Now we have refined your story, it’s time to start telling it. We engage your customer with marketing material which grabs their attention and relates to their needs. But what is this marketing material going to be? Brochures, press advertising, website, radio advertising? What medium should we use to send your message to your targeted clients?

Firstly we figure out where your target client shops, when this is known the next question arises. How should the story and message look? Should we use photography, illustrations, diagrams etc? These are questions we ask you and ourselves on every project.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Graphic Design is a title given to a very broad industry. We are a bit like a builder in the sense that we have many skills, but also need to be able to project manage many different people and skill sets to bring the project together.

A graphic designer’s job is to create images which demand attention, tell a story and communicate simply. Far too often the graphic designer gets caught up in making something look good, but misses the important message. If you look at design through the years it can become very fashion based, so it will date if you are too “in-vogue” with your design. This is why it is essential to have a good idea behind your message, but good ideas never date, they are timeless.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Everyone has a camera, but not everyone is a photographer. Photography is important to many different businesses, builders should invest in getting great photographs of the houses they build. It is no surprise to us that the most successful builders we have worked with, see the value in professional photography.

COPYWRITING

Copywriting is a talent and even though we all type emails, this doesn’t make us a copywriter. Funnily enough we tend not to have problems getting our clients to get professional copywriting, particularly for websites. Most people really can’t write about themselves, so we get them to write down the facts and we embellish and refine into a communication which flows and is easy to read.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

This is an area within the design process which is worth its weight in gold. Often overlooked or pushed aside as less important, project management is the single biggest reason projects are kept to budget and stay on track to meet deadlines.

If you have ever watched Grand Designs hosted by Kevin McCloud from the UK, you will see him tell home owners time and time again that “a project manager is essential to a project running efficiently”. Most of them don’t listen and most of them go over budget and miss their deadline.

ILLUSTRATION

Illustration is unfortunately becoming a lost art. We see illustration used less and less when in fact it should be used more and more. If you want to create a point of difference, illustration is a great way to stand out. Yes it is not as easy as getting a cheap or free stock image, but does that stock image bring attention to your marketing? Imagine putting an advert into a newspaper. Most clients say, “Here are some photos and some text can you please put an advert together”. The smart clients say, “This is what I am trying to achieve” and then leave it up to us to find the most suitable way to tell the story.

One such advert we did years ago for St. John of God used an illustration and it was a huge success. We nearly didn’t get the advert approved because we used the line “Sometimes the best medicine is not medicine at all.” Some of the doctors weren’t impress with the line, some thought the illustration didn’t suit the hospital corporate feel.

The advert was aimed at attracting volunteers. We used an illustration of a lady standing next to a patient in bed with some magazines under her arm and flowers in the other. The advert was a huge success attracting over 120 phone calls for volunteers in the first two days. They had aimed at getting 50 volunteers and decided to pull the advert after the first exposure because they were over subscribed. They were very happy and yet it almost didn’t happen because they weren’t sure about the illustration and the line we used.