Over the duration of my college career I discovered I have a strong preference for hand-crafted design. Throughout my first year at TBG I have tried to work it into as many projects as I can. This style of design fits well with our pro-bono work for a local ballet school and Habitat for Humanity. However, the majority of our regular clients are hi-tech, B2B companies, and the issue that always arises is: “Is there a place for hand crafted design in the hi-tech B2B world?”

Currently, hand-crafted design is most often seen in more intimate B2C industries, like food, health, travel, and fashion. Two examples of this style used in these industries include an ad series by Cheerios and Anthropologie Clothing’s website. In the Cheerios ads, a hand-crafted style is used to represent ideas of intimacy in relation to a person’s heart health and personal passion. For Anthropologie, this style is used to give their clothes a high-end, hand-crafted, artsy appeal. In both cases, it is easy to see how this style gives them a very strong human element; nothing about either example feels machined in any way.

Until recently, the goal of hi-tech, B2B marketing was usually to convey ideas of efficiency, innovation, security, and structure, leaving no appropriate scenario for the use of hand-crafted design. However, with the advent of Web 2.0, social networking and mobile technology, this style of design now has an appropriate place in the hi-tech, B2B world. As our technology continues to become more and more user-friendly, personal, and intimate, the more a style that conveys these characteristics becomes appropriate. While there still may be many marketing situations where the use of a hand-crafted design is inappropriate, I am excited there is now a place for this style in hi-tech, B2B.

What do you think? Let me know whether or not you agree.