Best of 2008 Print and Web Design

As is the norm in just about every industry, we marketers also have our own awards. Since design is such a large and important part of marketing, it’s important to highlight the best nuggets of info and inspiration that came about this year.

Best Ways to Enhance Photos
Using the Blur effect in Photoshop can do wonders to make a distracting background complement your focus in a photo.

In the photo on the left, viewers could be left wondering where this photo was taken instead of focusing on the woman’s uniform and pose, which convey strength. TutorialPulse.com has a great tutorial on how to achieve the Blur effect.

Photoshop tricks were all the rage this year, with people getting more creative as the months flew by. A list of the 30+ Nicest Photoshop Photo Tutorials, Part II includes tuts on how to make an eerily calm storm (shown here) using layers, fun lighting effects and how to make a vector portrait from a photo.

 

Best RSS Feed Icons
It’s amazing what designers will redesign next. Of course we’ve all seen the common orange square RSS feed icon, but have you seen any that look like this?

 

Pro Blog Design showcased 110+ Free RSS Icons that could fit into any Web site’s theme. This site definitely makes any site’s standard RSS icon look boring.

Best Typography
Typography is everywhere – print, Web, TV – you can’t escape it. Oftentimes, logos are created by typography alone. Type gives businesses personality. The list from Noupe shows off the best creations this year, including my fave from the list:

 

I love the two-toned colors and the hummingbirds floating about. The “holes” make it look more modern, and almost industrial, save for the colors.

Best Business Card Designs
There are a lot of “best of” lists out there for business cards, but I especially love this one:

It’s amazing how many different designs and techniques are being used for business cards these days. This card comes from a list at DzineBlog. The list includes business cards in the shapes of tear drops and circles, which make for an interesting design, but begs the question of functionality. Those are the cards that are most likely to get lost in the paper shuffle because they don’t fit neatly into wallets or Rolodexes, but is the unique shape enough to keep them on top of a CEO’s paper pile?

Best Inspirational Web Sites
SpyreMag’s list of 25 inspirational Web site designs is enough to get any designer’s creative juices flowing. I love this design snippet from Design Disease.

It’s very relaxing to the eye with the ocean blues and the waves throughout the page, not just at the top. It manages to be laid-back and professional at the same time.

Inspiration for Creative Ads

When it comes time to map out a new ad, whether for a billboard, brochures, a magazine spot or any other multitude of media, it’s hard to come up with something creative that people can just look at and instantly “get it.”

And creating a creative ad doesn’t automatically mean success. If your target audience doesn’t understand it, or if the content isn’t relevant, no amount of creativity will bring in sales. It’s easy for designers to forget that the purpose of the ad is to bring is sales when all they want to do is be creative. Likewise, it’s easy for the ad account managers to see the positive attributes of a really creative ad if they don’t see the sales potential right off the bat.

But, a creative and effective ad can be done. There are plenty of successful, creative ads out there that prove it. Get inspired by this Exposed SEO blog post that showcases 23 interesting, creative ads that don’t need to be contemplated to be understood. Many of these use the environment or an existing venue to play the ad off of (check out the bus exhaust coming out of a person’s mouth like cigarette smoke). Creative, clear and motivating.

And creative ads don’t only come from pros. Students show just as much, if not more creativity, in these ads on Advertnews.com. These feature an ad for Toblerone using what looks to be a bike rack and an ingenious, yet so simple, Windex ad.

 

 

To get a creative idea, you have to look outward, I think. Yes, inward is where the creativity flows, but you have to look outside yourself for ideas. And not stealing other ad ideas, but just looking at a tree and seeing it as a palette for something bigger, like a landing spot for a blown piece of gum (see the Exposed SEO blog).

There are four key elements of making an effective, yet creative ad:
1. It must be relevant to the customer.
2. It should contain a promise to the customer.
3. It should be well understood by the customer, yet not talk down to the customer.
4. Always put the product in the center of the ad.

