PIXL Designs

What similarities do you notice above?

The top row everything begins with “iP” and the second row everything begins with “Mac.” Coincidence? Hardly.

The Apple brand is huge and its marketing is amazing. From cleverly crafted taglines to witty commercials, Apple pays extreme attention to detail. And thus its product line speaks loud and clear.

So how can this help your business or church? Easy.

1. Stay Consistent. Apple creates a clear message and repeats it over and over. This breeds consistency and trust.
2. Remain true to who you are. Apple was under tremendous pressure to change from it’s “iP” brand to “iS” when the iSlate become a frontrunner for its new product name. No doubt there were many who would have preferred that name over another. But ultimately they stayed true to who they were and now iPad is a noun.
3. Believe in yourself. The biggest key to Apple is their believability. When Steve Jobs takes the stage and talks about their products, you can tell he truly believes they are remarkable and magical. Oftentimes they are, but not at first. But no one cares because he sets the vision and he believes in it.

So from a business or church perspective, you need to stay consistent, remain true to who you are and ultimately believe in yourself and where you are going. This is an effective way to create a lasting impression on those around and develop not only followers, but passionate recruits that will help you further your cause.

Lately I have been pondering the term UI – User Interface. The reason I have been doing so is I think it transcends Web design and computer graphics. Now UI is everywhere and is being redefined as how you interact with various ‘interfaces’ throughout your day. As a freelancer, my UI is how I interact with my clients and my artboard.

If I am trying to get my clients to buy into my services, but don’t have a portfolio to show off. Then I have bad UI.

If I am working on projects for my clients but don’t give them any timetables or progress reports. Then I have bad UI.

If I do really great work but don’t take the time to explain why I designed something in the way I did. Then I have bad UI.

It is essential as freelancers that we take the time to ask ourselves what experience we are designing for our clients. The beauty of Apple, DisneyWorld, and Southwest’s successes are defined in the experience you have using their products or services. Next week I’ll be sharing some of the practical things we have incorporated into our business to help it run efficiently and smoothly, while giving our clients a consistent experience. We aren’t perfect, but we have definitely recognized the need for a great experience. Then we have good UI.