Why better graphic design matters

“Only connect.” E.M. Forster (Howards End)

To me, it’s all about connecting. Graphic design is one place that you connect with your audience, members, customers, fans. You can make your connection more effective by using better graphic design.

Connection is also about communication. The better you communicate, the better you can connect. The better you connect, the stronger the relationships you develop.

You want to be able to communicate the excitement and passion you feel for your service or product. For example, if you are an arts presenter and have a performing artist you are bringing to town, you want to convey your excitement about the artist and make the case why someone should attend. Stronger graphic design can help with this.

Conveying your message in the clearest and most appropriate way can make a difference. You do this by:

• Using appropriate images (not too many, but effective ones)
• Using appropriate typography (suited to the artist and in line with your own organization’s look and feel)
• Creating an overall design using some basic design principles that help strengthen your message

The problem is, when you’re not a professional designer and you have little or no budget, how do you accomplish this? You know what it’s like to sit down at a blank page with some text and images and have to create a sales piece (poster, handbill, flyer, web page).

It can be daunting getting from “ok” to “stunning.”

I intend in this Design Thursday series to present some simple, but very effective principles that you can use in any documents you need to create. I’ll be using “before and after” examples.

What is your biggest challenge when designing documents? Are there things you’d like to see covered here?