Original post by Mike Abasov via MARKETING before FUNDING
Here’s a question I know a lot of startup founders have:
How the heck do I design my product, my website, my logo, and all that other stuff without handing over $40,000 to a fancy design studio?
Sure, you may word it differently, but the meaning stays the same. Good design is tough to make and expensive to buy.
So I wrote this post to discuss with you how important design really is in 2012, how much you should invest in it, and other useful principles for making your design totally kick ass.
But first, let’s get one thing straight. I’m not a designer, never was, never will be. In fact, I suck at design. Or, at least, I used to.
These days, I still can’t make anything complex, but I got good enough to get along with my own projects, and, most importantly, I’m able to provide well reasoned feedback to designers with whom I collaborate.
How did I get better? By asking myself the following six questions all the time for the last five years. And I’m about to share my answers and, hopefully, they will help you too.
But first things first…
How Design Has Become so Important
Back in the 1950s, Thomas Watson of IBM said:
Sure, you may word it differently, but the meaning stays the same. Good design is tough to make and expensive to buy.
So I wrote this post to discuss with you how important design really is in 2012, how much you should invest in it, and other useful principles for making your design totally kick ass.
But first, let’s get one thing straight. I’m not a designer, never was, never will be. In fact, I suck at design. Or, at least, I used to.
These days, I still can’t make anything complex, but I got good enough to get along with my own projects, and, most importantly, I’m able to provide well reasoned feedback to designers with whom I collaborate.
How did I get better? By asking myself the following six questions all the time for the last five years. And I’m about to share my answers and, hopefully, they will help you too.
But first things first…
How Design Has Become so Important
Back in the 1950s, Thomas Watson of IBM said:
“Good design is good business.”
This quote is one of my favourites, and it has never been truer than today.
It is undeniable that, with the development of technology, we’ve reached a point where design can either make or break your startup.
It has become so easy to ship applications and products that look great. High quality graphics can be easily processed, displayed and stored on any device, and the bandwidth allows us to get all of that beauty directly from the Web. As a result, the demand for good design has grown quite a bit.
These days we judge an app by its icon.
So let’s be honest:
If your product looks like crap, few people will care enough to give it a try.
And what do you do to get a design that rocks?
