Strategy 2

Design – Form Follows Function, or Does Function Follow Form

What Drives You?

If your goal is conservation, then conservation should drive your design – form follows function. But conservation isn't the only factor in play. While we all speak of our commitment to responsibility and sustainability, the fact is your designs also have to help sell product. So, what's it going to be? Designs that are so compelling they'll bring traffic to a halt on an expressway? Or, designs that emphasize conserving natural resources?

Here are some tough questions that may help you decide which course to follow:

Question #1: Is the design concept you're pursuing the only way to catch a buyer's eye?
It's easy to fall in love with our own visions. But you shouldn't hesitate to ask yourself the same question your CEO asks every day: “Are there other options?”

Riverside Graphics has coined the term Creaticality – the perfect blend of creativity and practicality. Rather than present several versions of essentially the same design concept, consider presenting your vision and a creatical vision that may be more eco-friendly (as well as more budget-friendly).  This strategy can set you apart, and position you as a rising star able to balance both ‘Mad' design skills and the bottom-line.

Example: A client designed a 17” x 6” sixteen page booklet to market $1+ million town homes. Obviously a 17” booklet requires a 34” page, and a 40” press. As a creatical solution we suggested cutting the 34” page in half, and printing 17” x 6” pages 2-up on an 18” press. To bind the booklet we double hinge-scored each sheet, and bound the booklet with two brass grommets. The final townhouse brochure was far richer looking than the original saddle stitch design, and saved thousands of square feet of paper at half the original cost.

Question #2: How do you rank the following in terms of their ‘impact’ on potential sales?

As a designer, you're probably predisposed to choose design. After all, you only have a few seconds to grab the buyer's attention. That means you better have a stunning design. But consider this: whether you're creating a direct mail piece or a brochure, design doesn't matter unless you're getting your message in the hands of qualified buyers. This suggests that audience, as well as product, message and offer all affect the effectiveness of your marketing communications. Conclusion: design is critical, but not the only factor in the success of a marketing campaign.

Question #3: Do buyers make decisions to buy or not buy based solely on the design of marketing materials?
Have you ever made a decision not to purchase a product you really need simply because you didn't like the brochure? Or, have you ever purchased something you didn't need, that was outrageously over-priced, because you fell in love with a direct mail piece? The point is there are unlimited opportunities with a 12” x 18” canvas to develop high-impact, creatical designs that generate sales and minimize waste.

Personalization

Recently certain segments of the print industry have worked diligently to promote the concept of ‘Personalization.’  ‘Personalized’ marketing pieces include the prospective buyer's name and other personal information. “Personalization’ has both fans and detractors, and the final chapter on this technology hasn't been written. But the fact is, ‘personalization’ hasn't fully caught on in B2B marketing because it is cost-prohibitive, gimmicky, and generally limited to B2C marketing.

‘Versioned’ Printing

As a designer, you may want to consider ‘Versioned’ printing as a practical alternative to ‘Personalization.’ ‘Versioned’ printing enables you to replace generic brochures and direct mail pieces with targeted marketing materials. For example, if you're marketing one product to various industries, you simply design multiple ‘versions’ of your brochure, each ‘version’ targeted to a unique market segment. ‘Versioned’ printing delivers the impact of ‘Personalization’ in B2B marketing, at a fraction of the cost. From a production standpoint, ‘Versioned’ printing enables you to replace a single, long-run print job with multiple short-runs.  This moves your job to a 3rd Generation, 18” Press, and substantially reduces power consumption and paper waste.

Other Considerations

In addition to paper and power, you should also investigate consumables:

Your Role: The STAR!

Graphic Designers play the lead role in conservation. Your opportunity as a designer stretches far beyond simply specifying recycled paper.

Examples:

Continue to Strategy 3 - Paper >

Index - Conservation by Design

  1. Introduction
  2. Strategy 1 - Technology
  3. Strategy 2 - Design
  4. Strategy 3 - Paper
  5. Strategy 4 - Print-On-Demand
  6. Strategy 5 - Delivery
©2012 Riverside Graphics, a Chicago Printing and Copying Company