Friends Don’t Let Friends Do Their Own Graphic Design Work

Have you ever been handed a business card or brochure that screamed “homemade”?  You know…the one on the lightweight paper with the text that just doesn’t line up? The one decorated with clipart?

How about the website that is an online remake of the company’s brochure or an email that is just text rather than an online eNewsletter?

Regardless of how qualified these individuals are, their promotional materials say “not serious” or “hobby”.

Now the Flip Side…When you receive quality promotional materials, the message is  “experience” – “established” – “knowledgeable” – “credible”.  There is a consistent look between the printed materials, the website, and the email marketing materials. The logo and images are clean and the message is valuable and interesting.

The image you project with your promotional materials can make you appear larger than life…someone worth consideration.  A graphic designer can evaluate your requirements, develop a marketing plan, work within your budget and help you project a professional image.

So…Which message would you rather send…hobby? …or experienced and knowledgeable?

The Fun Theory

This video is certainly FUN but also food for thought in all that we do regardless of our trade…Keep this in mind when trying to promote your business…make it FUN, UNIQUE, CLEVER… and attract more business.

3 Reasons to Hire a Graphic Designer

What’s in it for you?  What’s the value?  Why hire a graphic designer?

#1 A graphic designer can give you a variety of ideas on how to promote your business and can work within your budget. This includes branding your business, direct mail pieces, email marketing campaigns, website development and more.

#2 Color formulas and resolution are quite different between print and online marketing. A graphic designer has invested in the tools and has the knowledge to set up artwork in the correct format so you get quality promotional materials.

#3 Work ON your business…not IN your business. If you are developing a newsletter or a postcard, you will probably spend entirely too much time…time that could be spent focusing on the business itself. A graphic designer has the expertise to help you market your product or service in an efficient, cost effective manner.

So what’s the benefit?

Effective Business Promotion – Cost Savings – Time Savings

Creating a Brand

Challenge:  Create a corporate identity for a computer service company that provides system setups, networking, repairs, etc. Their current branding included a cheetah, and they wanted to retain that image. The challenge was to create a look that said “computer service”.

Solution:   How about incorporating zeros and ones (computer code) into the cheetah image like so:

Well, the client didn’t like the first pass! On the second attempt, the zeros and ones became a subtle background…After much tweaking, here is the final image.

In order to create a brand, this look needs to appear on their website, brochures, email promotions, etc….a consistent look throughout their marketing materials.

Just for Fun!

I know…This has absolutely nothing to do with graphic design, marketing, branding, corporate identity, etc… it makes just makes me laugh…Hope you enjoy it too!

When Graphic Designers Get Bored

What concept would you like to convey? With photo editing, the sky’s the limit. Let your “bored” graphic designer create a great promotion for you!

Enjoy!

The Exotic Language of Graphic Designers

Well, not really “exotic”, but I thought that might catch your eye…The title should really be “Why Do I Need to Hire a Graphic Designer?”

Do you know what RGB and CMYK are? What is a Gif? A Jpeg?  How come the photo looks great on my computer monitor, but when I print it out, it looks fuzzy?

Graphic Design 101 – RGB and CMYK are color formulas. RGB (short for red, green, blue) is the color formula for the images you see online, in emails, etc. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black – Don’t ask me why “K” stands for black…If someone out there in blogland knows, please submit a comment!  Back to the point…CMYK is the ink formula for printing purposes.

Now the gifs and jpegs are file formats…There are others…eps, pdf, ai, bmp…I could go on, but you’d probably move on as well! Just know that each format has it’s purpose…The photo you view online is probably a jpeg file…the gif file format is many times used for a logo, drawing, illustration.

And why does that image look so crisp and clear online and look so fuzzy when you print it? Well, the resolution on website images is at 72 dots per inch (dpi). The image looks great AND displays quickly…If you used a higher resolution file, viewers would lose patience and leave your site before the image downloaded.  The higher resolution file (at least 300 dpi) is what is necessary for print.

So there you have it…or maybe you don’t…which goes back to the secondary title in this post…Why Hire a Graphic Designer? Because this individual will know what color formula, which format and what resolution is needed for your logo design, your brochures, your website and email promotions!

Email Marketing – How Effective is it? How Do you Know?

If you send out a postcard to promote an event, how many people read it? Who tosses it? How effective is it? How do you know?

With any email marketing program, you can track how many people read your email promotion, who opened it (and who did not), and whether or not it was forwarded to a friend or colleague…Remember, knowledge is POWER!

In addition, you can include links within your email promotion to other sites including your own! This directs additional traffic to your website, increasing your standing on search engines.

Finally, email marketing gives you the opportunity to Go Green…Market via email rather than printing and save a tree!

Want more information about email marketing opportunities including templates available and the most effective approach? Visit www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=designermousegraphicdesign

Why Pay for Postage/Printing When You Can Promote Via Email?!

Marketing your business used to be accomplished mainly through word-of-mouth referrals or the printed piece. Now I have NOTHING against the personal referral. In fact I suspect that is the BEST promotion you can receive….And printed postcards and newsletters can be very powerful as well. The advantage of email marketing is the elimination of printing costs and postage.

Since it takes several hits to get your customers or potential customers to respond, the printed piece needs to be mailed out multiple times to be effective…The same message in email form can provide the same content as the printed piece, include photos, logos, graphs, etc. and color…lots of color…and can be delivered as often as you like…weekly, monthly, etc.

Once you begin your email marketing program, you can use the same template and just change the message or offer. That consistent look allows the viewer to recognize the sender at a glance.

Consult with a professional graphic designer regarding content for your ePostcard or eNewsletter.  The designer knows color and layout and can provide a piece that will save you $$$$$$$$$$$$ and increase your visibility on a regular basis.

Next blog….The ability to track the results and effectiveness of your email marketing program…Stay Tuned!

The Power of the Logo

The Power of the Logo

Branding is so important…Let me drive home this point…Here is a portion of a well known logo…What comes to mind?

Even with just a portion of the logo, you’re hopefully thinking “Coca Cola”.

Here’s another…again…just a portion of the logo. What comes to mind?

The power of the logo…even with just a portion of the logo, you know what the product is. Of course that is because these companies put their logo on EVERYTHING from stationery, forms, brochures, signage, website, electronic mailings, fleet vehicles, commercials, etc. The list goes on and on.

If you already have a logo for your business, make sure to maximize the impact by placing it on ALL your promotional materials. And be consistent…The look has to be the same throughout.

If you need a logo, hire a professional that can save your logo in a variety of formats for use in print and electronic media. There are differences in resolution and color formulas between print and electronic media.  Your graphic designer (and I hope that you would consider Designer Mouse Graphic Design) can create a logo with impact and can guide you through the process of placing it on EVERY form of advertising you utilize.

OK, one more test…Hope you’re not hungry!