Episode 46: Design That Sells Products

Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:00] In this episode we answer a question from regular listener Dave Clayton
[1:40] Dave is asking what makes a good design product
[2:20] We also dig into how do you present stuff online
[3:00] Ian believes a winning product is something that has multiple uses and helps creators rather than a finished product
[3:30] Create aspirational images that make other people wonder how did you do that
[4:45] People will rush products out and sometimes they need to be sent back to improve before they can sell
[5:00] Quality tops quantity – some designers will spend more than 6 months on creating a font
[5:50] It’s the fine details people often miss and Lisa puts a lot of effort into making products that are easy to use
[6:50] Try and reduce file size if possible
[7:30] Lisa thinks if a product is unique, is it a spin on an existing product and/or something that will save people time
[8:00] Design Cuts spends a lot of time on curating products and works only with the best designers
[8:20] You want the first and the best product
[9:30] Competition for releasing the same type of product forces designers to improve their skills and products
[10:00] Be a leader and not a follower – make your own trend rather than trying to make an existing trend better
[10:40] Dustin suggests being a magpie – collect all the great things you love from other products, containers, books etc.
[11:15] Tom sees this as a Venn diagram – when connecting two things and the spot where they connect leads to something unique
[12:00] Ian’s first products, Vector Press and AquaType, were born from the frustration of working with products that were hard to use and slowed down his computer
[14:30] It’s getting harder to compete as there are more and more designers which are also getting better
[15:00] This means the consumer is getting better quality, it’s forcing everyone to innovate and the market is moving in a positive direction
[15:50] Dustin remembers a time when designers kept it secret how they created a product
[16:50] Constantly improving and launching lots products created a lot of competition between Ian and Dustin
[17:30] Competition doesn’t mean people will stop buying from you
[18:00] This pushed Ian to create better products and faster
[18:40] Don’t pay attention to what everyone else is doing and start listening to your customers
[19:30] You already have a product if you know what your audience needs and wants
[20:30] Ian suggests looking at Pinterest to find inspiration for products
[21:30] Ian used help from photographers and a lot of his products include flowers, dried paint powder etc.
[22:00] Look for market demand, setting a new trend or jumping on a trend early, creating time saving products, and products that your customers don’t even know they need
[23:30] Designers will have very different audiences
[24:00] Ian creates products that are enjoyable to do, even if they are less popular
[24:30] Your products don’t necessarily have to be on trend but they have to be good quality
[25:15] Ask you audience what they want and they will tell you – Dustin did this and sold lots of products
[26:15] It’s highly important how you present your products and how you create your preview images
[27:30] Design Cuts will work with the designers and help them with the preview images – either by giving them suggestions or designing the graphics ourselves
[28:30] No designer will want to buy a product that has bad preview graphics, as they won’t be inspired by it or wish they could create something similar
[29:30] Tom mentions Sam Parrett from Set Sail Studios – his fonts are great but it’s the beautiful preview images that make customers buy his fonts rather than similar ones
[30:15] Quick fire round of tips on how to create your preview images
[30:30] Use annotation and highlight the benefits of your product: it’s completely vector, easy to use and quicker, authentic water colour effect etc.
[31:00] Don’t try to show everything in your cover product
[32:30] Lisa loves clean design and tries to create a simple and beautiful cover that will make people click on her product
[33:00] She also makes screenshots and compares this to products on the market
[33:50] Tom suggest increasing the saturation a bit
[34:30] Ian thinks it’s important to have a clear theme for the product and use preview images that connect with each other
[35:30] He will sometimes create the previews while creating the product
[36:50] Lisa thinks it’s almost like selling an experience
[37:30] Have a conclusion image which is a summary of the story created by the preview images
[38:30] Your cover should be as good as the cover of a product that you could buy in a store
[38:50] Dustin suggest buying a copywriting book
[39:40] It’s very easy to become better than most people
[40:00] Use emotional triggers e.g.: for a font use a hand and a pen
[41:30] Make sure you highlight everything in your product, such as all the different weights within a font family
[42:30] Use mock-ups for everything, e.g.: a texture on a packaging
[44:00] Dustin used heath maps on his website and found that 80% of people look at the preview images and then make a buy
[44:30] Authenticity links into quality
[45:30] Customers will gravitate towards authentic products in which the designer put a lot of effort into
[47:00] Tom thinks of a follow up episode on how to use design to sell stuff
[47:30] Thank you for listening to this week’s episode