A few quick thoughts on what I think it means to make a good visual impact and it's importance on a design project.

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Over time people can become extremely reliant on the visual aspects to communicate meaning and purpose. A great, and embarrassing, example is what happened to me while buying the book Made to Stick in New Zealand.

I must have been looking for it for several minutes, glanced at it, and even read the cover without realizing I was staring right at it. Why? Because I was looking for the colors and shapes that were from a different version of the book cover. The person that came to help me pointed it out in five seconds... I felt like such an idiot!

When the visuals support the content, everything just "feels" right. When they don't it's awkward and people tend to have problems trusting the content.

So don't forget--the visual aspects of design aren't just to make things pretty--they communicate something. And is what they're communicating what they should be presented to the audience?