I have decided to write a series of post on habits that can help designers improve their craft. I write these tips more as therapy for myself and a way of documenting the lessons that I learn each and every day about what it takes for me to become better at one of my principle loves and passions.

So here is the first habit:

Habit 1: Have a clear concept or vision of what you want to design

If you have ever read Stephen Covey’s Habits of Highly Effective People, then you know that this resembles his second habit: Begin with the End in Mind. Essentially, Covey argues that in order to lead a rewarding life and be “effective” on a regular basis, you have to know where you are going. What’s your ultimate goal? Covey asks, if you are going to climb the ladder—to borrow a metaphor from the corporate world—what ladder are you going to climb? Too often, he says, people climb the wrong ladder in life and thus find themselves unfulfilled and unhappy. If you feel that way on a daily basis, it’s hard to be good at what you do with your life in terms of business, family and other pursuits.

As a remedy, he encourages the reader to visualize the end of his or her life and imagine what it is that one really wants to do with the short time we have been given. Essentially, what do you want your friends and loved ones to say about you when you have passed on? This technique he claims helps us find true north and reorient our life toward our authentic interests, goals and passions.

But let’s get back to less heady stuff and talk about design. If I were to extrapolate this habit onto the design profession, I would say something like “begin with a concept in mind.” Maybe this is obvious for many designers but I find myself having to remind myself time and time again to get back to the main concept. It is so easy for me to get lost designing multiple ideas and iterations of ideas that I lose a lot of time in the process. There are times when all I see are trees and no forest. Many times, my creative process resembles Jonas Buntenbruch’s satirical depiction of an ad agency creative process diagram.

Jonas Buntenbruch's take on an agency creative process diagram.

At these moments, I go back to the big picture questions and try to refocus on the parameters of the project I am working on:

• What style does the client want? Why did they hire me to begin with?
• What style, which typefaces, images, color palette best communicate the message that needs to be sent?
• What were my initial ideas?

The last question is an interesting one. I remember my high school biology teacher once claiming our first instinct is usually the right one and that we should learn to go with it. I have found this true in my work as a designer. Often times, I find myself going back to my very first ideas after spending inordinate amounts of time brainstorming for bigger, better ideas. And even though, “suspending judgement” is a key to creativity and brainstorming, I keep finding this to be true in my work. My initial ideas tend to be the right direction for a project.

So, before getting lost in the mire of creativity and the pursuit of perfection, try to stay focused on the goals for the project set out in the client brief and your own initial instincts about how to achieve those goals visually.

exljbris type foundry business card

This purely typographic business card belongs to Jos Buivenga, a typographer, owner of exljbris type foundry and creator of the popular Museo family of typefaces.

The minimal design allows the “type” to speak for itself and represents the principle business activity of the company.

Most companies worry about getting into the top three positions of Google search results related to their product or service. Most don’t worry about the potential client once they go to Web site, though. Mark likens this to a merchant who cares about “location, location, location” but then doesn’t bother to properly decorate the store or hire well-dressed and courteous sales personnel.

In short, he says the basic keys to a successful Web presence are:

1. Brand matters.
2. Usability matters.
3. Search engine optimization matters.

Brand matters: This means that your Web site must reflect the values and personality of your business. And it should inspire trust.  This has everything to do with the style and looks of your Web site. The design of your logo and Web site (the typography, the colors, the choice of images like photos or illustration, how well the overall design is executed, etc.) are critical in transmitting the quality of the service or product you sell and the prices you are likely to command.

Usability matters: This means that your Web site’s design should be intuitive. Users, clients, and prospects should find it easy to navigate or use. If you and your Web design team have done a good job, your visitors will be using the Web the way you want them to and you will be converting a higher percentage of them to paying clients. This also means that visitors expect to easily find information like your telephone number or support email address.

Search engine optimization matters: This means that your Web site should be readily visible in search results for keywords related to your services, products, and location. But how does that happen? One way is by providing relevant content. Blogging is a good way to create quality, unbiased information that visitors find useful, positions you as an authority in your field, and increases the relevance of your content in search engines. But the design and usability of your Web site also matter for SEO. The better the content, the more attractive the design and the easier the site is to use, the more visitors will like and link to your site. And inbound links are key component of the way search engines like Google rank Web sites.

These are broad rules to keep in mind to be sure. Keep them in mind when redesigning your start or commissioning a Web site design for the first time.

A Landor Project, via LogoDesignLove.

A New York Times illustration by the Brooklyn-based studio, Rumors.

Here are two things that that caught my eye today and are rather inspiring in their own right.

I recently saw an article by the owner of a company that sells Website design and marketing services to accountants that offered some sound advice for small business owners and self-employed professionals.

For instance, the article argues that small business Websites should be friendly:

Rather than trying to dazzle the visitor with slick images and stock photos of beautiful people being beautiful, try offering the prospect familiar comfortable images. A picture of a local park, maybe, or main street on a sunny day, kids playing outside the public library… If the initial impression on your site is one of comfort, safety, and best of all, recognition your retention of new visitors will go up more than 30%.

I have to say that I agree with the basic assertion that the Website should be “friendly” and not try too hard to appear to be something it is not as in the case of using slick stock photos of beautiful people.

