Here at Collective Content, we pride ourselves on our skill with words.
We know that effective content marketing is as much about how you say something as it is about what you say. And whether it’s a webpage, a print asset, a video or a podcast, words are only part of the story.
Every element of your marketing needs to tell your story; all those pieces must work together to ensure nothing impedes your target audience from getting your message.
Can you be too graphic?
Photos and graphics can greatly affect the feel of your asset.
A bespoke graphic can really up your game and get across what you’re trying to say. If that’s what you need, we have a talented team of designers to draw on.
Or if you prefer, we can work with your designers to ensure words and images work together. Even a good stock photo or illustration can help if it supports your text.
Many of us think of graphics as something to break up a large block of text and make it more visually appealing. And that’s a valid approach.
Pull quotes, infoboxes, charts, photos and illustrations can be a way to pull your audience into a piece by quickly showing them some of the information they will find in the text. But graphics can go well beyond that.
The infographic takes things to the next level. The best infographics make your information more easily understood than simple prose can. Be careful, though – overdesigned pieces can actually make things harder to understand.
But graphic design is not just about visual appeal. Key communication questions – what information is to be communicated and how can it be best communicated – have very different answers depending on user and use.
The classic London Tube map may not be cartographically precise, but it conveys large amounts of vital information – the location of stations relative to each other and the connections between stations – with minimal clutter.
However, if one is traversing London on foot, a more accurate map of the terrain would be a better choice.
What’s your vision?
Because Collective Content is staffed by former journalists, we’re pretty savvy about how to make a story look good on a page.
We’ve spent years working with designers to think about how to make a piece look good online or on the printed page while still being effective. That said, if a client can tell us – or show us – what sort of graphical elements they’d like to use in telling their story, we welcome the input.
Whether we’re working with your in-house designers or your agency, or taking care of the design for you as part of a complete package, we’re committed to ensuring your audience gets the whole picture.
Collective Content is an agency that creates media-grade content to help brands improve their conversations with customers.