What is Visual Communication?

Your Visual Communication is an essential tool in your business’s brand identity toolkit. It is made up of all of the graphics that supplement your logo, forming the graphic “face” of your business and anchoring your brand identity.

Think of your logo as the “boss” of your brand, and the Visual Communication elements as its “employees”; in many design applications and finished materials, your logo won’t appear by itself. It will have the help of all of these visual elements to accomplish its job of communicating and connecting with your target market.

Your Visual Communication can include design elements such as:

• Font styles: You should have a small collection of typefaces, font weights, and styles that you use regularly in your materials. Consider fonts for both print and web use, and specify styles for headlines, subheads, and body copy in each case.
• Colours: Creating a colour palette for your business can add flexibility to your marketing materials and give you an easy resource to go to when choosing colours for illustrations, graphics, or any other part of your Visual Communication. If you keep your colours consistent and limited, then you’ll develop a more focused palette that will be easier for your audience to associate with your business.
• Shapes: The shape that you use for your bullets, break-out boxes, colour-blocked areas, and even borders in your materials can create a strong visual component that will contribute to your memorability.
• Layout: The layout of a marketing piece covers elements like the number of columns and the placement of all of the other Visual Communication elements.
• Backgrounds: Using background screens or shapes, or even a specially designed watermark, can give your materials extra flair. You can also develop a special background that will make your materials stand out.
• Photographs: Photos can add a lot of personality to your materials and really help you to make a connection with your target audience. You can purchase stock photography inexpensively these days; buy a few shots that are compelling and really match the rest of your Visual Communication. Make sure that you buy the highest resolution and the largest possible size to ensure you have images for both print and web.
• Special textual treatments: For very special text that you want to highlight, such as your tagline, marketing bullets, sidebars, or bullets that detail your specialties, consider specifying a particular typeface, size, and colour to use in all of your materials.
• Paper type: Printing your materials on a special type of paper can make them look even more interesting. Papers come in different colours, textures, and thicknesses that can contribute to the uniqueness of your business marketing material.

Crafting a tool kit for your visual communication and then using it consistently will define your business in the marketplace and create a strong brand.

 

Santa Claus understands his branding

Santa Claus is a pretty smart guy who must have studied marketing when it comes to his brand. He simply follows the golden rule of ‘consistency’, and because his branding is always consistent he is instantly recognised in the western world.

His colours are always red and white. His style is always traditional, old fashioned and nostalgic. His tagline never changes – ho, ho, ho! Santa’s brand evokes emotion that helps his target audience to connect with him. He appeals to all ages and demographics. Santa has never re-branded, his audience would lose faith in him.

We can learn some valuable lessons from this world recognised brand: ensure that your branding is consistent, that your website colours and logo match your business card, that your signage reflects your brand. Your twitter and facebook page should look like they are connected to your business, your email signature and brochures should all carry the branding of your business proudly and consistently, and really it’s as simple as that. Good on ya Santa!

 

What can you expect to pay for graphic design services

The standard hourly rate for graphic design work is anywhere from $120 to $180 per hour depending on the service and the studio. As a general rule of thumb freelance (solo) designers will charge at the lower end of the scale because they have low overheads. SME studios will charge medium rates, and larger studios charge out rates will be the highest.

Most services are charged per hour but some are charged per page or per item. For example we charge by the page for typesetting work and per hour for author corrections. Illustration and Photoshop work is from $180 per hour due to the skill and time required. There are fees to create final art files because there are many things that need to be checked thoroughly before we send it to print.

It’s a good idea to consider your budget before you engage a designer. Keep in mind that a freelance designer will charge less but you only have access to that one designer and their particular design style. If budget allows you will have much more creative scope from a studio employing several designers. We tend to all work on the initial conceptual designs so that the client receives different styles to choose from.

Obviously the bigger the budget the more creative freedom for the designers and the better the end result, but having said that a set realistic budget will give a very good result in any case.

 

Do you have blurry branding?

Recently while working on some promotional material requiring sponsor logos, I put out a request to the sponsors to send me their logo in a format suitable to print. My request was simple, or at least I thought it was:

Full colour
 300dpi TIFF, JPEG or preferably EPS version

. (Please note that logos saved from your website will not suffice, so please ensure the logo is of high quality.)

But no, I received all manner of poor quality logos taken from websites weighing in at a hefty 20kb and re-named ‘Large’? You can’t fool me – Photoshop doesn’t lie. This was both amusing and frustrating.

