Green Otter Graphics

Case Study – Creating a sophisticated, cohesive look

March 19, 2010 in Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, logo | Tags: Graphic Design, Logo design case study, marketing materials, small business | 1 comment

Colleen with Dream Kitchens came to me looking to update her marketing materials by creating a logo and a cohesive look. She had previously been given a pseudo logo as part of an ad she purchased and we originally went with ways to update that logo, which was her company name inside an oval. I came up with 4 concepts on this theme.

Her initial preference was for the top two logos, but after some additional thought, she decided she like the bottom right logo with the monogram, only she wanted to see it with both the initials D and K. She also wanted to decide if she wanted the monogram on top, or behind the company name.

In the end, we decided that just because the initial ad she had purchased created a logo within an oval, that she didn’t have to keep the logo and the final logo was the monogram watermarked behind the company name, without the enclosure.

Next post… how this logo was developed into cohesive marketing materials…

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

March 10, 2010 in Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: fonts, Graphic Design, Marketing | 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: fonts, Graphic Design, Marketing, small business | 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: business advice, Graphic Design, Marketing | 2 comments

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…

Designing a logo to express a varied market – Case Study

February 10, 2010 in Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, logo | Tags: business identity, Graphic Design, Logo design case study, Marketing | Leave a comment

The challenge of this project, how to express a varied mix of products for a company whose name didn’t portray this variety. I was approached by Musical Instruments Supplies International to design a logo that would appeal to all of their potential clients. While the company’s name implied a fairly limited clientele, in reality, the company supplies imported wood for musical instruments, furniture and flooring… a fairly diverse market.

For the first round of logo designs, I provided one design that very overtly showed each of the target markets and then focused the other designs on what was a commonality among each product (exotic wood). Three logos were designed with a stylized version of a rubber tree and one with images of musical instruments, flooring and furniture.

For the second round, he wanted to focus on the logo that displayed all three uses. I changed the violin image to a guitar and then offered a variety of color options.

After considering the logo for a few days he decided to go back to the idea of the stylized tree. While he was originally not happy with the logo of a tree in a circle, this logo had grown on him. For the final logo we decided to merge logo #3 and #4 together and came up with a stylized rubber tree, confined within a circle with the words, “musical instruments, flooring and furniture” as well as only the initials MISI for a company name. Completed within 5 days from start of project to delivery of the final logo, this logo portrayed the commonality among his products, and didn’t limit him to only musical instruments.

OpeDesigns – Case Study in Funky Business Cards

February 3, 2010 in Business Cards, Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing | Tags: Betsy Rackliffe, Business Cards, funky business cards, graphic design case study | 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's card

Are you using marketing materials to balance a table?

January 28, 2010 in Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice | Tags: Graphic Design, marketing materials, printing | 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?

Get excited about your business again – Reason to Revamp #4

January 22, 2010 in Business Cards, Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Marketing, Small Business Advice, logo | Tags: Graphic Design, logo, marketing materials, small business | Leave a comment

Everyone likes new stuff. And this applies to marketing materials as well. I’ve worked in the marketing department of companies where we get the box of new brochures, or even pens with our logo on them and get all giddy at the newness of them. And I see this continue in my own business.

When I first started my graphic design business, I immediately got to work making a logo, and then got a couple clients and stalled on putting out new marketing materials. Then I finished the work for those clients and saw myself losing some of my enthusiasm as no new clients came in. Which could have been a death spiral. The less enthusiastic I was, the less chance of getting new clients and the less enthusiasm I would have.

The thing that eventually broke this cycle was when I got that push from my husband and actually put together my website, a new leave behind and other marketing materials. Seeing my information in a new light made me feel better about my company. It gave me new confidence to go out and get more clients and thankfully that has kept going.

I’ve seen this enthusiasm work for my small business clients as well. I can see the glint in their eyes when they get those new business cards or leave behinds – that new found pride in their company. And even if they aren’t in the horrible cycle I was, that new boost to their enthusiasm can be seen when they talk about their company. And when prospective clients see that excitement, it can be contagious.

What do you think? What could updated marketing materials do for your company? For your enthusiasm?

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: Business Cards, Graphic Design, Marketing, networking, small business | 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: Graphic Design, Marketing, sales, small business | 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?