ImageSmith – Page 14

June 4, 2012

New Punctuation: from Interrobang to SarcMark

Just what we needed, more punctuation.

Well…. actually we do need more. That statement itself could have benefited from a symbol that conveyed the fact that I did not seriously want more punctuation or font problems to deal with! But digital communications have run into a few unforeseen limitations. Have you found yourself being more easily misunderstood in email and text messaging than you are face to face or by phone conversations? So much of our communication actually occurs through physical cues, expressions, body and hand gestures, intonation and vocal signals – none of which are accessible in a text message or a 140 character tweet!

Whenever a difficulty arises in communication, language begins to morph and adapt to overcome that difficulty. In this case, the use of little smiley faces and emoticons are an attempt to “add on” a little explanation of unspoken cues in symbolic form. A more formal attempt to alter the written language is an attempt at a punctuation change called the SarcMark: a registered trademarked symbol that you can purchase to use in order to denote sarcasm or irony in a statement.

The SarcMark is the creation of Paul and Doug Sak who started Sarcasm Inc. They saw the need (and business opportunity) for a punctuation mark that denotes sarcasm, especially in a digital communication. As their video says, “Only $1.99 for lifetime use… and never be misunderstood again.” It works on both Mac and PC platforms, and has both a font option for type or texting, or a graphic option if you know the person on the other end has not downloaded the symbol as well. Smark marketers, the Saks have also created branded apparel and other items to encourage the use of their new punctuation.

English has no standard symbol to denote irony or sarcasm, though historically there have been a few attempts put forward. The Interrobang (I love that word) is a combination of question mark and exclamation point, and is used by some to mark a rhetorical question that does not require an answer, or to show excitement or disbelief in the form of a question (“Did you just do what I think you did?!) The irony point (a backwards question mark) is a French attempt to create a punctuation mark to indicate there is a second meaning to what is being said. Also, emoticons are very much an outgrowth of the same need for additional punctuation in text or email communication to set a tone or to explain subtext in what is being said.

Overall, the appearance of these new symbols is an interesting development in the evolution of English. More change, just what you needed, right?! 😉

Smart marketing ideas – new technology – upcoming marketing trends: ASK YOUR PRINTER! They are the experts at introducing you to marketing innovations and working with you to direct your brand and reach to more people, locally or globally.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 30, 2012August 14, 2020

The Letter: 10 Songs About Mail, the Written Word and the USPS

Despite the ease of digital mail, it cannot quite match the impact of the arrival of a handwritten letter. While the USPS struggles through some very difficult economic times in the digital age, it has stood tall in our cultural history in fiction, film and song. Many dramas have arisen about our communications through the mail: waiting for the mail to arrive with an answer, a missed letter with a life-changing message, the dilemna of whether a lack of communication is the post office’s fault or signifies something bigger. Just like our previous blog post about Print, Paper & Ink in popular song, below are some classic evidence of the role mail and letter writing plays in our culture.

Please Read the Letter – Robert Plant & Alison Krause (2008)

Beautiful, haunting song named Record of the Year at the 2009 Grammys. Originally recorded by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Plant claimed the lyrics are an “unfinished business.” No USPS involved in delivering this letter however; the narrator just nailed it to the door.

Box Full of Letters – Wilco (1995)

Gotta box full of letters – and not enough time to answer all the questions. Same feeling we get now with an inbox full of email, but it just doesn’t inspire the same musical feeling that snail mail does somehow.

Strawberry Letter 23 – The Brothers Johnson (1977)

Known as the most sampled song in hip hop music, I remember this hit from high school. Seems the author was so moved by the strawberry scented paper on which a girlfriend wrote to him, that this song was born. A trippy, psychedelic imagery fills the lyrics about this 22nd letter, the title suggesting he’s waiting on the next delivery.

Anchorage – Michelle Shocked (1988)

In the lyrics, two friends on very different paths separated by a “burning bridge” catch up via the USPS. A letter is sent to Dallas, “but the reply came from Anchorage, Alaska.” Le Roy’s wife must have used the Change of Address service!

Sep ’88 “Anchorage” hits Billboard Top 100 from Michelle Shocked on Vimeo.

The Letter – Joe Cocker (1970)

Originally recorded by the Box Tops, I just like Joe Cocker’s gravelly-voiced version from his album “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” better. This was Cocker’s first Top 10 hit in America. The lyrics illustrate our deep cultural belief in the right letter arriving at the right time and it’s ability to change someone’s life. A missed email doesn’t seem to have the same built-in drama of a misplaced or misdelivered letter.

