As designers, one of the primary challenges we face is helping our clients and potential clients understand the cost and value of professional design.

Regardless of the industry you work in, all aspects of your visual communication have to appeal to potential customers as much as possible, as fast as possible. It’s no coincidence that the brands that invest the most in design, brand research and adherence to strict brand guidelines are also the most successful (think Apple, Ford, Nike).

The modern consumer makes immediate assumptions about your business based on the way it’s presented visually – your logo, website, business card, and other materials instantly communicate the quality and standards of your business, and you have only a matter of seconds to make that first impression.

So what’s the problem with cheap design? Well, there’s nothing wrong with trying to save some money, but the problem arises when the cost savings comes at the expense of communicating effectively to potential customers.

Are you an accountant with hand-cut business cards printed on your inkjet on flimsy copy paper? You’re not handling my books. Are you a without a website? Good luck.

Sure, a college student can probably bang out a quick logo for you in photoshop for 1000 SEK, but you have to be conscious of the fact that consumers today are more design-savvy than ever, and the average person can tell the difference between generic clip art from MS Word and a custom, well thought out, professional brand identity.

The design game is cut-throat, and vendors now range from 12 year old computer wizards to outsourced design wholesalers to crowdsourced websites where hundreds of poor designers literally fight over each other for the chance to execute a 1000 SEK logo project… It’s messy, and it can be difficult for a customer to make the right choice for their business.

What we try to convey to our clients is that design needs to be thought of not as an expense, but as an  investment. The money you invest in your brand – the foundation of your business – isn’t money lost, unless you pay someone to do poor work for you.

It’s another situation where you almost always get what you pay for.