What do office signs, websites, and billboards all have in common?

Besides all being tools of one’s marketing strategy, good design is critical for them to work well.

Design is one of those things that is everywhere, but we only become aware of when it is done exceptionally well or painfully bad.

It looks easy, but if you try and do it yourself, you quickly find that a professional often produces better results and takes less time which justifies the cost.

Still not convinced? Here are some other reasons having a professional work on your design project is key.

We Don’t Notice What We See

Much of what goes into making design good is caught by the average person intuitively, but most are unable to verbalize why something works. If you cannot explain why something looks good, then you will not be able to reproduce it correctly.

Take color for example. You go to your favorite website and you can just feel that all the elements blend well together but you can’t articulate why. It could be that the color palette of the site is based on colors pulled from the header image providing an easy connection. Or maybe the colors are harmonious in a monochromatic relationship or part of a color triad, which naturally look cohesive.

Or in a negative fashion you might see a graphic that you can tell looks busy, but are unsure how to fix it. You might not be aware that a focal point is needed, or that negative space could help the key image or idea stand out.

Professional graphic designers are aware of all the principles of design, and know how to use them (or break them) to their advantage.

We Don’t Just Use Paper

While our phones can take pictures, and most of us have basic drawing skills, the different outputs designs need to go into force designers to have to have a variety of skills.

First you need to have skill with the different design software available. Microsoft paint might be good for an initial design idea, but only design power horses like Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator allow the control needed to deliver any type of work. These programs take time and experience to learn and to use well.

Besides skills, there is also unique knowledge to be acquired to utilize the different mediums. Do you realize that if you want to print something you need CMYK colors, but to publish something online you will likely use RGB colors? Should you save an image as a JPG, PNG, or GIF file? Do you have a basic idea of how HTML and CSS work together so that your web design is actually doable, and won’t need to be completely redone by the developer?

We Need A Team

While using a freelance graphic designer can be helpful, designers who are apart of larger agencies bring strengths that might not be available otherwise. If an agency has both programmers and designers, the designers are already used to creating elements that can be coded easily. If the agency does digital advertising with display ads, the designers will already be used to creating ads according the recommended IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) industry standards.