graphic Archives - Breakaway Graphics

How Iconic Brands Are Developed

Sheana — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 03:23:48 +0000

THE THREE ELEMENTS

Many assume that a company’s brand is simply its logo and colors. Most of my clients are surprised to learn that it is a much more intricate and thoughtful process than that. I tend to start with asking a client to describe the company as if it were a human being because a brand is a company, personified and what better way to start understanding WHO the company is than to define its qualities and values?

There are, though, three major facets of a company’s brand:

The logo (the mark that makes a company recognizable), the presentation (the marketing plan and optics), and the personality (message).

BRAND

The Personality

The perceived characteristics of the company as a whole.

LOGO

The Face

A brandmark identifies a business in its simplest form.

IDENTITY

The Presentation

The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.

IDEATION

SO WHERE DOES IT START?

The Brand Expert should start by becoming familiar with the products and solutions on a fundamental level in order to start with a blank canvas. Then, by looking at competitors in the market, the brand expert can examine strengths and weaknesses to identify where there are voids that needed to be filled.

Next? Brainstorming. This is far more than basic word association and shouting out ideas, directions or personal opinions; it’s a step-by-step, tried and tested, thorough technique used by Marketers and Brand Experts worldwide but only understood and utilized by few because it is a highly specialized sub field.

Starting with Latin root words then word combinations and finally brand-new words, the Brand Expert will carefully check definitions against multiple languages and even check slang words that could be negatively associated. Sometimes you find one that works in English, but wont work in Spanish or French. Often, through the process, you find a word that fits the core messages and has no conflict linguistically, but come to discover that another company has already scooped up the domain or has already trademarked the word. It is an arduous process.

Sony

Sonus is the Latin word for sound, but the name also comes from the founders considering themselves ‘sonny boys’, a Japanese word that suggest smart young men.

Fage

The word φάγε (translated from Greek to English as FAGE) both the singular imperative verb meaning ‘Eat!’ And is spelled using the first initial of the founders.

Google

A play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros – reflects the mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

THE LOGO

THE FACE OF A COMPANY

Used for identification, a logo represents and identifies a company or product immediately (and simply) through the use of a mark. It does not sell the product directly but rather derives its meaning from the quality of the product it symbolizes. The logo is the FACE of the company.

The 5 elements that make an iconic logo: Describable, Memorable, Effective without color, Scalable, and Relevant. See more about the logo development process here.

MESSAGE

DEFINING A PERSONALITY

This part of the process involves carefully defining the mission, vision, essence, and purpose of the company as well as establishing the Brand’s characteristics and promise.

Misson

What the company wants to do and how they want to do it.

Vision

What the company wants to become.

Essence

A three to five word summary of the brand’s space and how it fits in.

Purpose

The driving force behind the Brand.

Character

If the brand were a person, this is how you would describe them.

Promise

What the company ideally provides to the customer.

INDENTITY

A Company’s Identity might be defined, more or less, as the combination of all of the elements that make up the company’s aesthetic – a visual presentation of the company as a whole. Identity design is based on the visual elements created by a Brand Expert to build cohesive and appealing sales tools, marketing collateral and tradedress. A specific set of guidelines are developed, inspected and examined to ensure that a Company’s Brand Identity remains intact throughout all avenues and each element adds value to the overall visual feel. To learn more about copperplate identity, read my blog about it here.

Marrying these elements, the Brand Expert will create a Brand Manual and Style Guide which should be studied and followed closely as it illustrates how the Identity is applied throughout all mediums by using exact color palettes, specific fonts, pre-approved layouts, etc. By establishing and following these guidelines early on, the company can begin the process of building brand recognition, customer loyalty and achieve success by offering a cohesive message and visual aesthetic no matter where the customer encounters them.

Logo

The symbol of the brand.

Collateral

Marketing collateral includes flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.

Signage

Both Interior & exterior design.

Letterhead

Letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc.

Packaging

Includes the actual products sold and their tradedress.

Other

Any additional visuals that represents the business.

BRANDING

Many people have little or no understanding of what a corporate brand actually is. Essentially, a company’s Brand is the way the AUDIENCE interprets the company. This opinion can be shaped by the way the company presents its personality and corporate image combined with the message and how it interacts with the audience, however branding is a massive topic, a complicated task and a multi-faceted concept with a little bit of unpredictability added in. As such, it is not something that should be taken lightly. Through proper planning, research, ideation and development, the end consumer’s perceptions, reactions and emotions can be reasonably predicted.

