Evolved Image

Introduction: I love promoting people's passions and making ideas and concepts a reality through value-oriented graphic design, web design, and Internet marketing. Design often involves activities and results whose effectiveness can't be easily measured. The results of marketing services can be seen a little easier in the form of new customers and higher profits. When both are combined successfully, the outcome is very satisfying. Yet, in today's economy, every organization must look for ways to economize. I am sometimes asked to explain the ways in which we provide more value in addressing our clients' problems and opportunities. So, let me share a few thoughts about what I can accomplish and what its true value is. I pride myself in bringing value through communication, image and technology, and we try to achieve these goals in the most profitable and ethical way. Value-oriented design and marketing is not about style or fashion. First and foremost, it is about effectively communicating our client's messages, which it is my business to craft. It should always have a direct, bottom-line effect on any organization's business. Like it or not, we live in a world that is overcommunicated and where media are excessively cluttered. The only way to combat this condition is through media design that not only distinguishes an organization but that also quickly communicates its many messages well. I develop everything with this in mind. There's also another aspect of creating successful graphics and web content: how easily I work together with my clients. Thorough information-gathering procedures minimize their time and help us to get things right the first time. Value-oriented design and marketing is also about image building. You've heard the saying, "Image is everything." Well, in business, that saying is very true. Over time, all products and organizations develop personalities, just as individuals do. Being constantly attentive to image and brand building is one of the ways smaller organizations get bigger and bigger organizations stay on top. Creating strong, visual identities and branding is what I do. My experience tells me that it is a function far too important today to trust to chance or a low bidder. How a customer sees your business affects so many factors of how they do business with you or if they will even do business with you in the first place. The design and marketing business is constantly changing. The tools we use get more powerful every day. The media we employ are forever evolving. We must evolve with it. This makes our expertise increasingly more relevant. It provides still another aspect of my value-oriented design and marketing process: the ability to adapt recent technologies and media changes to our clients' specific needs. This adds to the value, not to mention the ability to look over the horizon and stay ahead of new developments. In short, by investing to keep ahead of technology and media changes, I am able to provide more solutions, options, and ideas to further our clients' objectives. As important as technology and its tools are, in our business, they don't actually solve problems. Only people do. (We're reminded of a saying ascribed to another jazzman, Duke Ellington: "It is not the piano that makes great music; it is the person sitting at the piano.") This means that, as with any type of professional service, most of what you contract for with a design firm is an individual's time. In turn, this means that most difference in their pricing are usually a direct reflection in the level of depth and talent that will be brought to the table. Most design time is executional in nature, i.e., "working things out." This process does not vary greatly from individual to individual or from firm to firm. In a service business, there are few economies of scale or shortcuts. The result is that the difference between inexpensive and expensive design is in the value of time expended. This is a direct function of how much talent, training, and experience it encompasses. The cost of employing highly qualified, experienced, and talented professionals often does result in higher up-front costs, but it usually also results in lower costs over time. I hope you let me prove this on your next project.