Design and your brand: just how important is design?

We don’t all have that design eye (I know I don’t!), but we know what visually appeals to us and what doesn’t, right? Design can often be overlooked as just something that makes your website look better or what colours might grab someone's attention, but it does so much more than that! You could almost forget what good design does for you and just think about how bad design hurts you and that will convince you to spend more time and money on design. That’s because no matter how good your product/service is, if your design is poor, consumers are almost never going to choose your product/service and instead will go for your competitor with the more attractive design. In this blog, we’re going to discuss what makes good design and why it is crucial for your brand. 

It’s all about that first impression

Just like with dating, the first impression is everything! Start with a well-designed logo and excellent branding. With a poor designed logo and really harsh branding, you’re likely to lose out on a customer maybe forever! Why? Because it only takes 10 seconds to form an impression and once that impression is made, it’s very hard to change a customer's mind. Think about what your design is communicating to your customers in that first 10 seconds and how your target audience is going to perceive your product/service. Like we said, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product/service, that design experience is what forms a consumer’s brand perception.

Not just visual, usability too!

A really cool and visually appealing design is truly awesome, but it needs to be user friendly too. Design needs to perform a specific function to be truly effective. This point relates most clearly to your website. It needs to be considered if the site is actually easier for users to navigate and whether the design actually performs in the way that it should. A well-designed website is going to reduce bounce rates and make it easy for users to find what they came for. Customers are more likely to leave a poorly designed website with minimal interaction to no interaction at all. This is when you might want to invest in an awesome designer to put together a website that not only looks great, but performs really well!

Colour psychology and your brand

The colours you choose for your branding are actually more important than you might think and you don’t have to do much research to find out why. Colours play a great deal into our emotions and while we would all love to think we are logical about things, even in business, decisions are influenced by our emotions. So when thinking about colours, think about what your business wants to convey to your customers. If you want to be bold and get people excited, you might choose the colour red to be predominant in your branding. If you want to convey trust and strength, you might pick blue. Unfortunately colour psychology does depend a lot on the individual person (blue may not always signal trust, and red may not always get a person excited) but largely speaking, colour psychology is actually really helpful when creating your brand. Make sure you explore your options and find the colour that fits what you are selling. 

Don’t forget, consistency is key!

Without brand consistency, you don’t really have a brand at all. It takes a consumer 5-7 interactions with your brand before they remember you, but if all those interactions are different, can we really expect them to remember your brand (let alone have a positive impression)? The golden rule for branding is ‘keep it consistent’ and it’s clear why. Brand inconsistency can cause mistrust, brand damage and minimal brand retention. So make sure you aren’t confusing your customers by going off brand with a colour that doesn’t match, a font you never use, or a different logo that is rarely ever used. Always make it clear who you are!

Design for trust and customer relationships

Great design that makes effective use of colour, font, layout and style is going to connect your brand to your customer base. We already know that visual appeal is largely a personal thing and does play on our emotions (whether we want it to or not!) so your well-designed brand is going to meaningfully connect you with your customers and build trust with them. Design plays such an important part in trust, as 75% of users judge the credibility of a company based on their website design! Of course, it’s not just the design of your website, it's your logo, your marketing materials, everything that is communicating your brand to your customers that affect trust and that’s why you should have killer design everywhere your audience looks. Lots of things play into the relationships customers have with your brand, but by creating a well-designed brand allows you to put your best foot forward in establishing positive customer relationships. 

Design is an investment all brands should make from the get-go. Setting up the brand with a well-designed logo, considered fonts and colours and an appealing, yet functional website is the best way to develop a consumer base built on trust and positive relationships. By not considering the design of your brand and all branding materials, you risk loss of credibility, loss of sales and negative impressions of your brand. Design is really important for consumers’ perception of a brand, so start out by putting your best foot forward with a well-designed brand!