Cheap Design is VERY EXPENSIVE
Just because you know how to chop vegetables and turn on your stove doesn’t mean you can whip up a gourmet meal or that you should call yourself a professional chef. It takes time, experience, often schooling and years hard work to hone the craft. And then you may just be good. It takes creativity and ingenuity to be great. It’s the same with design.
Don’t be fooled! Here are 3 ways that cheap design costs you money:
Time. Your time is valuable. If you are not a professional designer, you may spend countless hours on a design when you could be focusing on your customers. A graphic designer will provide design mock-ups for your review to use your time efficiently and provide options.
Confusion. The content in any well designed brochure, flyer, business card, etc has been organized in a way to be clear and as concise as possible. Confused customers lead to lost business. A graphic designer with copy-editing skills will work to ensure your customers understand your message.
Reprints. Understanding pixels vs. picas, RGB vs. CMYK, bleeds and paper weight are all integral to a great quality print. Misprints are very expensive. A graphic designer understands the language and will choose the correct format; providing options when applicable so your print projects come out exactly how you want.
Many people can and do learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator, then report to the world they are graphic designers… or even worse - they learn Canva. Now don’t get me wrong, I think tools to help small business owners create aesthetically pleasing print or digital marketing materials is great. And technology such as Canva for image design is amazing to create supplemental design pieces on a budget. But remember that your branding is what your customers will see before they experience your product. Design is not about learning the tools, it’s about understanding aesthetics, print specs, copy-editing, honing your craft and gobs of hard work.