Lowe's Temporary Mural ordered for their Celebration of the West Texas Community.
Why Hiring Artists in the Digital Age Gives Your Business an Edge
It can be easy to create branding for your business via services, like Canva or Photoshop, and having your business's signage printed at the most economical printer.
But, what are the hidden costs of connection behind modern commercial conveniences?
Convenience exists because enough people are using a product to drive down the financial cost, making it appear to be a great option for business owners.
However, as a business, you might find yourself competing against other businesses who are using the exact same graphics, fonts, themes, and experiences as you. The real cost of these services is the trust, loyalty, and engagement of your customers.
This phenomenon began to rise with Pinterest. In the 2010's, businesses sought to mimic the minimalism, aesthetic, and ambiance of the endless photos of cafes, restaurants, and boutiques that lined Pinterest's feeds.
The problem: everyone's branding, across the globe, began to look identical.
When everyone's branding begins to look identical, your customers find it harder to discern why they should come to your business and not your competition.
The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has only exponentially increased this problem. As AI companies promote their business, they proffer that using AI will save a business owner a dramatic amount of time.
The problem is that your customers remain human; their decision-making continues to be driven through their subconscious.
Emotion continues to be the primary driver of consumer behavior. Even if consumers use logic as a secondary motive of deciding where to take their business, their primary concerns are driven by their neurochemistry. Human concerns remain the same: serotonin (happiness), oxytocin (connection and safety), and dopamine (novelty).
Your ability to draw more customers into your business is your ability to meet these three basic human needs.
These are needs products such as Canva, Photoshop, AI, etc continually fail to meet. Why? Because they are designed for the business owners who use the services -- not the customers who will support them.
Art, however, is captable of meeting these three needs. Art allows for communication beyond language, directly into the subconscious of your consumers. It is in this place that decisions are made.
Have you ever had a 'gut' feeling? That feeling is not random. A 'gut feeling' is actually your brain communicating beyond language using the information it has collected that you are not consciously aware of.
Your customers use gut feelings every single day to decide whether or not to come to your business. Art can foster the emotion that verifies to them that you are exact service they are looking for to satisfy their needs (happiness, connection/safety, novelty).
This goes beyond the word of two artists. A neurological study uncovered the depth in which art experienced in person has on a person's brain. "The brain is stimulated in a manner that is ten times stronger when people visit a museum and look at art in person than when they view a reproduction, such as a postcard or poster."
In your business, this means that art that is hand-painted at your business has a much larger impact on your customers than printed art and signage.
Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis, said, “You become [mentally] richer when you see things, whether you are conscious of it or not, because you make connections in your brain.”
Art Subconsciously Signifies Safer Humans
There is a subconscious communication that exists in seeing art made by humans because we can see human movement within the art itself. This communicates to the part of our brain that craves security, craves a community, a need that you need not look very far to see people expressing every day.
The ideal of having a 'polished' and 'efficient' business branding is eroding as edgy graphics and print has begun to take on a 'corportate' energy.
Customers, especially younger customers, are drawn to the unique, surprising, and comforting branding that revolves around a business owner's personality. This is because the authenticity of your brand representing you as a person-- rather than a corporation -- communicates that you are there for the customer.
In an uncertain world, helping your customers feel as if they are not just potential profit, but valued patrons that are creating a community by choosing your business.
Mural at Pitt BBQ was designed to reflect the owner's heritage and Chicano culture.
This mural at Old Central Firehouse reflects the convergence of the building's history with the idea of the modern West aesthetic that the owner's wanted to use to bring new energy to the idea of West Texas.
In an Overly Manufactured World, Art Stands Out to Your Customers
The value of investing in art for your business initially seems to be that you will stand out amongst the overly-corporate and manicured branding that most businesses and services presently adopt.
However, in addition, even as more businesses choose personality and authenticity, the art you have helped create and woven into the fabric of your business's branding will stand the test of time because human art is not reproducible.
It will remain unique and vibrant despite what your competition chooses to do.
And, as your business's branding takes on your personality through art, you will find new communities springing up within your customer pool.
A business that fosters a feeling of community -- of culture --not only becomes incredibly difficult to compete with, but becomes a staple (and later a legacy) within a city.
If you are interested in creating art for your business's branding, please reach out to us and we will be happy to help you find that unique spark that will help you draw in the right customers for your business, but will help you create a community that will support you just as you support them.