Is Design Dead?

With the onset of so many online tools to enable business owners to create and manage their own brands, has the golden age of quality design now died?

As a trained “old school” graphic designer my heart sinks when I see websites, logos and literature that have clearly been designed without any understanding of design theory or creative subtlety. This is largely due to the accessibility of software that allows a relatively non-techie business owner to design a logo, build their own website and create their own brochure without any formal training.

"Is this a good or bad thing?"

Well, it works both ways depending on the business owners circumstances. For a "one man band" start-up or side gig, where money may be very tight and something is better than nothing, these free/cheap design options can help get the ball rolling. In this instance taking action is much more important than waiting until they can afford to employ a qualified designer or agency. Tools such as Canva and Wix are available to these entrepreneurs who’re willing to invest the time and energy into their marketing materials. The question any of these entrepreneurs need to ask themselves is "what is the cost of not using a designer", both in time and money. Is a poorly designed brand (often an unqualified business owner doesn’t notice the difference!) worth the time investment, and at what cost to the credibility of the business?

However, if a business is more established or the start-up has a budget for marketing (and why wouldn’t they!), getting the branding, look and feel and strategy behind it right, can be the difference between mediocrity and super success.

"So how can good design influence success?"

Here’s an apparent fact (according to Ryan Deiss, CEO of our extremely knowledgable partners Digital Marketer), design is pretty far down the list when it comes to making money on the internet. In other words, there are loads of examples of apparently poorly “designed” websites that have created millions in revenue. These websites however, have still had tonnes of testing, tweaking and strategy applied, a luxury that many small business owners don’t have.

What small business owners do have the opportunity to do, is create a brand and look and feel that represents their business appropriately and creates the opportunity to engage with the target audience from the initial awareness stage all the way through to nurturing their valued repeat customers. This means, having a great brand will get you more customers and increase engagement because it will build trust and credibility right from the beginning.

Simple examples of this you will have experienced yourself I’m sure. How many times have you landed on a website but found it to be poorly designed, difficult to navigate and frustrating to use and simply looked elsewhere and at what cost to the business?

In conclusion…

Getting the foundations of branding and design for a small business nailed down with the help of a professional designer should more than pay for itself, even in the short term. Focussing on building the business with the marketing messages, deals and solutions is a far more important than trying to be a designer yourself. To be successful, there is a lot to do when running any small business. Unless absolutely necessary, learning to be a designer shouldn’t be one of them!

Here at Blam, our goal is to provide cost effective branding, across websites, social media and literature that is beautifully designed, talks to the appropriate target audience and makes the business owner proud of their companies image. If we can deliver the best of both worlds, ie. fantastic design at an affordable price, entrepreneurs that work with us can focus on growing their business instead of wasting days trying to design a website or logo with no formal training. After all, when done properly a well designed website can be one of the biggest assets in the business, why leave that to an amateur?