Why should people buy your product?

People buy things they love. Our stuff becomes part of us, like a permanent accessory. Objects help us define ourselves and identify with each other. Through them we find mutuality and acceptance.

How do people fall in love with stuff­? How does a product carve its niche in the hearts of consumers to become that “gotta have” item that, if you don’t have it, you just don’t quite measure up? It’s first an issue of seduction, and second of satisfaction.

The things we love help us feel good. When we feel good, we look good — we feel desirable, attractive and valued. Whether it’s designer coffee, that special pair of skinny jeans, or a robust Harley-Davidson, our things reinforce what we believe is good in ourselves; they bring out the best in us; we see them as positive reflections of who we are. We build our culture around the things we love, both personally and corporately.

The things we love are precious. We associate them with good friends, good times, favorite places and activities. They become irreplaceable items, necessary to our daily function, and meaningful because of how they help us connect, engage and get things done.

The things we love are sensual, providing pleasure and contentment through sound, sight, taste, smell, and touch. These are very individual choices. What pleases one person will not please another. We need to first connect personally with the aesthetics (that would be the design) of the thing. After that, further connections are made. The more connections we make, the more we fall in love with the item.

How can you invest your product or service with “lovability”? Here are a few suggestions:

• Love it yourself. If you’re not passionate about it, how can you engender passion in another?
• Know your market. Your market is people, not statistics. Spend time with your market before you offer your product.
• Be patient. Give people time to react and respond to your product.
• Design it well. Design adds value and meaning to your product. Visual communication should be consistent and noble. Don’t rely on your own sense of style; invest in design created by an expert. And finally:
• Follow-up. Find out how your product is really being used. Do folks like it and talk about it? If so, they’re creating a culture around it, making it a necessity for lifestyle maintenance.

To be promoted in our design-driven culture, a product must be packaged in such a way that it becomes meaningful to the person using it, so that they become an evangelist for it. This requires thoughtful planning and execution of a design strategy. Although you cannot ensure a desired customer response to your product  just because you have a plan, investing in good design increases the likelihood of lovability because it increases recognition, differentiates in a visually-cluttered world, communicates reliability, and creates affinity. In short, good design increases overall desire and appeal.

You cannot market anything these days without creating some sort of culture around it. You cannot can’t create culture without design.

Empty space in a design is useful. Think of it in this way: If there was a room in your home where every inch of space was taken up by a piece of furniture, you would be unable to navigate through or use the room. Empty space between furniture is required for the room to be useful. This same concept applies in communication design.

Empty space, otherwise known as white space, is anything not filled by active content. It includes gutters between columns of text, the page margins that frame the design, the spaces between words and paragraphs and the intervals that separate elements from each other. White space streamlines the design and makes it more inviting.

White space serves physical, aesthetic and psychological purposes. Visually it separates information and increases overall legibility. Because it unclutters a page, the design becomes easier to navigate and requires less effort to understand. This increases reading speed.

Aesthetically, white space supplies crucial support to the composition and enables the design to communicate. Its simplicity complements complex areas. Emphasis is created when white space is used to frame important elements, leading the reader’s eye to important focal areas. White space helps balance and quiet the entire design and adds visual appeal.

Psychologically, we require white space for comfort’s sake. It helps us understand what we’re seeing because it separates information and helps create hierarchy. Without appropriate use of white space, one thing flows into another with no relief, ideas merge and the message becomes confusing. When that happens, communication ceases and the design fails in its purpose.

There is a time and place for visual clutter. When white space is reduced in favor of more content, the design conveys a sense of energy and excitement. Organized clutter is appropriate in many cases (the operative word here being organized). However, a design can be too busy, and we will actually describe it as being loud. No one likes to be shouted at, not even in visual terms. A design that lacks the relief of white space has too much going on in it and can be cacophonous and irritating.

Although considered empty, white space is not always void of content. Color, texture and images can function as white space, taking on a supporting role in the design and pointing to the active content.

Asking your designer to fill every inch of a layout with active content can mean your message may get lost in clutter. Instead, trust your designer to choose where and how much white space to use, and your message will be communicated.

The April 2, 2011 New York Times op-ed by Ross Perlin describes how schools are encouraging an exploitive trend in unpaid internships offered by businesses and corporations.

