Whatever you do, don’t use clipart!

Thank you for your interest in Outlook Business Solutions. Due to resourcing constraints we have made the difficult decision to forego additional client work at this time. We sincerely appreciate the customers we’ve been able to help and for their commitment to inclusivity. We hope to be of service again in the near future. If you are interested in learning more about Outlook Business Solutions sister companies and how they serve individuals who are blind, please contact info@outlooken.org for more information.
Whatever you do, don’t use clipart!

We’ve all seen it. The illustration of the businessman in a tie, talking into a telephone, staring vacuously into space. We’ve seen this piece of clip art, or something similar, used in brochures, presentations, marketing materials. It’s graphic design that signifies “business” but nothing about a specific company or their products. 

There’s a lot of visual noise out there these days, so many businesses trying to pull viewers in. This constant influx of marketing directed at us every day. It’s easy to forget just how important graphics can be. When it comes to a company’s branding, visual representation matters. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses choose the quick and easy way, rather than the better way. 

It helps your brand get noticed. 

Like poor UI on a website or a print catalog that uses a dizzying number of competing fonts. We’ve long become accustomed to passing over poorly executed visuals. Our eyes naturally skate over these graphics the way we pass over so many other visual elements in our daily lives. Unfortunately, these bland images still say a lot about your product to potential clients, clients who might otherwise be thrilled with the services your business offers. 

You get exactly what you want!

Custom illustrations or  designs created by an experienced graphic design professional can represent a company’s brand in a way that clipart or a stock photo just can’t. It’s really that simple. Consider it this way: Custom work is akin to suddenly finding yourself in possession of a genie’s lamp. 

Instead of endlessly scrolling through clipart sites, or hoping to find a stock photo that vaguely matches your company’s vision and intentions, all while skimming the same graphics that other companies have used hundreds of times before, you have the opportunity to craft your company’s representation into something entirely your own.

An experienced illustrator and designer can take your input and rough ideas and shape them into visuals that are both clean and contemporary, something visually striking and entirely in line with your company’s mission. Most importantly, these graphics and illustrations will be entirely yours. 

It’s a representation of your business. 

Yes, stock photos and clipart are sometimes more affordable than custom work. They’re also oftentimes bland, uninventive, and probably not particularly representative of your company’s products and services. This can be particularly a problem if you’re offering something specific and unique to your field. Is a photo of a guy sitting at a desk, talking on the phone really representative of your company and what it can offer? 

It’s worth the investment. 

Custom art and design for your business doesn’t have to be cost prohibitive. A good designer will listen to your ideas and transform them into striking visuals. They can help with a single logo or an entire line of packaging for your brands – that represent your business in a way that is fast and inexpensive. In today’s business climate, individualized marketing materials and visual brands should be considered a sound investment: custom art will ultimately pay for itself. 

Outlook Business Solutions offers a variety of custom illustration and graphic design services, all of which can potentially boost your marketability and draw the right kind of attention to your product. Contact us to learn more.

Related Articles

Feb 26, 2019 client, marketing, marketing plan, roi, tips for success, trade show

What story does your trade show booth tell?

Your company has an important story to tell. For that story to be heard above all the competitive noise, every piece of your marketing materials needs shout it from the rooftops – including your trade show booth.

It’s easy to consider that story when you have the luxury of unlimited digital space on a website or the running time of a two-minute video. But how do you shout that story to throngs of distracted people strolling a crowded, noisy convention center floor in a way that gets them to stop and talk with your booth staff?

Like billboards along the interstate, your booth has to tell a compelling story in those few precious seconds before your audience has passed you by.

Read More
Jan 15, 2020 biography, employee, marketing, meet

Meet Cindy Oelke

Meet Cindy Oelke, a marketing strategy consultant and freelance writer for Outlook Business Solutions.

Read More