How design can help you compete

By Charlie Haywood, creative director at Hotfoot Design.

One of the most important roles as a creative agency is to help our clients win the trust of their prospective customers.

Many of our clients are relatively small businesses. They cannot rely on the instant familiarity of their brand in a way a larger company might do.

And yet the standard set by big business is now the one by which everyone else is judged, especially in the digital domain.

We all spend so much time using products and services made by tech titans like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon that everyone's expectations around user experience and brand consistency are at an all-time high.

This is why, when we begin working with a new client, we spend time understanding and defining their customer value proposition.

Our goal is to get beneath the surface and understand what is unique and special.

We then meticulously work to communicate this effectively so whenever a customer encounters our client in the wild - online, in print, or in person - the brand experience is consistent, compelling and authentic.

This means using real photography rather than stock images wherever possible. It means building custom webpages instead of relying on templates. It means crafting bespoke icons to communicate achievements and sharing stories of success that resonate. Great ideas and outstanding design level the playing field and help small businesses compete with the biggest and the best.