Graphic design is important! It impacts on all our lives and can make or break a business or event!

... during the economic downturn it can help customers who are spending less money find your business ahead of your competitors, and the launch of your new look is newsworthy (= free publicity!)

The usefulness of design as visual communication is too often under-valued by small businesses and organisations. Every one of us is fluent in visual language (we read meaning into symbols and colour and fonts) and we all do judge a book by its cover. Graphic design dresses a message so that it attracts, impresses and informs (just like you'd put on a smart suit for an important meeting!)

“Investing in design pays off for UK businesses. The more they use it, the bigger their profits and turnover, the better their competitiveness – and the more likely they are to be growing, not standing still. Seven out of ten say design has increased the quality of products and services.” DESIGN COUNCIL REPORT 2005

"Graphic design is the most universal of all the arts. It is all around us, explaining, decorating, identifying; imposing meaning on the world. It is in the streets, in everything we read. We engage with design in road signs, advertisements, magazines, cigarette packets, headache pills, the logo on our t-shirt, the washing label on our jacket. Graphic Design performs a number of functions. It sorts and differentiates – it distinguishes one company or organisation or nation from another. It informs – it tells us how to bone a duck or register a birth. It acts on our emotions." QUENTIN NEWARK, 'WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?', Pub. ROTOVISION, 2002

The first stage of all projects is to brief the designer. If you've got a project, here's where to start...