The fundamental purpose of the company’s Brand is to add value, importance and create loyalty to the company. Every product or service a company sells, every message it sends, every advertisement it places, absolutely every part of a company’s message should represent the parent business as a whole to achieve this. It is the research, development, ideation processes, and objective communication of a company’s core message that defines a brand as much as the end result of these practices. You see, the consistency of the message (whether verbal or visual) and a company’s actions is what defines the company, announces what drives it, promotes where its values lie, and why.

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Spec Work & Contests, They Fail, Oh My!

Sheana — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:05:35 +0000

It’s a growing debate among designers: Spec Work & Design Contests (also known as crowdsourcing); good or bad? The setup: Businesses can have designers from all over the world ‘complete’ for their design business. The business owner creates a ‘contest’ and receives dozens (maybe hundreds?) of designs from several designers, pick the one he/she likes best and award the prize to the winner. Sounds awesome, right? Well, not so much…for the sake keeping this post relatively short, I will use a logo design contest as an example:

Let’s look at it from a numbers standpoint.

Have you ever heard the saying you get what you pay for? Its true in design too. These so-called ‘designers’ who participate in Spec Work (offering services in hopes of receiving compensation but without any guarantees) aren’t professionals. They are often students, foreigners, or regular people with a copy of Photoshop (which isn’t even the right software for creating logos, btw). Would you let a student or guy-off-the-street balance your books, do your taxes, or perform a dental check? I think not. And yet, this is exactly what businesses do when they choose to participate in these ‘contests’ in the hopes of saving some money. So, these part-time, untrained ‘designers’ really want that extra $200 but know that what they submit will have to compete with dozens of other designs so they work extra hard to make sure their design is the best and gets chosen by the client, right? Not likely. They may spend fifteen minutes, an hour, maybe even two…heck, you might get lucky and get yourself a newbie who doesn’t know the software yet or its their first time taking a shot at design contest so maybe they really give it a good try (then you’re really getting a bang for your buck!). But all-in-all, these ‘designers’ aren’t going to spend the necessary time it takes to create a good logo. (see my logo design process here). No, they are more likely to invest as little time as possible since they know they’ve only got a 1-in-X chance of getting paid. Of course, if they don’t win, they could always try to sell that design to another sucker in another contest. Plus, the less time they spend per contest, the more contests they can enter so they might try to churn out as many designs as they can in a day without much thought as to who they are designing for, the nature of the business, or the effectiveness and reproducibility of the design. It’s about the numbers, man.

Now let’s look at it from a design standpoint.

Choosing to use one of these contests to set the visual tone for your company is really just a terrible idea. You’ve worked hard to create a business plan, choose inventory, secure the right retail space, hire all the friendliest and most qualified employees, and now you’re going to risk all that by using a Spec Contest to create your brandmark? Why don’t you just get one of those employees to whip you up a logo in Word and use that? “Oh, no, no, no, that would be a bad idea”. Of course it is, but that’s exactly what the kind of work you are likely to get when using crowdsourcing or contest sites. Again, professional designers do not engage in crowdsourcing contests so you are not likely to get professional designs in return. Many times, these are novice designers who are pumping out designs that require the least amount of time, effort, creativity, skill, and thought because they know that there is a good chance they wont get paid for it. These sites are chock full of bad design, many of them ripped off from actual designers and yet, you want that to be the face of your company? Professional Designers spend time creating the right brandmark for you, utilizing years of experience. You know they’re good because you’ve seen their portfolio before you hired them, you’ve read testimonials from actual clients, you’ve met them face-to-face. Professional Designers work closely with you creating a design brief and brand guide, they ask questions and research. They take the time to really understand you, your company and your goals and they do this with a firm understanding of design. Do the ‘designers’ on these crowdsourcing sites do that? Maybe. But is maybe good enough for you?

What you get for the money.

Now, I’ve never personally used one of these sites but several of my clients had before they found me. I have seen (and had the unfortunate and frustrating experience of trying to work with) the amateur designs that come from these sites. First, they are almost never the right file type (believe me when I tell you that having the right file type is essential), they are only sometimes created in the right software, and they are rarely the proper resolution and colorspace. These are the basics of the profession, people….if the ‘designers’ who participate in this practice don’t know the difference between 72dpi and 300dpi, they have absolutely no business collecting any amount of money for their ‘designs’. In all the cases that I have been given one of these crowsourced files to attempt to work with, it has been a nightmare.

What you DON’T get for the money.