On the other hand, I disagree that a picture of kids or a local park will lead a client to remember your site. It might help a prospect view you as a local outfit but I doubt it will raise your profile or increase retention. The main problem is that including homemade photos of familiar local places in a willy-nilly manner can quickly cause your Website or marketing collateral to appear amateurish. Friendly is one thing. Unprofessional is another.

The article also says that as a customer buying Web design, you shouldn’t get “bogged down by aesthetics:”

Now is not the right time to indulge in artistic expression. Graphic design changes can drive your costs right through the roof. Trying to find the perfect shade of blue in a world where every monitor on the planet displays colors differently is not an effective use of your time. There are a lot of much more important things that need doing. The site needs to be nice, yes, but the overall look is really a very small part of the design process. In fact, some very effective and profitable websites are just plain ugly. While it’s important for your site to represent your tastes don’t get stuck on creating the “perfect” look. Even if you succeed it won’t be worth the time and money you just spent. All you will have accomplished is creating a site style that appeals to you. This is one of the most fundamental mistakes in advertising. Advertising should not appeal to the advertiser. What you want is a site style that appeals to your prospects.

I like the idea the article expresses of what I’ll call “universality.” That is, your design should appeal to your market, not just to you or to your designer. That is an important principle that trained designers learn in design school.

I also agree that if you are a small business buying custom graphic design you shouldn’t aim at perfection, at least not initially. Graphic design is a process and as it wears on, the design itself improves. Half the battle is just showing up, something that most people in small business understand. And yes, if you are investing in custom graphic and Web design then asking for multiple iterations of your Website or business card is going to start to cost a small fortune.

I do take umbrage, however, in the way the article downplays the importance of aesthetics and that you (or your design supplier) shouldn’t strive for perfection. Aesthetics are important in transmitting your company’s values. In addition, some designs are beautiful, some are just plain ole ugly. Some are in between. Those that are neither here nor there can usually be improved up until the point where the design in question reaches near perfection—in the way the graphics, images and information interact and in the way they obey gestalt principles of design and aesthetics.

Maybe as a small business you can’t afford to hire this kind of design if you are buying design as a service and paying an hourly rate. On the other, I think if you are buying pre-formatted or template-drive graphic or Web design then I think those templates should each be pretty near perfect in and of themselves.

Maybe perfection is not the right word. “Excellence” may be more appropriate because it allows for the idea of improvement over time, a key value in business. But as St. Thomas notes, I want my artist to be pretty darn good at what he does. Ultimately, if I am a small business I want to buy my business identity and marketing collateral design from a company who really believes in the quality of its designs and doesn’t trivialize its importance in the overall scheme of things.

Sure, other aspects of the process are important but if you are buying Web design, then I think you should buy it from someone with a passion for design and his or her own creations.

Craigslist, the Website as it is now.

Wired magazine ran an article not too long ago in its printed and online editions entitled: “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess.” The story outlined all of the problems with the visual design—and what Web designers like to call “usability”—of the hugely popular classified ads site. Wired notes that in spite of a design that violates “every principle of usability and common sense” the site remains immensely popular. Why is that?

Part of the answer lies in the fact that Craigslist has no true competitors. It gained a here-to-fore insurmountable first-mover advantage in the late 1990s in offering free classified ads and has never looked back since. Companies that don’t have competitors don’t have to worry about design. They don’t have to bother to improve their product because there are no real alternatives. They sell features, not benefits. It’s a classic monopoly situation.

Now take another example, prior to the iPod there were many makes of MP3 players on the market but they were not very user-friendly. Most players were geared towards people who really liked gadgets instead of the broader swath of the population that liked music but could care less about gadgets. Apple saw an opportunity to design a product that was both easier-to-use and more beautiful. By doing so, it was able to capture an astounding 75 percent of the portable music player market and, at one point, even as much as 92 percent.

The comparison is not entirely apt as the iPod is a classic example of an industrial-era product while Craigslist represents a new media virtual public good of sorts. Certainly the economics of these two industries are very different and that might explain why Craigslist is a Website that has no true competitors and, thus, is not forced to make its product more beautiful and more usable. The undeniable fact is that even though it’s downright ugly, it’s usable enough.

So does this mean that you should fire your web designer and make your site look like its 1999? Of course not.

You are not free

The first reason is that if you are a small business or self-employed professional, unlike Craigslist, you cannot afford to give away your product or service for free. You, we (Stylomate is also a small business) have to compete on the basis of something other than free. Small businesses have to offer tangible and intangible benefits.

As consumers,  we value Craiglist only because it’s free. If the company tried to charge us, we wouldn’t remain loyal and we’d go somewhere else that offered us free classified advertising. Again, Craiglist gives us a feature (free classified advertising) not a benefit. Since free things compete on the basis of this most basic feature of “freeness,” they don’t have to sell benefits. Free things can afford to be ugly or hard-to-use because so long as they do give us something we need, we want them only for their freeness.

Competition in your industry is fierce

The second reason is that if you are a small business or self-employed professional in virtually any sector of the economy then you have an inordinate amount of competition. Your website, business card and other marketing collateral vie for attention in a very crowded marketplace.