You Wear it Well – Rod Stewart (1972)

The entire lyrics are a handwritten apology to a lost love, from the man who blew it in Minnesota. He says he’s been meaning to phone, but “Now I’m eating my heart out, trying to get a letter through.” (Check out the great violin solo from Dick Powell.)

Take a Letter Maria – R.B. Greaves (1969)

R.B. Greaves, the nephew of legendary singer Sam Cooke, hopefully did not write this song from real life experience… a terrible story about a businessman dictating a letter to his secretary to break up with his wife whom he had just caught cheating, then asking the secretary out for a drink. My bet is Maria said “No!”

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) – Stevie Wonder (1970)

Enjoy Stevie on The Dick Cavett Show singing his first hit he produced himself. A classic.

All My Loving – The Beatles (1963)

Early Beatles at their best. “I’ll write home everyday, and I’ll send all my loving to you.”

Letter to Me – Brad Paisley (2007)

We have to include one from the country world. The USPS hasn’t mastered this delivery service yet, however: “If I could write a letter to me/ and send it back in time to myself at 17…”

Some obvious examples not on our list include: “Return to Sender” by Elvis, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” by Fats Waller, “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp)” by Allen Sherman, and of course, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Carpenters, The Marvelettes, The Beatles and many others. Not favorites of mine, so they didn’t make the list.

The post office also honors the music industry. Check out the USPS stamp series, Legends of Rock & Roll/Rhythm & Blues from 1993, and order the 2014 Rock Icons series here, featuring Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Lydia Mendoza, Edith Piaf and Miles Davis.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 25, 2012

Posters: Print as Art, Political Player and Cultural Icon

Posters are a uniquely powerful form of media with a brilliant cultural history. They have weilded political power, changed minds and attitudes, and served as influential icons of art, politics and popular culture. Think of the “Wanted” posters of Depression-era gangsgters, movie posters from the golden age of the silver screen, and political posters from every campaign since the press was invented. In the digital age, posters have proven no less powerful – the Obama “HOPE” posters or the art generated by the Occupy movements. Look around town at the musical, political and social events being advertised in shop windows and on phone poles. The poster is alive and well and as intersting as ever.

I grew up in the 1970s and was thinking about the popularity of posters in that day — check out a few examples above. Everyone I knew had their room decorated with posters of rock stars or television or movie heroes. I assume that pretty much holds true today as well? Every trip to a store like Sears or the local record store back then included browsing through the hinged display frames of posters to see what would look great on your bedroom or dorm wall. Probably the most famous poster of that era was Farrah Fawcett’s red swimsuit poster. From a photo taken in her back yard, 12 million copies were sold. My bedroom wall back in those times had posters of Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and Paul McCartney.

Check out some influential posters that have now been curated as art: posters from the 1968 protest uprisings in Paris designed by the “People’s Studio” (artists mostly from the Paris School of Fine Arts); and David King’s collection of revolutionary and avant-garde posters at the Tate Modern in London. Print is powerful!

Rely on your printer for advice and direction in creating and distributing posters of your own. Advertize an upcoming event, promote your business or your politics, or generate your own cultural meme! The poster is everyman’s media for self expression. To get yours produced and seen, the best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 17, 2012

Print, Globalization & A Little Green Bug from China

A little green bug from China really got me thinking about small business and the new globalization of marketing.

Wide format printing of banners, signs, floor murals, POP displays, outdoor signage, wall decor and other graphic displays keeps our Mutoh printer very busy. Rush orders are no problem, and we often rely on overnight shipping to get the media delivered to the shop on time for an order. One such material that was overnighted recently was a vinyl banner material that is great for outdoor displays. The original manufacturer of the material is, according to the product descriptions, in China. While I’m sure the matierial is usually sitting in a middle-man’s warehouse somewhere, theoretically it could come directly from China to our shop floor in a matter of days.

This material is wound onto a core and comes in 150 yard lengths. But the factory in China must lack screens on its windows, because we’ve noticed that on the back side of this material there is often the occansional squashed little green bug that got caught up in the material as it was wound onto the core. With close inspection you can make out the bright green body, mosquito-like wings and huge round eyes that still seem to be putting the brakes on mid-flight.

