design – Page 5 – ImageBlog

December 30, 2013

ImageBlog’s 2013 Print and Design Year in Review

End of the year reflection time – which means of course a Top 10 list, right? Imageblog is our online newstand of conjecture, knowledge, experience and opinion about the world of print, design, marketing, technology and sustainability. Looking back at 2013, it was a year of growth. We were excited to feature our first guest blog authors, and hope to bring you more of that in the future. Below are articles we featured in 2013 that covered events unique to this year – changes, updates, memorials, anniversaries, and historic firsts. This list hopefully highlights some of the unique events of the past year:

USPS Issues First-Ever Global Forever Stamp
Just like the popular domestic first class mail Forever stamps, the USPS began offering a Forever stamp for international mail in February of 2013. For $1.10, you can send a one ounce letter anywhere in the world. The great circular design of the stamp is eye-catching and popular with philatelists.
Boston Magazine Cover Highlights the Power of Print with a Moving Tribute
After the tragic terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon in April, many newsstand covers featured stunning and moving photography and design memorializing that day. One we liked the best for its design, color and ability to capture the personal side of such an event without capitalizing on any tragic images, was Boston Magazine’s image of the shoes of actual Boston marathon runners forming a heart. Even better, proceeds from the sale of an accompanying poster go to benefit the One Fund–Boston, which has raised millions to help those affected by the attack.
“Pencil to Pixel” Exhibit a Great Success
British firm Monotype’s “Pencil to Pixel” exhibit in New York provided a museum setting exhibition for typography lovers in May of 2013, following an initial run in London in 2012. The rich show highlighted the craftsmanship and design behind well-known typefaces of the past and present.
Coke Gets Personal with VDP and Integrated Marketing
Variable Data Printing (VDP) and Integrated Marketing techniques continued this year to bolster the power and profitability of print advertising in an increasingly digital age. Coke experimented with personalized bottles in some foreign markets, as consumers begin to notice and expect individualized content in all forms of marketing.
TCM in the Spotlight with Awesome Graphic Design
ImageBlog took a look at the great graphic design work produced over at Turner Classic Movies on their website, on air productions, print materials and marketing collateral. Nothing’s more inspiring than great design and TCM and the charles s. anderson design co. are doing a world class job.
20 Years On: Newsweek Prophetic 1993 Vision of the Future
A 1993 cover story from Newsweek offered a surprisingly accurate look ahead to today, contemplating the coming “interactivity” in the world of marketing and the resulting ethical dilemmas that might arise. An interesting read, but perhaps the most interesting part is that Newsweek did not foresee their own 2013 about face: first halting print production in favor of an online-only version at the end of 2012, then reversing course and planning a return to weekly print in 2014.
1931 Frankenstein Poster Sets World Record
The only confirmed known insert poster of the 1931 Universal movie “Frankenstein” sold for over $262,000 dollars – over 5 times the estimated amount. Print is valuable!
New Help for an Old Question: What is that Font?
As just one example of the innovative ways technology is providing great solutions, we highlighted three online sites that help solve a problem designers and prepress departments have always struggled with – identifying a mystery font! Sooner or later, you’ll have the same problem and here are some great online resources.
The World’s Most Expensive Printed Book is Sold
The Bay Psalm Book now holds two world records: it is the first book printed in British North America and now the most expensive as well, having sold at auction for over $14 million! You can peruse the book yourself with the digital copy that is now available online for free, courtesy of the Old South Church in Boston.
Cyber Monday: an Ongoing Evolution
The busiest online shopping day of the year, Cyber Monday continues to evolve as technology and social media change. Small players are now part of the game and the line between brick & mortar stores and their online enterprises gets blurrier. This day is a phenomenon that surely represents trends that will continue to define the changes in print and marketing in the year ahead.

Here’s hoping you will find some interesting topics in our list, or some useful information about print, design and marketing for the year ahead. Thank you for stopping by!

