Find new clients and grow using businesses’ most underutilised tool.

There is a powerful tool with the ability to take any business from mediocre to exceptional. Yet we don’t spend the time to understand it’s potential better. This short article will help you understand this tool better and so you can use it to reach new clients. We mostly notice this tool when it’s “cool” or flamboyant. Think Vivid Sydney, Las Vegas or Paris Fashion Week (see image below). It’s fun, energetic, accessible, decadent and usually short lived. Unfortunately, the tendency is to then think that this tool is purely decorative. So much more than decoration. This business tool is able to communicate in much broader and more subtle ways. For example it can say “you can trust and depend on me!” (see image below). It visually communicates a lot without you reading anything. That’s incredibly valuable to business. And that’s why this tool is central to the business strategies of companies like Apple. That tool is design. What we see is just the outer skin. Design is like a person. We learn a lot about a person from their body language, dress, attitude, use of language and demeanor. How someone thinks and feels shows on the outside. We only see the outside of a person, and yet we understand a great deal about them. We are even able to assess if we can (or can’t) relate to that person. Design follows the same principle. Think of design as a skin shaped by thinking. How a business thinks and behaves is generally a result of a combination of values, mission, vision, business strategies, ethics, passion for product, company culture, value for customers, growth plans and so on. Design, and particularly communications design, can represent this thinking and bring it to life. Design brings the thinking of a business to life. To represent a business’s thinking, designers craft a “personality” from design elements and principles. This makes something unique to see, hold and know. Design matters a lot because it’s foremostly the place where customers touch a business. It’s likely to be their first connection to a business. Design is also key to maintaining connection. Design also matters in other ways. If business thinking is not communicated to employees and customers… it’s lost. It will exist only as a document, and not in the hearts and minds of people. Very compelling reasons to use design as a business tool. Contact Carol about using design as a business tool on 02 9360 3918 or email carol@carolhudson.com.au Visit: www.businessstudio.com.au Business Studio shares the accumulated business knowledge, design skills and experience of award-winning designer Carol Hudson. Carol has worked with businesses in Australia and the USA, assisting to build their success with strong, effective communications that focus on commercial outcomes. Carol has a Master of Design degree from UNSW and has lectured in visual communication strategy, information graphics and design at universities in Australia and the USA. Further reading: Report: 11 Lessons: A Study of the Design Process Video: Leading Business by Design Coming soon: How do you get the most from your design investment?