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Personally, I avoid doing any type of desktop publishing in Word – like the plague. Great program for word processing, but for anything graphic – not a great program. But… as I work with many of the local Brighton businesses, I realize that many small businesses and entrepreneurs don’t have access to other software, and so are creating a lot of their materials in Word.
Soooo… here are my tips on how to make the most of Word’s limited graphic abilities.
The first thing is to stop thinking of your document in terms of one long text document. Split your piece up into its components (title, images, blocks of text, etc) and put each element into its own text box. Then set the text box properties (under format text box) appropriately (border or no border, color, etc.). Also, in the format, click on the advanced options and unclick the “move object with text” box. This will allow you the flexibility to place your elements wherever you want them, and offer the ability to free yourself from the one long text piece, word processing style.
You can also change the order of your boxes if you are overlapping them by right clicking on the text box and choosing order.
Using text boxes helps make Word work a little bit more like other desktop publishing software. And while it’s not perfect, it does help.
Have you found other ways to better use Word to make more sophisticated documents?
When I was 14, my sister and I were at the mall and gave a woman $20 to draw a pastel portrait of my sister. What we got for our $20 looked nothing like my sister. So my 12-year-old sister and I tried arguing with the portrait artist who told us point-blank that is what my sister looked like to her, ie it was her “vision” of my sister. And so we went and got the big guns… my mom.
What followed was an epic argument between my mom - who comes from a long line of tough, stubborn women, and an equally stubborn portrait artist who felt she was fighting for her artistic integrity. In the end, the artist did something different to the nose to make it look a little like my sister, somewhat appeasing my mom, and then haughtily erased her signature from the page since she no longer felt it matched her vision – making herself feel better,but in the process making my mom very angry again.
Now comes the best part of the story… The other purchase my sister and I had made that day was a pack of those little things that make people’s cigarettes blow up, and we had already placed them in my mom’s cigarettes. So when she stormed away from the portrait artist to go outside to light up and relieve some of her tension… boom. I still can picture her standing there with the blown up cigarette hanging out of her mouth – edges frayed like in a cartoon. This got the portrait artist off the hook and focused all that anger at my sister and I, who were obviously grounded.
Now what does this have anything to do with graphic design or small business? That portrait artist, while she may have been fighting for artistic integrity, forgot that she was doing art for a customer, who was paying for a product. There are times when many a commercial artist has felt they had to betray their art to satisfy the customer, and as a graphic artist, we have to be okay with this. Because most of the time an angry customer, or even an unsatisfied customer won’t let you off the hook – and it won’t be the customer’s face that it blows up in… it will be yours.
I regularly get calls from local Brighton businesses who are looking for graphic design and just really don’t know where to start. Whenever you are hiring any sort of service provider, that first phone call can be intimidating. Here are a few pointers on what to ask to help the conversation along for a small business or entrepreneur looking for a graphic designer.
Explain your project. Then listen to questions the graphic designer asks of you. They should ask about any ideas you already have, a style you would like or any existing marketing materials you want the piece to coordinate with.
If you are going to be using a professional printer, ask if they have experience dealing with printers. If you are going to want them to send the work to the printer, make sure to mention that if they don’t ask.
Ask about price. Nobody likes to talk money, but be sure to ask. Ideally, the designer should want to know about your project before just giving you a number.
Ask about payment terms. Do you pay it all upfront, or is it split into multiple payments?
If you haven’t already seen a portfolio, ask for one. If you want references, feel free to ask.
Ultimately, you should also pay attention to the questions the graphic designer asks of you. Do you get the feeling that they are interested in your project? Does it feel like they got a firm understanding of what you want?
If they don’t have questions for you, it might be a red flag.
What type of questions do you ask of a graphic designer?
Having worked with many companies based in southeast Michigan and beyond, I’ve realized that choosing a graphic designer can be intimidating for many small businesses and entrepreneurs. I’m going to focus the next few posts on helping make that process easier.
