A tip for marketing design

Here's a little tip. When designing marketing materials -- whether they be billboards, flyers, magazine ads, or websites -- remember that effective communication is more important than artistry. It can be tempting for someone to try to make these materials as beautiful as possible, but that should only be a secondary goal. The primary goal should be to communicate your message, and excessive emphasis on artistry can get in the way of that.

Consider this. What if your website were to have such magnificently beautiful artistry as to captivate your readers. Where will their focus be? What will they remember? Will they be focused on the beauty of your website, to the point that they are no longer as engaged in reading its message? That simply isn't right.

Don't get carried away with artistry, folks. It's not a good idea.