looking at the colours, shapes, and layout of your design? All of this matters.
Technical skills
Graphic design for small businesses takes a high level of technical ability. In order to create digital masterpieces, graphic designers need to be able to work with software such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It takes training, practice and a natural flair to master these and create professional-looking designs.
Designers also have to have some technical knowledge. An understanding of the different file formats and what each format is used for is essential. They will also know how to scale images and fit text so that the proportions look right on formats ranging in size from a business card to a billboard. Designers interpret briefs, work with templates and produce accurate imagery down to the millimetre on item packaging or leaflets – no bleeding edges here!
They’ll offer brand consistency from item to item and design to design.
An artist’s eye
A skilled graphic designer will have an artist’s eye. They’ll know what looks strong. They combine creative talent and ideas with professionalism to make brands stand out. There’s also a little psychology in the mix too! What graphics make a potential customer feel uplifted? Which kind builds trust in a brand? The graphic designer knows.
If you’re looking for graphic design for your small business, you can’t beat the expertise of a professional.
What can good graphic design achieve?
Creating confidence in your brand
In a matter of seconds, good graphic design can instil confidence in your business. Good design needs to be effective and look professional. Graphic designers often describe design as the art of creating order out of chaos. It’s a very real skill and should not be entrusted to the office junior. It must represent your company and its values and, above all, appeal to those in the market for your products and services.
If customers have a good experience with your brand, they’ll look out for you in the future. Having a clear aesthetic means your return shoppers can find you easily.
Building credibility
75% of users admit to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design.
Web Credibility Research, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
We instinctively trust brands who’ve invested in making their business look professional. That starts with a memorable logo and continues into the quality of the design.
Gaining credit for a job well done
If you’re consistently doing good work, you want people to associate that positivity with your brand. By making sure all of your goods and services are properly branded, you highlight to your audience that it’s your business behind these successes.
Graphic design in many guises
Graphic design factors in promotional materials large and small. From business cards and flyers right up to exhibition stands and billboards. Every branded component is part of building brand recognition. And at Ketchup, we can do it all!
Consistent design
Design that’s consistent matters. It’s all about building brand recognition.
Now, we’re no Kellogs, but for years, our ‘K’ logo held its own, even featuring to identify us in the East Midlands Rural Business Awards! (We were regional finalists!) We’ve since revised our logo - as our brand, like any brand, needs to evolve over time. Our logo features on each page of our website, every newsletter, in email footers, our social media channels, our ads, in our promotional materials… we want to be recognised through our imagery.
But brand consistency isn’t only for building brand recognition. It can also be used to seamlessly tie together the different facets of a company.
For example, consistency is needed when a company provides multiple services or is part of a larger enterprise. When we worked with Just Firewalls, we created a distinct yet consistent brand for Just Firewalls (the parent company), Just Cyber Security and Just Connectivity (sister companies). Just Technology - the umbrella organisation - now has consistent branding throughout all of its sites. This is powerful for the business. If their customers trust one of these companies, the consistent branding will mean they’re more likely to trust the others as they recognise they’re related.
Stamford Stone
Our work with Stamford Stone has seen consistent branding across a whole range of materials online and in print. Ketchup designed the logo, website, brochures, and adverts. We made sure all elements flowed so that the Stamford Stone brand is easily recognisable and can be promoted widely.
And we can do the same for you!
Driving customer engagement
Getting to know why people use your business is essential in helping you create designs they’ll be drawn to, giving them a reason to find out more about the products and services you offer and, ultimately, to make a purchasing decision.
Many companies tap into their customers’ lifestyles and interests by asking them for feedback or suggestions. With this information to hand, they can gear their designs accordingly, to elicit the kind of response they anticipate.
A well-designed website, for instance, might encourage visitors to sign up for your newsletters, buy something from your online store or watch a well-targeted video. And if the design is compelling enough, some of your customers may take to social networking sites sharing with family and friends and thus increasing your number of users.
The Engine Yard
Our print designers created magazine adverts, as well as signage to advertise prior to and on the day of the launch of The Engine Yard retail village in Grantham.
As well as advertising the event, Ketchup took responsibility for the marketing strategy and event co-ordination, from arranging the launch day entertainment to liaising with tenants ahead of the first day of opening.
In the end, the opening day saw over 5,000 visitors arrive to celebrate.
Superb graphic design gets you noticed
We all have our senses assaulted by thousands of marketing messages every day. So how does your business stand out? Well, good graphic design certainly helps. But it doesn’t just happen overnight. A designer worth their salt will need to know the ins and outs of your business. Knowing what makes your company tick allows them to incorporate the right elements for a balanced, visually appealing and, most importantly, effective design. A design that truly represents your brand and your business.
The choice of colours, text, information and images on your website, combined in just the right way, will all have a direct effect on how your audience responds to your brand.
The Melton Building Society
When working with the Melton Building Society, we were consistent with their branding. We chose the colour blue to invoke feelings of serenity and trust – exactly what you want when working with a building society!
Your graphic designer has a myriad of choices to make in the use of colours and typefaces. For instance, red denotes confidence while green instils a sense of calm. Meanwhile, classic typefaces such as Times Roman can convey authority – ideal for financial institutions. Whereas, modern typefaces such as Buffalo Handwritten captures today’s trend for homely, folksy, artisan brands. Alternatively, using Wingdings will make it seem like your company has lost its marbles!
Whether you employ an in-house graphic design team or outsource the work to an external agency such as Ketchup, the secret of establishing communication between you and your customers is to create consistency in your design output. So, whoever you use, remember how important it is to nurture a mutually beneficial partnership.
Graphic design with Ketchup
At Ketchup, we specialise in graphic design for small businesses, from start-ups to long-established companies. Whether the task is to design or update a website, create a corporate brochure or make a billboard to stop people in their tracks, we offer every client the benefit of our extensive graphic design expertise.