We came across the gigposters.com site today. So creatively inspiring!
Efficient Brand Management: OIWC Webinar
If you’re a member of Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition, please join us for a free webinar covering the basics of managing your brand on July 21, 2010 at 2pm EST. If you’re not a member, you still have time to become a member and register!
I am co-presenting with Josh Jaeger from Digital Lizard on the following, as they relate to brand management:
- A brand is more than a logo: branding defined
- Traits of well-managed brands
- The benefits of maintaining a consistent brand
- Challenges in managing your brand
- Working with your printer to maintain brand standards
Please tune in!
Saving Paper, Saving Trees
We’re working on the latest piece in our client, Naukabout’s, marketing mix. This being the largest piece the lifestyle apparel company has produced, we’re planning the multi-page booklet to be as resource-efficient as possible.
The image above shows resources used and saved for the 16 interior pages of the brochure we’re designing.
We use the tools at re-nourish for all client projects so that we can make responsible decisions at the design level and plan accordingly.
Your Home Page Is A Magazine Cover
While your business’ website surely has more tasteful content than what you’d find in the tabloids at the checkout line, there is something to be learned from their covers.
Magazine covers aren’t meant to tell the whole story, they’re meant to pique your interest enough that you part with $4.99 to read the contents.
When planning out your website – particularly the home page – take some cues from the magazines:
- Pay attention to hierarchy and organize the most important information in places of prominence. They eye moves from the upper left corner of the screen to the lower right (one reason the company logo is in the top left corner on most sites). This visual path will help you configure your page.
- Use punchy lines of text with small blurbs that link to the interior content pages of your site.
- Keep as much information on the home page “above the fold” as possible (okay, this is newspaper-speak, but still works here). In other words, you don’t want to lose any critical bits off of the bottom of the screen.
- Above all, keep the home page layout simple – engaging, but simple. A magazine cover can’t hold all of its interior content, and neither can your home page!
Please, take one: I just wrote a short article called “5 Things Your Small Business Website Needs to Engage Your Customers“.
When Things Get Hectic
It’s Tuesday, and with Tuesday comes a different set of stresses than with Monday. If you’re an entrepreneur – or manager of any sort – Tuesday is the day when the rest of the week comes into focus, and you realize how much crap stuff you have to accomplish before the weekend arrives.
Among your to-do’s are marketing tasks (hopefully) that will keep your customers rolling in. Activities like:
- monthly/quarterly mailings
- attending events or trade shows
- updating your company website and blog
- creating a seasonal product catalog
- making presentations/sales calls
- sending email newsletters
- advertising
When things get busy, we (yes, even us designers) tend to procrastinate marketing our businesses in order to get through the rest of our tasks. However, even when things are hectic, you should still be focused on promoting your business.
Making a calendar at the beginning of each year that outlines your marketing efforts helps you stay on track, while also helping you budget for any design and printing costs. This can be done quarterly as well, to the same effect (my preferred method), and allows you to be more nimble with your decisions.
By planning your marketing efforts in advance, you can reap some cost savings by:
- ganging up your print jobs for mailings (saves resources, too!)
- having a general brand overview piece on hand to send to prospects and take to meetings
- resizing one design for multiple trade show booth layouts
- qualifying for discounts from your mail house for scheduled catalog mailings
- creating a single branded email newsletter template that is ready for monthly content
- having a standard advertisement design that can resized and sent to publications on the fly
- not paying rush charges when you’re behind the 8-ball!
“I want to make beautiful things – even if nobody cares.”
Well said, Mr. Bass.
For the non-designers out there, Saul Bass is an icon of American graphic design who created the well-known logos for Dixie, Continental Airlines and the United Way (just to name a few). You may have also seen his work in the titling sequences for the movies Psycho, Spartacus and Casino, among many others.
I came across some snippets of a documentary about his career on the web and was enlightened to hear him say,
“It costs every designer money to make it beautiful, because you have to spend more time, you have to futz with it, you have to noodle, you have to push…You’re eating up your budget.”
We’ve been asked many times if we could shorten our schedule for a logo design, or if we can reduce our price if the client promises one round of revisions instead of two. The answer is usually, “No.” Not because we like to be difficult or don’t like to commit to a delivery date, but for the reason Saul Bass stated above.
It costs time (and time = money) to make beautiful things. Things that are not beautiful don’t leave our shop. If you’re a client of ours, chances are good that our attention to detail and craftsmanship are why you arrived at Studio 22 HQ—and are also why you’ve stayed!
4 Years Old and All Grown Up
This month marks our fourth birthday — what can seem like an eternity in small business years. In fact, it’s flown by for us! Time does fly when you’re having fun, and we’re fortunate to be working with clients today that have been with us since the beginning as well as many new ones.
A lot happened at Studio 22 HQ in 2009.
- Leaving the bustle (and expensive parking) of the city, we moved the office to a rural town where mid-day hikes are a reality.
- We gained a Traffic Manager, Sue Mathias, to help our schedule run more smoothly and to serve our clients better.
- Our work was published in a book about green design and also earned awards for sustainability reports, annual reports, brochures, and retail merchandising.
- Adding a Copywriter, Carolyn Maddock, expanded our service offerings to get clients’ content into fighting shape.
- We overhauled our own website design, development and content — and got to see what it’s like to be the client on the latter two!
