What makes Great Design?

Throughout time, the principles of creative thinking and what works or doesn’t work to help you stands out from the crowd have remained the same and for Elan we stand true to this core thinking every time we pick up the mouse.

'Great design is about a passion, having specific knowledge of the client and the target audience as well as an ability to deliver exceptional brand representation through superb marketing messages using innovative methods of engaging the target audience.'

We know from our 25 years experience that unless you have the these key ingredients, you cannot produce the best creative. That is fact!

In our opinion (and particularly if you are not a marketer yourself) - unless you have a creative or agency that think like marketers and have some experience and knowledge in marketing, you are unlikely to achieve the results you would like from your campaigns.

Sadly, we see a lot of creative work that is eyecatching, but actually it very often misses the point, and therefore the opportunity.

Here are just some of the classic mistakes that we come across often in creative:

• Overdone content – images and a clever strapline can speak a thousand words – a thousand words are boring!
• No call to action – yes - believe it or not often a call to action is lost or even missing from creative
• Lack of clear benefit value to the end user of the product/service – what feel good factor will they get from you?
• Lack of or constantly changing brand style and direction – trust is all important in the relationship with your client and good consistent brand reinforces trust based marketing.
• Failure to engage marketing integration and provide multiple points of reference or contact for the reader – drive them on to other marketing tools.

Creative success starts with the fundamental basic of ensuring strength of brand through quality and consistency. Strangely enough – this too is where business success starts and continues – some of the best business brains can testify to this. Watch this video with Richard Branson of Virgin talking about brand and you will see what we mean!

So how to you start? Well ask yourself...

• How effective is my brand and how is this measured?
• Is it consistent in style and approach?
• Is it widely recognised?
• Are the messages we send clear and do they work?
• Where are my brand guidelines?
• Do all the people who work for me and with me understand our brand goals.

Of course, brand isn’t just about the logo you put on the page (although it is in 99% of cases the first thing you will need). Remember that brand is all inclusive and it encompasses a whole raft of other disciplines throughout your business and marketing functions – for more about brand success and how to achieve it – click here

Your creative function, whether in house or not, should be briefed fully not only on your marketing objectives but also the purchasing objectives of your target audience – this will help them to understand a particular individual or company so they can then go on to create effective design combined with marketing messages that work.

They should also be able to understand why some campaigns or particular messages work above others, know how to adjust them to your advantage, providing you not only with great design, but more importantly, results.