Now my first thought on seeing the bug is that it’s no surprise how quickly a mosquito-born disease could potentially travel worldwide. But outside the worries of public health, this little Chinese bug points out the interconnectedness of the entire world in a business relationship. That global connection effects each of us as consumers and in business. Today, the market for all of us, just like for the factory with no screens in China, is worldwide. The internet and global communications have increased your potential market to any extent you can imagine. As a printer, out next job could come just as easily from across the street as across the globe.

Integrating your marketing to include web-based and mobile outreach as well as mail, print, and signage in a coordinated effort can open up that new world of potential customers for you. It is a daunting task for an already busy small business owner. The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER! They are the experts at introducing you to marketing innovations and working with you to direct your brand and reach to more people, locally or globally.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 14, 2012

10 Tips for a Great Multipurpose Newsletter

In a steady, pervasive way, our economy has shifted from one where the greatest value is produced in the manufacture of goods and services to one where the greatest value is mined from data, ideas and knowledge. In such an information age, being generous with your knowledge and expertise carries a great reward. Get that information, advice, data and news out to your public with a newsletter – one that is printed, mailed and cross-purposed into an e-mail resource. You can compile the newsletter from your online blog content, or work in reverse… build your blog with the information you have gathered for your newsletter communications. While information about sales, new product lines and commerce is important, the talent and technical education you and your staff have in your field is perhaps even more valuable to your clients. Sharing it with them will make you trusted and remembered.

Content is king

For sure, all of this can be time-consuming. As small business owners, that time is precious and often scarce both for you and your staff. To help, below are some helpful tips for gathering and preparing great newsletter content.

Name your newsletter. You don’t have to be overly catchy or clever, but think of your newsletter as your own magazine, with a unique title and a clear editorial focus. A suitable, memorable name will allow it to stand out and be recognized once you have loyal readers.
Share your personality. No matter how clinical or technical your field, relay your excitement and interest in what you do for a living in a human voice. Inject your personality into the copy and let readers feel there is a person behind what is being written. Consider including a photo of yourself or your staff as well to establish that human connection with your readers.
Write what you know – use who you know. The information you already possess in running your successful business is your richest source for content. Write about your company’s mission, goals, decision making process, failures and successes. And be sure to rely on your staff as well. Every employee is a source for topic ideas and stories based on their unique experience and knowledge within the company. At the very least, require each employee to submit one story idea a month. Make contacts with other industry blogs online and ask to “guest-blog” an article for them in exchange for one of their own.
Take lots of photos – use them wisely. While stock photography serves a great purpose, nothing is more authentic than photographs you have taken yourself of relevant scenes, people, and products. Since you most likely have a great camera in your smartphone, remember to use it throught your work day. They can be used to illustrate your articles.
Establish serialized columns. Familiarity is an asset when you are vying for a reader’s time. Set up one or two features that appear in every issue of your newsletter. For instance, “FAQ’s” or “Did You Know….” or “Ask an Expert” are all regular column ideas that people are comfortable with and can easily browse.
Write smart headlines. To catch someone’s eye, headlines and graphics are at the top of the list. But remember a good headline also needs to accurately describes the topic of the article. I notice many publications rely on an incessant use of puns, song and movie titles or catchy “plays on words” as headlines. For instance, a story wind velocity and roof repair gets called “Gone With the Wind.” Is it really that funny? No. Does it explain what the article is about? Well, beyond the fact that it involves wind, no. It’s clear an editorial choice has been made that requires each article use this device as a headline. It becomes tiresome and misleading. A great pun can work well as a headline – feel free to get creative – but straight talk can also do the job.
Be accessbile. Use your newsletter to provide as many ways as possible for someone to reach you: phone numbers, web addresses and links, maps to your locations both online and in the real world. Let people know you want them to be in touch.
Do not think of your newsletter as a piece of paper. Yes, you will want to print, mail and distribute physical copies of your newsletters to employees, current clients and the public. But begin to think of the newsletter as the information itself. It will take the form of a printed piece, but can also be repurposed into blog posts, e-newsletters, and website information. Just be sure to learn the rules for email marketing and don’t let yourself inadvertently run afoul of the CAN-SPAM act.
Employ social media and the internet. Staying in touch with your industry peers online through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and relevant trade association or industry websites provides you with a wealth of topic information and inspiration for your content, as well as serving as an avenue to promote your newsletter/blog/website. Check out exmples of other newsletters and a plethora of blog posts like this one giving advice on how to write, design and distribute your newsletters. Stay connected.
Be consistent. If you plan to publish a monthly newsletter, stick to your schedule. Do not miss a month, especially early on when you are hoping to gain reader loyalty. Also, be consistent in your editorial approach.

