IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN DIVERSITY

For Consumers: Should you go with a designer who specialises in one industry?
For Designers: How do I maintain authenticity with same-industry clientele?

Design diversity is becoming increasingly important in today's fast-paced industry. As businesses strive to stand out from competitors, unique and innovative designs have become crucial for success. We’ll explore the key components of design diversity and compare the benefits of niche versus broad appeal, across various business sectors.

DESIGN DIVERSITY - IS IT IMPORTANT?

Design diversity refers to the practice of creating unique designs tailored to all kinds of industries or target audiences. It goes beyond simply recycling designs for multiple clients, instead focusing on creating authentic visual identities that resonate with each individual business.

For consumers: • Design diversity allows businesses to stand out in crowded markets • Unique designs can create stronger brand recognition • Tailored designs better reflect the values and personality of individual companies

NICHE VS BROAD APPEAL

When it comes to design, there are two common approaches in a very competitive landscape:
1. Specialising in one or more particular industries OR
2. Designing for a wide range of businesses.

Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages.

Specific Industry Designers: • Designers become experts in branding specific sectors • Enables creation of highly tailored designs that speak to industry-specific needs • May limit opportunities for diversification

Broad Appeal Designers: • Provides versatility for designers • Can lead to faster client acquisition • Risk of appearing generic or unauthentic

EXPERTISE OR REPETITION?

Designers must carefully balance becoming experts in branding within one sector while avoiding the pitfall of reusing similar designs for multiple businesses. The key is to understand the nuances between.

Best Practices for Design Diversity

To effectively implement design diversity, ensure your designer works through strategies such as:

1. Conducting thorough research on target industries and their unique characteristics

2. Stays up-to-date on current design trends across various sectors

3. Collaborates with clients to fully understand their brand identity and goals

4. Continuously refines and adapts designs based on feedback and market trends

5. Balances consistency with innovation to maintain authenticity

IN CONCLUSION

Effective design diversity requires ongoing learning, adaptation, and a deep understanding of both industry-specific needs and universal design principles. By embracing these practices, designers can create impactful designs that drive success and ensure they are maintaining authenticity when servicing same-industry clientele.

DESIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE

5 Essential Legal Considerations Every Graphic Designer Must Know

In the field of graphic design, there are no specific "laws" in the legal sense that apply uniquely to the practice, but there are legal principles and industry regulations that graphic designers must follow to protect their work and avoid infringement.

COPYRIGHT LAW

What it protects: Copyright law gives creators the exclusive right to use, distribute, and modify their original works, including designs, illustrations, and logos.

What this means for Designers: Graphic designers must ensure they do not use copyrighted images, fonts, or other materials without permission. Conversely, they should also protect their own work by registering it with copyright offices to assert their rights.

TRADEMARK LAW

What it protects: Trademarks protect brands, including names, slogans, logos, and other identifiers, ensuring that they are not confused with those of competitors.

What this means for Designers: When creating logos or branding elements, designers need to make sure that their designs do not infringe on existing trademarks. It’s also important to guide clients on registering trademarks for new brand identities.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (Ownership)

What it covers: When graphic designers work for clients, it's essential to define who owns the rights to the final design, any files and artwork and additional assets.

What this means for Designers: Contracts should clearly state whether the client gains full rights to the design or if the designer retains some rights. At MONOCROW, we retain the right to market ourselves using what has been created (additional plug for the client), however, we do not have the right to re-sell or re-distribute said designs.

licensing agreements

What it governs: Licensing dictates how a designer's work can be used by others.

What it means for Designers: If a designer creates a piece that is licensed for specific uses (like for one-time use in a campaign), the license must clearly define the terms. This prevents unauthorised reproduction, adaptation, or redistribution of the work.

FAIR USE DOCTRINE

What it allows: Fair use permits limited use of copyrighted material without permission for specific purposes like commentary, criticism, or parody.

What this means for Designers: Fair use can be a gray area, and designers should be cautious when incorporating third-party content. It's better to create original works or get explicit permission from the copyright holder.

IN CONCLUSION

Understanding these laws helps protect designers from legal disputes while ensuring they respect the rights of others in their creative process. This information is handy for clients and business owners in understanding their rights and the rights of creative material.

READY TO HAVE YOUR RIGHTS RESERVED?

INSPO: TO BRING, OR NOT TO BRING

WHY ZERO IDEAS IS A SILLY IDEA

When businesses bring inspiration to a graphic designer, they set the stage for a creative and productive collaboration that can enhance the quality and output of your final product.

Here are five key reasons to bring inspiration to your next design meeting:

ALIGNMENT WITH BUSINESS GOALS

Bringing inspiration to the table helps ensure that your designer’s work aligns closely with your business’s overall goals. When a designer understands the core objectives, brand values, and target audience, they can create visuals that not only look good but also serve a strategic purpose. This alignment ensures that the design effectively communicates your desired message, supports marketing efforts, and resonates with your intended audience.

Together, we fill in our carefully curated Branding Questionnaire which helps identify these core objectives and values in your business.