Rely on your printer for advice and direction with all your marketing needs. the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files.. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. 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.

November 21, 2013

7 Reasons to Love Promotional Products

Seed packets. Tiaras. Custom-etched wine bottles. Roadside tool kits. Wisconsin cheese platters. Guitar picks. Carbon monoxide detectors. A pen shaped like a pickle.

I just took a quick stroll through our online promotional products catalog and found it hard to imagine NOT being able to find an appropriate gift idea for just about any business enterprise. If the quick list above doesn’t entice you to consider promo products in your marketing, here are 8 good reasons to explore what they can do for you:

Quality speaks loudly. The convenience, usefulness and desirability of a branded promotional product will reflect on your business. The message it sends whenever someone sees, uses or finds it helpful – speaks for you as well. Consider the message you want your promotional products to say about your business?
Longevity. Promotional products have a lifespan far greater than direct mail or an online banner ad. The more useful they are, the longer they stick around – representing you. The gift keeps on giving!
Generosity. Whether including promotional products in your marketing plan as holiday gifts for staff or customers or everyday bonuses, making generosity a part of your brand is good for everyone. Customers appreciate and remember special treatment and paying it forward is just the right thing to do.
Price range and variety. When browsing, you can sort your online search by price, choosing from items as inexpensive as a pen or keychain to high-end electronics or jewelry in the thousands of dollars. The selection accommodates any budget.
Creativity. Consider creative ways to incorporate a promotional product into your company message or identity. Do you want to emphasize adventure? Backpacks or hiking supplies. Dependability? Clocks or umbrellas. Security? First aid kits, flashlights. Environmental commitments? Herb starter kits and products from recyclable materials.
The info you need, up front. Shopping online for promotional products is like strolling through a huge mall, but with less effort. Search by item type, number or description on our search tool, sorting results by price, quantity or name. Browse page after page of items with easy references to minimum quantities, production times, and price breaks.
Low unit pricing. You’re not being a Scrooge to be concerned with the bottom line. When you purchase promotional gifts in bulk you receive the lowest wholesale pricing possible – a big plus for any marketing budget.

…and 2 Reasons to Order from ImageSmith

We handle the hassle. Often the biggest concern with branding promotional products are the technical issues involved in providing your logo and/or text, proofing, correct color matching and sizing. With most sites you are left to do the best you can and hope for good results. We have years of experience with printing, embroidery and promotional products and can answer any questions.
We’re only a phone call away. Unlike many online sites that purposely keep you separated from being able to talk to a real person, you can call – or email, or visit! – ImageSmith to get immediate answers to any questions or concerns that come up about your order, delivery schedule, branding options… or any advice about further promotions you might have in mind.

Oh, and if you’re interested, you can click here for the link to the pickle pen!

Consider the ways you can use inspired graphic design to market your small business. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

October 10, 2013

Business Magnets: Branding that Sticks Around

So here’s why magnets prove to be a good marketing tool:

They get stuck up…

Something about the irresistible urge to see an object magnetically attracted to the wall causes the child in all of us to toss up that magnet on a refrigerator, file cabinet, or any nearby metal object. See if it “works,” right? Back in our print shop, take-out lunch advertisements beside the phone in our Press Room gather and stick around a long time; and a useful magnet with measurement conversions is always up on the Bindery cutter.

and

They stick around…

…often long after the person who put it up even finds it useful! If your design and/or logo is pleasing, your little magnetic parasite may well stay there for the life of the host. (See above!) It becomes a decoration, and any marketing piece that involves your brand in that kind of longevity is well worth the small investment!

Magnets work great for car bumpers and even in large format for vehicle branding on doors and delivery vans. Removable, they don’t damage the vehicle’s finish and can be switched out easily whenever needed. Magnets are also nice and flat so great for direct mail inserts. People might ditch the printed promo, but generally hang onto the magnet.

