Over the weekend I scoured the internet in search of an appropriate printer to provide printing services for my client’s business cards. What struck me as surprising was the lack of printers with decent brand presentation - websites. Every site that I found looked like it was produced in the 90s (ex. 1 2 3) This lead me to post on the forums of QBN.com which is an online gathering point for the massive graphic design community. The replies I received ranged from more of the same to “who gives a shit what their website looks like.”

Color be baffled but this seems like a real opportunity. Imagine that your clients are ninety-nine percent designers, how is it that you are so out of touch with design? Furthermore, when has polished branding ever been a bad thing. The arguments I kept hearing on and on and on is, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” This from the mouths of designers. For people who are languishing daily in the superficial to say that image is nothing is absolute insanity. Is the asylum finally being run by the inmates?

I’m not entirely comfortable with giving my work to someone who apparently doesn’t care about design. The advertiser in me recognizes that if you want to dominate in a market then you must become the obvious solution. When you go to Best Buy and you’re looking at the aisle of MP3 players the obvious choice is the iPod because adjacent to it is the gigantic rack of accessories. With a product so well supported why would you pick any other? The printing industry doesn’t have one such flagship. This is a real opportunity.

I look at the paper business in the same manner. Prior to the introduction of French Paper Co., paper was a highly commoditized resource. Here comes French with their line of exclusive premium papers and suddenly a business crops up out of no where for paper by designers for designers. Cater to your demographic and you shall flourish.

Last example that I’ll call upon is Vanilla Bicycles. Vanilla is a custom bike fabricator based out of Portland Oregon. It’s founder Sacha White has said in lectures that his workshop doesn’t even make the best bicycles but he has the best online presentation. The waiting list to get fitted for one of these beauties is five years. FIVE YEARS!! Supply meet demand.

The lesson to be divined out of this entire rant is as follows. Image is ninety-percent of the product. With the right branding you can make your two man operation look like a twenty-thousand strong organization. The other ten percent is about delivering on your promise. You can get a million folks to travel through your doors because of your beautiful flashing neon sign but if they leave dissatisfied you won’t be a float for too long. Don’t buy into the misconception that the problem with your business is the product. The fix may be as simple as altering your image.

Extra Credit: The Forum Post on QBN.COM