You’ve chosen to use a contest allowing all but one lucky designer to work for free, trying to create the face of your business without so much as knowing who was actually creating it. Perhaps you’ve ended up with a design that you are happy with. Here’s the most terrifying part, after you’ve spent a fair amount of money getting that logo printed on business cards, banners, letterhead, signage, and product packaging, you’ve been served with a Cease and Desist letter from the rightful owner of the Copyright your ‘new’ logo infringes upon. These crowdsorcing and contest sites have long lists of Cease and Desist complaints against them for violating copyright as some of the ‘designers’ who participate don’t follow the rules and ethics of Design and simply do a google search to find a nice design to copy . The crowsourcing site owners clearly state in their terms and conditions that they make no claims as to the originality of the work submitted (check it out for yourself). So who are you going to blame? The Website who legally hides behind an ‘it’s not our fault, you agreed to the terms and conditions’ standpoint? The Designer you’ve never met or even spoken to? It will be up to you to hire an attorney to fight or settle. It will be up to you to now hire a professional to design a new brandmark. It will be up to you to re-print everything with your new logo and pay the web designer to update the website. Does crowdsourcing sound as good now?

The Moral of the Story

The above are only a few reasons why participating in these ‘contests’ is a very bad idea, both for the participants and the business owner who solicits free design. I didn’t even scratch the surface of how it devalues Design, promotes Design as a commodity and as inessential to your business, or how it stifles any real creativity or logical thought when creating visual solutions. While I can understand the cost of doing business is high (I know, I own and run a business too) and the temptation to save money and cut corners can almost be considered a necessity for some, I beg of you, contact some local Designers first. Most of us will collect the vital information and create a personalized quote for free, without obligation. At the very least, you can get a good idea of what Professional Design actually cost (it’s likely a LOT less than you think) and establish a real relationship with a professional right there in your town. The differences between using a Professional Designer and a’contest’ designer are vast to say the least but I think Red Adair said it best when he said: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire and amateur”. It’s true for most professions, and it is true for Graphic Design, too.

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“My Designer Wont Give Me My Files!”

Sheana — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:56:52 +0000

Often, in design, there are requests by the client to release the layered, master files. Many clients feel a bit peeved when their designer tries to explain that the master files are not included in the final price and are not considered part of the Final Deliverables. Perhaps they are right to feel this way based on a misunderstanding of the profession and the assumption that the price they pay is for the rights to the master artwork. One of the roles designers play is to educate the client (or public) about many things, one of these things being why Master files are not always part of the deal. In an attempt to to clear up misconceptions, I’ve detailed the main reasons behind why master files are not considered part of the package for many freelancers.

First, we should resolve the difference between work performed by an Independent Contractor versus Work-for-Hire. According to the United States Copyright Act of 1976, “work made for hire” is— (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. (17 U.S.C. § 101). Work-for-Hire typically implies that any work created by a graphic designer as an employee of Company A, remains the property of Company A, not the designer. Occasionally Graphic designers are commissioned to perform Work-for-Hire but at a substantially higher rate (usually 300%) and when the terms and conditions are mutually agreed to in writing.

An Independent Contractor is commissioned because the work requires significant artistic skill. The Designer supplies her/his own tools, performs the work at her/his own office, works for a relatively short time on a project-to-project basis, and controls when, how or how long he/she works. Typically, in this arrangement, the client has no part in the Designer’s business practices, does not provide the Designer with employee benefits or contribute to his/her unemployment or worker’s compensation, and most importantly to Uncle Sam, the client does not treat the Designer as an employee for tax purposes. Independent Contractors work where they want, when they want, how they want and with whom they want. They pay self employment taxes and foot the bill for health insurance, technical maintenance, tools required for the trade, and provide a valuable service to their clients.

So, “why aren’t master files supplied to me, the client? That’s what I am paying for, right?” The short answer is no and here’s why:

1. You’re paying for the final product, not the tools to create that product.

When you contract a professional graphic designer to create and deliver a brochure, that’s what you will get for your money, a fully completed, fully thought out printable (or printed) brochure. You are not paying for the history, tools or layers used to create that brochure nor are you paying for the fonts and images contained within it. Think of it this way: if you went to the hardware store to buy a drill, you pay the cashier for the drill to take home and use as-is, not for the manufacturing trade secrets, right to the mechanicals and mechanisms or for the rights to take that drill, remove the brand sticker, replace it with your brand sticker and sell it to the public for profit.

2. There are third parties involved that you may be unaware of.

Every designer uses fonts, photos and graphic elements that are often the works of someone else. Designers spend a good amount of money (font licenses can cost anywhere from $25 to $600) purchasing licenses to multiple typefaces in order to offer you options that maybe you don’t already have and to create the perfect overall look for your collateral. We spend our capital to have access to stock imagery that must be purchased for use in your collateral. These tools are not our property but are the property of their respective creators, we have simply secured the right to use it to provide you with awesome designs. Because of this, it would be unethical and illegal for Designers to release those tools to you as we are not the copyright holders.