Making your marketing magnets useful increases their longevity as well. The phone numbers for lunch delivery help restaurant magnets stick around. As a designer, information such as decimal conversions for measurements, PMS colors, envelope and sheet sizes, or other handy prepress data would be a keeper. Calendars are useful for most any workstation. Consider what useful information related to your business would be handy to have nearby your customers’ workstation – they will also be seeing your logo and message every day. That’s marketing success.

Promotional products, like marketing magnets, come in a huge variety of useful objects. Think about how to use them to market your small business. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing

. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

September 20, 2013

Pin Up Your Marketing with a Bulletin Board Test

So what looks good for lunch today?

This is our breakroom bulletin board – your workplace might have a similar one. While scanning the take-out menus and ads for various local eateries, think of that bulletin board as a little microcosm of a larger marketing environment: each piece hangs there hoping to catch attention, influence behavior, provide information. Some use mouth-watering photos of their meals; others provide detailed descriptions of their menu choices while still others rely on the familiarity of their logo and brand to catch your eye. They come in all sizes and colors. Each local eatery, vying for your daily lunchtime dollar, wants to outshine the others.

Now think of your marketing material on a bulletin board among those of your competitors. Will they stand out? Would you stop and take notice, feel drawn in by the imagery or design? Which one will make you decide to eat – or shop or invest… and why? If you saw a Pinterest page with a screenshot of your website alongside others in the same line of work, how would you feel about what that homepage says about you? Consider those “bulletin boards” as your marketing litmus test.

Back to Basics: Design & Message

If simply designing with eye-catching color was all that was necessary to get noticed, then most marketing would be a neon, day-glo mess. Yet color choice remains central to making design stand out. Consider if your colors are consistent with your branding and company image, if use of an out-of-the-ordinary color would be efficient, or if even black and white or a minimalist design might give you the desired effect. Keep up with the print and digital advertising of your competitors in the marketplace – the more you understand their efforts the better you can craft your own message to stand out.

With print marketing, shape – whether in terms of scale or geometric shape – can be very important. This is true whether you are printing a flyer, direct mail piece, handout or poster. Over-sized pieces draw attention, yet at times an unusually small piece might stand out from the herd. Die-cuts add an extra step in production but often create a very unique and memorable end product. Your information might fit onto the front of one sheet, or you might need to expand into a folded piece or multiple page publication – all basic and important decisions.

How is your message unique? In other words, what does your business do better than anyone else? Does your marketing simply repeat the same claims all of your competitors are making, or does it reveal why a potential customer is missing out by not discovering what your enterprise has to offer?

The bulletin board test can bring forward some of the most basic questions about your marketing efforts through a simple, real-time comparison. Taking the time to do that comparison can lead you toward finding more productive strategies for success.

. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

September 10, 2013

Posters: The Best of Fresh Graphic Design & Inspiration

Printed posters are a rich resource for design and marketing inspiration. Whether promoting events, movies, music, politics, product launches, sales promotions or mainly living online as with the recent explosion of info-graphics – the common thread here is great graphic design as a tool to capture attention, inform and inspire action. A quick walk through the shop this morning found three examples of poster art good enough to always want around:

In 2007, The Smashing Pumpkins reformed as a band after a 7 year hiatus with a nine show residency at The Orange Peel right here in Asheville, NC. This folded insert poster is a keeper – designed by printmafia.net.

A classic movie poster: Frank Capra’s 1934 film It Happened One Night.

A wide format print of Van Gogh’s Starry Night serves as a backdrop behind my computer. With apologies to Van Gogh, even cluttered over it is a nice image to have around.