Please check your files and ensure you have a high quality logo for print. An EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) vector file is the best for designers because it is scale-able without loss of quality, but you probably won’t be able to open it, that’s ok we can. The next best thing is a JPEG or TIFF at 300dpi. You will know if the logo is high resolution by the size of the file, for example a 20kb logo is weeny and will pixelate badly when printed. It will need to be at least 800kb. If you only have low-resolution small logo files, it would serve you to check back with your designer and request an EPS file for print media.

Here at Papercut, after we create your branding we provide you with these necessary logo formats on CD as clearly labeled files in folders for print and web and with a users guide. If all else fails and your designer has left the country we can re-trace your existing JPEG logo and create an EPS for you! To save some headaches and keep your brand looking professional and crystal clear on all media – we recommend you get that EPS.

 

Why should I hire a Graphic Designer when I have Photoshop and can do it myself?

Papercut Creative Director

Graphic designers are trained in their chosen profession like any other, just because design software – the ‘tools’ are available to everyone, doesn’t mean that the necessary ‘skill’ to use the software is possessed by everyone. For example, owning a stethoscope doesn’t make me a Doctor right?

Using a new business branding as an example, a Graphic Designer will create a logo and branding to suit the specific business through a strategic process. We work with you to find out what will differentiate your business from your competitors. We research your competitors. We target your audience. We help you to come up with a suitable tagline or byline. We investigate colours to suit your branding and we understand how colour effects people. We know about fonts and how the wrong font can kill your branding. We ensure that your branding is well designed to support and enhance your business into the future.

Graphic design is not just a logo, but a considered application of branding to your entire business that will effect how your clients perceive you. If it appears that you have cared enough about your own business to brand it professionally, then that will send a message to your potential clients that you care and will care for their business too.

Producing your own brochures in Word has limitations for printing. A Graphic Designer will use appropriate software that is supported by printers. Producing the final art files for any design work is a skill in itself and will affect the final outcome if not prepared correctly. Some may think that creating a print ready PDF is simply hitting a button, however there are many considerations for the type of PDF file required for the selected media, and designers are trained to know the difference.

A good Graphic Designer will take the worry out of the project and manage the external suppliers as well. Designers are used to managing print and web jobs and understand the requirements by these professionals and the file types that are needed. We understand the industry jargon like: EPS, DPI, GSM and FSC.

Your branding is an asset to your business so it’s important to get it right from the start. Clients will judge your business by the way it looks, and your logo branding and website is the first impression of your business to your new client. A dodgy home designed logo is not going to serve you well in the long term.

Would you give your own tooth a filling? No, you leave that for the Dentist? Your business deserves the right treatment as well. Engage a professional to create your branding and you will have invested well.

 

Top 10 tips for writing a design brief

Design briefs are produced to ensure absolute clarity, understanding, and agreement from all stakeholders. Many design projects go wrong because someone ‘assumes’ someone else knows what they know. All parties involved must be able to ask as many questions as necessary when developing the design brief.

Gathering as much information as possible in advance to briefing a designer not only helps with initial discussions, it also assists with potential negotiations later if the designer has strayed off brief.

1. What is the business? – Provide a paragraph or two of background information about your business along with a brief history.
2. Current situation – Explain what’s happening to bring about the need for this project. For instance, a new product launch that needs advertising or is it new business branding?
3. Objectives – What do you want to achieve? Make your objectives specific and the results measurable.
4. Competition – who are they and what makes you different from them?
5. Target audience – the knowledge of your target audience is vital for your design. Demographics – the age, gender, income, employment, geography, lifestyle of those you want to reach. This will greatly affect the look and feel including colour, style and effectiveness.
6. What do you require? – List the items – think about the overall scope of the project and work down in detail.
7. How will the design be used? What sort of media do you intend for your design, i.e. Print, internet, signage or television.
8. Visual references from pages of a magazine, brochures, books, business cards, designs, colours and anything that inspires you will assist the designer to get an idea of what you like.
9. Providing your budget tells the designer if it’s worth his/her time initiating the design process. Professional design is an investment in your business that offers value for many years, it’s worth spending the money to get it right from the start.
10. Document the design brief and send a copy to all parties involved. This will help when reviewing the final solution for implementation.

 

What is Branding?

The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp.

These days however, a brand is the identity of a specific product, service or business and will encompass:
•     a name
•     logo
•     symbol
•     colour
•     image
•     and/or slogan.
Branding is a complex process with a simple goal. The goal is to deliver a clear message to a targeted audience that creates instant recognition and confirms your credibility and stabilises customer loyalty.
Did you know that a brand needs to be seen 7 times before the brain can recall and commit to memory?
Ensure your brand stands out from your competitors and maintain consistency across all media.
The visual identity of your brand is important in how your audience perceives your business. Successful branding will be flexible and authentic, it will create a memorable experience for the consumer, encouraging repeat business. It is a long-term creative solution that can be leveraged by the business to showcase their brand’s unique personality.

