What if, our own employees may be hesitant to adopt new visual communication tools and methods, especially if they are accustomed to traditional text-based communication?
It is important acknowledge that visual learning is preferred by a significant portion of people, including many in academia. For example, studies show that 59.3% of people moderately prefer visual learning styles, with 35.4% showing a high preference. In comparison, a smaller percentage prefers solely text, auditory or other learning styles.
The hesitation to adopt new visual communication tools might also stem from an inability to conceptualize visuals or communicate ideas to a designer. This is where design professionals step in — it is our job to excel at translating complex ideas into clear, effective visuals, even when the subject matter seems difficult to visualize. Our role is to simplify that process, ensuring that professionals can communicate their expertise visually without feeling overwhelmed with design process itself.
We don’t have large budgets, software or technical ability for visualising complex things? But we would love to get our ideas visualised. What to do?
Many organizations, particularly smaller organisations and businesses, struggle with limited budgets to invest in the necessary tools for high-quality visual communication. This can hinder their ability to create engaging visuals. We use multiple approaches that allow businesses achieve professional and effective visual communications without huge financial burden or need for extensive training. Here are some answers to the problem:
Maximising Visual Reusability
We help you plan visuals that can be repurposed across multiple contexts. By designing assets with flexibility in mind, you save time and money by using the same elements in various projects. You’ll get more bang for your buck.
Design in bulk
We can always group projects and do visual design in bulk, which allows parallel projects to benefit from one another. This reduces the need to repeatedly brief designers on the same issues, optimising both time and resources.
Efficient Iteration Process
Our process front-loads expensive iterations, ensuring that most revisions happen early when they are easier and more cost-effective. This approach minimises costly late-in-the game changes.
We have expert Skills & Software
You don’t need to worry about acquiring specialised visual communication skills or expensive design software. Our team possesses the technical expertise and the tools required to produce high-quality visuals efficiently.
We can use Familiar Tools
If needed, we can implement designs using software you’re already familiar with, like Microsoft Office or Google Workspace. Then you can do revisions and edits to visuals later on yourself.
Not everyone has equal visual abilities. Individuals with visual or hearing impairments may find it difficult to engage with certain types of content.
How can you ensure that your visuals are accessible to everyone?
First, it’s important to highlight the obvious benefit of visual communication: it’s primarily visual! And it should be just that. That’s its magic power!
While visually enhanced methods are preferred by most, they are not suitable for everyone.
Therefore, the information presented visually should always be available in alternative formats. We ensure that all visual content is accessible (in accordance with clients' accessibility standards) by integrating captions, alternative text, and adaptable formats into every project. This approach ensures that your communications are available for everyone, regardless of their abilities.
How about information overload and fatigue? We don't want to contribute to that. What should we do?
Finding the right balance between clarity, detail, and the number of visuals is essential to ensure you communicate effectively without overwhelming the audience. Here's how we approach it:
We aim for clarity and relevance! While visuals can enhance understanding, overloading a presentation with too many elements can overwhelm your audience. We focus on understanding where and how you wish to use visuals and what you want to achieve with them. Overly complex visuals or irrelevant imagery can detract from your message.
Concentrating on the main strategic topics and key findings is key to finding this balance. We don't want to overwhelm the viewer, nor dumb down content too much just for the sake of clarity. Always ask: What should the viewer remember from this at minimum?
It’s also important to choose the right approach to make your point. Some of our clients, who are very familiar with their subject matter and skilled in storytelling, may not need any accompanying text at all. For instance, they might rely entirely on visuals in their presentations. There was a time when CEO presentations were often overloaded with text. Now there might not be any text at all!!!
Our brand book says very little about visuals outside the basics: logos, fonts, and colors. We don’t have guidelines for things like illustrations and infographics.
Any ideas?
As visual content is created, maintaining a consistent brand identity through design elements is crucial. While some designers often want to leave their unique mark on clients' visuals, we take pride in learning and adapting to the visual language of our clients’ brand guidelines — even if the brand was originally designed by someone else than us.
Additionally, we can help expand your graphic guidelines by developing new sections that cover illustrations, infographics, and other visual elements to ensure consistency across all types of content.
