Graphic Design, like fishing, can achieve great results, or come up with nothing. It’s all about presentation. Not every fish, at any point in a day or season, will be tempted by a particular bait.  A good fisherman needs to know what to use at any given time, accounting for weather, time of day, time of year, condition and depth of water, and many other factors. I’ve seen a lot of incredibly visually pleasing designs by very talented and creative designers that miss the mark completely. They won’t catch any fish!

Good design must appeal to the right ‘fish.’ There is always a target audience to whom we want to appeal. They will be attracted to a particular kind of look and, as importantly, message. When done right, they will ‘bite’ ( a little Cochoranesque, I know). When done wrong, no matter how pretty or colorful your bait is, they will treat it like just another piece of something in the flow of information and then promptly forget about it.

If your message is not hooking any new customers, contact us for some help.

This economy, the worst since the Great Depression (in case you hadn’t heard), is affecting not only industries of mediocre importance, like financing and autos, but an industry that is critical to the backbone of our economy—Graphic Design! If there is a collapse in the Graphic Design sector of our economy, the impact will be felt deeply within every corporation that understands the power of design. Recovery will take many years, after which time many well-known brands will be distant memories.

One can only imagine the fall-out as right-brain replacements offer up their feeble concepts for communicating the most important messages to target audiences—brand identities all represented by raster-format, oval logos encircled with Arial or Times; collateral materials as 8.5×11 tri-folds with off-center content, at least 5 font families, and clip-art images—all with drop shadows and an emboss effect; web site re-designs created with Front Page (enough said!); animated gif banner-ads everywhere; generic packaging that offers an equality to all brands; and a pervasive use of existing Power Point templates. This cruel assault on the visual senses of the American public can not be allowed, not to mention the devastation it would cause on the value of each business.

It must be recognized that the trickle-down effect of a collapse in the Graphic Design market would be catastrophic. Foreign powers would strengthen while the United States is crippled! This can not be allowed and the United States government must intervene to prevent the devastation. Sufficient funds are to be funneled directly to working designers everywhere, and now is not soon enough!

Mr. Politician, hear the cries of your people! Act now!