Design in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has evolved at a rapid pace. With increasing competition in the market, businesses need an online presence that stands out from the crowd. And intentional design is critical to any successful marketing efforts.
On our latest episode of the Marketing Roundtable podcast, we cover the importance of intentional design in marketing with BrainDo’s Creative Director, Brian Schwartz.
Let’s dive in!
Brian has had a longstanding interest in the creative arts. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, he took art classes throughout childhood and dreamed of becoming a landscape architect. Unfortunately, that meant taking chemistry classes, a subject in which he wasn’t quite as confident. Instead, he studied graphic design at Hussian School of Art and never looked back.
Over time, Brian’s passion led him to producing creative work for large global brands – including Nabisco, Kraft, and many others – in a Senior Art Director position at a full-service graphic design firm.
About nine years ago, Brian joined forces with BrainDo. He explains to Marketing Roundtable podcast hosts, Rachel Rhodes and Tatiana Knies-Smith:
“When I first started almost nine years ago, it was just five of us. It was really scrappy, but everyone had the same ambition to succeed. It was a grind. And it was awesome.”
Brian recognized the need for intentional branding from the jump and sought to help build a new logo that would reflect the company’s vision. The new BrainDo logo was debuted (on a cake, no less) at BrainDo’s first official company retreat.
As the episode progressed, fellow designer Tatiana posed to Brian, “Am I correct in saying there’s a secret symbol in our logo?”
And yes, of course there is!
Brian expands on a few ingredients that contributed to the intentional design of the logo – from the inclusion of the founders’ names (Brian Cosgrove and Jenny Du) to the arrow symbolizing progression. These deliberate design choices add a subtle element of surprise and intrigue. Combined with a few other components you’ll have to watch the episode to discover, this intent-driven process led to a successful logo design.
Naturally, branding isn’t the only sphere where intentional design holds power. User Experience Design (UX) and User Interface Design (UI) must work hand-in-hand to craft an experience capable and worthy of holding a user’s attention — especially online, in an era where attention spans are shorter than ever.
But if you’re anything like our social media expert Rachel, you may wonder what the distinct differences are. Luckily, Brian’s just the person to ask.
When posed with the question of what UX and UI mean to design, the architectural dreams of Brian’s childhood bubble up to the surface:
“Think about (UX/UI) as like building a house,” he explains. “When you build a house, you need an architect.”
He goes on to equate UX design to the blueprint of a house. In his metaphor, a website’s wireframe would be the floor plan. UI steps in as the interior designer – interacting with the user through color, shapes, and other intentional design elements – to subtly lead the user towards a decision. This decision could be a button click, a download, an email address submission, or any other guided action.
Regardless of the intended action, UX and UI work together to strike a balance between aesthetics and functionality.
As Brian emphasized throughout the episode, intentional and effective design work balances pleasing aesthetics with deliberate direction to achieve bu siness objectives.
The use of visual hierarchy, nudge theory, and choice architecture are some key elements of intentional design that businesses can use to stand out in the market. You can read more about visual hierarchy and other design elements in Brain’s recent blog, “Designing for Intentional Decision Making.”
Otherwise…
Hooked on design? Creative Director and UX expert Brian Schwartz has much more to share in the full episode, from UX and SEO to ADA compliance and decision fatigue.
Give Marketing Roundtable a listen wherever you get your podcasts, or settle in and get started with the YouTube video below!
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