Here's something I dug up from the files back home. 
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WHAT DESIGNERS DO AND HOW THEY CAN HELP BUSINESS BECOME MORE SUCCESFUL.
"Corporate design consultants possess the skills to see and to help others see."
- Peter Gorb, Director, Design Management Unit, London Business School
In 1981, before MTV ever reached one TV, Robert Pittman made a critical decision. He asked a team of graphic designers to create an identity that presented the channel's spirit - "open-ended, fluid, impulsive, spontaneous, defiant, disrespectful, and unlike anything ever before." That decision resulted in one of the world's most powerful logos and launched MTV on its way to becoming the world's most popular music channel and Pittman on to the CEO slot at Time Warner.
One of many success stories, the MTV case history testifies to the ability of graphic design to build strong links between a business and its customers, suppliers, and staff. We could cite similar accounts about Nike, Crate & Barrel, and Starbuck's coffee. But we didn't create this text just to wow you with the value of graphic design, but also to guide you in working with a graphic designer early on so you can create your own success story.
Graphic designers serve businesses by helping them communicate their most important messages to customers, employees, stock-holders, and the general public. Like advertising and public relations, graphic design provides businesses with a strategic tool that can inform people, move them to act, and influence how they perceive products, services, and companies themselves. In fact, as in the MTV example, graphic design can literally transform intangible assets - spirit, attitude, personality - into tangible objects that people immediately understand.
This content area is devoted to helping businesses and other organizations tap the great potential of graphic design. And the way to do that is to understand how graphic design works.
Text excerpted from "The Graphic Design Handbook for Business"
©1995 American Institute of Graphic Arts/Chicago Chapter