3. You likely don’t have the hardware or software to handle or manipulate the master files.

Graphic files can be very large and what I can open and manipulate with a fair amount of quickness with my heavy-duty machinery, could slow your equipment down to snail speed. Assuming that you have the proper software and can open the document, what are the chances you know what to do with it afterwords? Do you know how to change the text, what color space and resolution to use, how to format it for different mediums or how to collect it for submission to printers or vendors? There is a whole host of technical junk Graphic Designers have to learn and use everyday. We’ve already put in the time to learn the ins and outs, the technicalities and techniques, so why not just let us handle it and save yourself the headache?

4. We worry about issues with file types.

As designers we often keep track of multiple proofs, files and file types. For example, I may have a high res psd or tif file that I use for the artwork, a indd file I use for the text and layout, various files for import into InDesign, a few low res pdfs of various revisions, a high res pdf with trim marks for an offset printer, a high-res pdf without trim marks for another printer, a high res pdf with half-inch margins for in-house, inkjet printing, a low res jpg for web, and possibly several more. I know the specs, color space, technicals and use for each of these files and can easily send the one needed to various vendors if need be. What many designers worry about is that a client with all the files will erroneously and unknowingly send the wrong file, causing a headache for the client, the vendor and the original designer as usually we’re the ones who have to step in and remedy the situation. Also an issue is that if a layered file is supplied to a vendor who doesn’t have the same fonts or embedded images, the formatting and typeset can go very askew (i.e. the font will automatically change to a default font, ruining any formatting and the images will either show up as grey boxes or in low resolution and will not print properly), turning our hard work into a mess and making life harder for the recipient of the file and causing undue upset to the client.

5. If you have the software and technical know-how, why do you need a freelancer?

The simple answer to this is that most people don’t have the specific skill-set and/or talent to do the work or that they simply don’t have the time. If you are hiring a designer simply because you don’t have the time and are looking for someone to collaborate with, then the work is considered work-for-hire and would be handled as mentioned above. Similarly, if you are hiring a design professional for their creative and technical talents with the intent to use them for the concept and initial execution but not for derivative or future works of the concept, with the purpose of making future changes yourself, you would need to work out a Work-for-hire agreement between yourself and the creative. Unfortunately, many designers face the sad fact that there are people out there who want to pay them for a stellar concept without being completely forthcoming with their intentions, then secretly hand off that concept to a novice or cheaper designer to save money. Since the original designer has done all the hard work already, the second designer gets to reap the recurring financial benefits of that design for doing little work. It’s unethical and unfair to the professional designer. Of course, if this is stated up front by the client, most designers will negotiate an additional fee or higher hourly rate to complete the work for another designer to take over. In this case, it is Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s practice to require the client to purchase all fonts, elements and photos used in the design and stipulate that once the files have been released, we are held harmless of any warranties with the design.

If you are working with a designer and would like to obtain rights to their layered/master files, just ask. Most designers won’t have an issue negotiating a price for the transfer of full copyright including layered files and are more than willing to help you secure the various image and font licenses to protect yourself from violating a third-party’s copyright. The industry standard for copyright transfer is 300% of the total bill so if you’ve used your designer for letterhead and business cards that total $200 in design fees, be prepared to offer him/her about $600. This will cover the loss of future income for the designer from those designs as well as the time it will take him/her to collect and prepare the documents for sale and aid you in securing licenses. If you are working with a designer who flat out refuses to release copyright without one of the above valid reasons, find a new designer.

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Photoshop User Magazine Feature

Sheana — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:00:15 +0000

We are super excited to announce our feature in Photoshop User Magazine! After contacting Photoshop User Magazine to put our hats in the ring as a featured designer for their column called “Design Makeover”, we received a phone call from Jake Widman requesting our help for an upcoming issue. That issue is out now and we are happy to share it with you!

The Magazine Intro. by Jake Widman

Zoccoli’s, “The Italian Delicatessen,” has been owned by the same family since 1948. From the website, “In March of 1948, Robert Zoccoli Sr. and his wife, Augusta, both Italian immigrants, along with their daughter Nelli and her husband Lloyd Sherman, formed a partnership and bought a small grocery store. The Plaza Grocery, a Red & White Food Store, was located in downtown Santa Cruz where Zoccoli’s Deli resides now. It was a very diversified operation that sold everything from household supplies to deli meats and cheeses, many of which we still carry today.” Today the store isstill run by the third generation of the Zoccoli family. It’s been operating out of the same location since 1948 except for 18 months after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused extensive damage to downtown Santa Cruz, when the store had to operate out of a trailer while the structure underwent seismic retrofitting.