Although a somewhat recent type of “job” offering in other professions, unpaid internships are not new to the graphic design field. In fact, they’ve been a regular practice in this profession for years, especially at non-profit organizations. Students and graduates are now presented with internship opportunities more often than they are entry-level jobs. They’re asked to work for nothing or next to it in exchange for “gaining experience”. There are cases where interns work full time for no pay for a year or two in hope of being hired by that company. Businesses seeking low- or no-cost design will contact a school to recommend students or recent grads with no intention of paying them for their work. A casual perusal of design jobs on Craigslist reveals compensations offered in the form of lunch or gas money. One web site states that internships are necessary for finding design jobs: Internships are an essential part of attaining a job in graphic design. Get started on your career as a graphic designer with the internship of your dreams.

There is a lot in common between art and design, but they’re not the same. At times, the lines between the two disciplines become blurred, but the distinctions remain and are important to understand. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, art and design were blended in beauty, purpose and craftsmanship. During that era, the two disciplines separated. Design remained practical and commercial while art for art’s sake allowed for the pursuit of creative expression as a singular goal and took off in another direction.

Despite their differences, we need to acknowledge what these two disciplines have in common:

• They’re both visual and belong to the broader category of visual art.
• They both incorporate the aesthetic principles.
• Practitioners in both fields need knowledge of history, past movements and current trends.
• Both are highly creative activities involving processes that require time, observation and thinking.

The dividing line between art and design is drawn by the purpose of each:

• Art allows for self-expression. The artist decides what he or she wants to evoke and works toward that end. It is self-satisfying.
  Design is communication and function in visual form, created for the general population or a segment of it. Design addresses stated needs and solves problems.
• Art can rely entirely on aesthetics alone, and artists embark on journeys of exploration and experimentation. Design marries aesthetics with function to achieve a purpose.
• Art is open to interpretation by the viewer.
  Design cannot be interpretive but must communicate specifically and clearly to its intended audience.
• Art is elitist, meaning that it is viewed in galleries and museums, exhibited away from the mainstream of everyday experience. One looks at art and may or may not have a significant experience.
  Design is seen and experienced by just about everyone in the course of a day. One uses design. Web sites, packaging, billboards, print advertising, newspaper layouts, fashion, signage, interior spaces, smart phone apps, products and appliances all have been designed for both visual appeal and practical use.
• Art exists for itself. It’s innovative, expressive and sometimes shocking.
  Design is practical and carefully crafted. It supports business, commerce, marketing, entertainment, journalism, communications and causes.
• Artists stand in front of their work and get to put their signatures on it in plain view. Designers stand behind their work and remain unknown for the most part.

Most people can name half a dozen artists off the top of their heads. Most cannot name half a dozen designers – with the possible exception of fashion designers. (Quickly, and without Googling or Binging – who created the CBS logo? Who designed the type face used in the London Underground signs?) Yet design carries far more weight and influence in our time and throughout history than fine art. Most people don’t make the connection that the bag of chips they’re consuming was designed by someone, or that it’s by design that cola and root beer products have different color schemes.

Design involves specific criteria, research and study, along with extreme creativity. Where an artist can begin with a blank canvas and creatively pursue a serendipitous route to an end result, a designer begins with a set of criterion and creates within specific boundaries all the way from concept through completion. Design is not decoration, and designers do not seek to express their own points of view but to accurately represent who or what they’re designing for. Design influences and persuades in the domain of popular culture. It is created for the masses and will always have a commercial purpose.

Why is it important to understand these differences? Simply because they’re not the same. We experience and value them differently. We treat artists and designers differently.

Art is something we go to see at the Getty Center or the Guggenheim, form opinions about and compartmentalize the experience as being uplifting or at least interesting. And then we go home. Art requires people to come to it, and its value lies in that people leave their everyday lives and go look and be inspired or shocked. Art is a getaway – a time for contemplation and being away from the ordinary.

Design’s value is in how it serves the community, the marketplace and the enterprises it represents in our commonplace, ordinary living. It comes to us daily at the grocery store, along roads, in books, at work, at play, when dining out, when doing our taxes. Everyday we use a plethora of things that were designed.

