Does visual design affect growth?

Do visuals matter in growing your brand? 👁

Like, really matter?

Here’s what I think 👇

A brand is an emotion, so attributing that feeling to one sense and one sense only is inaccurate.

Smells, sights, experiences, sounds, tastes, textures, all of them contribute to making up the perception that is a brand.

When all of these are aligned and feel oriented in the same direction, the brand is doing a good job. They are all important.

BUT…

We are a species driven by sight.

Which is accomplished through familiar symbols, motion, coordination, pattern, and all other visual stimuli.

Sure, the first users of your product won't care so much about visuals because they are innovation purists who care more about being first in line rather than perfection.

That changes once you start trying to appeal to larger groups of people and increase the number of skeptics.

When things appear disorderly, haphazard, and visually jarring, we turn away. It's a defense against energy expenditure.

Be it a website, a billboard, a poster, a product, whatever. If we don’t appreciate looking at it, its value is diminished.

For 7/8 the population, sight is the first way we will interact with a brand and it is crucial that interaction strengthen the brand rather than detract from it.

So, do visuals matter in growing your brand?

I guess it depends, can your users see?