All this competition among firms selling very similar products or services means that you have to sell the benefits of our products and services and not simply the features. There are a lot of lawyers in Washington, DC and bankers in NYC. What makes you so special?

Design adds perceived value, communicates benefits

This is where design can play an important role in communicating the main benefits that your firm offers. Design adds value by adding the perception of value and by associating products and services with benefits. The more professional your company’s image is, even if you are a one-person shop, the more likely you are to leave a positive impression on a prospective client. And not just any client, but “A-list” clients, the ones that are likely to spend more on your products and services.

Are you an experienced firm that seeks to communicate this benefit? A minimal, clean business card and website design using blues, greens and black and that looks like it was created by a professional designer sends the message that you are a experienced and reputable professional (and certainly not free). The higher the quality of the design of your business’ identity, the better the impression you will make and the more likely clients will be willing to pay a higher price for your services.

Ultimately, a strong business identity design and an equally well-designed and easy-to-use Website design says that you place a great value upon your own service and makes it more likely that clients will value you. After all, if you don’t give yourself a little love first, who will?

A beautiful die-cut business card with a minimalist design.

I noticed this recent blog entry on a website geared toward graphic designers that—in addition to an impressive gallery of images of business card designs that use traditional but more advanced printing techniques—brushes upon some important points.

The first is that it is pretty hard to stand out from the crowd these days as a result of glut of social and digital media. Social media has some important benefits (otherwise we wouldn’t blog or post to Twitter) but also some limitations. One of those, at least from a corporate identity design and marketing standpoint, is standing out from the crowd. At the moment, everyone (and rightfully so) is investing in their digital architecture, platforms and marketing.

Very few are doing so with respect to offline marketing and that makes anyone who does invest in old school methods not only retro but unique. Any good business person knows to not follow the crowd. Ergo, where there exists an opportunity for differentiation, seize it.

One simple bit powerful way to do this is for small businesses and self-employed professionals is by having a business card with a unique form. Die-cutting in the printing process is a way of giving a business card, for example, a nonstandard shape or to cut holes out of the card itself.

Many people who have never thought about graphic design tend to think that “more is more:” more color, more graphics, etc. Another common and related misperception is that bigger is better: bigger type, bigger pictures, bigger logos, and the list goes one. Sometimes more and big might be good but usually “understatement,” simplicity and elegance transmit a stronger message of quality, dependability and experience, in particular in professional services like accounting, law and healthcare.

One of  the most appealing aspects of die-cutting and other specialized printing processes such as embossing (when done right) is that they are incredibly elegant, subtle and send an indirect but powerful message about the quality of the company or the business professional donning the card.

So when you go to replenish your business cards ask your designer or design company about creative ideas with respect to the form and the paper and not just the visual design.

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Check out this gallery of inspiring business card design. This embossed business card is extraordinarily elegant.

No one but no one talks about business cards or business card design these and certainly no one talks about business card etiquette on the web. So when we found this blog article entitled Business Card Elegance And Etiquette by Search Marketer Max Kalehoff we took note.

In a digital world comprised of social media, smart phones and augmented reality, business cards seem to be a relic of a bygone era. Not so, says Kalehoff, who argues that business cards, their design and the way we use them are just as important as ever.

In spite of the speed, convenience and other benefits of digital communications and platforms, we still prefer their physical counterparts. After all, would you rather have a friend that you chat with on Facebook or would you rather have a friend that you can chat with over a beer. Face-to-face relationships and social rituals are still paramount to life and business. Don’t believe me? Well ponder this fact: in spite of the ubiquity of Amazon and eBay, only 3 percent of retail transactions in the U.S. are conducted over the Internet. The fact is, we’d rather go to a brick and mortar store, fawn over books or clothes or toasters and make small talk with the cashier.

Business cards are important for this reason. We still prefer real, physical things and relationships to virtual ones. I don’t know about you but I am a bit suspicious of friendship requests on Facebook or LinkedIn from people I don’t know. I prefer a physical introduction and business cards can help with that.

Without spoiling the fun of reading the entry for yourself, we’ll summarize the main points:

1. The tactile experience is still important and so the material and surface of your business card matters a great deal. So buy quality paper that feels nice.

2. Have a beautiful and simple business card design. Hire a designer. Don’t be cheap. You wouldn’t scrimp on your business suit so don’t do it on your business card. They both reflect on you and your business.

3. Be minimal. We love this one. Use fewer words, not more on your business card. Have lots of white space. This is the best kept secret of designers and advertisers. Limiting ourselves is one of the hardest things to do since we have so much to offer. And yet, simplifying our message to the single most important thing that we want to say is critical to actually attracting attention and being heard. Communication is more effective the more simple and direct it is. The same goes for your business card design.

4. Carry a business card and make sure it’s tidy. Sage advice. Someone that has a polished business card readily available still makes a strong first impression in a digital word.

There are some more kernels of wisdom in the article and we recommend you check out this old school marketing advice from a  digital marketing pro.

MOO Business Cards – Go Green! Create customized Business Cards made with 100% recycled, recyclable and biodegradable paper.