Design, Connect, Clarify, Get Recognized and Increase Profits

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Use Consistency and Industry Relevance in 
All Corporate Branding and Visual Communications
A wonderful logo is only part of your communications effort. All interactions with clients and the public are included in your communications effort and range from how the phone is answered to the branding, packaging, printed collateral, advertisements, website, social media banners and posts, environmental graphics and signage.

A designer can help you create a statement of purpose with objectives and priorities, establish a budget with a timeline and find your prospective audience. Instead of working on communication items piece by piece, a designer can help put together a strategic plan for a consistent campaign.

Designers are great problem solvers, analyzing information details and relating them to the entire project as a whole in relation to the client’s business.

Quote from Joanne Stone and Lana Rigsby, AIGA “A Client’s Guide to Design:  How to Get the Most Out of the Process:”
Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear your $2,500 Armani suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt, and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn’t have alternatives, but they do. And they know it.”

This video from “The Office” demonstrates consistent font usage in business in a comedic way:


Utilize Professionals for Professional Services and Gain Business
Utilizing the services of a mentor, business coach or professional designer can be beneficial for putting together a business plan, establishing a budget and discovering your visions. A mentor can offer connection, support, advice and encouragement to stay on target. 

Business owners are reluctant to allow other people to take over their responsibilities or become involved in details of the business. Suggestions and constructive criticism from other business leaders can be positive for increasing productivity and delivering results.

Tools available to a business owner to assist in automation are:  

  • professional bookkeeping services
  • software to collect, generate and recall passwords
  • delivery services for orders
  • virtual receptionist for messages and managing calls
  • software to track contact information, relationships, meetings, calls, tickets, invoices, bill payments, expenses and billable hours
  • social media automation to store and schedule posts in advance
  • professional design services

Quote from Abraham Moles, “Information Theory and Esthetic Perception:”
“The function of the designer is to increase the legibility of the world. The world is a labyrinth that must be unravelled, a text that must be deciphered. Each individual scrutinizes it as his life unfolds.”


Letting Go of the “DIY” Thought Process in Business
Reasons to outsource business duties include:

  • a business owner does not have the time to do everything
  • it is less expensive to hire a contractor that offers quality results by utilizing the latest technology with a trained, specialized skill set appropriate to the task
  • relieve stress with the knowledge that the job is being completed in a timely, professional, qualified, accessible and cost effective manner
  • projects completed offsite do not require the business owner to pay for and supply extra office space
  • concentrate on the essential elements of business that bring in revenue
  • the cost of the service is less than the hourly man power for overhead and non-productive hours
  • start and focus on new projects
  • equal the playing field with competitors and reduce risk to the business

Get to know the contractors used for outsourcing. Ask questions about their business, work habits and ethics. Stay away from the pitfalls of spec work which can damage professional relationships on both ends.

This video from Zulu Alpha Kilo shows a humorous example of the dangers of businesses requesting spec work: 


Benefits in Utilizing Professional Design Services
A professional designer can institute a plan for using consistency and industry relevance in all corporate branding and visual communications.

Quote from Joe Sparano, Oxide Design Co., member AIGA:
“Design is content with intent. Intent without content is decoration. Content without intent is noise.”

A marketing plan developed by a professional designer can reduce content noise by funneling the information and pinpointing the message to a specific audience. This will differentiate your business from competitors, eliminate brand confusion and build trust between your business and the market audience.

Content can include elements of a business’ branding and identity demonstrated by design concepts, photography, illustration, copywriting and the industry appropriate print or web usage. 

A professional designer will use creative problem solving to establish a visual communication strategy. This is done through research, analysis and by getting to know your business and your visions. 

The visual communication strategy lays out future marketing projects so that all of the pieces have a consistent look throughout and do not look as if they were produced individually as separate jobs.

Call, visit, email or meet with a professional designer today to get to know their design work and production styles. Include design in your business plan and budget for your visual communication strategy. Then get started on the best investment for your business. 

Connect with your target audience, clarify your message and content, become easily recognized in your market and increase your profits.


Suzanne Marshall
Owner and Art Director of Whale Works Design and Illustration



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