The 10 Second Graphic Designer Intro — Streamtime Blog

The first impression is the most important.

According to research by Princeton University, it takes us only one tenth of a second to make up our minds about people. This makes it imperative to get that first impression right — that one tenth of a second starts the selling process and begins the relationship.

And remember, clients could be anywhere. Let’s say you’re at a party and someone says to you:

“What line of business are you in?”

Do you reply?

“I’m a graphic designer.”

If you do you may be missing a great opportunity.

I don’t mean that you should do the American thing and give yourself a “creative title”. One article I read suggested that if you were an accountant you could give yourself the title of “combat accountant” or “forensic accountant”. This may go down well in the big apple but it doesn’t wash so well in Australia.

We believe that the best approach is to devise a sentence that explains what benefit you give to your clients. Turn it into a one-sentence story.

Start with your mission statement: it says who you are, what you do, who you do it for and where. From this you should be able to develop your 10 second intro.

For example;

‘I’m a graphic designer … over the last 5 years my design studio has specialised in annual reports where we take a bundle of boring information and use design to make it interesting.’

This says that you’re a graphic designer, have a business; it’s been going for 5 years, you are a specialist in annual reports, you add value for your clients and you help the end user.

Summary

A good 10 second introduction is perfect to share with your team — we are all salespeople and if everyone says the same thing it builds a more consistent studio brand.

Article republished with permission from dmzine illustration for Streamtime by Janine Wareham

Written by Aaron Green and originally published at streamtime.net on June 3, 2011.