One of the most important things in choosing a designer should be looking at their portfolio. Hopefully they have an online portfolio, but if not make sure you are able to see a hard copy.
When looking at the portfolio, keep a couple things in mind.
- Do you like what you see? If you don’t like what they designed for other people, chances are you won’t like what they design for you.
- Is there variation in their portfolio? While most designers will develop somewhat of a style, there should be some variation from client to client. This shows that they take the clients’ personality and needs into account rather than just designing what they’re used to.
- Look for repeat clients. If you see several projects done for the same client this can tell you two things. One, someone else was happy enough with them to use them again. Two, you can see how well these pieces work together to get an idea of how well the designer does at integrating multiple pieces into an overall branding and marketing campaign.
- If you don’t see something in their portfolio that you want to, ask for additional experience. You can ask for examples of a specific type of material, or for examples of an integrated campaign.
What do you look for when looking at a graphic designer’s portfolio?
A few years ago I was dieting and read that I should eat my food off of blue plates. Turns out I already had blue plates, and was still needing to diet – for me more to do with sheer will power than psychological color cues. But regardless of whether or not blue helped me lose weight, it is still true that colors do, in fact create emotional responses. And these emotional responses have a ton to do with graphic design and marketing. And as you may have guessed, blue is up for discussion today.
Blue is a very popular color, both in marketing and if you just ask a bunch of people what their favorite color is. Blue is also very versatile, because there are so many variations. From baby blue to a solid navy, the word blue describes a very large number of colors.
Generally, blue is a very soothing color. It creates a sense of calm and serenity. In fact, blue can actually lower your pulse and blood pressure. You will see blue used a lot in healthcare materials. Meditation centers and spas would also do well with blue.
Go with navy blue and you’ve got a very safe color. It still has that calm, but also with a very stable connotation. You will see blue in the logos of many, many large corporations for this reason. If you are starting a new business that needs to project a stable, safe image, blue is good for you. However, if you are looking to start a hip new club, or any type of business that is meant to shake things up, blue might be a little too safe, unless it is mixed with other, more energetic colors.
Blue can also have connotations of sadness. Think the blues. I’m feeling blue. Generally, this can depend on what shade of blue you are going to use. Warm hues of blue have a much more “sad” feel than a vibrant cool blue. Again, if you are starting a business that needs to portray energy, blue might not be your best choice.
Going back to dieting and plate color, blue is generally one of the least appetizing colors. It is believed this has something to do with the fact that very few foods are naturally blue, and that when we do see blue in food it is often because of spoiling or some sort of toxin. Restaurants and food related industries would do well to avoid the use of blue.
Like with any colors, if you have a business that needs to project an emotion opposite of what blue creates, you can still use blue. But consider what shade of blue you use. Again, there is that huge range of blues, from warm to cool, pastel to navy. Also, consider making blue a smaller part of your branding, perhaps as an accent to a color that does create the emotional response you want your customers to have.
How does blue make you feel?
Recently I was putting together a presentation on basic graphic design for businesses in Brighton, Michigan, and I was trying to find examples of bad design to use as “what not to do”. Funny thing is, I was having a hard time finding it. Don’t get me wrong, bad design exists all over the place, but when you’re specifically looking for it… well let’s just say people aren’t putting “bad design” into their webpage keywords. You can find several places to look for examples of bad website design (websitesthatsuck.com) is a fun one, but print design examples are harder to find.
So I’m going to create such a place. In the coming weeks, I will be populating yuckydesign.com with as many examples of well, yucky design as I can find. And that’s where you come in… Send me your crowded, your ugly, your pieces with so many fonts that it makes your head spin. You can email scans or photos to rebecca@greenottergraphics.com. Or if you have a hard copy, you can mail it to Green Otter Graphics, PO Box 772, Brighton, MI 48116.
The point of the site will be a place to learn about good design, by seeing examples of what does not work. It will not be a place to disparage the companies who created these examples. Because we all know very good companies that just have ugly marketing materials.
Let’s see what we can come up with.
