Nuts and Bolts 2 – When using different fonts, make sure they’re different

March 10, 2010 in Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

So in the last post, I told you not to use more than 3 different fonts in your piece.  Today the focus is on what to do when choosing those fonts.  When you are choosing these 2-3 fonts, make sure the fonts are indeed different enough that you can tell they were picked on purpose.  For example, don’t pick two fonts like Times New Roman and Book Antigua, that are different fonts, but really not that different.  Or Arial and Verdana.  It creates the effect of something just being “off” because it’s not entirely clear they’re different fonts, and it looks like it might be a mistake.  Pick two fonts that are obviously different.  The easy way for a beginner to do this is to use a serif (font with the little curls at the bottom of the letters – Times New Roman is the one most people are most familiar with) with a non serif (Arial is the familiar example) font.  Once you get into really working with your typography there is a lot more to the nuances of different fonts (maybe for future posts) but when starting out, go for basics.

Nuts and Bolts 1 – Avoid Font Overload

March 4, 2010 in Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

If you are a small business putting together your own marketing materials, there are a few basic design principles you should try to follow.  The first one has to do with the fonts you choose.

One of the biggest sins non-designers will make when putting work together is to use too many fonts.  Try to limit your fonts to two, three at most.  Use one font for your headings, one for your main text and if you need a third, use it for sidebars or other places where text needs to stand out. 

Limiting the number of fonts you use instantly cleans up your piece and makes it easier to read.

Looks do matter, to say they don’t is naive

February 23, 2010 in Business Cards, Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , | 1 comment

Ever been to a networking event and run into someone in torn jeans and a t-shirt?  Were you more or less likely to take them seriously as a business person?  Would you go to a job interview in yoga pants and a fleece jacket?  For most of us in the business world, we know these are no nos when you are out marketing yourself or your company.  You don’t always have to wear a suit, but you have to dress in a manner appropriate for the level of professionalism that is expected.

The same can be said for the look and professionalism of your marketing materials.  Passing out a business card that was put together on your home computer, printed out on plain paper and sloppily cut out instantly says, “I’m not professional”. So does some clip art you threw together with a whole bunch of different fonts.  You don’t always have to hire a professional graphic designer (although it can’t hurt, and let’s face it, as a graphic designer I would advise you to hire one), but you should at the very least educate yourself on some very basic graphic design principles to help make your materials look appropriately professional.

More in the next several posts on some of these basic principles…

OpeDesigns – Case Study in Funky Business Cards

February 3, 2010 in Business Cards, Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

I got the chance to design some very funky business cards when Betsy with OpenDesign came to me to design unique business cards for her and her up and coming interior design business.  Betsy’s tagline is “The Smiling Eclectic Designer”, and it suits her to a tea.  Fun, energized and anything but stodgy, Betsy wanted cards that represented her… definitely different, and definitely not corporate.

She had developed a swirly graphic, sorta yin yang, sorta stylized woman, and had been using that as a logo of sorts.  She also had a photograph of herself, somewhat out of focus and generally soft with flowers in the background.  We decided on a two sided card, with the photo on one side and most of the business information on the other. 

For the photo side, I added an earthy gradient to the photo to leave room for some text and also to allow the image to take up the entire area of the card.  For the other side, I took her swirly graphic (a low res bitmap), redrew it as a vector file and then colored it in four earthy yet funky color versions.  These four swirls were strategically placed in the background of the card so as not to compete too much with the text, but so that they also definitely stand out.  I then added her company information and other tagline of “life is too short for white walls”.  She was thrilled with the results, which capture her style and creativity with a card that is far from just another business card.

Betsy Rackliffe Business Card back

Betsy Rackliffe's card

Are you using marketing materials to balance a table?

January 28, 2010 in Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Do you have hundreds or thousands of pieces of old marketing materials lying around?  Perhaps you designed them a few years ago, and got a great deal on printing if you printed a huge amount.  Are they doing you much good now? 

