In a world where entire television shows and store departments are dedicated to those who are skilled (and brave) enough to do their own remodeling, it might be easy to assume that Do It Yourself (DIY) is the way to go with all services.
Anyone who has looked at community bulletin boards can tell you what caught their attention first: it was the fliers that were bold and gave the important pieces of information in an obvious way. Fliers, or any form of print marketing, should grab attention and provide the right information to be effective.
Using good graphic design for even the most simple of publications will garner a greater, more positive response to whatever is being promoted. DIY graphic design rarely meets the standard for good graphic design.
Tools and skills
The truth is, DIY anything should only be done if the person has the right tools and the right skills to perform the work. This is true when talking about spackling and it’s true for services such as graphic design.
Right tools
There are several programs available that give users the ability to put words and some clip art on the same page. That kind of document works great for an inter-office potluck sign-up sheet, but it would look unprofessional and haphazard if used for any kind of flier or promotional product that the public would see. Using professional graphic design programs gives the user better fonts, more control over content and more design options for creating a flier that will capture attention.
Right skills
It’s one thing to have the right tools, but if the user doesn’t know how to use them then the tools are not nearly as effective.
Time is money
Hiring a graphic designer to create a flier may seem like a potentially expensive venture but it can be well worth the small investment. A professional graphic design artist will be more adept at the process, which means it will take a graphic designer less time to complete the work and the results will be much more professional.
Here’s two more ways to look at this issue:
- Take into consideration how long it would take someone who is not skilled in graphic design to create the document and multiply that time by an hourly rate. Which costs less?
- Now, when looking at the two options of DIY or professional graphic design, which would bring greater results? If it increases sales, gets more donations, grows membership or somehow meets other objectives, the more professionally designed piece has essentially paid for itself.
Pictures are worth 1,000 words
To demonstrate this concept, we took a flier that our senior graphic designer Sarah created and gave the same information to our staff writer, Jamie. The flier was for a membership drive for the Springdale BNI networking group’s membership drive.
 | Jamie did exactly what many people do and went to a program that gave her clip art options, a good selection of fonts and formatting ability. Her information is complete and even laid out in a way that is typical for invitations. Jamie knew to use more than one font and she found clip art that dealt with baseball and business. |
 | The flier that Sarah created consistently uses three design elements and three colors. It draws attention with catchy phrases and creative typography. The artwork captures an energy that fits the event and draws the eyes naturally towards all the information on the page. |
When comparing the two fliers, however, which would most people rather see?
What’s more is, the professional flier only took slightly more time to complete than the other piece.
Need help?
The Belford Group is an experienced image-building marketing and website development agency, with more than a decade spent providing creative marketing and advertising solutions to fit any budget …and any medium.
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479-443-9945