Kulture Konnect Blog

Did you know that people form a first impression in a mere 50 milliseconds? Design is so important because it is the visual face to your company. As a business owner your brand is outward-facing to so many eyes and you want them to have a good impression of your campaign right away. But what goes into designing to help your bottom line? Sometimes design results are so intangible that it difficult to know what is working and what is not. The good news is that there are specific areas that can be explored so when it is time to design, the outcome will be on target and do what it is meant to do. Here are 5 tips for designing successful campaigns. 

1. Identify Your Audience

Identifying your audience is key and you have to ask questions like how old are they? Where do they live? Are they mostly men or women? What do they do in their free time? What is their income? This will help you come to a general idea of who the campaign needs to speak to. Usually this is reached through a new business fact-finding meeting. Talking through the goals for the campaign will help identify the target audience. 

As creatives we have to start every project with the end goal in mind. For instance, you don't want to design something so modern and cutting edge that would attract Generation X, when the client really wanted to attract the baby boomers. It just wouldn't resonate with the older generation. Thus, causing the campaign to fail with hours of design wasted, and money that just goes down the drain. In other words, be aware, of who exactly you are designing for.

Use this checklist to hire the right graphic design studio. Download here.

2. Create Buyer Personas

Once the audience is identified you can create buyer personas that fall into that audience. The buyer personas will help the designer create tailor-made visuals that speak directly to the buyer persona. Inside an audience, there could be multiple buyer personas. For example, your target audience could be mothers. And inside that audience you have the working moms and the stay-at-home moms... each of these buyer personas will buy your product but different images will speak to each group of moms. 

3. Using Typography

Choosing fonts can really help your design, but you have to choose wisely because you don't want to pick something that just doesn't speak to the target audience.

Serif Fonts (with the feet) are great for traditional, corporate feeling pieces. Sans-Serif Fonts (no feet) can be used for more of a contemporary and modern feel.

Now, if you're designing for kids it's okay to use some fun, cartoon fonts because it's playful but you have to be very minimal with these fonts because they can be hard to read.

When using certain fonts you have to be wary of the font sizes. You can't use a small font size if the campaign is for senior citizens. So keep in mind your audience and adjust the font size as you see fit.

4. Choosing the Right Colors

Colors help convey emotion, so you have to be sure to use the right color combinations. Or else the tone you're initially trying to achieve can actually come out completely different. Choosing 2-4 colors that is used throughout the brand is ideal, because then it will help your audience  connect the dots to recognize your brand.

It's good to match a neutral color (black, white, grey, brown) with a cool scheme (green, blue, purple) or a warm scheme (red, orange yellow).

5. Think About Your Content

Content is key when it comes to your audience. You don't want to have the whole campaign in corporate nonsense if you're trying to attract those 21-year old's and younger. It's important to know WHO you are talking to and adjust your content accordingly. Keep your content at a reasonable length. Depending on what you are designing, the length of the text will vary. Typically this depends on how long we have the target audience's attention. Billboards are seen at very fast speeds so content must be short and to the point. With brochures, you tend to have longer time and can put more information in it.

In the end your campaign is the main goal that you want to make successful. Keeping in mind your target audience will be a big plus in making sure that you can design the best artwork. Great things will come from knowing your audience for this will allow for targeted and intentional creative freedom. 

Branding or marketing questions? Contact us today (951) 479-5411 or email us at info@kulturekonnect.com

Use this checklist to hire the right graphic design studio. Download here.