Design is basically a reflection of your image, and when you operate a business, it’s important to project a consistent image. Subconsciously or not, customers look for consistency in design, and they do it for some very basic reasons. Design consistency involving the use of your logo and colors can help your customers remember and return to your business over and over.
More often than not, customers don’t remember the name of your business, its address or phone number, but they will have no trouble remember your logo, the colors your business uses, and your location. In general, people are very visual and they make “relative” associations – that is, they “relate” things of importance in their world with the other things of importance in their world. These relative, visual associations help people find the things they want without having to remember names and numbers. That’s why the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” will always remain true. Graphics and images transmit information a thousand times better than words do. Humans are just wired that way.
Being able to find you and distinguish you from your competitors (sometimes even after years) is one of the functions of your logo. Design consistency in your use of logo and colors takes on a primary importance because it allows your business to take advantage of a very basic human trait. Often, you can extend this design consistency throughout all aspects of your business image – your website, advertising, printed sales materials, signage, business cards and stationery – and reap the additional benefits that reinforcement can provide. No matter how your customer attempts to find you, you can increase their probability of succeeding by maintaining the design consistency of your logo and colors.
Having a relationship with a designer who takes the time to get to know your business, and can transmit your desired image of your business to your existing customers and potential new customers gives your business the big advantage of design consistency. That doesn’t mean that you can never update your logo or change your colors, but once you’ve established a brand identity, making major changes to your brand image over a short period of time puts you at risk of “losing” customers, who must rely on their memories, or other less reliable means to find your business again.
If you want to find out how important design consistency can be to your brand image, there’s a great little game available for mobile devices called the Logo Quiz. The game asks you to identify well-known brands by their logos or parts of their logos. For the most part, the logos are reproduced in color, and you can get a feel for how quickly you can identify a company based on its logo and color scheme.
If you’re considering changes to your brand image, or you’re trying to decide whether to create a new image for your business, contact our creative director Dave Ramsell or give him a call at (330) 243-0651 for a consultation and to learn more about design consistency and how you can put a long-term design strategy to work for your business. Ask about our creative retainer, which can give your business access to highly affordable creative design services!
Photo Credit: Mark Chapman, via Flickr