Many creative ads get the creative part down almost too well, which means the product gets ignored. A number of studies have shown people remember a certain TV commercial, but they can’t remember what product the ad was selling. This is referred to as vampire creativity. If your ad is too entertaining or too involving, it obscures the product.

As you can see, there’s a fine line between being effectively creative and obscurely creative. By having your creative mind(s) working with the business-oriented mind(s), you have a better chance of achieving the right balance for a great ad. Teamwork is what it’s all about, just as in any other business.

Where To Go To Get Inspired To Design

Everyone has those days when you just can’t get creative. It’s like every creative bone in your body has been replaced with a boring bone. Well, I’ve got some sites here that will help stimulate your creative side.

Web Sites
101+ Places to Get Design Inspiration – The Aussie that runs this blog is only 20 or 21 and still in college, but he’s already a great designer. He’s been working since he was 16 for professional clients, designing logos, flyers and everything else a business needs.

Abduzeedo – Very interesting ideas, very unique. Not for the traditionalist.

Freelance Switch’s 60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off – Freelance Switch has a blog with advice for all kinds of freelancers, including this article with Web sites and books recommended to help you get your design on.

Books (all at Amazon.com)
New Masters of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century – This book shows top poster designers’ artwork of now, which has proven that the poster can still serve as a worthy communications tool. According to Amazon: “In doing so, they’ve brought the poster back to prominence. In this book, the author has compiled the world’s finest new work at the height of this rebirth. There is currently no book on the market that can claim it features a ‘definitive’ poster collection.”

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop – A “comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applies to real-world projects.”

You get to find out about how top designers’ processes work and their rationale while designing. “Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice.”

Typography Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Type in Graphic Design – “[This book] is part of Rockport’s popular Workbook series of practical and inspirational workbooks that cover all the fundamental areas of the graphic design business.” It contains loads of info on type without a lot of extra fun facts you don’t need to know about so that designers can get the information they need quickly and easily.

Other books on typography are more technical or showcase oriented, but this book actually gives you ideas and inspiration through real-life examples that show successful uses of typography.

It also offers “a variety of other content, including choosing fonts, sizes, and colors; incorporating text and illustrations; avoiding common mistakes in text usage; and teaching rules by which to live (and work) by.”

Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design – This book doesn’t only have great examples for inspiration; it also helps you understand design. “The book illuminates the broad category of layout, communicating specifically what it takes to design with excellence. It also addresses the heart of design-the how and why of the creative process.”

7 Design Tips for Better Print Marketing

1. The headline: Use words that catch readers’ attention in the headline and that will pull them into the rest of the copy. Words like “free,” “save” and “secret” work well to intrigue people into finding out more about what your print marketing has to say.

On average, the headline is read five times more than the body copy. That means people have read the headline and it wasn’t good enough to motivate people to read on. Don’t become part of that statistic! Include a clear benefit to the reader in the headline and you’ll draw them in. If you can pair a benefit with an eye-catching word like “free,” your headline will have real stopping power.

2.  Use white space. Any space in your design that isn’t filled with text or graphics, or is in other words blank, is considered “white space.” Don’t feel like you have to fill every square inch of your print marketing materials. Whether it’s a flyer, postcard or brochure, a simple, uncluttered design will look much better and will draw people into your marketing piece than a cluttered design.

3. Limit yourself to two fonts. Any more than two fonts will make your design look cluttered. Unless you have a huge poster or a big marketing piece that can handle the extra fonts, stick with two. You should use a sans-serif font for your headlines and subheads (sans-serif means “without feet” in French; examples are Arial and Century Gothic) because sans-serif fonts are harder to read when they font size is small. Use a serif font for all of your body copy, or your smaller size copy. Serif fonts have “feet,” which make them easier to read. Examples of serif fonts are Times New Roman and Garamond.