In the 1970s, the store started making sandwiches, which continues today. At lunchtime on the main street of downtown Santa Cruz, workers and tourists line up for house specialties like the Italian Club and the Santa Cruzer. While the sandwiches are fresh, the logo also dates from the 1970s–drawn by a family friend–and is looking a little stale.

Zoccoli’s is an integral part of Santa Cruz, and Marie Mediterranean is an part of Zoccoli’s. “We could never change our logo,” says Zoccoli. Nevertheless, she gave us permission to ask three designers to redo the deli’s logo for a new generation–the people who would order a hummus or chicken pesto sandwich as soon as they’d order classics like the meatball or antipasto creation. Zoccoli said any logo should convey the business’s virtues like “very involved in the community, love downtown Santa Cruz, customer service, quality at a good price.”

Each designer created a color one for use on the website and a black-and-white one for use on their catering and sandwich menus, which are simply photocopied onto 11-x-14-inch paper.

My Design Explanation

“My goal for the Zoccoli’s logo and menu cover was to stay true to the long-established identity of the restaurant. Although the ‘before’logo seemed amateurish to me, I didn’t want to change the shape of the mark since it has been used for decades. I wanted only to freshen it up while maintaining its grass-roots, small-town appeal.

Scalloping the edges of the original shape instantly gave it a vintage yet familiar tone and I sought a typeface that would embody the heritage of the restaurant and evoke an immediate sense of longevity. Phaeton, licensed through Veer, with it’s classic, solid presence proved to have just the right amount of hand-lettered flair and was easily tweaked to perfection. I felt the secondary font, from the IM FELL collection, complemented the mood of the main font nicely and was obtained through the author’s website (www.iginomarini.com).

I decided to keep the general appearance of the Character the same but repositioned her to add a little interest. I eliminated the ‘extras’from the ‘before’ design which resulted in Miss. Mediterranean’s transformation from schoolmarm to killer-cook-suited-for-this-millennium.

With the logo finished, and armed with the knowledge that the menus are printed with margins, in black and white and are likely photocopied,I aimed to design a cover that could be reproduced in the same manner without losing depth in the design. Resisting the urge to go full-color, full bleed and require professional offset printing, I instead created a simple, classic, easily reproducible cover using art from Fotolia by Albachiaraa. An awning to match the building’s facade, repeating the scalloped corners on the border, a custom illustration of the kettle, and a commitment to the fonts, tied the logo and menu together.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sheana — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:54:32 +0000

What are your business hours? Regular business hours are Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern Time. Although I am often working much earlier and much later than my posted hours, I ask that you please respect the hours of operation. The time I put in before and after business hours is often when I am most productive and I prefer not to be interrupted by phone calls unless it is a design emergency.

Where is your office? Can I come by? I choose to work from home as I have found that I am most productive in the work environment I have created here. I do not take any meetings at ‘my office’ but am happy to meet you at yours.

How long will the project take? That would depend entirely on the scope of the project, availability, deliverables, and the clients ability to provide feedback in a timely manner if time is of the essence.

Can you fit me in immediately? Anything is possible! However, if you are a new client, I will work you into the production schedule based on current projects. Breakaway Graphics, LLC schedules projects several weeks in advance as I take great care in offering the highest level of attention to each of my valued clients. To ensure that each client receives my best work, I never schedule more than two or three large-scale protects at once. This also allows me to fit in projects for my long-term clients for whom I work for all year. Depending on the scale of your prospective project and Breakaway Graphics, LLC’s production schedule, I may ask that you allow a lead time for your project.

Are you available on nights/weekends/holidays? As a general rule, not often, however if there are special circumstances preventing our meeting during regular operating hours I will make exceptions, of course. In the event that I am required to work outside the scope that was previously agreed upon (such as failure to supply materials in a timely manner to meet a specific deadline), hours will be billed at one and half times my regular rate.

Can I have the Layered (editable) files to make edits myself? Due to use of outside third-party materials in advertisements / publication designs and intellectual copyright laws, the simple answer is probably not (click here for details). If I am creating a logo or brandmark for you, you will be supplied vector files that can be edited with the proper software once payment for services rendered is received. There are special circumstances where you may ‘buy out’ the files should you need them. You will receive non-editable finalized print or web-ready files upon the completion of any project.

What happens if I don’t use up all of my hours? Your return on investment is of utmost importance. If for any reason less than 75% of your monthly hours remain unused, half of the remaining hours will be applied to your next month. This ‘rollover’ is allowed each month based on the month immediately preceding it but do not accrue.