EFFICIENT USE OF TIME & RESOURCES

Providing clear inspiration and direction helps streamline our creative process. When designers have a solid foundation to work from, we can spend more time refining ideas and less time guessing what the client wants. This efficiency reduces the likelihood of extensive revisions, saving both time and money. It also ensures that the project stays on track and meets deadlines.

ENHANCED CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

Inspiration can serve as a springboard for creativity. By understanding your brand’s identity, goals, and the industry landscape - designers can push the boundaries of traditional designs and explore innovative concepts. This collaborative inspiration can lead to unique, standout designs that differentiate the brand in a crowded market and place you beyond the trend.

CONSISTENCY IN BRAND IDENTITY

When businesses provide us with inspirational material that reflects their brand’s voice, style, and ethos, it helps ensure that the design work remains consistent with existing branding elements. This consistency is vital for building brand recognition and trust with their audience.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION

Inspiration fosters better communication between business and designer. When both parties have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, it reduces misunderstandings and misalignments. This open line of communication not only makes the design process smoother but also empowers us as designers to ask the right questions and offer valuable suggestions, ultimately leading to a more successful outcome.

TOP 10 FORMS OF DESIGN INSPIRATION:

• Mood Boards

• Fonts and Text Styles

• Music or Artists

• Photography

• Specific Colours

• Textures or Interiors

• Social Media Profiles

• Mindmaps or Brainstorms

• Shapes

• Other Brands and Businesses

READY TO BRING YOUR INSPO TO A QUALIFIED DESIGNER?

OPTIMISING OUR CLIENTS WITH SEO

HOW WE GET YOU TO APPEAR ORGANICALLY IN YOUR SEARCH ENGINE

At MONOCROW, we use a range of techniques to assist with the discoverability of your brand and insist that we tick all the available boxes organic strategies can tick before moving on to paid rank placement in your search engine.

Organic placement does take time, but whether you pay for Google Ads and Ranking or not, SEO optimisation and strategies are a must for successful launch and discovery foundations for your website.

We created this post to provide some further in-depth information on our techniques that we implement within client builds. Whilst this doesn’t touch on everything, it covers major ground in what is included and at what levels.

WHAT WE CREATE AND DESIGN WITH

Which platform we choose depends on your industry and requirements as a business as we believe some platforms do things better than others. For instance, we lean away from WordPress as it was initially intended as a blog platform similar to the Tumblr days. Whilst it has come a long way, we find it isn’t very user-friendly when clients want to manage their own platforms and make small changes.

For E-commerce related businesses we do prefer to design over on Shopify as they dominate in this space and offer a lot more tools and support in the selling of products and SaaS (Subscription) businesses.

However, our go-to for all service-based, creative or portfolio style business is definitely Squarespace. Studies have shown that businesses are moving towards low or no-code websites for ease of maintenance, lower running costs and successful conversions. We find Squarespace strikes the perfect balance of aesthetic and function.

SEO & SQUARESPACE

We also love it for its in-built functions which begin as the basis for our inclusions and the start of your website’s SEO journey. All sites include:

• Sitemaps - Squarespace sites come with an automatic XML sitemap. Your sitemap usually stays current and includes all URLs and metadata for SEO-friendly indexing.

• SSL Certificates - Squarespace offers free SSL certificates so site visitors have a secure connection for their entire visit. It’s also why your site will start with Https.

• Mobile-friendly - Responsive design. Meaning your content will automatically resize to fit various devices and screen widths which is crucial for Google Search.

• Clean HTML and URLs - HTML markup and URLs are indexed with ease.

• Robots.txt - This file is built for you, but can optionally block web crawlers.

Without explaining crawlers, essentially Google is able to search your website for attributes/words/functions and deem them appropriate for certain search results. Without these in place it can stop you from appearing at all.

ON-PAGE Optimisation - KEYWORDS & MORE

By collating potential consumer data, we’re able to utilise possible answers, content or information that they would be seeking via Google Search. This is known as keywords and on-page optimisation. This ensures organic foot traffic and when done correctly can be all you need to rank depending on your location and industry.

The way we do this successfully is by being aware of how smart search engine’s are becoming. Developments in technology can now decipher when content is considered disingenuous. In other words, it can tell when keywords are used for SEO purposes and when it is used authentically within your information. Google prefers quality content that provides value to the person searching.

• Keyword placement - We place your keyword data within different layers and levels of your site as part of on-page optimisation (titles, tags and metadata to name a few). We also consider accessibility which is becoming increasingly important and includes things like alternative text and specific structure of content. Making sure it is visually coherent, functional and adaptable.

• Internal Linking - is also utilised as a funnel for your website and for Google to assess your credibility as a search solution. The more websites we can have linked to your newest build, the better the result.

• Accessibility - By writing content that addresses searcher intent, we’re able to boost organic reach and put your website in front of more customers. We focus on quality over quantity with page numbers and ensure easy functionality whilst adhering to the aesthetics of your business or brand.

IMAGE QUALITY, load times AND MOBILE layout

SEO can also be influenced by your websites load time. A faster load time will not only keep customers engaged for longer but will see a better search result as Google deems the site more user-friendly. We ensure your images are of the highest quality without budging your load times.

