It’s become increasing practice for companies to spec out a design project and pit multiple designers against each other in hopes of getting the best design possible for the lowest cost. But there are some pitfalls for this. First, keep in mind that design work does take time. The promise of a few hundred dollars [...]
Posts Tagged ‘artwork’
January 2nd, 2013
Are Logo and Design Contests A Bargain?
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips, Digital Revolution, Marketing Ideas 
Tags: advertising, artwork, clip art, design, images, logo, marketing, small business, technology, website
Tags: advertising, artwork, clip art, design, images, logo, marketing, small business, technology, websiteDecember 17th, 2012
More Free Vectors, Happy Holidays!
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips, Digital Revolution, Marketing Ideas Tags: artwork, clip art, design, free, images, photos, small business, social media, vector, website
Tags: artwork, clip art, design, free, images, photos, small business, social media, vector, websiteIn time for the holidays here are some more great free vectors and other design resources you’ll want to download! 60 Free Premium Vectors from Inky Vectorious has added a few more Christmas-related free vectors, but here’s their whole collection of freebie vectors to peruse! New Vector Freebies from Pixel77 You can also download a [...]
November 12th, 2012
Holiday Cards
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips, Marketing Ideas Tags: artwork, clip art, communication, customer loyalty, design, mail, planning, print, small business
Tags: artwork, clip art, communication, customer loyalty, design, mail, planning, print, small businessGosh, I hope you’re already working on getting your holiday cards out if you mean to send them at all. If not, here are some basics on how to get them out in time for the holidays. Get an address list together. Ideally in an excel sheet or exported from your database into a ‘CSV’ [...]
November 9th, 2012
More Great Free Vector Art
Posted in Design Tips, Digital Revolution Tags: artwork, clip art, email, free, logo, photos, small business, vector, website
Tags: artwork, clip art, email, free, logo, photos, small business, vector, websiteWant some useful vectors but don’t have money for them just yet? Why not sign up for alerts when promotions are happening for free or reduced-priced vectors? Here are a few available today: All Free Vectors Tons of new holiday vectors have been added. Just search away! http://www.allfreevectors.com/ Pixel77 Offers a free vector every day. [...]
October 26th, 2012
Design: Just Do It
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips, Marketing Ideas Tags: advertising, artwork, communication, design, email, facebook, fax, joomla, logo, mail, marketing, photos, planning, print, selling, small business, social media, technology, twitter, video, website, youtube
Tags: advertising, artwork, communication, design, email, facebook, fax, joomla, logo, mail, marketing, photos, planning, print, selling, small business, social media, technology, twitter, video, website, youtubeSometimes we don’t have money for a graphic designer, does this mean we shouldn’t do any marketing? Absolutely not. I’ve seen small businesses reach good starting success with fliers made in Microsoft Word that were little more than glorified letters. Great looks will give you something extra, but if you have good meat to your [...]
October 22nd, 2012
The Artsy Stuff Doesn’t Always Win
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips, Marketing Ideas Tags: advertising, artwork, design, marketing, selling, small business, technique
Tags: advertising, artwork, design, marketing, selling, small business, techniqueI see lots of design contests that harp on really edgy innovation and strange design concepts. The winners content is sometimes so artistic I have not idea what they’re selling let alone have any desire to buy. I’m simply enjoying the excellent mastery of art, the interesting dynamics of their choices and the entertainment of [...]
October 15th, 2012
Design Tip: Two Types of Black
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips Tags: artwork, clip art, color, design, mail, marketing, photos, print, small business, technique, technology
Tags: artwork, clip art, color, design, mail, marketing, photos, print, small business, technique, technologyDid you there are two types of black? There’s a rich, deep black that includes a heavy dose of cyan, magenta and yellow inks into the black ink and then there’s a true-black that is slightly less rich but only uses the black ink. It’s important to figure out which type of black your program [...]
October 12th, 2012
Printer FAQ: What is a Bleed?
Posted in Business Talk, Design Tips Tags: artwork, color, design, images, mail, marketing, photos, print, small business, technique, technology
Tags: artwork, color, design, images, mail, marketing, photos, print, small business, technique, technologyYou know how you might have a beautiful full-color all the way to the edge pdf and when you print it out on your printer it has a white edge? That doesn’t always look the most professional. Sometimes you want that very polished color-to-the-edge-of-the-paper look. That’s not a look you can get with a normal [...]
October 8th, 2012
Free Fonts
Posted in Design Tips, Digital Revolution, Marketing Ideas Tags: artwork, clip art, design, logo, marketing, print, small business, technology, website
Tags: artwork, clip art, design, logo, marketing, print, small business, technology, websiteThese days there are plenty of fonts you can get access to for free. Some are very hard to read or frankly a bit cheesy, but there are plenty of high-quality, legible and very effective fonts. You’re not restricted to whatever fonts your software comes with. In fact even the internet/websites/emails are beginning to be [...]
August 31st, 2012
Signs: More than Utilitarian
Posted in Design Tips, Marketing Ideas Tags: advertising, artwork, content, design, images, marketing, print, selling, small business
Tags: advertising, artwork, content, design, images, marketing, print, selling, small businessRemember than a customer is not just buying the widget you sell. They’re buying the feeling, the experience and/or status the widget has been made to represent. Most recently I was helping at a small block party fair. All the booths were set up with bland 8.5×11” signs that read in bland type what the [...]