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26 January 2025 | Issue #79

In this issue:

• The Canva Visual Economy Report
• Announcing The Visual Marketer
• Design Quote of the Week

Canva released its Visual Economy Report and the results are a mixed bag.

It's obviously biased toward showing how great Canva is. Any report that is clearly a piece of marketing content from a vendor should be evaluated through the lens that they're trying to sell more.

Beyond that, the results match something that I've been focused on: Businesses expect more people to understand design.

It's good to see that business leaders are seeing the value of visual communication. McKinsey's data backs this up by showing companies that focus on design grow twice as fast as competitors. If you think about your favorite brands, they probably have high-quality design. Investments in this area telegraph to the viewers that the underlying product is also high quality.

Now, we see that businesses know they should focus on design, but what is holding them back?

The report shows that 69% of leaders see resistance to new tech trends and tools holding back design. Again, this is where you have to take the results with a grain of salt when the survey questions are being asked by a company that sells design software.

One drawback to using an all-in-one design solution is it is limited in functionality. Using a suite of best-of-breed products can yield better results, but there is a steep learning curve.

73% of companies are willing to spend more on visual communication tools. That's good since these tools are all adding AI functionality, driving up the price.

Visual Literacy

The area that caught my eye is the desire for better design literacy. We all need to speak the same language when referring to visuals. There's nothing more frustrating to a designer when someone uses the wrong terminology, and cycles are wasted trying to deliver the wrong thing.

Leaders who give creative direction need to know the right terminology to prevent miscommunication. If you call something transparent, and you mean knocked out, these are two different things.

Announcing The Visual Marketer

With that in mind, I'd like to announce my first book: The Visual Marketer.

This book was written for marketers who are expected to create their own visuals. Without the benefit of formal design education, you're given tools and expected to create memorable visuals that convert.

I'll talk about it in future issues as we get closer to the launch, but if you want to be kept up on the latest updates, sign up for more details.

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Design Quote of the Week

“Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended.”
– Raymond Loewy

My AI disclaimer: I write the main stories by hand (with occasional assistance from Grammarly). If AI generates the images, I include the prompt so you can see how I got to that image. Nothing in this newsletter, or anything I publish anywhere, reflects the views of my employer.

Thanks for reading!

–Jim

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