4. Address your audience. Make sure you talk directly to your audience – say “Attention CEOs” or blatantly ask “Are you a stay at home Mom?” By talking directly to your audience there will be no mistake who your message is for.

5. Use before and after ads when possible. People have an above average understanding of before and after ads, and I think many women like them because they are like makeovers. When you can give proof in a photo format that your product works, there is no contesting it.

6. Use photos instead of line drawings when possible. Photos are more believable than line drawings. Photos are better at drawing people’s eyes in because the colors are generally more saturated than in a graphic.  

7. Test your ads again and again. Readership increases with repetition. Keep testing new ads against old ones to see which ones are more effective. There comes a time when repetition gets boring, so be sure to switch up your design to keep consumers interested.

Steer Clear of a Calendar Campaign Catastrophe

If you are looking for a marketing method that puts your brand in front of your customer day after day, then look no further than a calendar. Calendars are useful giveaways that you can use to promote your company. Not too many promotions will garner a “Thank You” from a potential customer! When you give your customer something they will use daily and that will keep your corporate identity in front of them year-round, it is win-win for everyone.

Not all calendars are created equally, and that’s not a reference to the leap year. You can waste a valuable opportunity to reinforce your brand if you do not carefully consider the elements of a successful calendar: the right size, the right look, and the right branding method. Besides missing a golden opportunity, you will be wasting money on a marketing tool that is ultimately ineffective. The key to a successful calendar campaign is to understand your customer, and the following ideas illustrate several elements that will ensure you give your customer a calendar that they will actually use.

The Right Size

Calendars come in all shapes and sizes, but what does your customer need? Would a full-size desk calendar be the most helpful, or would a miniature calendar with a magnet that can be affixed to the fridge in the break room be better? Calendars can also be designed to be put on the wall of the office or cubicle. Maybe you need multiple sizes so your customer can make their own choice. Whatever size or sizes of calendar you choose to print, keep your customer’s needs in mind.

The Right Look

The calendar has to have an appropriate look and feel. If your customers work in a professional office, make sure the photos and the content you use are appropriate for this environment. Peaceful scenes and landscapes are standard fare. If you have customers that work in an industrial environment, high energy posters may be better. Think about using sports scenes with figures in motion. Your customer wants something inspiring that will complement their environment. So, give them what they want and you will have a customer advertising on your behalf.

The Right Branding Method

It is easy to get greedy at this stage. Of course, the natural temptation is to put your logo or other branding tools all over the posters. But keep in mind that your brand influences the look and feel of the calendar. Nobody wants to feel like they are promoting for another company. Be careful with how you integrate your brand into the calendar. Subtlety goes a long way. Consider a simple logo in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture or even along the bottom of the dates. Do not compromise the calendar by plastering your logo all over it as the result will more often than not be that the customer simply will not use it.

It is easy to ruin a good calendar campaign. Keep your customer’s needs in mind and design calendars that are the right size, the right look, and are branded carefully.

Cool Gadgets that Implement Awesome Design

I love Smashing Magazine’s Web site (www.smashingmagazine.com). I especially love the article showcasing “Innovative Design and Devices” for 2008.

A few of my faves: 

The Sony “apple” remote control. I put apple in quotes because I was confused at first – is the remote made by Sony or Apple? It’s made by Sony and just looks like a fresh green apple. Green apples are my fave, by the way. The remote is different from other remotes in that instead of pushing buttons to change the channel and volume, you just wave the remote around in the air. It’s quite weird and intriguing. Wave it to the left to turn the volume down; wave it to the right to turn the volume up. For coach potatoes, it could be just that little amount of exercise they can tolerate. You wave your remote in the air…wave it ’round like you just don’t care. Okay, channeling some 90s hip hop there. But that’s seriously what the illustrating photo looks like. Check it out.

