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When it comes to design, there’s a lot of advice out there. What seems like good advice from one source can seem super questionable from another. And, in many ways, that’s true. Design is subjective and different projects will present their own unique set of challenges and opportunities that need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. But when you look at your business objectively as a whole? Design plays an important role no matter how you want to run your company or what type of industry you operate in. From a user experience perspective, the better designed your business is the more likely your users will feel comfortable engaging with it and trusting it with their information or payment details. It doesn’t matter if you have hundreds of employees or only one sales associate; regardless of whether your business serves individual customers or companies looking to buy wholesale supplies — this should be true for every single aspect of how people interact with your company.
Make sure you have a solid foundation before you design
Whether you’re launching your business or it’s been operating for a while, it’s important to remember a few key things that will help your business grow and get more out of the design you’ve already put in place. For example, will your logo work as well on a T-shirt as it does on a building? Will your colour scheme work for both print and digital media? For some businesses, these might seem like obvious questions to ask, but for many entrepreneurs, they’re the types of things you might only realize after starting to grow your business or scaling it in different ways. In either of these cases, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you’re capable of and what you’re not. And this can be done by taking a step back and looking at how you’ve designed your company so far.
Use the right tools for the job
One of the most common oversights in a business’s design is the choice of tool used for the project. Many businesses start out with a logo and a few colours that may or may not work for both print and digital media. But as your business grows and your needs change, you’ll want to make sure you keep that in mind as well. For example, as your business grows and needs to reach new audiences, you might want to consider using different platforms or using different tools than you’ve used so far. You might also want to re-evaluate your logo’s intended function. Will it work as well on a T-shirt as it does on a building?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help and get feedback
Design is an often-daunting process full of lots of potential risks. You might feel like you know what you’re doing, but the reality is, you don’t. So don’t be afraid to reach out to trusted industry colleagues, friends, and family and ask for their thoughts on your current design. They might not be able to give you a fully-informed opinion because they don’t know your business as well as you do, but their feedback can help you get a better understanding of where you are and where you might want to be. Make sure you take notes and ask questions that help you understand the feedback you receive. What was the overall impression people had when they saw your design? What were their primary frustrations?
Be consistent and predictable in your design choices
Consistency is key to a good user experience, and it’s something that many new businesses fail to achieve. Whether your design is digital or in print, it’s important to use the same fonts, colours, and imagery across all branding, marketing, and advertising materials. It might seem like adding a little something different to each piece of collateral you produce isn’t a big deal, but it is. Using the same typeface and colour palette on everything you produce creates consistency in your brand. It also creates predictability in the types of message you want to send. And while consistency and predictability are great, they’re also the first steps towards being consistent and predictable in your design choices. For example, if you use the same font and colour palette across all your marketing visuals, is there a way you can make them a little bit different for each piece of content?
Check your colours constantly
Colours can be a source of confusion for designers and business owners alike. Whether you want to use colours for print or for digital media, it’s important to make sure you’re consistent with your choices. A good way to do this is by checking your colours constantly so you don’t make a mistake. While there’s no quick way to do this, there are ways you can make the process of checking your colours a little less painful. For example, you can create a colour palette that features the majority of your colour combinations so you can quickly look through them and make sure you’re consistent before you send out any collateral. You can create a colour palette on Canva or another software program and add it to all of your designs so they have a “standard” palette to reference.
Conclusion
Design is a critical part of any business’s growth and evolution. But it’s also important to remember that design is an art, and just like any artistic endeavour, there are certain guidelines you need to follow. By following these design principles, you’ll be able to ensure that your business design is consistent, predictable, and functional. From logo to brochures, storefront signage, and marketing materials, a well-designed business will help your clients feel confident in their interactions with your company.