Accessible, inventive, designed to catch your eye and stir your emotions – great poster art can be found in museum collections or stapled to the nearest light pole on any street in your town. Great print collections of curated poster art are available, or browse online galleries when you’re in need of a creative boost. Below are a few resources we found inspiring:

A great overview of the history of the poster is at designhistory.org. This site divides the development of the poster into the following helpful categories: Early Broadsides, The French Poster Craze of 1880, Early European Illustrated Posters, Cubism Meets the Airbrush, The Photographic Poster, The Swiss Poster, American Posters of the 20th Century, and The Poster as Public Message. Makes you want to read more just from the titles, right?
You can read a great interview with Martijn F. Le Coultre, coauthor of A Century of Posters, and a leading poster collector/curator from Holland, over at Steven Heller’s blog. In October 2013, Le Coultre will be auctioning off a portion of his vast collection at Christie’s in London – the auction is titled “Graphic Masterworks: A Century of Design.” Take a minute to browse Christie’s Ecatalogue of the event for an overview of the scope of this collection which spans from the 1890s to 1988.
Josef Müller-Brockmann is coauthor of the 1971 seminal study of the History of the Poster. Browse his own works over at designishistory.com, or on a Pinterest page devoted to his design.
For insight into the current, cutting-edge international poster scene, follow Rene Wanner’s Poster Page. This site hold a wealth of information on exhibitions (online and off), publications, links, news and events related to current poster design and graphic arts around the globe.

Wide format printing can take your poster designs to new sizes. Consider using your branded designs as wall or floor graphics for a huge impact. Digital print allows you to run small quantities at affordable prices, whereas in the past an offset run of a poster could be a much more expensive undertaking. Get inspired by the best of graphic design in poster art.

. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

August 5, 2013

Online Help To Identify an Unknown Font or Typeface

Common problem: a client wants you to recreate a previously printed piece, match their corporate style, or shows you a photo or scan of some typography they like. How can you fulfill their request when you have no clue what font they are referencing?

I remember over 15 years ago, one of the most tedious, time consuming and inaccurate tasks in the prepress department involved trying to “match” or identify a customer’s typeface when resetting or designing their print jobs. Then as now, many print buyers do not necessarily know the name of the font family used for their brand. Now back in the day, we kept a print out of “Line Showings” for all the fonts to which we had access at our shop. My memory has never been anywhere near encyclopedic, so while sometimes I could luck up and recognize the correct font match, or ask a coworker to take a look, usually I had to leaf through page after page of line showings hoping to see an “a” with exactly the right terminal or a lowercase “y” with the correct tail. Needless to say this was not always successful and could eat up a lot of time. Just as Arial and Helvetica look an awful lot alike, many other typefaces closely resemble each other. I distinctly recall wishing out loud for “some kind of tool that could scan a printed font and tell you it’s name!”

Well there are several such tools out there now, and we have found them to be extremely helpful. Here are just a few that have served us well:

Whatfontis.com

This site has saved several jobs for us by correctly identifying a scan of a client’s printed words. Submit a clear, straight scan of text and after typing in the letters below each piece of the scan (as seen at the right above), the site provides a list of “matches.” In the sample we submitted, the font was very close to one named MuseoSans, but the J was not right and the O not quite round enough. Whatfontis returned a long list of possible answers, and after scanning down the list (seen below) I was able to see an exact match in Novecento Wide Light. The site provides links to founderies where the font can be purchased or if it is a free typeface, to where it can be downloaded. You can submit up to 10 samples per day at no charge, or opt to upgrade membership for a small fee and submit as many as you like. Problem solved. We look great to the client, and are confident we will provide an exact match for their branded style.

Whatthefont.com

This webtool over at Myfonts.com works very similarly to Whatfontis.com, whereby you submit a scan then are presented with possible matches. As a test, I tried the same scan I submitted to the previous site. Whatthefont returned five possible matches: all very close but none were an exact match of Novecento. This one sample, however, in no way shows which tool is most effective. Use them both as a resource for font identification. Often, a close match is all that is needed when a client is seeking a similar look rather than an exact match that might require you to purchase the new font.

