They say “Never judge a book by it’s cover.” Who are they? Surely it must have been the chap who writes the inner sleeve blurb who first came up with that one? He obviously never thought he was getting enough attention.
We all judge books by their covers, if you were in a book shop something has got to attract you to first pick up a book and that of course is a cover. But the cover has all sorts of information on it, hints at what’s inside, the title for a start might give you a clue, the author would certainly give you further information and the cover illustration is hopefully going to mirror both nuggets of information to extent your understanding.
So looking beyond books I’m sure we all do the same for most everything else in our lives too, a shop by it’s window display either attracts us or not, a web sites home page the same, they are all shop fronts after all. And even people we meet are judged as quickly.
There is another old saying that people buy people like themselves. Again, a logical fact that if you can relate to someone you are more likely to want to spend time with them than someone that repels you. This can be emotionally as well as physically, ideologically or politically.
So if our shop front is so important why do so many people take so little effort over their appearance? None of us can stop from growing older, but nothing forces us to aspire to old attitudes. Being young at heart can often be seen immediately when you meet someone, the eyes so often tell the story. We all make assumptions and generally make up our mind whether we are going to like someone within the first 90 seconds of meeting them. So through all these areas it’s difficult to deny that first impressions count and we all do to a certain degree judge a book by it’s cover.
So what’s the point of this blog? Well as a professional in the visual industry I understand the importance of a good first impression. If I’m covering an event for photography or video I need to be professional in my appearance, if I’m doing a portrait of a CEO or minister I need to be confident not only in my abilities to do the job but also to engage the subject in conversation with enough interest to keep their attention during a portrait shoot.
This professionalism and skill needs to be displayed even before people meet me though, today my web site is my shop window as used to be my physical portfolio. They both have had to look professional and interesting to attract the business.
Today our shop windows include not only our physical presence but also our website and our social media. A good portrait and a video presentation of our product or service on our digital media are a very strong cover for our story, whether it be a business or just self promotion.
We can all cover a book –many of you will have had to do so to text books at school but it takes a professional to make something of quality in the book binding world. It’s no different in the visual world either, the best portraits and video presentations are produced by professionals.
So if you want to look your best, if you want to show your best presentation to the world, if you want to stand the highest chance of winning the business start at the basics and look good from the start. Get a professional photographer or videographer involved in your visual needs right from the start. The cost will pay for itself ten times over in confidence and no doubt increased sales.
By Brian Russell
Copyright 2013