Be aware that every media you use will reproduce your colours differently. Pantone PMS
colour specifications are great for spot colours in the printing world, but can’t always be
matched in CMYK the main gamut of commercial offset printing. Also digital printing may
also produce another variation, some digital printers use RGB rather than CMYK. Screen
printing inks while made up to PMS specifications are often more intense in colour than
offset printing. If your signwriter wants to use signwriting vinyl or paint there will be
another mismatch. Plus on Television and the internet your colours will be different on
every screen. Colours and images will look brighter, more vivid on Television and the internet/computer simply because they are back-lit.
Graphic Design
UX – User Experience
User experience design (UX), is a yet another buzzword/jargon for an existing best practice design and is without a universally recognized definition. Good designers have always incorporated considerations beyond just the look and feel of a design. As a separate practice, ‘User Experience design’ therefore brings no additional value over existing good design. User experience can’t be fully measured, which means you can’t measure the return on investment and casts doubt on the whole practice as a separate entity. Another layer of expense business can do without, just a trendy acronym – UX.
Designing Leaflets
To be successful, advertising Leaflets and Flyers and other advertising brochures need to be kept simple and yet have visual impact and very importantly a call to action. Don’t assume your reader knows what you’re talking about explain your service or product simply and clearly up front. Get to the point immediately after the heading. Understand what your audience is looking for, be clear about your objectives.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to everyone. Let’s hope for Peace on Earth too.
Let’s be nice to one another rather than greedy, bullying and grasping. Fair trade is always the long term winner.
Business Card Design
These are the basics of business card design:
1. Use your logo as the basis. Make it the largest element on the business card.
2. Keep it clean and simple. Do not cram too much information on the business card.
3. Include the essentials — your name, title, company name, address, phone/mobile numbers, and email and website addresses.
PO box addresses are generally to be avoided on business cards.
Make sure the typeface is easily readable and not too small for seniors or folk who have ‘forgotten’ their glasses.
Use a minimal amount of colour in the typefaces, and just one typeface apart from the logotype. Use a background photograph to brighten up the design if it’s looking a bit dull. A photograph of the individual can work to identify staff in a large organisation. In small companies it can look egotistical.
Many people have business card holders of one kind or another, make sure your business card fits the normal holders, keep to the standard size, as there is nothing more annoying than a card that won’t fit into a standard holder; next thing you know it’s been discarded because it didn’t fit.
Should a business card be printed one side or two sides? It’s not hard to successfully argue for either version,
a) why waste the other side it won’t cost much more to print, if anything. The back of the card provides a space to list all your services and products and is a selling space not to be wasted.
b) On the other hand, once the card is put into a card holder you can’t read the back. Worst still, if there’s important information on the back, such as contact details, it becomes very annoying to have to remove it from the holder to read. Further all that extra information can be viewed as clutter, distracting from the main message, the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid) applies to business cards too. People sometimes like to write notes, quotes, or appointment times on the back of cards, hard to do if the back is full of type.
My vote goes to business cards that are primarily one sided with a minimal amount on the back. And leave space for handwritten notes/quotes/appointments.
What do you want to achieve with your graphic design?
Have a clear idea of how your target market sees your business. Use your graphic design to reinforce that profile. Consider whether your leaflet design or website is to reinforce your existing image or are you appealing to a new market segment. Consider if your company image should appear feminine or masculine, young, clinical, formal or casual. It’s no good your graphic design looking like a five star hotel if your market is budget minded backpackers and vice versa.
Logo Design
The logo is designed to reflect their restoration business. So, a heritage feel – old fashioned fonts and style. Reminiscent of an old car badge.
Surprising Quoting
I received this request for a quote recently:
“Product Photography Sterling Silver Jewellery with Semi precious Stones. Approx 500 units @ 4 mins a unit PLUS photoshopping Necklaces, rings, earrings, pendants. Required for internet catologue Needs to be cost effective.”
Four minutes per photo! Not going to be top quality at that speed and she wants PhotoShop work done in that time frame as well. In those four minutes you also have to pick-up the items, unpack them, check and list them, set up the studio. Then because 500 items x 4 mins is 33 hours (4 days) you have to clean -up each day and set-up again each morning.
You have to wonder if this woman knows so much about photography that she can nominate how long each shot should take, why isn’t she doing the job herself?
I wonder if ‘Cost Effective‘ is applied to the price of her jewellery.
More Surprising Quoting
Received another request for quote:
“Need someone to make changes to two designs. One is a cd label and the other is a certificate.
Basically it just involves replacing a logo with a logo we have already and removing a watermark. Easy work for someone who knows what he is doing and shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes.”
Amazing, he doesn’t know how to do it, but he knows how long it will take. Remove a watermark? Kind of suggests a stolen logo doesn’t it.