Typophile.com

A different approach: crowdsourcing your question to a community of font experts! On this site for all things typographic, just quickly set up your user account, navigate to the Type ID Board page and post your scan. Check back to read your responses and even an ensuing discussion about your font from people who share a knowledge, experience and love of typography. You can also join in the discussion and share your knowledge. Judging by the timeline, a lot of folks would welcome your help!

You may find other useful online tools to identify your unknown typefaces. These are just a small sampling of ones that have worked for us at ImageSmith. With all your marketing issues, your printer should be able to provide you the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail and integrated marketing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

July 31, 2013

1931 Frankenstein Poster Sells for World Record Amount at Auction

Frankenstein just stomped Casablanca.

That’s not an indie horror movie, but the results of a world record setting auction on July 27. As reported on artdaily.com, an original 1931 “insert poster” for the Universal movie Frankenstein sold at Heritage Auctions for a record $262,900. It is the only confirmed insert poster for the 1931 Boris Karloff film known to exist. To make the story even nicer, the consignor was Keith Johnson of Ottawa, IL who had bought the poster for about $2 in 1968 at an antique store and just kept it in a closet. The pre-auction estimate put the price at perhaps $50,000 – it went for over 5 times that amount!

The previous record holder for highest price paid for an insert poster was $191,200 bid in 2012 for a “Casablanca” poster.

An “Insert Poster” is vertical format American movie poster that measures 14″ x 36″ and is printed on card stock. These were made to be displayed in standard sized window frame displays in movie theatres. Movie studios stopped issuing these in the early 1980’s, according to the CineMasterpieces website.

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, the pin-up girls from World War II, music and movie posters from the sixties and seventies, 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… and proof that 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! To get yours produced at the best price, and seen both online and in public, 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.

July 30, 2013

Quick Photoshop Tip: Seperate Layer Effects Onto Their Own Layer for Editing

Simple tips are often the most useful. In Photoshop, I’ve found this one to be very handy for editing Layer Effects in the Layers palette. Finding it is not the most accessible or intuitive – so hopefully this can be helpful.

Layers in a Photoshop file allow us to manipulate and edit different parts of the image individually, using transparency, masks, blends and filters to alter and manage how the finished photo will appear. The Layer Style palette allows you to add different effects to that specific layer: drop shadow, bevel and emboss, Outer Glow, Gradient Overlays, etc. But often, designers find a need to edit the Layer Effects seperately, beyond the controls within the Layer Style window. I often find a need to adjust the drop shadow independently of the layer to which it is married, reshaping it in order to give the desired perspective.

Photoshop of course provides a way to do this, but it isn’t a simple function listed under the Layer Style drop-down palette: from the top menu bar, choose Layer – Layer Style – Create Layer. Notice in your Layers palette that the effect has now moved onto it’s own layer and can be manipulated individually from its Master layer. Photoshop also conveniently names the new layer after the effect you applied. Some effects, such as Bevel, require multiple layers to be created in order to maintain the effect. You can then edit as needed. In this sample we distorted the drop shadow down into a shape that appears to be a more realistic cast shadow from a standing zebra.

Photoshop is constantly changing, but Adobe provides great tutorials online to help you learn new tips and techniques. Also, stay abreast of latest news and inspiration from industry insiders at the photoshop.com blog.

Printers understand communication and design. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

July 11, 2013

Multimedia Graphic Design Done Right: TCM Spotlight

Classic movies and classic graphic design – both sources of inspiration, and no one does it better than TCM. Their commercials, program intros, event branding, website, print publications and products all are branded with the same retro, distinctive TCM style. This unity of great design across platforms and media is a basic goal for any successful marketing, regardless of a company’s size or budget. TCM is well worth a look if you need a little inspiration.

