Creative Presentation Folder Designs with Unique Brand Character

Presentation folders have a crucial purpose other than containing business and marketing information. These folders can also contribute to an organization’s efforts to define and establish their image. So it  is very important that presentation folders are properly designed.

Your presentation folder shows your target customers who you are even before they open it to see what’s waiting for them inside. But such folder doesn’t need to look too business-like, i.e., boring – they must also be designed creatively in order to leave a strong impact. A creative design can provide your presentation folders with a unique personality or character that will stay with your customers for a long time. Just check out the following samples of creative presentation folder designs to see what I mean:

Freitag Promotional Folder

MRB Corporate Folder

Cidma Group Corporate Folder

Costablanca by Metro – Beachfront golf community

Elements of a Great Poster

Posters are excellent visual tools for advertising and promotion. Although there’s no hard and fast rules in creating a successful poster, there are certain design techniques that designers follow to make sure that their designs will satisfy their clients and the target audience in general.

Main visuals

Posters generally attract attention due to its visual elements. This can be a photograph, illustrations or a combination of both. Your choice of imagery may depend on the purpose of the poster (Is it a campaign poster? Product poster?) and the type of audience.

Interesting typography

Typography is an important part of poster design. Many poster designs even use it as their main visual element. In fact, typography posters can be as engaging as those posters with images.

Attractive overall design

Graphics and texts are critical to a poster’s attractiveness. But you must also remember that your audience should be able to read the poster’s message. The overall layout should enhance the the poster’s readability not encumber it. To avoid making your poster look cluttered, master the creative use of white space.

Using Negative Space to Hide Images in Logos

In layout design, negative spaces are areas that have no content (i.e., types, images, etc.) These are also called white spaces although they don’t necessarily have to be white. The background can be of any color, just with the absence of content. Generally, the basic purpose of negative space is to create balance and make the layout look clean for the viewer. In logo design, there’s a clever use for negative space – hiding images.

Negative space is basically the empty space around or between the subject image (s). In a black-and-white image, like the one below, the image is usually black while the space around it is white, creating a silhouette. (The color scheme can be reversed, though.)

If you are going to “hide” the subject, you may want to “manipulate” the negative space by emphasizing everything around the subject. In the above image, which is actually an optical illusion, the chalice was created by “manipulating” the white space around the subject to appear like two human faces that are facing each other. Or we could look at it the other way around – the chalice’s intricate shape was manipulated to create the faces. The point is – whether it is black or white or any color for that matter – you can manipulate negative spaces to include hidden images.

The FedEx logo is a good example of using a negative space to hide a design element in a logo. Care to look for the hidden arrow? Yes, it’s between the letters E and X. The negative space between the two letters, which were put closer together, produced the hidden arrow.

If you want to be clever and use negative space to add a design element in your logo design, here are the tips to remember:

• Make the image as simple as possible in order to avoid confusion. The arrow in the FedEx logo was easy to spot because of its simplicity.
• Don’t just use white space. You have the option to use any color, especially if the logo is based on a specific theme or a branding image.
• If its a typographic logo, consider adding a shape behind, around, or between the text and then reverse the colors. (Remember the chalice illusion.)
• Experiment with proximity. As with the FedEx logo, two symmetrical elements in close proximity can create another image.

Logos with hidden images never fail to get that “Aha!” reaction. That’s why they work so well. People love to be surprised, not to mention being let in on a secret, which is what these hidden images in logos seem to most of us. By carefully (and cleverly) using negative spaces, you can have the chance to embed a secret in your logo design.

25 Greeting Card Designs to Inspire you this Holiday

It may be a bit old-fashioned but the tradition of sending and receiving holiday greeting cards is still being practiced to this day by a good number of people. Sure, almost everyone is now into social media in order to stay connected with friends and relatives. But if you are looking for a nice way to send warm holiday cheers, then you might want to know that there’s nothing more special and intimate than printed greeting cards.

The thought and efforts that the sender puts into writing and mailing a greeting card make the whole thing so touching. Why not make it even more personal by creating or at least having a hand in the cards’ design? If you are not sure how to start, then here are several wonderful holiday card designs to inspire you:

Disclaimer: Images on this page are not owned by Design & Print and are used only as design inspiration.

Cyclopee Xmas Tree

Whimsy Whimsical Winter Holiday Series

Mr. Hedgehog and Holy Night & Day in Pretzel Town

Holiday Letterpress Greeting Card

Christmas 2011 Card

Cuckoo Clock Christmas Card

Your Logo and Your Business Card

A logo aims to build an identity that is unique to the company it represents. Its shape, color and overall visual impact can help reflect credibility and professionalism. This is why aside from promoting easy customer recall, the logo is also useful in illustrating the basic idea of what a particular business is all about.

A good logo eliminates the need for long-winded descriptions that could otherwise take up space in the layout of most marketing materials – especially if it’s as small as a business card. The business card is one of the most important marketing tools that any business can use. You can make the most of it by strategically adding your logo in its design.

