When it comes to choosing the right way to implement graphic design Norwich seems to have gained something of a reputation in recent years, with several graphic designers demonstrating how the art of the graphic design can be applied in ways that are often overlooked by many businesses.
One of the problems for a long time has been the name, graphic design.
Norfolk based studios and designers have been keen to point out lately that graphic design is not exclusively about drawings, pictures or images.
Perhaps a more appropriate term would be visual design, but it's probably too late to start trying to change that now.
Visual design makes a lot more sense, because we are very visual creatures.
We look at the world around us, the people in it, and ourselves, and the overwhelming majority of our thinking, understanding, learning and communicating is through visual stimuli.
Whether it's body language or the type of font used in a letter, or from the concatenation of visual ideas to words on a page, we base so much of our understanding, responses, thought patterns, ideas, assumptions and preferences on the visual way we see the world.
This is a crucial fact, because when you start to think in this way about graphic design, Norwich based designers start to breathe a sigh of relief, because finally their work is being appreciated for what it can really achieve.
Another important fact which graphic designers are keen to impress upon businesses is the fact that most graphic design work is not even consciously noticed.
That's not to suggest that it isn't seen - it is, a great deal, and in many different ways.
But often we don't realise that what we're looking at is not simply a random collection of choices that someone came up with because they seem to look all right.
For example, one credit recovery firm recently approached a graphic design studio in Norwich and asked for their input.
The problem was that, by the very nature of their business, they weren't exactly appealing to people, yet they still had a job to do, and wanted to try to reach out to people and engage with them in a more positive way that would be more likely to get people to read the letter and perhaps respond, rather than shred it and swear under their breath.
The graphic design studio in Norfolk accepted this challenge with interest, and after examining the letters which were sent to clients, provided a range of solutions.
One of these was as subtle as the type of font which was being used.
Formal font typefaces such as Times New Roman tend to be associated with formal letters such as those you receive from your bank.
Although the graphic designers didn't suggest going as far as using cursive typefaces indicative of handwriting, they did suggest a typeface which was both clear and easy to read, but suggested in a very subtle way a slightly less formal tone.
Most people wouldn't even notice this, but on a sub conscious level, they would, and it's this response to a visual input that can make all the difference.
This change, coupled with other tips such as including a little more white space, wider margins, a slightly altered layout, a different letterhead at the top and even a coloured block running down the left hand side all added up to a subtle changed letter.
Yet the results were anything less than subtle.
Without including a single picture, the people responsible for graphic design in Norwich helped the credit recovery firm leap from a 29% response rate to a 64% response rate, attributed solely to the subtle changes in the visual appearance of the letter.
No words were changed, no pictures added - just the clever and highly effective use of visual design, or graphic design.
Norwich designers are keen for businesses to realise that graphics doesn't have to mean pictures, but it can still mean real results.