With regard to the world of graphic design, Norfolk seems to have rather more than its fair share of successful brands, corporate identities and instantly recognisable logos. A quick browse through Norfolk based websites or if you're in the area, a quick look around at promotional literature and visual marketing campaigns suggests that for graphic design, Norwich is ahead of the game.
That's really saying something, because graphic design is a very demanding business, and there is a great deal of competition between different graphic design businesses. But why is it that for graphic design, Norfolk has its head and shoulders above many other locations?
Perhaps it's the countryside, the clean air, or perhaps it's the fact that a team of professional graphic designers with a knack of generating successful brand identities just happened to settle in Norwich, from which they carry out a great deal of national work.
But understandably many of the local businesses have taken advantage of the team of designers on their doorstep, and have benefitted from their unique insight into the world of graphic design.
Norwich has a large number of businesses, organisations and companies, each of which has its own identity. This isn't always the case, and there are places where it's possible to see themes developing. I was in a town recently which clearly had very few graphic designers, and those they had clearly had even fewer ideas. I judged about half of the local brands to be virtually indistinguishable from each other, and certainly easily confused with each other.
Even the same fonts and colours had been used in several instances, and I started to wonder whether there was simply some huge corporation based deep underground that was secretly running all of these separate businesses. This seemed unlikely, and what seemed rather more likely was that one single graphic designer with a limited number of ideas, skills and basic software had simply churned out a stock of fairly similar logos, brand identities and visual styles.
On the other hand I have also seen the work of graphic designers who seem intent on promoting their own skills, developing logos and brand identities that are so confusing, so convoluted and so busy that it's hard to make out what on earth the logo is, let alone recognise it, understand it and take on board at least some of the basic principles of the companies' intentions or values.
Brand identities have to say something, and they have to say it quickly and effectively. It's a little like being given the chance to stand up in front of thousands of people and say just one sentence in order to sell your business, products or service.
What would you say about your business in a dozen words? How would those few words help your business stand out from all of the others? What would people hear in those words, besides the words themselves? Doubt? Uncertainty? Desperation? Confusion?
If you're not careful, graphic design can quickly start to fail your business by saying too much, or too little, or simply saying the wrong things. But when looking at examples of graphic design, Norfolk, it's abundantly clear that not only is there a hugely diverse selection of styles, approaches and methods in the varying brands, corporate identities and visual marketing messages and signs, but that these visual means of communication are actually saying something.
It's easy to think that graphic design is about drawings, pictures and visual ways of making things look pretty, whilst adding relatively little else. This assumption couldn't be further from the truth, because a drawing, a picture or a symbol is way of packaging a whole heap of text into a more concise form.
Imagine if you were driving along a road and suddenly saw a road sign which read 'Just a little further ahead, round the next corner there are some gates on either side of the road which enable hikers to cross from one side to the other, so slow down a little and keep a look out for pedestrians in the road.'
By the time you've read the sign you've either had to park up and make a cup of tea whilst you work your way through it, or the pedestrians are now several feet shorter than they were earlier in the day.
Effective signs, symbols and visual ways of communicating get messages across quickly and effectively, in recognisable ways. For exceptional examples of such graphic design, Norfolk is the ideal place to start.
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