Rely on your printer for advice and direction in creating and distributing your newsletters, by mail or online. They should be able to provide you with everything from encouragement all the way to the complete design, layout, copywriting, production, multi-purposing and distribution of your periodic marketing outreach. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 9, 2012

Getting Ready for Big Data: Take a Look at Your Mail List

Our privacy is shrinking… or at least our concept of privacy is certainly evolving into something new in a world where just about everything we do, think, read, buy, eat, spend, or consume is digitally tracked. In such a world, your small business database of information on your customers is gold. It is not only how you stay in contact with clientele for invoicing, shipping, and marketing, but in the new world of “BIG DATA” it will increasingly define your profits and growth. Up until now, your data on each customer might be as straightforward as name, address and phone number or email. But as progress continues, you will be presented with the opportunity to gather FAR more data on individuals such as purchasing history, income, political and social affiliations, their avenues of consuming information and purchasing goods, their interests, dislikes, lifestyle and so on. Being able to organize, interpret and manipulate this data for more effective marketing will be at the core of your business’ success.

For now, even if your database is essentially a spreadsheet with customers and their contact information, spending the time to get all this information correct, organized, delimited and “usable” for various marketing efforts is time well spent. Standardization for every entry and every category of information is critical. If you have many folks all entering data into your system about customers or transactions, they all need to be doing so in the exact same way… the “rules” need to all be standardized so that, for instance Mary J. Sawyer, Mrs. MJ Sawyer, Ms. M. Jane Sawyer, Sawyer Mary J., and M. J. Sawyer are not all entered in your database like 5 different people! At a very basic level, that is an important first step.

We do mailings and variable data printing for many clients, and to receive what could be called “clean” data for a mailing is truly the exception rather than the rule. We have methods to “correct” and clean up data, but the sad part of that is usually clients do not want the “new”, corrected data back… so the errors continue to live and repeat in their database – a costly shame.

When you do a mailing, the USPS requires that the address information meet NCOA requirements. NCOA is the National Change of Address program that makes available to mailers the last 48 months of updated addresses where folks have moved or changed address. It flags duplicates and corrects out-of-date address information. Further sorting and certification software for mailing will standardize address spelling, zip codes, street numbers and other inaccurate information. But it is essential that once you have paid your printer or mailhouse to correct and use your database list for a mailing, that you recover that new information and reintegrate it into your database. It is the first step toward “cleaning house” and starting a good first step into the world of “big data” manipulation.

Be sure to ask your printer about how to best streamline the process of supplying your mailing list to them AS WELL AS them returning the corrected, updated list back for reintegration into your database. They will help you set up a routine that makes the file transfer flawless and easy. The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

April 24, 2012

How to Get Your Rack Cards in Welcome Centers and All Over Town

You’ve done the hard part… designed, created and printed a stunning set of rack cards to advertise your business. (See “Print Power: Six Tips for Creating Custom Rack Cards.”) You display them in your shop and use them in targeted mailings. But what other ways are there to put these branded, custom designed pieces to work for you? They need to be out working for you – available where the right people will see them.

Rack cards are perfect for targeting the traveller and the tourist industry. Displays are seen at welcome centers, convention and visitor bureaus, chambers of commerce, restaurants, tourist attractions and local businesses. Anywhere and everywhere the travelling public is likely to visit is a potential distribution point for your rack cards, but getting into all these places can be difficult and very time-consuming. Consider hiring a distribution service.

Tourist brochure distribution businesses serve exactly this need. They maintain and service rack card displays in a variety of venues where tourists and travellers frequent. You have seen these racks in hotels, restaurants, craft shops and attractions. Tourists have come to rely on these sites for information about local events, bargains, restaurants and entertainment. The distribution services refill and service the rack displays on a regular basis – weekly, and more frequently during peak tourist seasons. They also may offer advice on or even handle brochure printing, or special deals for Chamber of Commerce members. Locally (we are here in Asheville, North Carolina – a booming tourist area) two such services that offer great distribution schedules are Mountain Information Centers, Inc. and Brochure Advertising Services, Inc.

Welcome to N.C.!

