Strategic, high-quality graphic design sets the stage for a successful visual conversation to happen with your audience. Purposeful graphic design attracts attention, breaks the ice, and introduces your business or products’ personality within seconds of being seen, encouraging that conversation to continue in depth with your written message.

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Graphic design partners as a powerful motivator with your written words, making them more inviting, more meaningful, and more likely to be read, remembered, and repeated! Affix lifts your marketplace recognition to new heights by using a creative combination of graphic design and UX principles, color theory, image selection, typography, layout, scale, and sensory effects.

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Your business’s visual image is a high-value asset. That's why it's important that your graphic communications are intentionally created to engage and  retain  an enthusiastic customer base by consistently showing them you know who they are and have what they want and need.

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GOAL-FOCUSED GRAPHIC DESIGN

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Simply put, goal-focused graphic design is created and produced with the purpose of effectively communicating a specific message to generate a desired response. We rely on three touchstones to affix our clients’ goals to the center of their design project:

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1. Open, two-way communication

We foster two-way communication between our clients and ourselves. Questions are meant to be asked and answered, both easy and complex ones. We believe you don't know what you don't know until you do. Ask, and we will too.

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Speaking up is important, but listening is vital to the client/designer relationship. Our clients know their business best and, in most cases, we know more about graphic design. We can learn from each other and prosper by sharing ideas and listening to each other.

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2. Problem-solving

Problem-solving is the life force of graphic design and is what distinguishes it from art. A successful graphic design project has a well-thought out purpose for being created and has parameters that help sharpen the focus that purpose. These can be determined by asking and answering these types of questions:

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• Who is the design for? (eg., the client/project manager/art director, the company, the audience?)

• Why is the design being created? (eg., create more sales or new product, inform? announce?)

• What is being designed? (eg., e-book, editorial layout, package, large format sign, ad?)

• What is the end use of the design? (eg., social media, direct mail, e-commerce ad, product?)

• What is needed to complete the design? (eg., images, copy, motion, sound, charts, research?)

• What is the scope and budget of the design project? (eg., local, national, worldwide, $$?)

• When does the design need to be done? (eg., flexible, dated phases, deadline date)

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Knowing the answers to these questions from the outset helps define our clients’ goals, which in turn helps us problem-solve throughout the entire design process. It is fairly common for a graphic design project to evolve and morph, but it is always wise to start with a plan and objective.

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3. Skillful Creativity

Two creative skill set processes are essential to a graphic designer: the inspirational process and art production process. Together we call these processes skillful creativity.

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The Inspirational Process

For us, the sources of inspiration play a dynamic role in the creating graphic design. Our sources may come from our imaginations, curiosity, talent, and sensory perceptions; images and objects in the world, both natural and people-made; and the art and design created and passed down to us historically. Creativity and a design's perspective can spring from actions we take and a state of mind. For example, free-flowing brainstorming with others, recalled experiences, dreams, angst or fears, fantasy and futuristic musings, a longing or feeling of satisfaction, or a certain turn of phrase, lyric, or image remembered.

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The Art Production Process

We love the inspirational process of design. But in equal measure we are dedicated to the art production skills and graphics industry experience we utilize to bring inspiration to life. For those unfamiliar with art production, graphic design art work must be prepared in specialized ways for quality and predictible printing or uploading to email or posting to the web. The process of art production creates what is called mechanical or digital art. Affix puts a high priority on producing mechanical and digital art that is both functional and versatile so that it works for our clients in the real world.

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Why it matters:

• High-quality reproduction and consistency of your graphic design work.

• Flexible use of your grpahic design elements for different applications.

• Substantial savings of time and money for you with repeated use of your design elements.