Meet Paul McCullen, our Art Director. Paul designs online and offline marketing and campaign materials for our clients including emails, landing pages, multimedia presentations, white papers, how-to guides, and case studies.
Bob: Paul, we’ve talked about how many business people don’t really understand what graphic design is, or what you do. Can you tell us a little about it?
Paul: A lot of people confuse graphic designers with fine artists and illustrators. Although many designers wear these hats as well, a graphic designer is trained primarily in how to communicate persuasive messages visually, not how to draw pretty pictures. An Art Director is a graphic designer who partners with the marketing consultant, creative director and the copywriters. He or she develops concepts regarding how best to tell the story visually either online, or in print, or both. The point is to let the images and graphic design do a good portion of the work.
A professional designer will not only be interested in the content, but will design for optimum readability. There’s been a lot of research on how to optimize readability through typography: fonts, size, leading, weight, bold, italic, colors, etc. It should lead the eyes where you want them to go. People who aren’t trained in typography often overuse effects. They end up with too much on the page or the screen. It’s confusing to the reader. Just because people have the tools to do sophisticated typography effects, doesn’t mean they know how to use them.
We’ve had conversations over the past few years regarding the role of graphic design in B2B marketing. So much has changed… how do you see your role evolving?
While marketing strategy and ‘the story’ drive the bus, graphic design has steadily grown as a means to amplify the messaging and tell the story online. B2B marketing requires the communication of complex ideas. Graphic elements, images, layout and design, even the color palette, should work together with the words to ensure the messages are communicated rapidly and accurately, and support the branding. When designing print materials, it’s important to think about how they’ll translate to online applications or vehicles like PDFs, jpegs, email and banner ads, or website content. The reality is that even pieces primarily meant for print will end up being posted online, so the designer needs to take that into account.
There are several forces at work today… prospects are busier than ever; expectations have changed; and the media and technology have evolved. I need help in making my content as palatable as possible… making it enticing enough so people actually read it, or at least skim and scan it online.
True. Even for highly technical B2B products and services, people won’t read a 12 page text-only white paper. Graphic design can be hugely helpful in this… a picture is worth a thousand words, infographics can easily communicate complex information, etc.
Let’s take an email newsletter for example, instead of displaying all the text for the articles, we’ve learned to display shorter snapshots of articles accompanied by graphics. These quickly tell readers what the article is about. If it interests them, they can click through to read the full text. Of course, that means that you have to use your talents to write enticing teasers.
I see your role expanding as we evolve to multimedia production. Can you explain how you help to manage the storyboard, audio, video, etc.?
The look of videos – sharp or soft, bright or murky, colorful or monochromatic; the tone and pace of voice overs; plus other audio effects, background music (if any); all of these affect the whole and play a part in how the information is being communicated. The more congruent all these facets are, the more likely people will accept the messaging. That’s part of the art of persuasion.
OK, Paul. I think we covered it. Do you have some parting graphic design tips for our readers? Some rules of thumb that you like to keep in mind?
Sure. I’d start with looking good is only half the battle. If the graphics don’t support the message, no amount of cool design or eye-catching images are going to increase your revenues.
Second, less is more. In an age where we are bombarded with information, it’s a good idea to leave some white space. Don’t crowd copy and design in. It’s overwhelming to people and they’ll click away.
And, finally, honor your brand identity. Hold true to the look you’ve developed to represent your business. Over time, it makes an impression on your target prospects… giving a tacit stamp of approval.
How about you? How do you view the role of graphic design in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace?
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