GRAPHIC DESIGN

is a business that often involves activities and results whose effectiveness can’t easily be quantified and measured. Yet, in today’s economy, every client must look for ways to economize. Our firm is sometimes asked to examine our quality approach and the traditional ways we address our clients’ problems and opportunities.

So let us share with you a few

thoughts about what graphic

design can accomplish and what

its true value is.

COMMUNICATION

Asked to define jazz, Louis

Armstrong said, “You’ll know it

when you hear it.” We feel the

same way about good design.

What we can say, authoritatively,

is this: good graphic design

is not about style or fashion. First

and foremost, it is about communication. And it should always have a direct, bottom-line effect on any organization’s business. How much more value does a quickly- and easily-communicated visual message have over one that’s neither? Frankly, we don’t know the answer. But we do know that there is a commercial

imperative today for graphic

design quality and distinction.

Like it or not, we live in a world that is over-communicated, and we must use media that are excessively cluttered. The only way to combat this condition is through design that not only distinguishes an organ-ization, but that quickly communicates its many messages well.

IMAGE

We also know that good graphic design is about image building. Over time, all products and organizations develop personalities, just as individuals do. Positive personalities (images and brands) are often among the most important properties any organization possesses. In today’s world, not to try to reinforce positive ones, or to strengthen weak ones, is to leave a positioning vacuum soon filled by competitors. Being constantly attentive to image and brand building is one of the ways smaller organizations get bigger, and bigger organizations stay on top. Creating strong, visual identities is what we do. Our experience tells us that it is a function far too important today to trust to chance, or a low bidder.

VALUE

Because we are talented and

trained professionals, our work

does not come cheap. But please

don’t confuse cost with value.

Perhaps it is a cliché to say that

you get what you pay for, but

that doesn’t make it any less true.

When you contract for graphic

design, most of what you end up

paying for is time. And most

design time is executional in

nature—i.e., “working things

out.” This process does not vary

greatly from individual to individual, or from firm to firm. In a service business, there are few

economies of scale or shortcuts.

The result is that the difference

between inexpensive and

expensive design is in the value

of time expended. This is a direct

function of how much talent,

training, and experience it

encompasses. Also consider this: except for the very smallest of jobs, design fees are usually a fraction of total job costs (printing, media, etc., are the big ones). Thus, the incremental difference of opting for out-standing design versus a mediocre equivalent typically only increases costs 5% to 7% on a small brochure, ad, or Web site; less than 1% on an annual report,

ad campaign, or major Web site.

Viewed from the bottom-line

perspective, a small additional

investment in design quality produces an ROI that is sure to

warm the heart of even the toughest comptroller.

FLEXIBILITY

Our business is constantly changing, mostly because of more powerful computers and software.

Unfortunately, they don’t lower

costs.  Better computers and software also don’t make good design any easier. Design is, as it always has been, a business of problem-solving.

And machines don’t solve problems. (We’re reminded of a

saying ascribed to another

jazzman, Duke Ellington:

“It is not the piano that makes great music; it is the person sitting at the piano.”)

We are particularly excited about how we can make this  happen for you.