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Before we start showing you what kind of design work New Standard is capable of, we need to have a little chat. Okay, it’s more of a monologue, but roll with it.
Here are three questions/concerns that we hear all too often in this business:
- Why is graphic design necessary?
- Why should I pay for graphic design/logo design/website design?
- What I want to look like and what I actually get perceived as are different.
Quite a list, huh? Well let’s respond to those questions/statements right now and a put a rest to at least some of the confusion.
Let’s start with that last statement first. “What I want to look like and what I actually get perceived as are different.” This may be the quintessential business/marketing conundrum. Well let’s start by defining your problem a little more specifically. The visual perception of your company is defined, generally, in two terms: brand identity and brand image. Brand identity is defined as how you, the business owner, perceive your business. It is what you want to be perceived as. Basically, brand identity is how you see the product/business at its best. Brand image, on the other hand, is how your business/product/brand are perceived in actuality, by customers, by clients, by that guy giving out free hugs at the intersection. It is how the world outside sees you.
Sometimes brand identity and brand image share the same vision: but more often than not, they don’t. And that is where we come in. New Standard is here to help bridge that every changing, ever shifting gap. We implement a lot of different tools to do this, from design to film, from commercials to business cards. Whether it is your website that needs to be changed, or your designs just need something that isn’t there, we are here. Real life business is complicated. It often times is built gradually and over time expands to more than originally planned. It is for this reason that it is difficult to effectively communicate your message in every market on a unified front. That is, unless you have someone paying attention to it, and working towards that unification.
Okay, next question. We’ll answer these last two together. (Watch how we tie this in, it’s gonna be like magic.) Why is graphic design necessary? Well, let us ask you a few questions of our own. How do animals ensure they get a mate? How did you attract that man at the bar the other evening? How did you get Sarah from the gym to pick the elliptical right next to yours? Answer? With design. Design is about showing off the goods, plain and simple. Graphic design is about taking what you have to offer, and showing it off in a way that makes it eye-catching, second glance worthy, that makes it irresistible to the viewer.
Now, we’re not saying graphic design will make your target audience jump your latest product in the hope of making sweet, sweet love and half human/half product babies… But it might come close. Good graphic design, quality graphic design, is somewhere between the lines of unavoidable and unnoticeable. It needs to be subtle and shrewd, but loud and powerful too. And that isn’t something that anyone can do. Which is why (told you we’d get this down) it is important to pay not just for graphic design, but pay for quality design services. You need someone who can listen and define your brand identity, and find out what is needed to make your brand image match. You need someone like us. And that isn’t just for graphic design. That is for logo design, for commercials, for websites…. The fact is, if you only want to pay $10 for vodka, you are going to get ten dollar vodka. But if you want your vodka to taste like Chopin… then buy the damn Chopin.*