5 Design Mistakes We See Small Businesses Make
As small business owners, we can understand how you may be wearing many hats, including one of a graphic designer. While this probably feels like the most cost-effective option, your brand may be suffering in ways you don’t even realize. Here are some common design mistakes we see business owners make.
1. Not being consistent with color palette and general look/feel
Consistency here is super important, as every element that comes together to create the look and feel of your brand creates your visual identity. This is how your customers recognize you. If you keep on moving this around, there is no way for anyone to realize it is your business that is trying to communicate something to them.
2. Having brand assets that don’t work across multiple media
Your brand identity shouldn’t shift dramatically every time you need to use different marketing materials, such as print, digital, on different colored backgrounds, etc. In other words, your brand should have the same look and feel whether it’s on a billboard or an Instagram graphic. Your identity elements should look good on all mediums, but depending on how they were designed, this can be tricky and you might find yourself constantly making adjustments for each design job.
3. Having a logo that isn't legible from far away
If you use a tiny font, fancy script lettering, or make the design of your logo difficult to discern, it may take some time for someone to realize it is your business. The more legible it is from far away, the quicker people can recognize your brand. This will also help with #2 (making sure the logo looks good across all marketing mediums, both digital and print).
4. Not using templates
Not only are templates a great tool to help you save time, creative effort, and money, but they ensure brand consistency and recognizability. We always recommend hiring a designer to create a library of templates for you that you can update as needed. That way, you don’t have to pay someone else to make small text changes, but you have a base design that is flexible and representative of your brand.
5. Using too much text on materials like slide decks and brochures.
Less is more! Oftentimes, small business owners feel like they have to communicate every single detail through text on their materials. In reality, a more effective strategy is to have a “teaser” of information — like a brief summary or an infographic — and then you can either include a call to action (i.e. “learn more on our website…”) or supplement with a verbal explanation. In other words, you don’t need to write your whole script on your slide, and you don’t need to put all the text from your website on your brochure. Give your reader or viewer just enough for them to want to learn more. And this will help with the design — white space is your friend!
The bottom line: sometimes it’s worth the investment to get initial help from a designer. Just set up your materials in a way that you can update them if necessary — like a template library — rather than having to go through a designer for every small edit.
If you recognize any of these 5 design mistakes in your business and would like to chat with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can schedule a free consultation and see how to best meet your needs without breaking the bank.