10 things a good graphic design agency can add to your next campaign.

By Stephen Lewis

Thinking of commissioning some great design for your brand? Here’s a run-down of the 10 ways the design agency you work with can really help, by S3’s very own Head of Design, Steve Lewis.

Before sitting down to write this article, I Googled the term ‘Design’ wanting to see its definition, to see how it aligned with the gospel I was about to preach.

Did it say what I wanted to say? Not really.

design
/dɪˈzʌɪn/

noun

a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is made.

“he has just unveiled his design for the new museum”

a decorative pattern.

“pottery with a lovely blue and white design”

So I sat there a while longer, then Googled ‘Graphic Design’ to see if that was any closer to what I wanted to say…

Did it? Again, not exactly.

graphic design

/ˌɡrafɪk dɪˈzʌɪn/

noun: graphic design

the art or skill of combining text and pictures in advertisements, magazines, or books.

So, from that little test, here’s the thing I’d like to begin preaching; by Googling what design or graphic design is in a bid to understand it a little more – you’re never going to get one answer that will give you clarity on whether you need it or not. Let’s be clear, design isn’t simply a decorative pattern, there’s nothing simple about it at all for that matter… And graphic design isn’t just restricted to ads, mags, or book pages either. Don’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia, friends.

So to give you a better understanding, and take this opportunity to help the little bite big – here’s not only what graphic design and design is to us, but here’s how they can be used to your business’s benefit. Sound good? Banging.

Let’s get started: 10 things a good graphic design agency can add to your next campaign

Boost brand recognition and build trust between you and your audience
Be an efficient use of time, not to mention money
Create high-quality visual output, able to improve interaction
Ensure your brand comes across as up to date, in-line with the latest
Attract new audiences while maintaining current audiences
Enhance the user experience your consumers have with your brand
Articulate the core message you want your audience to know and think about you
Improve your conversion rate as well as brand fame to those who matter
Provide a consistent design system (guidelines to follow, saving you time and money in the long-run)
The opportunity to create visuals that are bespoke and unique only to your brand

Ultimately, the reason graphic design can do all of this is because it’s all about communication. Paired with brand strategy, it enables us to craft and build pieces of visual content that help communicate a message to a specific target audience. It solidifies the purpose of a brand, and helps them bring everything together, aesthetically – meaning it’s vital for pretty much any campaign or marketing touch point. It’s what makes you stand out. Baa.

What does using an agency for graphic design give you?

There are a wide range of tools and techniques that graphic designers can utilise when creating content. These include, but by no means are limited to: Typography, pictures, illustrations, colour, shapes. These items have the ability to be combined with a strong visual hierarchy that best conveys a message or thought to its target demographic, and the best graphic design agencies can master it all. (*Cough* like us *cough*.)

What’s more, we get that running a business or managing a brand is time consuming enough without having to worry about design ins and outs for your campaigns. By hiring an agency you can have not only specific marketing materials designed and manufactured but also an entire design system, which can then be applied to future projects further down the line. Meaning if you hire in-house designers in the future when you inevitably get bigger, they won’t be starting from scratch – but in partnership

As with any profession, Graphic Design experts will know the most cost-effective ways to get the job done. Instead of compromising on office based software and ending up with a substandard design file, designers will be able to create ‘high level’ visual documents utilising the latest graphic design software, set up to industry standards for printers or manufacturers, whatever your need.

Which brings us to the next big thing we specialise in: consistency.

Consistency is king when it comes to your brand, having an expertly crafted house style and design system will ensure every touch point of your business, both consumer facing and internal fits the bill. Graphic designers ensure the overall look, feel and ‘tone’ of your brand is captured and implemented across any and all forms of printed or digital company materials. Basically – in human talk, when you hire S3, you can leave it to us. We work with clients in a way that means we’re able to act as an expansion of their team, trusted to produce purposeful design work, to the highest standard.

How does it work? The design concepting process.

Design concepting sees us take a step back and view the task at hand from a more objective-first viewpoint. What’s the problem this design is really attempting to solve?

As with any industry, the need for new design solutions can arise from anywhere; outdated technologies, new technologies, a shift in consumer behaviour or a wider scoped cultural change etc. For us, this means the design conceptualising process is not always a linear or straightforward pathway, but rather a bespoke one, unique to each project we work on.

Design is typically used to solve a particular problem and it is through the concepting process that we’re able to pinpoint target and begin to lay foundations that will inform our creative decisions.

Beginning with an in-depth period of research, we start off selecting and isolating objectives, understanding why something is an issue and what approach can be used to target a key demographic into taking action, and why. We’re talking colour and shape theory, media choice, explicit graphics, narrative illustration – what exactly does our audience look up and pay attention to?

Once we’re happy we’ve nailed the right form of graphic design to speak to our audience – all the while sense checking against project limitations and budgets, we take these findings – and run with them. Developing concepts alongside our brief, always reverting back to the same research to inform decisions or rationalise choices.

Design concepting ensures meaning is at the heart of everything that goes out the door.

Where does brand design play a role?

It’s hard to boil a brand down to any one asset or singular element where brand design plays a single role within a company, not least because your brand is everything – visually and communicatively. It isn’t just a logo; it comes from so much more – after reams of brand strategy implementation.

Your brand is essentially how your company is seen and perceived by anyone who encounters it, both internally and externally. It’s a quick-flash reaction, gut feeling or idea that encompasses everything your business embodies to a consumer, and brand design plays a huge role in its connotations.

Your brand is built across the various touch points in which your audience interacts with your business, and brand design is what makes these touch points distinguishable – able to take beliefs and translate them into communications that make audiences feel something, do something.

Touched on earlier, one of the biggest roles brand design can play in your business is a carefully curated brand identity design system, also known as ‘brand guidelines’ which ultimately act as a set of rules or guides for the use across your brand appearance. These include directions for logos, colour usage, typography, and photography as well as digital and print applications or tone of voice. These set of rules and visual elements ensure any visual produced follows your specific set of brand rules and values – preventing any confusion between you and your consumers. Kind of a big deal.