I was never any good at drawing, not even able to stay within the lines on a coloring book. My mom was magnificent and brought coloring books to life; to this day, she still sits with kids and does a killer job of coloring those blank pages. I remember asking her to finish my drawings for me. It is not surprising then that my handwriting was not that good either. As a matter of fact, I remember struggling quite a bit as a kid, back when teachers equated calligraphy with intelligence. Over the years I adapted, found shortcuts and through the persistence of time, eventually things got better and I made it through my academic years not without getting plenty of remarks from teachers about how bad my handwriting was.
Perhaps because I could not even draw a decent stick figure is the reason I developed a great love of painting. I’m a big fan of Picasso, Kandinsky, Britto and Maestro Salvador Dali. More than once I have been on a business trip to a city with an important museum in it and I always try to play hooky for a few hours to sneak in and get lost in the world of acrylics, oils and pastels. Many travel companions on those business trips often decide to join me on our museum escapes, only to freak out when they see this square auto-parts selling guy go gaga for art.
In our daily business lives, it’s hard to mix painting and drawing into what we do. Strangely enough, the new digital paradigm has opened up a whole new area where great graphic design can lead to more auto parts being sold. Online, you need to capture customers with great content and in our industry great content is usually meant to be visually consumed. Be it videos or graphic designs, we are all fighting for our customer’s eyeballs and nothing gets them to look again like a great design.
Over the years, I have met thousands of customers that bought auto parts from me. Some are great at procuring, others are good at logistics, yet again many have the right location; however, lately I have been collaborating with several customers that are really good at something else: graphic design.
These customers usually sell their wares online, most do a killer job on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Their postings are meant to attract end-users and their weapon is artistry. These are small companies looking for new source of revenue and they are filling the gap nicely on social networks. Vehicle owners are looking for answers to their auto parts questions and more often than not they are spending their time online on these social networks. Many of the big players in our industry do not do a good job of connecting with the end users socially. That’s where these smaller players come in and capture new business.
Online search has become social, local and mobile. It’s important to create content that addresses those three new realities. Great graphic design is the big equalizer. If your artwork is better than the big boys, the end user will look at you first. So now we all need a new tool in our tool bag. Thus, get in tune with your inner artist. For me, that muse comes from Catalonian surrealist painter Salvador Dali. He once said, “Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.” Too bad I never learned how to draw; but, I am good at spotting quality art and lately I’m finding a lot of it in our customers’ thriving to outshine online.