How do I pay you? When can I have my product? The monthly fees are due on the first of the month and no later than the 5th. For your convenience, auto-drafts can be set up so there will never be a lapse in production. If you’d like special accommodations regarding the due day or would prefer to split monthly payments into two separate amounts, please ask. Per-project fees are due at the time of the invoice. Finalized project files (see above) will be released after payment is received. All invoices will accrue late fees after 30 days.

Can you help with printing? Yes. If you should require help with choosing a printer for your project, I am happy to provide you with several printer options. I will also provide quotes and pricing whenever possible. In lieu of attaching an additional fee on top of printing prices, I will only bill for the time it takes to research, contact and quote printing prices and the time it takes to upload, send or order prints. I ask that you provide me with a payment method to place any orders as I am unable to provide payment for printing to be reimbursed upon invoicing due to TN state taxing laws.

Why should I choose you over another designer who charges less? Graphic Design and Logo Development are not simply the ability to operate the required software: it is as much art as it is skill and aptitude. Being that the effectiveness and success of your brand/campaign/publication/etc depends on it, I would urge you to choose your designer as you would choose the house you live in. Like a house, where the purchase price is directly related to the soundness of the structure and the level of it’s amenities, the cost of a good designer is directly related to the quality of their work and the skill and experience of the artist. I choose my clients and projects carefully, so please feel free to browse my portfolio and contact me for a free proposal if you value and like what you see.

What can I expect from you? As a client of Breakaway Graphics, LLC, you will always receive my utmost attention, creative expertise, respect and top-notch customer service while I create your deliverables and for the lifetime of our partnership. You will be guided and educated throughout the design process so you will always be informed on what to expect from me and when to expect it. When you have a question or concern, I will happily take the time to address it to your satisfaction. You will always receive a response from me within 24 hours of email or telephone contact during regular operating hours. I, and any of my affiliates, will always utilize the best time management skills and design techniques to offer you the very best deliverables and to avoid unnecessary charges to you. Customers always receive a fully custom experience that will result in effective, attractive and timeless designs so we allow for as many revisions, modifications and variations as the customer needs to achieve this.

Have a question not answered here? Please contact me or ask a question below and I will happily answer any questions you may have concerning hiring Breakaway Graphics, LLC.

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Common Marketing Mistakes

Sheana — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:48:16 +0000

Let’s face it, these days, more and more business owners are shifting from using marketing professionals to promote their businesses and choosing to take a more hands-on role. This is mistake number one, but we’ll get to that a little later. For now, let’s think about how or why you got into the career you’re in. Maybe it’s because you loved it….maybe because you are especially good at it….maybe it’s just a way to make ends meet. Whatever the case, you have the job you have because, at some level, you like it or possess the skills to excel at it. The same is true for marketing personnel; be it graphic designers or advertising executives. We marketing professionals have a specific knowledge about what works in the market place, what designs and words provoke a response from the reader and what outlets are the most effective in seeing a return on your investment: this is why you need us. I have collected five of some of the most common marketing mistakes people make.

1. “I can do this myself”. Perhaps you can (and even have some success), but if you run a successful coffee shop, please stick to making coffee (we designers need your delicious coffee in the worst way!). While some of your ideas and marketing strategies may actually bring in some new customers, how many hours and dollars have you spent to do so? A marketing professional can work for you while you focus your attention on your own business. We can also make sure you are not spending all that hard earned money on something virtually ineffective. This mistake is a big one because if you make this mistake, you are very likely to make the mistakes listed below…these are big no-nos in marketing. In fact, they are often the opposite of effective marketing.

2. “I have to tell everybody everything”. While all the services you perform or all of the products you sell may be seriously top-notch, someone is only going to take advantage of them if they are interested in the first place. This is probably the most common and annoying mistake in marketing: TOO MUCH INFORMATION. Small business have small budgets for the most part and seem to not be able to resist the urge to use their marketing dollars to tell everyone everything about their business. It’s the usual: ‘I’m spending a good deal of money on a full page ad in the newspaper and since it will only run one day, I need to appeal to every reader”. Do you really? Or would it better to place that full page ad in a specific magazine, with a longer shelf life, that your target audience is most likely to read, and promote one item and sell the heck out of it?