Turner Classic Movies is the cable/satellite channel owned by Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time/Warner. The TCM logotype, which sets the graphic tone for all the consistent branding TCM does so well, was created by the charles s. anderson design co. of Minneapolis, MN. This world class firm holds a client list which reads like a Who’s Who of great branding and marketing success. (They also maintain an incredible royalty free image library of highly curated pop culture artwork, a great resource for any designer, called csaimages.) Their website relates the story of how the original TCM logo design was created with 30 different icons to represent the multiplicity of the movie industry and its ever-changing nature as a medium. When presented to Ted Turner, he wanted to know “which one is the logo?” The answer: all of them! “But which one?”

The multi-faceted approach of that original design sets the standard for the cross-platform, diversified branding of TCM that maintains the same look, feel and tone across it’s print media, television production, expansive website and product creation. The tone is distinctly retro, but with a modern, polished, and high-tech flavor. Having open access to one of the world’s largest, richest film libraries for your inspiration and imagery is a resource of which any graphic designer can only dream! But the folks at TCM consistently use those images in a fresh, larger-than-life way to maintain the thematic look of their brand without exploiting or tarnishing the classic films from which the images are appropriated. That, in itself, is a tough task and speaks to the integrity of the TCM design process. For example:

The first half of the clip above demonstrates this balance well – a humorous look at the man on the street’s reaction to the iconic image of Sue Lyon in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film “Lolita.” The second half of the clip sets a perfect film noir mood, creating an homage to American artist Edward Hopper’s famous painting “Nighthawks.” This is smart marketing that know’s its audience and upholds the value and integrity of its film archive.

Studying how the big players excel is valuable instruction for the rest of us. For those of us who cannot afford the guidance of a charles s. anderson design team and don’t have the budget of a Ted Turner, a few takeaways are:

Develop and know your image. Be sure, at the most basic level, you understand and control the “look” of your brand – what it stands for, how it will represent and how you want the public to perceive your business. This begins, typically, with a basic logotype and then expands throughout all the activities of your enterprise.

Respect yourself. Your passion for your work should show through in your business’ design and marketing efforts. Work with a designer and printer to create marketing material that inspires you, makes you feel proud of what you do, and represents quality.

Work to maintain consistency of your brand in all the ways the public encounters your business. The design and flavor of your print materials should be a consistent match to any representation of your business that your public will see. Consider all the areas this might include: signage, website, direct mail, social media, print/tv/radio/web advertisements, employee uniforms, retail spaces and lobby decor, promotional products as well as the actual goods or services produced and supplied.

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 24, 2013

Logo Design Tip: Avoid the Swoosh (or, It Pays to be Original)

A fairly safe rule for logo design: avoid the SWOOSH.

The Nike logo story is now part of graphic design legend: how Carolyn Davidson, a student at Portland State, randomly met Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, in the hallway at school and accepted his offer to work on a logo for his growing company – one that would “convey motion and look good on a shoe.” After many hours of work and a $35 payment for her trouble, Knight’s initial reaction: “Well I don’t love it, but maybe it will grow on me.”

Millions of dollars later, somehow that Nike swoosh has become THE iconic example of a brand mark and logo identity that do their job right – it represents both Nike and the value of a recognizable brand mark. The logo has been on Nike shoes since 1972 and is internationally recognized. “Swoosh” even has its own Wikipedia entry.

This popularity has, of course, bred imitations. While that exact “swoosh” is the property of Nike, the swoosh-type shape has been borrowed and appropriated for many, many other enterprises. Keep your eyes open online and in print, and you’ll see the swoosh again and again… and again.

Just a quick glance through our shop here, and a few magazines that were lying about, yielded these examples:

While one company certainly can’t monopolize a basic geometric shape, originality matters in effective logo design. You want to get noticed, not blend in with the crowd. Avoiding the “swoosh”, for the foreseeable future, is probably a good rule to keep in mind when branding your business.

FYI – for further reading…

Author Per Mollerup has an amazing, newly revised book out called “Marks of Excellene: The History and Taxonomy of Trademarks.” It covers the history of the human need to create trademarks, and is useful for anyone interested in branding, advertising, and design. It is reviewed by Slate.com here.

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.