0 
Quality professional design is an important piece of the success of your company. Design is needed to brand your business. From company swag to your outward facing company website, design is an important factor. It’s also an essential part of marketing and targeting the visual side of consumers. In today’s world, more companies are using original visuals, gifs, and memes to better engage their consumers.
But, not many companies have the budget to hire a full-time graphic designer. A logo project can cost thousands of dollars! On the flip side, graphic design skills aren’t something that can be easily or quickly learned, hence the price tag. Graphic artists need to be creative and understand how consumers connect to visuals.
Want to embrace professional design without breaking the bank? We’re here to help! Keep reading for four tools that offer professional design services at half the price.
- MockFlow
Without professional design, your company’s website will fall flat. In fact, 75% of people prefer to read something that’s beautifully designed rather than something plain. This means that the website you present to your customers needs to be well-designed and easy to use.
But website design takes time, especially to create wireframes, page layouts, and navigation. To streamline your web design efforts, use MockFlow. With this tool, you can design and develop prototypes of your website in real-time.
The hybrid tool allows you to design layouts seamlessly, even without an internet connection! MockFlow allows you to create a visual concept quickly and easily, without the need for wireframes or diagrams. MockFlow offers other features including:
- Sitemaps for page organization
- Hyperlinking capabilities
- Pre-loaded icons
The company offers a free basic version that is limited to one user and one project per tool. If you want your team to use the UX suite, MockFlow offers a $160/month package that allows for unlimited users and projects.
- Canva
Though small, logos have a huge impact on the success of your company. They help to build brand identity as well as recognition. Customers are more likely to identify your logo versus your brand’s name. The right logo allows customers to connect with and easily identify your brand. When creating a logo, you’ll need to:
- Identify images that are relevant to your brand
- Determine any text within the logo
- Decide the tone and personality of the image
Because logos hold such weight, you don’t want to create a sub-par logo that’s too similar to another company or incompatible with your business. While most companies spend thousands for professional design, you can easily create a logo using Canva
Canva is a powerful design tool that’s easy to use. Logo creation can be stress-free with this tool. With Canva you can upload your elements, including images and text, by just dragging and dropping!
Need some creative inspiration? The tool offers a huge library of professionally-designed templates that can be used. Add your unique elements, and you’ve got a logo at your fingertips.
For $12.95 per user per month, you have everything you need to design a company logo.
- Nifty Images
Images can be used as more than just pretty graphics on a page. As a business owner, chances are you’re highly focused on advertising and marketing your company. If you’re like most businesses, you use email marketing to engage with your customers. But have you ever thought to include images in your email messages?
Nifty Images creates personalized images as well as countdown timers for use in email campaigns. These graphics increase clicks and engagement. The personalized images are dynamic and can reflect a recipient’s name, birthday, and other data. Personalized emails show customers that they are valued. Sending out the same message to hundreds of customers seems a bit spammy. Personalize them with dynamic images from Nifty Images to grab a reader’s attention.
The countdown images are a fun way to create excitement about a new product release or an upcoming tradeshow. Include them in your emails so users can stay in the know of upcoming company events.
- PiktoChart
Professional design is also about content creation. Aside from blogs and emails, your company will also want to produce original graphics. Visuals are a must for engaging with customers and maintaining their interest. Looking to share informational content in a new way? If so, infographics are an ideal option. These informational graphics are perfect for sharing facts and statistics about your product or service. When designed properly, they are much preferred over flat text content.
Behind the scenes, infographics are quite intricate. Even without a graphic designer, you can create infographics using PiktoChart.
The web app is entirely free and offers hundreds of customizable themes, including color schemes and pre-loaded fonts. You can also use the app to create banners, reports, and even company presentation. Choose your template, make any changes, add your content, and you’re ready to public!
Not much in life is free, but this professional design app is.
Conclusion
These 5 tools can jumpstart your company’s design efforts. Professional design is an important part of crafting your company’s brand. It’s also a must-have for marketing campaigns.