3. “Creative advertising adds shock value and will make us memorable”. This one can be 100% true, if it’s done correctly, but more often than not, the arrow misses the mark and the result is either just confusing and ineffective or (worse) it’s offensive. Groupon’s Super Bowl ads are a really good example of the latter, proving that even marketing professionals can get it wrong sometimes. If you want to be clever, fine. But try the idea out in your store first and see how your customers react. When in doubt, hire someone who knows the market, the area (something that works in San Fransisco might not work in Middle America) and how to create something clever that will not (1.) waste your money and generate little interest and (2.) will not offend the entire readership. The second part of this mistake is the ever-infuriating: ‘let’s be deliberately vague to force the reader to our website”. NO. To the consumer, this is wasting their time….no one (and I mean NO ONE) likes for someone to waste their time. You won’t be seeing any of that green if you tick them off before they’ve even given your product a chance.

4. “I have to send updates, tweets and e-blasts as much as possible”. Please, if you do this, stop. In a previous blog post on email and social etiquette, I addressed these mistakes in detail but I will add here that, as Americans, we are bombarded 24 hours a day with advertisements. Someone recently told me that on average, we see over 3500 different ads on any given day. The idea that “well if everyone else is out there all the time, I need to be too to stay in the game” is just plain wrong and goes against the basic principals of effective marketing. I’ll put it this way: when I first moved to my new house, I was constantly annoyed by the planes that flew over head every twenty minutes. Now, I don’t even notice them. This is called acclimation and desensitization. When you send constant FB updates, tweets, mass emails, texts and other messages to your customer, that message just became the plane. I can tell you, I have not opened a single mass email in four years. I see ’em in my inbox and simply hit ‘delete’ and, as a rule, if a person or business posts updates more the three times a day on social networking sites, I hide them, without exception, period.

5. “If I offer discounts or coupons, I can get and keep more customers”. Nope. What you are inadvertently telling your customer is that you don’t believe that your service or product is worth the price on the tag. What happens next is you perform a service (or sell a product) for less than it’s worth and that customer does not return again until they can get it for the same price as before. These are not customers you want. If you are trying a out a new advertising outlet, it is occasionally a good idea to offer a SMALL discount or incentive for mentioning that particular ad. This method allows you to track the success of that ad and get people through the door but (and this is a big but) make sure that the discount is not a deep discount (something more like 10% off any second product purchased) or that the incentive is a freebie that does not cost you (like a sample tube of facial cleanser you get from your sales rep). Also be sure to include an expiration date or you run the risk of having to honor that promotion until the end of time. (OK, I embellished a little there: but definitely include an expiration date).

So in conclusion, don’t do what everyone else is doing cause those everyone else’s aren’t looking to a professional for advice and more frequently, are trying to do it themselves by utilizing the cheap and easy route. Let’s face it, to them it’s cheaper to come up with their own ad concept than to pay someone else to do it but that idea lends truth to the quote by Red Adair: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”. The normal, everyday person does not have the training, experience or knowledge about effective marketing. They end up spending unnecessary time and money on the things that are obvious, misguided and potentially inefficient. Efforts that are so obvious, that they blend in with the other do-it-yourself advertising and marketing strategies out there. The moral of the story is this: don’t do what everyone else does and instead, let a professional guide and help you, that’s what all of our training and experience is for. We make a living by making your business successful, utilize our expertise.

The post Common Marketing Mistakes appeared first on Breakaway Graphics.

Graphic Design File Types

Sheana — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:31:29 +0000

Below is a list of common file types, extensions and uses for Graphic Design Professionals and their clients.

Raster File Types (definition here)

.jpg (.jpeg): Image File. Commonly used for photos but also acceptable for logo or advertisement files. While a .jpg will exclude some data, it is widely used and easily opened by most anyone with a computer. A jpg can be used for web (RGB, 72dpi) or print (CMYK, 300dpi), however any transparencies will be lost.

.psd: Adobe Photoshop Document. .psd’s are typically layered files in which designers can manipulate the text, images, shapes and format. These can be created in any size, resolution and colorspace.

.gif: Graphic Interchange Format File. These are primarily used in web and allow for transparencies as well as animation.

.png: Portable Network Graphic. These are often used in web-based design and applications but can also be supplied in CMYK/300dpi if intended for print use. These are easier to use in web as the transparencies remain intact and are of better quality than .gifs.

.tif (.tiff): Tagged Image File. These files are the preferred file format for print designers as they are widely accepted by many of the design software programs and are equipped with all the file data. These can be RGB but are far more commonly used in print at CMYK/300dpi. These can be flat or layered depending on the intended use.

Vector File Types (definition here)

.eps: Encapsulated PostScript File. .eps files are often used for signs, banners, and billboards…or anything that is to be printed in large format. Vector graphics are easily scalable and can be used at any size without loss of image quality or definition. They can also be supplied to print designers for use in their designs, guaranteeing an image that prints clear and crisp.