- And last but not least, we welcomed Brit Shoaf to the team as our new designer, increasing our ability to crank out the good stuff!
We’ve set new intentions for 2010 around the words
GIVE
PASSION
and
FORWARD
Stay tuned as we set out on the journey to fulfill them.
Trade Show Materials Checklist
Trade shows are the perfect venue to create brand fans by conveying your company story authentically and consistently in your materials. You have a captive audience for a few days during the show – and narrow windows before and after – so you have to plan your strategy wisely to attract and engage them. Here are some must-haves and ideas on getting the most out of your investment.
Have a Plan
Are you launching a new product and using that as a theme for your booth and materials? Are you displaying your entire line, or just one season? Is your company new or established in the industry on which the trade show focuses? Answering questions like these will help determine the direction and content of your materials.
Minimize Impact
Reducing waste in materials, shipping and manpower will save time and money while helping the environment. Estimate as closely as you can the amount of printed materials you’ll need for the show, based on the loose formula of 12 visitors per hour, and add 10% to cover extra traffic. It has been said, however, that 90% of materials never make it back to attendees’ offices. Consider sending catalogs or larger pieces to your prospects as an after-show follow-up.
The List
1. Pre-Show Mailer
- Send a mail piece such as a post card or letter on customized letterhead to your mailing list, as well as the show attendee list.
- This is the first piece in the series of materials, so the design must be consistent with your brand strategy and the remainder of the pieces you create moving forward.
- It should have a clear call to action, the show name, dates, location and your booth number.
- It can double as a new product announcement or marketing piece to those not attending the show.
2. Booth Graphics
- Get the most mileage with a design that is representative of your brand story, regardless of season.
- Introduce additional elements for variety from show to show. A well-planned booth will allow you to swap out sections when updates are needed, such as a new graphic, information panel or product photo.
3. Media Kit
- This is where your brand story will really shine, so it should be professionally designed for the best impact. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
- It should include: company history, product features, company culture, social/environmental involvement, leadership and custom photography.
- Be sure to place plenty of kits in the press room at the show, and keep some at your booth for media members that stop in.
4. Company Overview
- This doesn’t have to be an elaborate piece—it just has to be effective. This is especially important if you’re a new exhibitor.
- Will allow buyers a quick look at your brand story, with the added benefit of an in-person experience of your company culture at your booth.
5. Catalog and Product Line Sheet
- Your catalog should have a company introduction section in the first few pages and an uncluttered product layout with enough white space for notes.
- Separate line sheets are the easiest way to make price adjustments, new product additions, and allow you to use your catalog for both buyers and consumers.
- Provide these during buyer meetings or to qualified prospects.
6. Follow-Up Mailer
- Send a mail piece such as a post card or letter on customized letterhead to those you met with at the show thanking them for their interest. This is a great time to include an incentive offer if you didn’t make a sale with them during the show.
- Your catalog can also have impact as a follow-up to qualified leads.
Final Thoughts
Don’t forget to tag any advertisements your company is running before the show with the show name, dates and your booth number – especially those appearing in industry-specific publications. If it’s already a part of your marketing efforts, use social media to generate buzz about your trade show attendance before, during and after the show. And never underestimate the power that brand-specific imagery (rather than stock photos) can have on your materials.
Visual Diversion
By now, most of us are familiar with word clouds. Right? Okay, maybe not, but there is a site on the web where you can create and customize your own in a few minutes. It’s called Wordle and you should check it out. I played around with text from our home page today for a mid-afternoon visual break and some inspiration.
Here are a few favorites:
Imagine using this to come up with word combinations for product names; or entering your brainstorming notes to see new combinations of phrases for a marketing campaign; or for creating a tagline. Anything that helps you look at something from a new perspective can give you a creative charge.
The Best Job on Earth
There aren’t many jobs out there where you not only earn a living by performing your duties, but that you have opportunities to win awards, too. Graphic design offers both!
Studio 22 has been honored in the American Graphic Design Awards for the fourth consecutive year. This year’s winning entries are all in the 2008 report category: Diesel Technology Forum Annual Report, Desert Glory Sustainability Report and Strategic Sustainability Consulting Sustainability Report.
Stats on the winners:
While not a sustainability report, Diesel Technology Forum‘s report was reconfigured to be dimensionally smaller and contain fewer pages than in years past. We printed less hard copies and sourced a green certified printer, using vegetable-based inks and FSC-certified 100% recycled/50% PCW paper.
Desert Glory‘s inaugural sustainability report was not printed, and was instead created specifically for web download. We maintained print-quality standards and page count, however, in the event the company wishes to print any reports commercially.
Strategic Sustainability Consulting‘s report – their third with us – was also a web-based report. Creating a digital report was a first for SSC, as we’ve produced printed reports for them from the start. However, with this more flexible medium, we were able to go bold with color, graphic elements and page shape with the knowledge that they would look great on-screen.
This recognition wouldn’t be possible without our incredible clients and the trust they place in us to create these pieces. We thank you!
Posts
- Screen Printed Inspiration
- Efficient Brand Management: OIWC Webinar
- Saving Paper, Saving Trees
- Your Home Page Is A Magazine Cover
- When Things Get Hectic
- “I want to make beautiful things – even if nobody cares.”
- 4 Years Old and All Grown Up
- Trade Show Materials Checklist
- Visual Diversion
- The Best Job on Earth
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