Comments on: Create all your marketing materials online for free? Now what? http://www.armanarami.com/archives/40 Startup Branding, Website Consulting & Social Media Marketing Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:31:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: snaegele http://www.armanarami.com/archives/40/comment-page-1#comment-5 snaegele Wed, 20 May 2009 17:48:43 +0000 http://armanarami.wordpress.com/?p=40#comment-5 In the past 15 years it has not been uncommon for individuals at some of my clients to buy photoshop and become involved in doing ads or brochures or logos. Most of the efforts have not been very good and when at least the visual design looked presentable it was because they had copied something else. But they all thought that the work was very good, if not excellent and creative. When we see the results of non design individuals using PowerPoint we also see a lot of poor design. In both of these situations what I mean by poor design is efforts in which the design is not implementing the marketing strategy. I think that most non designers do not grasp that design organizes and creates a strategically appropriate feeling for the purpose.For them a design that looks nice or is visually exciting is good design. On the other hand I think people at many levels, especially students who use computers and MSWword and PowerPoint are increasingly becoming more sophisticated in using heads, subheads, body copy, italic, leading, type size and to an extent color and typefaces and understanding somewhat that typography works to organize information. I have found for non designers I can set up in MSWord, or PowerPoint situations where I have designed the template with a set of instructions and they can generate consistent well designed materials. We can see the same thing with blogs such as WordPress where given a good template non designers can use it well. As students increasingly use computers in school they will become more sophisticated and skilled at using basic design principles as a tool for organization of information and this will influence the workplace after they enter it. However I doubt that non designers will develop the abilities to use design to implement marketing strategies in the kind of creative way that makes a difference in marketing. This is a skill the designer has inside of himself or herself. For example these logo auctions are mostly illustrations. A person throws up a bunch of designs and someone picks the one they like. To develop the kind of logo that implements the marketing strategy at feeling level requires the designer and marketing ( i.e. the people who develop the marketing strategy and objectives) to be interactively working together during the process of design. And then post design the logo needs consistent and creative application in its design-use over time to really get the branding and identity work out of it. But yes, as time goes on non-designers will increasingly become more and more sophisticated at using design as a tool for organizing information to increase its ability to communicate information. And they will be more effective using these tools on the WWW. In the past 15 years it has not been uncommon for individuals at some of my
clients to buy photoshop and become involved in doing ads or brochures or logos.
Most of the efforts have not been very good and when at least the visual design looked presentable it was because they had copied something else. But they all thought that the work was very good, if not excellent and creative.

When we see the results of non design individuals using PowerPoint we also see a lot of poor design. In both of these situations what I mean by poor design is efforts in which the design is not implementing the marketing strategy.

I think that most non designers do not grasp that design organizes and creates a strategically appropriate feeling for the purpose.For them a design that looks nice or is visually exciting is good design.

On the other hand I think people at many levels, especially students who use computers and MSWword and PowerPoint are increasingly becoming more sophisticated in using heads, subheads, body copy, italic, leading, type size and to an extent color and typefaces and understanding somewhat that typography works to organize information.

I have found for non designers I can set up in MSWord, or PowerPoint situations where I have designed the template with a set of instructions and they can generate consistent well designed materials. We can see the same thing with blogs such as WordPress where given a good template non designers can use it well.

As students increasingly use computers in school they will become more sophisticated and skilled at using basic design principles as a tool for organization of information and this will influence the workplace after they enter it.

However I doubt that non designers will develop the abilities to use design to implement marketing strategies in the kind of creative way that makes a difference in marketing. This is a skill the designer has inside of himself or herself.

For example these logo auctions are mostly illustrations. A person throws up a bunch of designs and someone picks the one they like.

To develop the kind of logo that implements the marketing strategy at feeling level requires the designer and marketing ( i.e. the people who develop the marketing strategy and objectives) to be interactively working together during the process of design. And then post design the logo needs consistent and creative application in its design-use over time to really get the branding and identity work out of it.

But yes, as time goes on non-designers will increasingly become more and more sophisticated at using design as a tool for organizing information to increase its ability to communicate information. And they will be more effective using these tools on the WWW.

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