The Toast Messenger is another fave of mine. It’s totally a want and not a need. It’s really a waste of money, but no more so than lottery tickets, in my opinion. You write a message on the top of this one-slice toaster and badaboom: your toast comes out with your message lightly burned into the top of it. This would be very sweet for your sweetie in the morning, leaving love messages in his or her toast. Yeah, okay, blech – too sweet! On another note, it might help parents get their kids to eat toast, that is, if their kids don’t like toast. I’ve never known a kid that didn’t like toast, but then again, I don’t know many kids.

I’m also digging the Eclipse Partitioning System, which is a non-cubicle cubicle. It’s a desk in a pod. The pod’s hood opens and closes and the coolest part is that that hood can change colors. It can also change scenery. That’s right, scenery, people. So when you’re sitting in your pod and you want to be outside, just push a button and the pod’s hood changes the scene so you’re watching a golden field sway in the wind. You can also gaze at a sunset sky filled with oranges, yellows and blues. The whole pod is on wheels, which makes it super portable, which I believe was the main point, but I was too taken with the scenery changes to care about moving it. Why move it when the scenery can change without you moving? Channeling all coach potatoes….

Last but not least I’d like to mention the Vaio Zoom notebook. This is an awesome laptop that doubles as a piece of art, almost. It uses holographic technology to make the laptop screen clear (the whole screen is clear, no plastic or other material holds the screen) and the keyboard goes opaque when the computer is turned off. When it’s on, you can see the keyboard, and the screen looks like a normal computer screen. It sounds quite distracting – perfect for work!

Technical Considerations for Brochure Printing

Small business owners are finding that brochures can be easily created nowadays in their office on their own computers. With desktop publishing software on the market like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress and Microsoft Publisher, it’s easy to design your own brochures and only use a printing company to do the actual printing.

Here are a few technical considerations that business owners who aren’t savvy graphics developers need to know.

Design for your print size
One of the most frequent errors do-it-yourselfers make when designing brochures is to design for the wrong print size. If you are planning on printing on 8-x-10-inch paper, don’t build your layout on an 8.5-x-11-inch palette. Many printing companies will return your file to you if it’s not sized correctly.

This is one of the hardest errors to correct at the printer – if they stretch or shrink the design to fit the paper size, your graphics and images will look funny and your text will be hard to read.

Allow your brochure to bleed
No, I’m not saying to torture yourself or your brochures for that design epiphany to break through! I’m talking about your print bleed. Print bleed is expanding your brochure design to go slightly past the page borders in your design program. When brochures are printed, they are printed in sheets, and are then sliced into individual brochures. The blade that cuts the sheets is usually right on, but sometimes veers just a bit outside of the established border. When that happens, you can end up with a white border on some parts of your brochure. Not cool if you have a great picture on one corner of your brochure, or if a picture takes up the whole front panel. Design your brochure with an extra 1/8 inch beyond the established borders to avoid any printing mishaps.

Your images and photos should be at least 300 dpi
To create a professional-looking brochure, you need professional quality photos. If you print a photo or image that isn’t high-resolution, your image will come out blurry or even pixilated.

The images that look good on the Web are 72 dpi (dots per inch). This is not enough for printing on paper – these low quality images would hardly be recognizable in a brochure. Your photo files should be at least 300 dpi to print sharply and clearly.

Choose a high quality paper to print your brochures on
Many printing companies offer 80lb or 100lb stock paper. Papers also come with a variety of glossy and matte finishes. 100lb paper is much more substantial than 80lb paper and doesn’t cost that much more. Paper weight is calculated by stacking 500 sheets on a pile. A heavier paper will make your brochure seem more professional and your images and text will look better because you can’t see through to the other side of the paper!

You can add varnish to the paper if you want it to look glossy and shiny, and varnish also helps prevent fingerprint smudges on color-heavy brochures. If you have a lot of ink on your brochure, it will look glossy anyway, so you may not want to spend money on making the small, inkless parts glossy.

