There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to graphic design for AU businesses. Especially since many of Australia’s companies seem to undermine its necessity, even if these business owners know the importance of a well-thought-out graphic design there isn’t much they can do without the right information.
We get it. It’s hard to create engaging designs if you don’t know how to improve your brand identity. It’s even harder to find the right information or tools to differentiate what makes a design engaging and what doesn’t.
That’s why we’re here to help you understand the different principles and techniques you can utilise during this process of your business’ growth. Whether it’s to revamp your brand or take its first steps into visually attracting its customers, everything you need to know about engagement in designs for Australian businesses is right here.
What is Brand Identity?
Let’s talk about brand identity and how to create a brand image before we begin learning about graphic design for AU businesses. The reason we have to discuss this is because brand identity and graphic design go hand in hand.
Brand identity is a key factor in a company. It’s the visual elements of a brand that consumers identify with subconsciously. These include company colours, designs, logos, and even the language or interactions the company has with its clients.
Branding can only be done through intentionally creative ways that burn through their consumer’s minds and automatically associate anything similar to the brand itself. Below, you’ll find the ways to create a brand image with graphic design.
What are the Design Principles for Brand Alignment?
There are 6 principles of graphic design for AU businesses. These design principles should always be considered when brainstorming for the brand’s identity.
Consistency and Durability
Consistency and durability are key factors in creating a branding package that can embed itself into a viewer's subconscious. Ensure that your brand’s colours, logo, font, structure, and even its interaction with clients are always maintained at the level it’s associated with.
This includes consistently keeping the tone of your interactions humorous or professional, strictly following your brand's colour schemes, and uniformly displaying information and designs.
Durability also plays a part in your brand’s design. Changing your brand’s graphic designs constantly can cause a lack of identity for your consumers. Ensure that if major changes are upheld, they will be committed within a period before any changes are made again.
Colour Theory
Colour theory in graphic design for AU businesses also plays a key role. Humans are visually dependent. We see first before we react and analyse what we can obtain from the image we’re looking at. Colour theory is the method of mending colours together to affect the emotions and perceptions of people in general.
Filmmakers, painters, and even graphic designers use colour theory to set the mood for anything they create to convey the message of their work. A prime example of this is Coca-Cola, whose branding and graphic design chose a harsh pop of red to imitate excitement and thirst.
The colours can create a positive or negative reaction in audiences depending on what your company produces and services. Study up on the different subconscious emotions that colours can evoke while taking it into a business perspective.
Typography
Colours aren’t the only thing that a brand can be associated with. Typography can also be included in the identification of a brand formation. Once your design uses a uniform typography, consumers will subconsciously associate this font with your company.
Furthermore, typography doesn’t just include fonts. Having the ability to emotionally enhance a sentence with typography while ensuring that your information is readable can become a support to your design’s attempt at conveying its message.
Structure
Structure in graphic design for AU businesses also contributes to its success. When visuals with information are carefully placed to have a hierarchy, the flow of how the viewer reads through it can be predicted.
It takes a well-trained graphic designer to lead the audience’s eyes to ensure which information catches their attention while placing other elements for support and persuasion.
Engagement
An effective graphic design should also be interactive to its target audience. We don’t necessarily mean you have to use gamification. However, we do suggest adding informative pieces that call the viewers to action on your designs.
A call to action can increase engagement, whether this involves subscribing, clicking a link, or finding out more about the topic of the image. It’s crucial that whichever CTA you choose is related to your brand and building a relationship with your viewer.
Keep in mind that engagement creates data that you can analyse to further understand which parts succeeded in keeping your audiences engaged and which parts did not. Not only does it document proof of the effects of your graphic design, but it also helps you track your success.
Versatility
Versatility is the last principle of your design brand identity. Once you have included all the factors that make an effective graphic image, it’s time to ensure it gives a clear message to your audience.
Graphic design for AU businesses should be versatile and seamlessly transition to mobile optimisation. This is because Australia has a tech-heavy culture where almost everyone holds a smartphone or a tablet. If your image does not adapt well from a computer to a mobile device, the possible engagement and impressions you could receive would lessen.