There are artists who design and designers who create art. If we attempt to say that one discipline is better than the other, keep in mind that they’re both necessary and worthy. There is a clear line between the two. The point is that we don’t confuse them, but value each one in its own right. Clients should not treat their designers as if they were artists, nor should artists be required to adhere to particular constraints.

When was the last time you went to an art exhibition? How have you experienced design today?

As designers, are we working to please the client? If that’s our purpose, I suggest that we’re missing the mark a bit. If in fact the client has a customer base, the design needs to engage that audience. The challenge is to create meaningful experiences for the end user, not the client. In other words, the design should be significant, applicable and heartfelt so that the target audience will develop connection and loyalty. The designer uses aesthetic elements including type, color and texture as triggers to create meaning, achieve a positive audience response and build customer loyalty.

It follows that design is not created for the client but for the customer. Think about that for a moment. When a client regards design only as something that makes their business look good and they want the designer to produce their ideas, they are engaging in short-sighted thinking. This can be detrimental to the goal of the design; alternative solutions won’t be considered and the final result may not achieve a meaningful connection with the client’s customers. The client needs to let go of assumptions about how their projects should be developed. What they ask the designer to do may not be the best thing given what they want their customers to experience. For example, the client may ask for the design of a brochure when an interactive video would create a stronger connection.

Given the job of creating meaningful experiences, designers function in a role far more complex than that of a mere production artist or “decorator”. They need the freedom to develop concept within the prescribed guidelines and the permission to suggest “what if”. Clients will be well-served to let go of personal preferences and allow the designer do what he is asked to do (create a successful design experience for the customer), and be open to consider the many possibilities the designer might conceive.

Ultimately, if the audience is reached and responds as desired, the client should be pleased. Design for the audience, and the client will also be satisfied.

From the client’s point of view, there are two crucial criteria in deciding what designer is awarded the project:

1. Does the creative understand what’s needed?
2. Is the creative capable of delivering?

Understanding What’s Needed
Defining the problem accurately is necessary to solving it. If a designer can do that, he in essence has half the project accomplished before he’s begun. If he can articulate the client’s current situation, the need for new design solutions, and what those solutions need to accomplish, he will be able to determine appropriate design strategies.

Solutions are often provided by a designer that serve to re-define, rather than support, the purpose of the design. This is where the client becomes unsure of the designer’s intentions and rifts begin to form in the working relationship. Trust is broken, and it’s difficult to restore it.

How does a designer understand what’s needed? First, by listening carefully, and then asking questions to clarify. The designer should be able to reiterate the needs and the reasons to the client in his own words.

Capability of Delivery
Capability is proven when the project is delivered. Until then, capability is only assumed. How the designer works with the client, crafts the project, works with vendors and suppliers, schedules, and deals with client uncertainties and idiosyncrasies will either build or destroy trust.

Many clients have been disappointed by designers and are therefore skeptical of the claims of the next one that comes along. The next one must work harder to prove his value when the one before him misses the mark.

Pantone has released its Fashion Color Report for Spring 2011 in which the rising trend is in contrasting color schemes. Those who follow color know that the trends generally appear first in the fashion industry and then seep from there into other design and manufacturing areas.

Knowing what’s trending is helpful, but should not be taken as dictum. The primary concern when choosing colors for a design is determined by the purpose for the design. It’s easier to select the right colors when you have a goal in mind.

Seldom will designers select color simply because they or their client likes it. Color is one of the most significant decisions a designer makes on behalf of your business. So it’s better to look at color choices objectively rather than basing them on personal taste, popular philosophies or current trends. Your business will be more successful in the long run.

I was asked by a client to re-design a print ad laid out by someone else.

The original layout (above, left) was cluttered and confused. The ad, for an author’s book signing events in upscale communities in Los Angeles County, was going to appear in a local cultural magazine. What was needed was a visual solution that supported the specific message (from Nazi Holocaust victim to survivor to thriving psychologist and author), was informative, and that appealed to the intended audience.

The original raised a lot of concerns: it lacked structure, hierarchy, a relevant color scheme, a headline, appropriate type and typographic design, proportion contrasts and visual “heroes”. Additionally, it included a poorly contrived re-creation of the Barnes & Noble brand identity, which is really not appropriate. The actual identity should have been used.

