Design For Your Target Audience
Every brand is different. As a good designer, you want to know your target audience in order to create a design that will communicate to them effectively. From demographic characteristics (age, gender, geographic location) to psycho-graphic peculiarities (psychological appeal such as color, images and typography); there are some considerations to keep in mind in order to successfully share a message to your potential audience.
1. Who will be speaking? Know your client.
Just because your client tells you they want a website or a business card, does not mean that you have sufficient information to work with yet. Every business must have something that they want to translate to their audience. Maybe the restaurant you’re working with has a Mediterranean feel, or the real estate agent that hired you works in more affluent areas. These characteristics will help you determine the “look and feel” of the company and how they would want to be portrayed.
2. Who will be listening? Know your target.
Think about it – there’s no use in creating something bright pink if your client is a lawyer specializing in criminal affairs, it just doesn’t match. So when you’re at this point, you will want to research the target demographics and psycho-graphics to ensure the best possible design. Demographics are mainly characteristics of geographic nature, such as age, income, or geographic location. The psycho-graphics, on the other hand, are habits and behaviors of a particular market segment (personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests).
For example, if you will be creating a design for an Italian family restaurant, your target audience will most likely be women and men, possibly with a family, from 28 to 50 years old, that likes Italian food or comes from an Italian family. Your color scheme, typography and images should relate to that target in some way. In this case maybe a red would be ideal, since it has been researched to be a color that makes you hungry.
3. What will you say? Create the perfect copy.
A part that often gets overlooked in graphic design is the creation of the copy that will serve as memorable text. What you would use for a female beauty product is not what you would use for a male-care ad, right? Because those two audiences are different. Research words that will appeal to your target and branch out from there. Once you determine effective phrases or words that will appeal to your audience, it will be easier to brainstorm ideas.
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