Hi and welcome to the new c-Seven site. We finally redid it after many years of neglect. You know what the best part was? We didn’t design it 🙂 After 20 years of offering design as a service we got out of that side of the business to really focus on just programming (where it is safe). It has been a couple years now since we last designed anything and it has been pretty sweet.
Now that I have had some time to process being out of the design world, here are some of my takeaways looking back on it.
Design is Subjective
Two people can look at the same thing and have a completely different reaction. What appeals to some, does not appeal to others. Sometimes your personal preferences can affect your own brand. While I love Iron Maiden (see this article for reasons why), I am not going to brand myself similarly as it doesn’t make sense for what I do. That being said, while I didn’t brand myself like my favourite band, in retrospect I feel my old branding was still a bit off tune. When I hired a long time customer to help me in this regard, I felt they brought out the real side of c-Seven.
Design can fade
While your brand new shiny logo, website, flyer, etc. may look awesome today. It can get stale if you look at it too long. I am a web developer and for years the thought of sending people to my site was a bit cringy as I didn’t feel that’s who I was (the other guys don’t care).
Feedback can be tough
If you are a graphic designer and spend all sorts of time coming up with something you think is great, having a customer crap all over it can be disheartening. Luckily for me, I stopped doing the design side personally over 10 years ago, but I see the affect it has on designers and I have to tell them to just not take it personally. Here is a classic comic on how a web design can go straight to hell from the geniuses over at the oatmeal.
Feedback can be vague
Can it have more pop? Can you make it a warmer blue? The random feedback I have heard over the years made me consider a relaxing career change to hostage negotiation. The whole I’ll know it when I see it approach is a red flag.
Good design is not cheap
To do this correctly for your business, it is something you really should invest in. I once had a guy buy an hour of time and thought he could keep reusing it until he was happy with the results, but that is not the way this stuff goes.
Designers are different and have their own styles
Much like art, there are a ton of different styles you could go with. Some designer are better at certain designs than others. It is important to get the right artist for the job.
Design can be wayyy overpriced
Couldn’t talk about this subject without mentioning this gem. The Ontario Cannabis Store spent 650 thousand dollars on their branding which looks like it was created in 5 minutes using a logo generator. How did it cost this much? You don’t need that much of a logo to sell weed, but there you go.
If you really like doing something, think twice about doing it professionally
Nowadays I open Photoshop, draw a box and then close it. Design just isn’t for me what it used to be. Perhaps I need to give it more time. I hear chef sometimes have this dilemma where after cooking all day, they don’t want to do it at home. Over the years I have done personal project such as shooting photos, videos, doing custom woodworking projects/ 3d printing stuff, etc. and get told “you could turn that into a business” to which I steer clear of because I like them to much for me personally. Plus I would probably take a pay cut to be carpenter.
In conclusion
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but that doesn’t apply to branding and design. Depending on who you are there are different takeaways
- If you are looking for a designer, fine one or an agency that you can trust and that understands your brand.
- If you are looking to get into design it can be a really fun and creative way to work (versus something like accounting)
- if you are a designer, hang in there! The world needs you 🙂
Hope you found this article useful.