I designed my make-over from the ground up. I began with a formal structure to unify the various elements and imposed a symmetrical balance. Through hieratic scaling and isolation I made the author and her book the heroes of the design. They are now the focal point of and the visual entrance into the design.

I created a real headline from a block of text in the original and reduced the number of fonts to two, scaling the various text to appropriate sizes. I incorporated a color scheme that was neutral, warm and stabilizing, and which didn’t compete with the text. I revised the entire layout to establish a natural flow of information and create an orderly presentation. The result is a simpler layout that is easy to understand. The ad is now unified, appealing and relevant to the author, the book and the intended audience. The perceived value is increased.

Dr. Erica Miller web site.

Graphic design represents ideas and values. A design is not in itself the idea, but the expression of it. Design points to something greater than itself. In most cases design serves as an ambassador, not as the self-expression of the designer, but as the expression of a business or organization to its audience. The value of a design is in how and what it communicates.

If your business or organization is a worthy enterprise, shouldn’t it be represented by something that is equally worthy?

If you were to choose an ambassador to represent your interests to the world, wouldn’t it behoove you to choose someone who will represent you accurately and deliver your message clearly; someone who cares how you’re presented and how people respond to you? You’re not going to simply drive by and pick someone off the street corner to do that. You’re going to carefully select from qualified candidates.

If your design assets represent your interests, why wouldn’t you want them to be as carefully chosen?

If a business is worth establishing and customers are worth pursuing, why not make the appropriate investment? You should be concerned that your graphic assets are serving your interests and representing your enterprise in the best way possible. A worthy enterprise deserves the investment in and the cost of a worthy ambassador.

Businesses have a choice when seeking creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource/contest site where they’ll select the lowest bidder, or they can commission a designer for a custom, targeted design. This creates a dilemma for legitimate freelancers. Competition for freelance design work is not only increasing, it’s being degraded as design thinking becomes under-valued and relegated to the level of banal doodles seeking a home. If businesses get used to paying pennies for a bad design offered by the lowest bidder or for an off-the-rack piece of badly drawn clip art, the profession itself will be compromised.

Many freelancers are turning to these crowdsourcing sites, thinking that getting something – anything – is better than nothing. And if they can win bids enough times they may be able to eek out a living. However, that approach leaves everything to chance and speculation – not a great way to make a living. It’s a gamble.

Leaving your income up to chance is neither wise nor proactive. Giving others control over your livelihood while spending time creating work that may or may not be purchased is neither useful to you nor helpful for achieving your long term goals.

The best way to get new work is through relationship. As people begin to know you they trust you. Trust is one of the best compensations anyone can earn. Relationships and trust however, take time to build.

You build relationship by becoming involved with people. Joining chambers of commerce or service clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis and the Lions, or serving as a volunteer with cause-based organizations will help spread your reputation and create opportunities for conversation and trust.

Target people and businesses you want to work with. There’s the temptation to take just any project that comes along, but it’s better to be judicious in selecting work and clients that are a good fit. Not every project is the right one. Not every client is worth working with. So be selective. Being selective requires, of course, a foreknowledge of the kind of client you want to work with. Foreknowledge requires planning and evaluation.

Use your LinkedIn and Facebook connections. Don’t just link up with other designers but also with business owners, marketing pros and corporate executive who might be strategic for your professional growth—people who will refer you or would give you a project directly.

Ask for referrals from current and past clients. Don’t have a client yet? Ask for referrals from friends and family. Don’t be afraid to let people know you’re looking for work. Always follow up on the referral and be sure to thank the referrer, even if their referral doesn’t pan out. Expressing gratitude is golden.

Whatever you do, do it with the long-term in mind. It’s tempting to focus on short-term revenue or getting the next project. Yet whatever you do, first determine where you want to go as a design practitioner. Where do you want to end up at the end of your time in the profession? What contributions do you want to make? Then break ground and build that foundation now. Be willing to give up some short-term fixes for the sake of your long-term goals. What strategic relationships do you want to establish now that will benefit you down the road?

If you have a well-designed strategy for building the right relationships, you will have a better chance for sustained success than if you focus on just getting the next project.