Our favourite feature of our Squarespace sites is the option to design specifically for Desktop and Mobile. It provides two separate layouts to accomodate for phone and computer usage, allowing your site to look 100% on every device. This does mean we create two separate builds of every website we create in order for it to appear perfectly across desktop and mobile.

Google is progressively favouring sites that function well on mobile as it contributes to more than 60% of online traffic.

FURTHER STRATEGIES

Some more advanced and complex options that are dependent on the type of website and subscription are as follows - Highlighted is what we would recommend and what has seen result:

• Schema Markup - Is a type of code that can inform search engines about a page.

• Multilingual Website Tags

• Optimising for Google Voice Searches - Utilising lower page speeds and content that would respond to a voice search with the focus on user-intent.

• Building Custom 404

• Submit your Sitemap to Google - AKA Sign-up for Google Console and Google Analytics.
  This helps verify your website and other profiles such as Google Business.

• From here we would advise professional paid ad assistance.

Looking for your next web designer

HOW TO: CHOOSE YOUR DESIGNER

Brilliant design not only comes from experience and creativity level, but an understanding of deeper working relationships between clients and designers. We have narrowed it down to our top 5 things you should consider when shopping for your next designer, photographer or creative professional.

PROFESSIONAL CHEMISTRY

Noting the importance we put on chemistry in our personal lives, it’s a wonder that business owners don’t follow the same rule in business. Perhaps because chemistry is immeasurable and difficult to align against a monetary goal. However, having chemistry in a professional setting ensures that you’re conducting business with someone you like, know and trust. At MONOCROW, we set an initial meeting either in-person or over zoom to discuss your project and see if we’d be a good fit as your designers.

Design outcomes often suffer without professional chemistry. The chemistry in working relationships is what sets the foundation for trust and allows designers to anticipate and execute the correct creative choices or strategies that align with you, your brand and its goals.

UNDERSTANDING of CLIENT NEEDS

Designers who formulate a deeper understanding of their client’s needs will result in overall better design outcomes. It is integral that your designer gains an understanding of not only the business in question but the individual or group that created it. Why? Because the client knows their industry the best. It is our job as your designer, to listen.

Your designer must be able to discern and understand what your needs are, who your audience or market is, and the project constraints (time, budget, materials, requirements).

TRACK RECORD OR SOCIAL PROOF

Social proof is one of the quickest way to assess your designer’s reputation. Some agencies have ways to create social proof that may be misleading or portray a particular image they wish to sell. So how do we find authentic social proof? Here are a few tips:

1. Google Reviews - Google is heavily monitored and reviews regulated to maintain authenticity. It creates a space that is free from bias and allows for honest feedback amongst businesses. This can be a good gauge on the public opinion of a designer as well as how they respond to feedback that is given.

2. Social Profiles - You can gather a lot of information from social profiles by just knowing what exactly to look for:

Follower Count - Does not directly mean a business with customers. Instead, note who engages with the profile, what content the brand is tagged in and if they collaborate with other brands and business in a positive and ethical way.

Design Brief or Design Work? - You can tell if your designer has worked with a business as opposed to working on a design brief (or passion project) by checking the post’s tags. Designer’s with legitimate turnover will post a range of projects and be inclined to tag and share from those they work with. This implies a real working relationship is present and a reputable portfolio of work.

Passion projects or Instagram ‘Designer Briefs’ are when a profile posts a creative brief for designers and artists to interpret. Designer’s may use these briefs to display creativity and showcase their skills which is a great way to see the level of your designer’s creativity. However, if they only post this kind of work, it means they may not be servicing many (or any) - real business.

3. Referral and Word of Mouth - Seen as the most reliable form of social proof. What do clients who have worked with this designer say about them? What was their experience like?

Overall, ask questions about and research their previous work to better understand how the designer can benefit you and your business.

PROCESS AND FEE STRUCTURE

Different design studios have different design processes. They vary in degree of formality, documentation and account management. It’s best to select a designer with an approach that suits you and your company. A designer’s process and fee structure will communicate the way they conduct business and in what manner.

At MONOCROW, we provide a breakdown of your project costs and provide flexible payment options to allow for varying budget types. We believe all business should have access to quality design, no matter if they are established or still in infancy.

Asking your designer how their fees are structured allows you to budget for other projects as they arise.

VALUE FOR MONEY

It’s the age-old saying but it still rings true. You get what you pay for.

It is unreasonable to expect high budget results if you have a lower scale budget. Conversely, if it is a major project with a larger budget, you will want to be sure that your designer thoroughly understands and can handle the requirements of these kinds of projects and/or workloads.

It should also be said that the final result, artwork or finished product - is never the only value. A designer’s time, level of expertise, attention to detail, ethics, reputation, creative style, exclusivity or influence and approach should all be seen as added value.

Our value is in the extra mile.
Discover why we are rated 5 stars on Google Reviews.

REFERENCE ARTICLE
https://agda.com.au/find-a-designer/how-to-find-a-designer