Visual guide for business. It’s about key visual design, which helps you see how certain elements, corporate colors, or logo visuals will be looking in the advertising company or a website design. Before creating such a design, you need to study the target audience of your company in order to know what emotions the product should evoke in customers and how to establish communication with them.
Brand key visual conveys the history of the company and also represents the identity of its product. It is based on graphic elements that may not be distributed publicly. If this happens, then the main tool for promotion through visuals will no longer be unique, because it will be able to be used by your competitors. If personalized messages were previously an effective method of communication with the client, the emergence of key visual advertising has simplified the work of marketers. An effective brand image that will be broadcast on various platforms can give more feedback from the audience and influence sales. That is why brands create a key visual image that will evoke associations and increase product recognition in the market.
Key visual importance
A product that doesn’t evoke emotions will not last long on a level with its competitors. Key visual in advertising enhances the brand design, adds aesthetics to the packaging and forms the first impression of the product. When a customer sees your brand for the first time, you have a few seconds to get their attention. If you’re promoting a product that has a lot of competitors, it’s much harder to do that. This is why visual design is important when developing a marketing strategy. The designer should add such elements that wouldn’t only visually improve the appearance of the product, but also influence the user’s decision.
The best key visuals are those when:
- The consumer pays attention to the simplicity, functionality of the site element, for example;
- Each of the elements looks aesthetically pleasing and forms a harmonious look of product packaging, website, etc.
In addition, designers arrange elements so that they correspond to the content/idea of a particular action. Key visual brand influences the user’s decision with the help of correctly placed elements. For example, you divide important information into some points, icons. This helps a person understand the content more easily and move to the next block.
Main criteria of key visual
Key visual graphic design is a combination of various design elements. Some of them are lines, shapes, as well as components such as volume, value, color and texture. There are also principles that help harmoniously combine elements on the page.
- Unity for the absence of chaos on the layout, the elements look aesthetically and harmoniously.
- Hierarchy – from the most important to the least important item. This facilitates the perception of information.
- Gestalt is about analyzing how users perceive your design.
- Contrast is selection of important information.
- Balance is a principle for evenly distributing elements on a layout.
- Dominance helps to distinguish an important object, information from among others.
- Scale – for visual selection of the main element in the design.
Creative key visual is an effective tool to impress your audience and increase their trust. If you have good placement of elements, copywriting skills and marketing knowledge, you will be able to influence the user’s attention. In any case, your design should be simple and recognizable.
How to create key visual. Main tips
1. Get to know the product
At this stage, you create the foundation for promoting your brand: define the company’s positioning, mission, values, and goals. Key visual forms the purpose of your business and helps create a promotion strategy. The next step is the brief, niche and audience analysis. You have to define the distinguishing features of the product to understand how you stand out in the market.
2. Analysis of information
When you have collected all the information about the product, you can use it in the key visual. First, define what your product solves and why your audience buys it. These conclusions will help to form a communication strategy that will be in social networks, on the website, etc.
3. Create a mood board
Creative visual takes a lot of time, and sometimes not all ideas can be implemented. So it is worth creating a place to write down creative ideas. Sketches, color samples and any design elements. When you show this board to a customer or colleagues, you will be able to select the best options from the ones offered.
4. Feedback from the team
If possible, share the results with project colleagues or partners. This method will help you get a real assessment of your work: you will have the opportunity to improve something or change it completely.
5. Presentation of the project
A successful presentation affects the effectiveness of the launch of your idea. When you show your advertising key visual, there is an opportunity to explain why you chose that color palette or that design element. This will affect the design decision at the end of preparation, as well as the visual identity of your product.