Six Tips to Creating Fruitful Brochures

Whenever you’re ready to send out a brochure to new customers or existing customers, there are some key tactics to use to make sure you get a good response.  After paying for a copy writer, a designer, the printer, mailing costs and everything else that goes into creating a brochure, you end up spending about $1.00 per brochure.

Make sure you don’t waste your money by following these tips:

1. Get to know your customer
You need to understand your customers’ wants and needs.  You need to know what motivates them. What problems they have. And most importantly, what can your product do to help them? Do some research by simply asking customers or sending out surveys.  Knowing what your customers’ wants and needs are will shape everything about your brochure – the text and the
design.

2. Use the AIDA marketing technique to writing brochures
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. For your brochure to be successful, it needs to get people’s attention, get your prospect interested enough to read further, elevate their desire for your product or service, and get them to take action, such as calling you, making an appointment or visiting your Web site.

3. Don’t waste space talking about yourself
Your customers don’t give a lick about your company’s history and your variety of products. All they care about is how you can help them. What benefits can you offer them for doing business with you?

4. Use eye-catching headlines and graphics on the front panel
Studies show that readers take between 5 and 7 seconds to decide whether they want to keep on reading your brochure. If your headline or graphics on the front panel of your brochure are boring or bland, no one will bother opening it.  You need something that will interest them and catch their attention. Use bright colors as accents for your headline text and use photos and graphics that will get people wondering what else is inside the brochure.

Use interesting, benefits-laden headlines all through your brochure – every panel should have a headline. Most people skim before they read smaller print, so using headlines will keep their attention and intrigue them to read on.

5. Include a call to action
Once you’ve gotten the reader interested in your product, tell them to contact you. You can’t assume that the reader will take the next step on his own – you need to tell him what the next step is.  Whether that is to call you or visit your Web site, tell them what to do, and give them the info they need to do it. (Not a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the phone or the computer of course! Just make sure you give them your phone number and Web site address.)

6. Make it urgent!
Give readers a reason to take action sooner rather than later. Generally, putting some kind of time limit on an offer is enough to get people off of their couches. Offer a free gift, or a special coupon that must be redeemed by the end of the month – just put some kind of date on your offer. If you don’t, your brochure is likely to get lost under a pile of mail or items to look at “later” (meaning probably never).

How to Get The Right Words Out On Small Marketing Real Estate

When you think of “real estate” you probably think of a house or maybe a condominium. However, in the marketing world it can take on an entirely different definition. The real-estate marketing post card variety relates to the size of the space upon which you can put your message.

As postcard is obviously small real estate. This comes with obvious benefits relating to costs saved on mailing and full color postcard printing. However, it forces the sender to creatively convey their message without voluminous text. All key points of the pitch need to be included on both sides of the card.

If you only have a given piece of information on one side of the card you face the reader missing it entirely. The recipient of the card may very well only read one side. If this happens the text on the reverse side is about as worthwhile of putting text on the sticky side while label printing.

Color is critical with postcards. They must immediately grab the attention of the reader and entice them to continue perusing the remaining text. Inclusion of your web site address is very helpful towards taking full advantage of limited space in a real-estate marketing post card. This enables to transition to a much larger parcel of “land”. Don’t leave postcards out of your overall marketing plan.

Building Customer Trust: Marketing Services vs. Products

How important is customer trust? Let me elaborate -

The more centered around a service a company is, the more I’m going to want to know what the people working there are like long before I walk through their door.

If I’m going to go shopping for a new computer, I’m going to want good service too but if the place has a really good deal on a certain model then I might still end up grabbing it for the savings alone.

If I’m going to a dentist, for example, how well he cleans me teeth isn’t necessarily as important as how much he puts me at ease.

I’ve never been a big fan of the dentist, and I admittedly put it off for longer than I should. So when the day comes and I finally do pick a dentist, the additional bonus of knowing I’m going to get a follow-up greeting card from them in the mail and receive a thank you note afterwards does wonders to relax me and lets me be confident in the service I’m being provided.