If you choose not to use a distribution service, a great venue to get your rack cards or brochures into the hands of a large group of potential customers FOR FREE is through your state’s Welcome Centers. Travelers stop for a quick rest and to stock up on information about accommodations, tourist sites, events, restaurants, historical sites, and shopping. Each state operates differently and with varying guidelines, so the first step would be to contact your state tourism authority. In North Carolina your contact is the Director of Visitor Services at the NC Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development (4324 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699). You can find instructions at this link. Any tourism or tourism-related business is permitted to place its brochures in the North Carolina Welcome Centers, but you must first receive approval of your pieces, and then you will be provided a list of Welcome Centers and instructions on how to properly send your free materials for distribution.

Welcome Centers in NC will display your rack cards and brochures in their display units. If your pieces are larger than the standard 4″ x 9″ size, they can be displayed on tables nearby but this will be at the discretion of the Center director. Some brochures are not permitted – such as purely commercial or non-tourist related businesses, literature that rates travel attractions, political or religious tracts, etc. – but if your business is related in any way to the tourism trade in your area, check out the opportunities your state’s Welcome Centers hold.

Ask your printer to help you find out all the options that are open to you for rack card and brochure distribution sites. They can help you design, create and distribute your cards to all these places. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

April 23, 2012

Beginner Email Marketing Tips

Perhaps because everyone is use to having an email account and has figured out how to “cc”, “bcc” and send an email to all their friends at once, people seem to have developed over-simplified assumptions about what email marketing will entail for a small business. In order to begin email marketing in an efficient, trackable and LEGAL manner, you have to do some preparation. Below are some beginner tips that might prove helpful:

USE AN EMAIL MARKETING SERVICE. Using Outlook or a similar program to do regular email marketing or e-newsletters will quickly become overwhelming. That’s when you need the help of an email marketing service that will, among other things, maintain your lists and ensure you are meeting all legal obligations about not spamming. They will also provide you valuable reports and feedback on click and bounce rates and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. MailChimp and Constant Contact are two excellent services used by many to manage and grow their marketing efforts online.

KNOW THE LAW. You MUST HAVE permission from every single person you send email marketing to and you must keep that information current. If you do not have their express consent to receive your marketing emails, you are sending out “unsolicited commercial email” or UCE, which is known as spam. The Federal Trade Commission can prosecute you for violation of the CAN-SPAM law. Let MailChimp, Constant Contact or other such services help you develop and maintain your mail lists to comply with this law and keep you off of spam blacklists.

THINK OF EMAIL MARKETING AS A RELATIONSHIP. When you send email marketing to the public, you do so with their permission. In order to keep them interested in allowing you that permission, give them something they want and can use – useful information, details on products, sales, upcoming advancements. And learn to read and study the reports you will receive back from your email marketing service so you can continuously hone your message. Take in the feedback from these customers and learn what they are telling you.

LEARN HOW TO WRITE A GOOD SUBJECT LINE. Subject lines, according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2011, cannot be misleading or contain false information. Beyond that, the subject line should be interesting enough to make someone want to open it. MailChimp studied their clients emails with the best and worst open rates and found that the best were often the most straightforward. They tell what is in the email, rather than using pushy or catchy sales phrases. If its a newsletter, they call it a newsletter. Overly creative or catchy emails scored lower on this study. Read more from MailChimp about how subject lines work.

LEARN HOW SPAM FILTERS THINK. You want your email to be opened and read, but for that to happen it has to get by the customer’s spam filter on their email account. If you write like spam, you will be identified as spam. So avoid the common tricks of the emails that you hate receiving yourself: using all capital letter in subject lines, using lots of exclamation points or colored fonts, and using the words “Free” or “Test” in the subject line. Sending your email as one large image rather than html coding will get you identified as spam also.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

April 20, 2012

Generosity – good for business, and…well, just good!

Your business reflects your principles. They are part of your brand – the basis of how you interact with your customers and your community. Putting a spirit of generosity in the way you work will always in the end bring benefits to you, your customer, and your bottom line.

Now generosity doesn’t have to mean giving away the farm with some wacky doorbuster special. It means finding ways to show appreciation for each customer – value-added services and perks that can range from something as low-cost as friendly customer service at every contact, all the way to valued gifts and rewards. Your budget and resources will determine what level you can invest in, but the point is to act on a generosity of spirit regardless of the economics.

At ImageSmith, we have sought ways we can show consideration for our customers above and beyond providing quality services on schedule.