Every element of your brand should be fit for any type of device connected to the Internet. This includes your brand’s logo, uniform style, colours, and images. It should also be able to express your brand’s vision clearly without going overboard with any information. This will make the design timeless and relevant to the business’s journey.
5 Techniques to Enhance Engagement Through Design
The graphic design statistics prove that engagement can give you a valuable brand reputation, authority, and awareness among your consumers. While you may have a compelling design for your brand, it’s important to utilise it to its full potential to increase sales and enhance the engagement principle to its full potential.
Only One Call-to-action
Most free brand identity designs have little to no interaction with their audiences. Meanwhile, some designs could have too many interactive elements that could confuse your audience. A prime example of this is cramming information into one design with multiple navigational buttons such as “see testimonials”, “subscribe”, or “see resumes.”
Simplify the interactivity of your graphic design for AU businesses. Strictly adhere to one call to action to keep your engagement with your viewers memorable and readable from their perspective.
Utilise Hick’s Law
The funny thing about graphic design, in general, is that people undermine the science behind it. Hick’s law is a prime example of the science that can be applied to your brand. Hick’s law is best explained through the jam study, which had groups a and b taste 24 flavours of jam or 6 flavours of jam separately.
You would assume that the group who tasted 24 flavours of jam would have purchased more products. However, it was the group that had only 6 options of flavour that had the higher percentage. The difference? 3% to 30%.
So, what does this mean about graphic design for AU businesses? Just like with simplifying interactivity, the information and options you provide within your designs should be optimised. Too many options can overwhelm a consumer who receives information daily. This is why limiting subscription plan offers or having only a few steps in a graphic image can matter greatly in terms of your ROI.
Use Asymmetry and Symmetry
There’s another scientific method utilised in graphic design: the Gestalt Principles. Human perception has been studied by many scientists for decades. Because of this, we now have a wide variety of principles that are utilised to understand perspective. These are called the Gestalt Principles.
The law of symmetry is one particular part of the Gestalt Principles that graphic designers use. It has been observed that most humans prefer symmetry and orderliness. That makes it easier for humans to spot asymmetrical spaces.
There is both an upside and a downside to using asymmetry. The downside is that symmetrical images make it easier for audiences to process your information quickly. However, the upside is that those within asymmetrical placements are noticed quickly.
Combine both asymmetry and symmetry innovatively and creatively to highlight important facts while giving out seamless and readable information to your viewers. The faster they absorb the information, the quicker they can follow through any instructions or questions they may have for you.
Storytelling
Any graphic design for AU businesses should have a compelling story to tell within their designs. Whether it’s an infographic, a newsletter, a logo, or a simple post, all images have a story that the viewer can interpret and understand.
There’s no easy way to say this, but if your designs are too bland consumers will more than likely just scroll past your company’s posts. However, even if you have a flashy and attention-grabbing design, should you have little to say it may not leave a lasting impression to your audience.
Utilise the emotional aspects of consumers and cater to relatability to create a story with your visuals while promoting the values your company has.
Test through A/B Variants
Final products of designs are made to be tested and graphic images aligned to your business are no exception. The final step in every brand design process is to test whether it is effective or not.
There are many ways to test your effort’s engagement percentage after analysing the data you’ve received. A foolproof method to enhance engagement is to create a and b variants of your design and post them separately. That way, you can compare whether variant a or variant b has engagement.
This can be useful for future designs as well. Having a solid idea of what your consumers prefer can optimise the time used to create brands.
Conclusion
This concludes everything you need to know about graphic design for AU businesses. Impressive engagements, uniformity, and all the planning it takes to create your brand’s strong identity are necessary to stay fresh in the minds of your target audience.
It’s normal to feel overwhelmed with all these necessary principles and techniques for graphic design. Do not worry; with us at Flexi Digital Marketing, we can help you create an explosive impact on your audiences and get your marketing to a whole new level.
Contact us, and we will hook you up with our design experts today!