The responsibility of designers
Your work has the potential to change lives
By Dan Antonelli
Posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2018

I was speaking to clients—a husband and wife team—the other day about a new brand and truck wrap we were designing for them. This was a small business with a handful of employees, and they had come to us to completely rebrand their business and create a whole new look for them. I had shared some concepts with them and we were spending some time going over the sketches.
For any business, the investment in signage and branding is crucial. And it’s their money— money from their own funds, not some nameless corporation’s. Maybe they’ve needed to plan strategically for a long time to make this investment in their infrastructure, while perhaps sacrificing expenses elsewhere to make this happen.
While we spoke, I could hear the kids in the background and a baby as well. And it really reinforced to me what we live and breathe every day as a philosophy at our agency. It was just another reminder that our work has the potential to change people’s lives. And for us, designing with that idea in mind is really how we view the enormity of our responsibility to our clients.
Dan Antonelli owns KickCharge Creative (formerly Graphic D-Signs, Inc.) in Washington, New Jersey. His latest book, Building a Big Small Business Brand, joins his Logo Design for Small Business I and II. He can be reached at dan@kickcharge. com. Dan also offers consulting and business coaching services to sign companies. For more information, visit danantonelli.com. On Instagram: @danantonelli_kickcharge.