Superior Design Gets Prospects Ready

After a few months of reading about architecture and a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, I happened upon a manufacturer’s spec sheet and it occurred to me that the art of building design is very much like the art of graphic design. Architects consider how to create a mood from outside the building, then guide people inside and direct the traffic flow to suit the purpose of the building. At Falling Water, for example, many of the ceilings become progressively lower moving from each room’s doorway towards the windows, always guiding the eye outside to striking views of the waterfall.

Superior architecture achieves a desired result, such as a building that appears as a natural part of its environment, or a house that makes guests feel comfortably right at home or a doctor’s office that makes patients feel…patient – without the guests or patients truly knowing exactly why they feel comfortable and patient.

Likewise, superior graphic design creates a mood upon first glance then guides the eye from one place to another, directing the flow to suit the purpose of the literature, ad, sign, Web page, direct mailer or other material. Superior graphic design invites people to read the copy and gives them permission to absorb and be influenced by the message. It helps achieve a desired result, such as converting a reader into a lead or a lead into a customer.

We see scores of examples of architecture and design every day but don’t often realize the full extent of their influence. How we feel inside an office, for example, or how much we spend in a retail store are influenced by the strength of their designs. Whether we read a spec sheet or direct mailer and take action or discard them to the trash is also influenced by the strength of their designs. We don’t always recognize superior graphic design until we see examples that don’t measure up, which is what sparked this post.