As a graphic design and marketing business it’s our responsibility to do what’s right and effective for our clients. Sometimes it’s corporate and conservative, sometimes it’s playful and entertaining. Each has their own visual language that engages a specific audience. And the more visual languages we can speak the better work we can do for our clients. Some design firms have a specific look that they apply to most of their projects. They can have a very successful businesses but I think this is a disservice to the wide variety of clients and their target audiences that are looking for effective and distinctive marketing and design. But I digress.

Just recently AXIS visual completed a project for the AtlantiCare foundation. We were asked to develop a visual theme along with various materials for their 60th Annual Century Club Gala. The theme was appropriately the 1960s. As the designer, I was able to illustrate and design in a visual language that I don’t often get a chance to work with. As with any era, any product, any industry or any target audience, the 1960s has a visual language required to deliver the right impression. I initially worked up four or five different invitation cover ideas to allow AtlantiCare the opportunity to choose what they thought would be best. Once the direction was chosen I ended up re-creating the main illustrations because I just didn’t like the proportion of the line thickness. Okay, this is one of those little details that creative people can obsess on. Once the invitation (a six panel vertically folded piece) was completed I moved my attention to all the other required elements. Place cards, envelopes, table menus, RSVP cards, PowerPoint images, email marketing, a newspaper ad, a raffle card, and a 150 page post-event sponsor book were all part of the required elements for the event. AtlantiCare also took the graphics and applied them to many of the promotion and event panels, video screens, table signs and other components that simply made the event cohesively branded and special for the attendees. Design and marketing is after all, an experience. There were black lights, face painting, a 1960s band, a decked out 1960s VW microbus, go-go boots and a Austin Powers impersonator. It was a fun evening. And we’re very proud to have been involved in the branding of such an event.

As in many fields, the discussion of increasing diversity in the marketing and design industry is a common one these days. I welcome the diversity of people in this industry.

But this isn’t the type of diversity i’m talking about here. By “Diversity” I mean diverse thinking, diverse skill sets, diverse experience and diverse capabilities. These are the things that go into a skilled designer of any ethnicity. I previously thought about the process of designing almost anything and what makes one person more successful then another. One of the most important qualities in design is observation… the ability to pay attention in the world, notice and observe things, and store them in our mind for some future creative use. In that sense, we are giants file cabinets… or libraries with the ability to look back at past experience and bring that reference into something we’re currently creating for our clients. This could be an art style, a production process, experience with a specific technology, a color palette or just about any number of other aspects in this industry. I’ve often told students that there is nothing they can learn that won’t be used as a graphic designer / marketer. If they take a toaster apart, at some point in the future they’ll be able to think “that toaster shape would work in part of this logo.” or maybe “a heated coil graphic could be a good concept for illustrating something for this particular client” …you get the point. Being able to create for clients effectively and efficiently requires diversity. And diverse thinking and ability comes from experience.