How do you incorporate your company logo in your business card design? Well, let’s say you are in a business with services or products that can be represented with a symbol. Creating a logo that symbolizes those services or products wouldn’t be such a bad idea, right? Once you have created the appropriate logo, the next step would be to consider where to place it in your card.

In designing business cards, many people tend to place the logo either in the center or in one of the four corners of the cards. If you want to experiment a little, here are three ways to place a logo in a business card:

1. Make your logo transparent or soften its colors and place it in the background (you can create this effect using any image editing program). Then print your contact details – in a more solid and contrasting font color – over the logo. This technique will allow you to maximize the space available for your info. Below are some examples:

Kancho Creative

Roberto Alanis

2. Let the logo occupy the front of the card and print your details on the back. This will allow your logo to take the spotlight and attract people’s attention right away, as shown by these examples:

Andrea Gallego

Enspired

A Showcase of Creative and Functional Business Cards

Business cards are essential for networking and marketing a business. Aside from sharing your contact details to prospective customers, they are also useful for getting the word out about your brand and company. To make your business cards memorable and impressive, you may want to create a unique design and use a high quality material. Or you can make them multi-functional. To give you an idea, here are some samples of creative business cards that are useful for other functions.

Ruler

Caliper

Guitar Pick

Magnifying Glass

Bottle Opener

Comb

Nail File

A unique business card design can help make your cards stand out. But making them functional will make sure that people will keep your cards for future use.

10 Eye-Catching Trifold Brochure Designs

A trifold brochure is a sheet of paper that is folded in two to create three equal panels. Also known as a letterfold brochure, a trifold brochure usually comes in these dimensions: 8.5” x 11,” 8.5” x 14,” 11” x 17” and 11” x 25.5.” The most common example of this type of brochure is the direct mail brochure.

In creating your trifold brochure, always remember to make the design one of your top priorities. Aside from contributing to the success of your campaign, an eye-catching layout can help you make the most of trifold brochure printing and your budget.

To get you started, here are some samples you may want to consider for inspiration:

501st Legion Brochure Concept

Blue Fox Jeans

Graphic Farmers Market Brochure

DOA Trifold Corporate Brochure 01

Retro Barbershop Brochure

Olympics Brochure

Raffle Brochure

Dance Studio Brochure

 

Home Maintenance Brochure

Travel Agency Brochure

Pop Culture-Inspired Business Cards

Your business cards are supposed to grab attention and spread the word about you and your business. A unique, creative design should help them do the trick. It wouldn’t hurt if you decide to use some familiar elements as well. Like adding pop culture flavor to your business card design, perhaps?

We live in an era where pop culture is heavily referenced in conversations, both offline and online, as well as in the mainstream media – from television shows to paperback novels. So why not use it to your own advantage? For one, it would make your card more memorable, thus helping with brand recall. Another thing, pop culture-inspired cards are great conversation starter, especially if your prospect understands the reference.  And provided you do it right, they can look great too. Just look at these business cards and see if they won’t capture your interest as you try recognize where the owners got their inspirations:

Superhero trading card

Old school video game

Anime

Useful Online Inspiration Sources For Print Designers

Even as more and more businesses continue to utilize online strategies to market their goods and services, many still prefer to rely on print materials – brochures, flyers, posters, business cards, etc. – to attract customers, establish brands, promote sales or simply to provide the public with information about a product or service. But this doesn’t mean that one should not take advantage of the World Wide Web even as they feel more comfortable marketing through offline means (some of us are still old school). In fact, traditional marketers can improve their print marketing materials if they choose to look for design inspiration online.

The Internet is a very large place to look for inspiration, though. To point you in the right direction, here are several online sources you may want to check out for ideas:

Abduzeedo - A blog that features various design articles, tutorials and inspiration for a wide range of areas, including print.

Card Observer - A gallery that showcases various business card designs.

It Even Has a Watermark - An impressive gallery of unique business card designs.

Logopond - A great site for logo inspiration.

Smashing Magazine - a design blog about the latest trends and techniques in Web design and development although it sometimes features articles and tips about print design as well.

 

 

 

Eye-Catching Business Postcard Design Ideas

The marketing technque of sending out direct mail pieces has long been one of the best ways to promote sales. To that end, business postcards are considered the best format to use, compared to other materials such as sales letters and flyers.

There are several advantages that business postcards enjoy over other direct mail pieces. For one, they do not require the recipient to open anything since postcards do not need to be placed inside envelopes. The prospect simply picks it up and reads it right away, which is another advantage that postcards marketing provides. Since most people don’t have the time to read long sales letters, or even brochures, a postcard is sure to receive at least a cursory reading.

To be effective in delivering your message, your postcards should easily attract people’s attention. This is why you need to carefully consider their design. A well-designed postcard will certainly make your prospects look twice and absorb what you have to say as quick as possible. To help you get started, here are some postcard design ideas for your inspiration.

Cable Promotional Postcards

Megan Huntz Dresses

 

 

Ride The Ducks Camp Postcard

 

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Postcard Series

 

Indiestory 2010 Promotion Postcard