The results of it are everywhere: advertisements, book covers, even the label on your water bottle. Graphic design has slowly integrated itself into everyday life, but it seems many companies still don’t understand what makes it effective. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but just as an advertisement can elicit a certain opinion, a great design can manipulate the eye or the senses to achieve the results you want. But before companies can understand its importance, they must first recognize the principles of true graphic design.

MYTH 1: Professional design is optional

If you want to sell a product or service to the community at large, professional design is not optional – it’s mandatory. Whatever your business, there will almost always be competition. One of the best ways to distinguish yourself is to have a distinct and memorable look that denotes quality and professionalism. A skilled designer takes pride in his or her work, which in turn gives the client a style that is both creative and unique. Even if you’re looking for something simple, a trained designer can advise you on fonts, colours and images that are best suited to your line of work. If you’re thinking to yourself, “My product or service will speak for itself,” just remember that first impressions can make or break a deal. Just as you wouldn’t go to a job interview in sweat pants, your company image should also be well put together and appealing.

MYTH 2: Clip Art + Word Art = Graphic Design

A graphic designer will visibly cringe when presented with a “logo” that is a clip art illustration and a Times New Roman font made “funky” with Word Art. Generally speaking, if you can do it yourself in Microsoft Word, it’s not graphic design. There are many companies around the world who spent a lot of time and made a lot of money creating the Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) for graphic design. These programs are able to manipulate text and images in a manner that a word processing program simply cannot. There is a whole universe of fonts and images outside of what comes with your software, and a graphic designer with a formal post-secondary education knows all about navigating that world. Instead of waiting for a paperclip with glasses to pop up and help, look for a trained graphic designer who can offer a lot more than cookie-cutter creativity.

MYTH 3: The more the merrier

While the more may be the merrier at your Christmas party, graphic designers tend to believe less is more when it comes to your collateral. Clients, on the other hand, love to have “more” – whatever you’ve got, they’ll take two please. While some might think having multiple fonts, a collage of images, or filling the white space on a page creates more visual interest, it can actually muddle your message and have your audience so overwhelmed, they lose sight of who you are and what you do. A graphic designer can tell you how to incorporate white space to control the direction of the eye, or how to create energy and excitement with colour and imagery. There’s a time and place for everything, and a skilled designer can create a concept that evokes a certain feeling or projects an image that is appropriate to your business.

MYTH 4: Everything must be centered

It’s in the middle of the page, so the viewer is drawn directly to it, right? Plus, programs make it easy with a handy centering button that you can just click and poof!  Instant formatting. Just one small problem: Everybody has that button. Sometimes having a centered design can be effective, but too often it looks static and uncreative. More often, each design or text element should occupy a unique place in the visual plane.  A graphic designer understands how to create the necessary relationship between all of the elements on a page, thus generating visual attention or interest to the information presented. While the average person might find it difficult or tedious to create tabs or properly align multiple boxes, a graphic designer has the skill to do that and more to maximize the effect of your marketing collateral.

MYTH 5: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Beauty may be subjective, but the human eye processes design in a way that informs how we react to what we’re seeing. Think of it like a lawyer – whether the client is guilty or innocent, a lawyer has learned how to present the facts to prove either. A trained graphic designer knows how to get the most out of components like photos, illustrations and typography and how to combine them in a visually appealing way through placement, grouping, alignment and spacing. More importantly, designers understand that abstract elements of theme, message and style are critical to visual presentation and delivery of message. The language of design – pixels, gutters, CMYK – can be foreign to the average person. The knowledge and skill a graphic designer provides can be invaluable, not just in terms of what looks good on paper, but also in terms of the image you are presenting to the public.

The importance of graphic design in any marketing project is the message it conveys to your customer. Professional graphic design not only illustrates the quality of your product or service, but it also legitimizes your company. Simply put, a jogging suit might be more comfortable, but a power suit will get you the job.