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The Importance of Simple Design in Marketing Your Brand

The Importance of Simple Design in Marketing Your Brand

Design is the makeup on the face of a brand, visible to everyone and judged by its looks.

Some may think that traditional branding design is already irrelevant now in our digital age, but that is not true.

Corporate brand strategies cost a considerable amount to make, and no company would spend on anything that will not yield dividends or results.

Large corporations spend billions in marketing every year to make sure consumers never forget.

If they ever stop, you would soon see the decline of their market share.

Businesses have to maximise their potentials to ensure that they can stay within or ahead of the competition.

The company design has to fall in line with the vision, mission, goals, and overall theme of the business.

Brands communicate a message and a visual hierarchy to tell your company's story in an enticing and robust method.

The design builds brand recognition and credibility by creating a clear, consistent visual cue.

Good brand design helps your business build connections that people do not even recognise have been created, resulting in more conversions.

That is the power of simple design in branding.

Designing and Branding

Simple-Designs-Quote

A brand is the entire image of the company's products or services.

It is formed based on reputation, marketing, logo design, credibility, and even customer service.

While a designer creates the foundation of the brand, only the consumers or audience “make” the brand based on their perceptions.

Designing is a significant factor of branding as it is responsible for the brand's visual devices.

The design is required in creating consistent, memorable, and most straightforward methods to identify the company.

Do not underestimate the importance of good design for your business promotions and branding.

Good design is not optional – it is critical to your brand's success.

The design aids in selling an idea or product.

It can be applied to different means, such as logos, brochures, packaging, stationery, signage, advertising magnets design, and anything visual that represents your business.

A well-executed design should guide the audience's eye and provide an instant connection to your products or services.

Make a Long-lasting Impression with Simple Design

A simple brand design will give you a quick impression that imprints into your memory.

The question is what you want the design to say about your business.

How do you want the people to feel?

Which emotions do you expect it to trigger?

  • A well-designed brand has to reflect the same thing in various stages of the business, including sales, service, packaging, etc.
  • Designs have to portray this in all interactions with the people, may it be online, in print or face-to-face.

The main idea behind the simplicity of design is making the people grasp the looks in just a matter of seconds.

Make it complicated, and the majority will not bother to take a second look.

Being Direct and Clear With the Message

Clarity-Simple-Branding-Tips

One of the top perks that a simple design has to offer is clarity.

Intricate designs are often hard to understand, at least in the focus time that most people have.

Consumers would likely associate your brand with visuals such as logos and brochures.

If it is unclear what these visuals present or stand for, brand recognition is lost.

It is vital that the message of any design be as transparent as possible.

It should be both simple and visually attractive.

Being Straightforward and Short

Designs are not essays and should not be prolonged more than necessary.

They have to remain straight to the point and send out a message with a few words.

When it comes to marketing materials, many companies come up with fun, motivational or sometimes even weird short sentences.

They do these techniques to quickly grasp the attention of anyone who looks at their design.

Most successful brands today have logos without any words or phrases.

It is much more interesting to look at a promotional billboard with an HD picture than a long block of a paragraph.

Advertising magnets design is a similar approach that is used to create short and straightforward messages.

The good thing about this is that the magnets allow the message to be distributed, delivered and traded at will.

Instant Brand Recognition

Brand-Recognition-Simple-Design

What every growing company is striving for when it comes to branding is recognition.

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Today, the right designs are the simple ones – those that catch your attention and are recognisable from the corner of an eye.

The purpose of a logo is to bring your brand to mind instantly – the simpler, the better.

A complicated design filled with unnecessary information makes it difficult for audiences to commit to memory.

Sometimes, a unique tone of colour is enough to make a particular design recognisable.

It could also be a mix of colours, various distorted shapes or just something creative that no one yet thought of.

Psychological Benefits of Simple Designs

There is more to the importance of simple design in branding than meets the eye.

We, humans, are mainly visual beings, meaning that our reactions are highly based on what we see.

Seeing simple designs trigger completely different psychological responses than a complex one.

Information Processing

The more natural design is to process the more appealing it will seem.

Seeing complex designs can cause confusion or information overload.

A recent Harvard study has tested which websites different people find aesthetically pleasing.

While the concepts of beauty are widely wary, one fact remains.

The more the site was visually complex the lower the visual appeal ratings were.

Simple-Design-Brain

Everything that we see is naturally processed and stored in our brains.

We receive massive amounts of data on a daily basis.

Simplicity saves our brains and eyes from working too hard, providing us with a feeling of relief.

How does that work?

As our eyes receive visual information, the retina converts it into electrical impulses that travel to the brain.

Those impulses carry light and colour information.

The more they are loaded with the details, the more eyes need to work to send the impulses and the harder it is for the brain to process and store the information.

Every Element Carries Information

Everything that design includes carries some message.

It can be expressed in words, colours, or shapes.

Even the positioning matters.

The question is how to add everything that a company has to offer in a design without making a mess out of it.

The challenge is real, and the only way to get results is by keeping it simple.

It is the key to communicate more with less.

Cognitive Fluency

Cognative-Fluency-Branding

Our brains process all the information they receive.

Their efforts are directed at processing and storing data as fast as possible.

This process is known as cognitive fluency and allows us to survive without going crazy in a society full of information.

So how exactly is the brain capable of reducing the time required to process information?

It is quite simple.

Brains absorb the information that they are used to (the so-called prototypes) faster than the unusual one.

An excellent example of that is associating different colours to various subjects.

Blue, for example, is often associated with males, while the pink one is apparently reserved for females.

However, is it so obvious?

Based on what are we coming up with these associations?

Simply put, based on prototyping.

Our brains follow the trend.

The more we hear about or see something, regardless of how illogical it is, the more we begin to perceive it as usual.

Did you know that this trend was reversed in the 19th century and boys won over the pink while blue belonged to the girls?

How does knowing this help in branding?

By investigating the design of other successful companies in the same industry, we can find out what the trend is and follow it.

For example, if a business is an online retail store, it should learn from other prosperous online retail companies.

What do others offer, how do they do marketing, how do they sell their products or services?

Copying the essential elements of the design that has already been prototyped by the brains of the majority will help a business create fruitful design plans.

Simple-Branding-Design

Bundle Up!

Design is playing a considerable part in branding products, services or businesses.

While standards are continually changing, one thing remains the same, and that is simplicity.

The business giants of various industries have proven that design does not have to be complicated to take over the population and gain recognition.

From logos to handouts to websites to advertising design, all elements should be connected under minimalism and represent an organisation with clear and straightforward messages.

A simple design does not only offer clarity and imprints into the viewers' brains, but it also provides psychological benefits to the recipients.

It has been proven that simple designs are more accessible to process and remember than complex ones.

Due to this reason, they are also more desired by the brains.

Try to check out some logos of the most successful companies.

Do you see any resemblances that you have not noticed before?

Remember, a good, simple design can get the branding to a whole new level.

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Stuart Crawford

Stuart Crawford is an award-winning creative director and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience building memorable and influential brands. As Creative Director at Inkbot Design, a leading branding agency, Stuart oversees all creative projects and ensures each client receives a customised brand strategy and visual identity.

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