How Design Benefits Business
Design works. It’s that simple. In a world of visual information, good design projects vitality, provokes thought and delivers a heightened sense of aesthetic.
It takes a considered approach to originate exceptional design. But how do we recognise it? It has stopping power. It has the ability to engage the eye, then engage the mind and the senses. Good design is magnetic, it attracts. It stands alone and is immediately recognisable against the backdrop of the mundane.
When built into your business model, good design has a profound commercial effect. It affects choice, it affects preferences and it affects value. It boosts your profile, increasing sales and improving customer loyalty. Efficient design can reduce time to market for new products and services.
In a recent report, the UK Design Council showed that every €1 invested in design translates into €6 net operating profit, over €28 net turnover and €7 in net exports. The Danish Design Centre found that companies who put into design enjoyed gross revenues approximately 22% higher than those companies that didn’t. And 21% of European companies are already using design as a strategic means to encourage innovation.
Good design gives customers a reason to buy from you. It helps you stand out from the competition.
The functionality of a sofa is easily achieved. It is in the marriage of functionality to visual and tactile aesthetics that elevates a piece of furniture to an object of desire or even art.
The same reasoning applies to laptops, bus advertisements, toasters, restaurant menus, bookshelves and even beer bottles. Good design is lifts the items we interact with in physical and visual ways and amplifies their presence, their appeal, and our desire to engage with them.
In a material sense, great design will increase sales and attract the kind of enduring brand loyalty which brings with it a strong product identity and an even stronger competitive edge. Design is not just aesthetic expression - it's design that powers business.