 

What does your business card say about you?

At a recent networking event I exchanged business cards and instantly I noticed several things about the business card I received:

1.     It was printed on very flimsy card stock
2.     The printing was poor and blurry
3.     The layout was cumbersome
4.     There was no phone number
5.     It reeked of cheap home printing.

Ironically this persons business is about branding? Ok, so call me a business card snob, but seriously if your business is about branding wouldn’t you at least lash out and have your business cards printed professionally? For the small sum of $55 you can have 250 business cards printed and feel proud to hand them out. This poor excuse for a business card left me with a lasting impression of the person, and very little confidence in their ability to manage my branding if they couldn’t manage their own.

The next business card I was given was also a home job with an appalling choice of font that I could not read. If your clients can’t read the phone number on your business card do you think they will bother to call you? Your business card is a mini marketing tool that needs to be succinct and attractive with a quality finish if you are to be taken seriously.

There are some very simple tips that apply to business cards in general:

1.     Keep it simple
2.     Make sure the font is legible
3.     Type should be at least 6 point
4.     Keep colour to a minimum
5.     List all your contact details
6.     Print on quality stock
7.     Pay a designer to do what they do best, and do your business a favour.

 

Why you need a vector file of your business logo

 

 

 

 

A vector file of your logo is one of the most valuable items you can have in your business brand kit.

What is a vector file?
It’s a file that was created in Adobe Illustrator or a similar drawing program. It’s called a vector file because these programs create designs that are based on a series of points and lines instead of pixels. This makes your logo design more scalable and really crisp.

What might you need it for?
If you’re designing anything that requires your logo to be enlarged or reduced the vector file will easily scale up or down and maintain a clean, crisp result. This will look more professional than a blurry logo.

Vector files are on a transparent background – so you can layer the logo over a new colour without having fuzzy edges. For example, if you need to put your logo in an advertisement with a dark background, then there won’t be a white edge around the logo. Vector files are easy to modify with the correct software. If you need to change the colours for any reason (perhaps you have a 3-colour logo but you’re printing 2-colour promotional items to save money) – then you can easily change your vector logo.

Who might want it?
Printers, graphic designers, website designers, advertising companies, sign designers, t-shirt and promotional product printers will require your logo in a vector format.

How can I tell if I have one?
Go through your set of logo files (you did get more than one from your designer, right?) and look for a file that ends in .ai .eps or even .cdr. If you don’t have any of these, but you have a PDF of your logo, you can ask a designer to try opening that file to see if it’s a vector file in disguise.

What if I don’t have one?
If your designer only gave you a JPG of your logo, then never fear. When you have a need for a vector file, a designer can trace the JPG logo for you and create a scalable copy. Just make sure to get a copy of the new vector file – and to archive it for future use.

http://www.papercut.net.au

 

How do I trademark my logo

This is a question I often get from clients for whom we are creating branding. Trade mark registration is not compulsory but it is advisable. A trade mark can protect your brand name against misrepresentation under the trade practices or fair trading legislation.

A trade mark will add value to your business

An appropriate trade mark should be an integral part of the marketing strategy for your goods and services. Your clients will identify a certain quality and image with goods and services bearing your trade mark.

Types of trade marks

A trade mark can be a word, phrase, letter, number, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture, aspect of packaging or a combination of these. Commonly a trade mark is associated with a logo or brand.

Registration of your trade mark

Once your designer has created your logo and you have approved it, you can then apply to register it. A registered trade mark gives you the exclusive legal right to use, license or sell it within Australia for the goods and services for which it is registered.

Always search existing trade marks before using a mark or applying for registration. You may find yourself the subject of legal action if the mark you propose to use is already registered or in use by someone else.

Go to IP Australia for more information http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au

What does it all mean?

There’s the TM symbol, which basically means “I’m thinking about, or am in the process of registering my design as a trademark – or I just have this design and want to claim it as protected”.

Then there’s also the ® (register mark) symbol, which means “I went through the process with IP Australia and registered this thing!” You’re not allowed to use this symbol in trade until you get the certification that your logo has passed their tests.

So, when you embark on this registration process, technically you should end up with 3 sets of logos:

1.     Logo with no symbol (you need this to register, and it can come in handy in case you’re printing anything that’s too small to have the TM symbol visible),

2.     Logo with TM symbol, and;

3.     Logo with register-mark symbol.

Disclaimer I’m not a trademark lawyer, so I can’t legally advise. If you’re concerned about this issue I’d suggest you consult your lawyer. Source: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au

Claire Connelly

Papercut Creative Director