Design is about communication.

Take for instance, you place a newspaper advertisement informing and selling (hopefully) your products/services to potential customers. You’re essentially bringing a message across to them, communicating to your customers.

Form (visual) and Function (usability). This applies to your products as much as to the order form. How often have you felt frustrated trying to fill in a paper form with space only for the smallest handwriting? You could possiblly lose a customer before of it. It’s simply not user-friendly. How you do it (design) can dramatically affect the outcome (sales).

“It was a revelation to discover how design could change people’s behaviour. I learnt that simply by altering the graphic content of an exhibit you could double the number of people who visited.” – Gillian Thomas, The Science Museum (UK)

Great Design = WOW!

According to Tom Peters, the formula for great design is:

Great Design = WOW! (story, soul, plot, cool, beauty) + Grace (usability writ very large)

Every design project is measured with the following 4 dimensions:

• Dimension #1: WOW!
• Dimension #2: Beauty!
• Dimension #3: Raving Fans!
• Dimension #4: Impact!

[Case in point: Unless you’ve been living in Mars, you’d have known the wildly popular and successful Apple iPod.]

Designing the Brand YOU

Being a small-small business, you are not an established brand. So most people won’t buy or follow your recommendation simply on your say-so.

Why? Because you don’t have their TRUST. I’ll touch on this subject later. But as far as the image of your small business is concerned, how would your potential customers see a non-designed, if not cheeky, business front? The look of your business, the logo, the advertisement, the website, etc, subconsciously (and consciously) would have given them an unprofessional, non-trustworthy impression!

Do you think they’d do business with you? Or would you, if you were the customer?

You need to build your brand and trust in your prospects. You need to design the brand YOU. This I do not necessarily mean in the league of Nike or Apple Computer. But a “brand” that is unique, personal, friendly, warmth, approachable and fun.

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