It used to be that small businesses would redesign their marketing materials every so many years, and then print thousands of copies.  This way you could get a good per piece price break.  Unfortunately, this also meant companies were limited in their flexibility to change their materials, whether a wholesale redesign or simply tweaking them to work better.  It also means that a lot of companies end up not as enthusiastically marketing their company because, as one client recently told me about some old postcards, “We’re just tired of looking at those things.”

In today’s business world, it doesn’t make sense to print huge quantities of materials.  Say you put out a piece and find it isn’t working.  Or perhaps it is working really well with one market and now you need to tweak it for another market.  Or maybe the piece worked well six months ago, but the marketplace has now changed and you need to be able to adapt to it.

Sure, it might cost you a little more per piece to print a reasonable amount of marketing materials, but honestly, how much do you really save if boxes of those old marketing materials end up doing nothing more than taking up storage space, or maybe balancing a crooked table?

How long do you think your marketing materials should last?  How long before they’re outdated or you’re tired of them?

Are you happy to hand out your card? Reasons to revamp #3

January 12, 2010 in Business Cards, Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We’ve all been at networking events and given our card to those we meet.  But have you ever been excited about giving out your card? Do you get a response to the actual card before it is put into the pile of other cards?   Chances are, if you’ve had the same old card for a few years, or if you’ve just got a nice generic card, you give it to people so they have your information, but you fully expect them to not pay attention beyond your contact info.

Revamping your business cards can give you the opportunity to turn your business card into much more than just a bunch of contact info.  Your business card is a tiny piece of marketing material for your small business, and should be designed as such.  It should stand out when the people you have given it to take it back to their office along with all the other cards they were given.  It should invoke a response when you hand it out. 

Imagine handing out your card and having the other person actually look at it, and mention it… Something along the lines of “Ooh, nice card”, shouldn’t be out of the ordinary.  The true beauty of this is that it makes one more impression on the person you’re talking to.  One more thing they will remember when they leave the event and have to mentally file away everyone they met… And during this mental filing process, memorable is always better than blending in.

What are some memorable cards you’ve seen?  Does a cool card help the owner of that card stand out to you?

Why to update Part 2 – Breaking the ice

January 7, 2010 in Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I’m sure all of us are completely up to date on contacting our clients and potential clients right?  I mean, as successful small business people, we are all always on top of making sure to regularly touch base with the people on our contact list… Or maybe some of us have fallen a little behind.  Or maybe we’re looking for a reason to contact them so we don’t seem like pushy sales people.

Regular contact with this list is vitally important.  Not only does it keep you in the minds of people who could either use your services or refer you to someone who does, each contact makes you one step closer to that magic number of “touches” we’ve heard it takes to actually make the sale.

So why not use a new marketing piece as an excuse for one of these contacts?   Say you or your graphic designer come up with a snazzy new postcard, mailer or even electronic marketing piece.  What better opportunity to touch base with your contact list. 

How often do you send something new to your list?

Reasons to revamp #1 – Take out the metaphorical brass

January 5, 2010 in Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

My husband and I are in the process of updating our bathrooms – which in addition to being painted entirely horrible colors are full to the brim with outdated brass fixtures, including a particularly heinous brass shower door in one of them.  Once we’re done, the bathrooms should be much more modern, comfortable and clean feeling.  And once the real estate market turns around, will be much more appealing to potential buyers.

What does this have to do with graphic design or small business?  Well, take a look at your marketing materials.  If’ it’s been awhile since they were revamped, they too may be filled to the brim with the graphic equivalent of brass – outdated graphics that turn off potential clients.

Do you still have a huge stack of brochures that were printed 10 years ago, but you want to use them up before doing new ones?  Unfortunately, it’s probably better to just let the old ones go unused.  Outdated materials send the wrong message to your potential customers.  They say, “We’re stuck 5, 10 or even 20 years ago”.  And with the speed at which business is now done, you cannot afford to send this message.

Can you think of marketing materials you’ve seen that were obviously outdated?  What did this do to your opinion of that company?