Friendly, helpful customer service – when you put yourself in the customer’s place, you can see many ways to provide information and guidance to meet their specfic needs, rather than just direct them in a way that will profit your business. Dealing with them while keeping their schedule and priorities in mind will go far in creating good will.
More than expected – seek to give your customers more than they expect. Often for us, as printers, this can mean packaging a few extras from a print run for delivery – pieces that might have just been thrown out as extras can be given free of charge as a way to say “thanks.” When we are embroidering items and have an extra, we include it with the customer’s order as a nice surprise and a way of saying “thank you for your business.”
Advertising that is also beneficial to our customers – this means promotional products. The exposure and advertising we receive from our branded promotional products is married to the usefulness of the products themselves. Sports cups, bandage dispensers, t-shirts, office supplies… the variety of available promotional products is vast. Think about which ones best fit with your brand and enjoy the process of giving them out to your customers.
Information & “paying it forward” – We live in an information age, and being generous with knowledge and expertise has a greater value than ever. I think there is often an old-school tendency to try to “guard” knowledge – when you have figured out a better way to accomplish a task, you don’t want your competitor to learn it and benefit from your struggle. But here again, being generous with your expertise builds good will, and, perhaps more importantly, establishes your authority and skillfulness in your field. To be a source people trust and turn to for information is a benefit to both them and you. As printers, we specialize in marketing and communication skills. We want our customers to turn to us a marketing consultant who has their best interests in mind.

Blogging is a great way to provide information to customers – and to receive feedback from them. Also, the world of social media allows you a powerful venue to help establish your principles in the minds of your customers. Use it to attract attention with helpful information. Being generous just makes good business sense.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

April 19, 2012

White Space – Minimalism in Graphic and Web Design

Why Less Can Be More

They say nature abhors a vaccum… apparently so do graphic design clients. For many, the impulse to fill up every available space with type or artwork can clutter or completely derail a project. A staple of good design, the wise use of white space can lend an air of sophistication to a layout, and should always be a consideration in any style of design. But when a specific minimalist look is desired, editing and balance are crucial in order to maintain the open real estate needed to create an effective version of this classic look. Its usually helpful to agree upon that basic style at the onset – otherwise the need to “fill in” generally takes over.

White space - minimalism — Great use of white space in cocollective.com design

Many years ago in my first contact with graphic design, I was on the “annual staff” at my high school, creating the page layouts for the yearbook. Now this was the late 70s and well before computers or software. Page elements were sketched out on actual size graph paper in blue pencil. Measurements for the printer were done in picas. Photos and text were given corresponding numbers for placement, and the photos were “cropped” by marking the actual desired size on the developed photo with a grease pencil. Wow – seems primitive now. Anyway, my point is one of the ideas we were presented with as students was a page layout they called “isolated element” – one side of the layout might have a collage of pictures or text with the other side having one single photo. Clearly, the isolated photo was the focus of attention. We were told to use this design idea sparingly, if at all. Minimalism –they thought it was a little bit radical I guess.

minimalist design of studioantwork.com — Minimalist design of studioantwork.com

What I did not understand at the time was that the space in between the photos was an element as well. An essential point in this creative process is seeing that the “empty” space is really not empty at all. It exists in contrast to the other elements on the page as well as being defined by them – it has “weight” and structure. Similarly, it does not even have to be white. Minimalist design can use black or any color as its base. The open areas exist visually in the design as powerfully as any other element.

Generally employed when a more upscale or luxury approach is desired, minimalist design relies on structure, great typography and an understanding of balance. Some white space is considered passive – such as the space between the lines of type or the border area of a page. By contrast, active white space would be the territory left open on purpose between design elements. Both passive and active white space are planned and controlled in a well-designed piece of work. Though not a solution for every project, minimalist design with an effective use of white space is a powerful technique.

One good habit you will develop as you explore a minimalist approach is the necessity to prioritize and condense. The design itself requires you to decide what information is essential, and what is fluff – a good practice on any project. It reminds me of an episode of “Absolutely Fabulous” where Edina is running around her apartment knocking things off of counters saying “Surfaces! I must have surfaces!” Or even better, when she flashes back to her college days where her minimalist friends had an apartment totally white with nothing in it but a tiny picture hanging by a thread.

A successful minimalist design is:

Confident. Clean. Structured. Stable. Elegant. Fresh. Pure. Cogent.

Minimalism can also convey attributes that are less desirable. Without a proper focus and balance, minimalism can be:

Mysterious. Cold. Obscure. Vacant. Deserted. Uninviting. Unhelpful.

The first step toward effective use of white space in design is to see that open space as an element itself. Great articles are easy to find online about the use and theory behind white space in design, as well as inspiring galleries to convince you of the beauty and functionality of this style of design.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.