.ai: Adobe Illustrator File. As the industry’s leader in software for creating vector graphics, Adobe Illustrator files are commonly used in the creation of logos by graphic designers all over the world. These files can also be supplied to printers for use when printing in large format or to other designers for creation of business collateral (advertisements, brochures, business cards, etc)

.svg: Scalable Vector Graphics Files use an XML-based text format to describe how the image should appear. SVG format was developed as an open standard format by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The primary use of SVG files are for sharing graphics contents on the Internet and are suitable because the XML base allows SVG files to be searched, indexed, compressed, and scripted. SVG files are widely supported in Internet Browsers.

(as a side note, some .pdfs can also be used as vector files so long as they were developed in Illustrator (or other vector software) and saved properly for this use)

Page Layout File Types (definition here)

.indd: Adobe InDesign File. These are layout files with one or more pages arranged in a particular order.

.qxd: QuarkXPress File. Like .indd, these are layout files with one or more pages arranged in a particular order.

.pdf: Portable Document File. .pdf files are often used for print and are the preferred file type for magazines when accepting advertisements from designers and for printers when accepting magazine files for production. .pdfs are also viewable by most anyone with a computer or smartphone, making it the easily the best way to supply clients, printers or publications with a file to be proofed or printed. .pdfs are so versatile that they can be any color space, resolution or size and can be ‘flat’ (a single layer), merged (with transparency) or layered (for manipulation) making them acceptable for both print designers and web designers alike.

While there are many, many more file types that are used in design, these are some of the most common for print (which is of course what we specialize in). When in doubt, use the file type requested by your designer, publisher, printer or programmer. If they do not readily offer this information, just ask. Trust me, all of these folks will know what to ask for and what file type will make their job easier.

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Basic Design Terms

Sheana — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:34:24 +0000

There are an innumerable amount of design terms involved in the process of getting idea from the abstract to the concrete. Graphic design, printing processes, color spaces, file extensions, typography and production all have a vernacular specific to their role in the process. And although many of the roles are separate, it is important to have a basic understanding of the process that comes before and after your part in the process. I have compiled a short list of (very) basic terms all graphic designers, publishers, printers and advertising agencies should have a preliminary understanding of. Here they are:

Page Layout And Setup

Live Area: The live area is the area within an ad space where all important text, pictures and information must be contained.

Trim/Page Size: the trim size is the dimension at which the printer will cut the page. No text should be within 0.375″ of this size.

Margins: Margins are the space from the trim size to the live area. Usually, margins are0.375 – 0.5 inches all the way around a page. Bad margins will separate the amateurs from the professionals.

Bleed: The bleed is the part of the page that will get trimmed off in the printing process. If an ad is a full-page bleed, the graphics and art must extend 0.125 inches from the trim size on all sides.

Gutter: The gutter is the space created by the binding of a book or magazine. Depending on how large (how many pages) the book or magazine will have, the gutter will be larger or smaller to account for the parts of the page that will descend into the bind. Gutters are particularly important when working with spreads that cross the bind.

Slug: The slug is an optional space that a designer can add to a document that can be displayed but is not intended to be printed. Slugs can be a very good tool for a designer in the print business as it can be used for notes, suggestions, copyright information, and/or an infinite number of other things while proofing clients or supplying additional information to printers.

Color & DPI

Resolution: In simple terms, resolution is how clearly a picture, graphic or text will appear. Standard print resolution is 300dpi (some publications and printers will even demand 350dpi for the sharpest results). Screen resolution is usually 96dpi or 144dpi.

CMYK/RGB: These are the 2 basic types of color space used in design. CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) is the standard for most traditional printing processes resulting in a tangible piece. RGB (red,green,blue) is how your computer and TV display color.

Resample: This is a function accessible in image editing programs which allows the user to change the resolution of the image while keeping its pixel count in tact. It is especially important when up-sizing a 72dpi image to a printable 300dpi image to NOT resample the image. By not resampling, you are permitting the program to adjust the final size of an image in accordance to the radio you are increasing the resolution. This ensures that the re-sized image will not print pixilated.

Typesetting

Kerning: Kerning is a typography process by which the space between the characters of text are squeezed or stretched. To kern something -10 would shrink the space between each letter. Conversely, kerning something +10 would create more space between each letter.

Leading: Leading is similar to kerning but in the opposite direction. Leading doesn’t effect the space between letters but instead controls the spacing between lines of text. So to lead something -10 would bring each line of text closer to the lines above and below it. Leading +10 would space the lines further apart.

Alignment: Alignment is the positioning/arrangement of lines of text or an image. Alignment can be left, right, centered or justified.

Printing

Offset Printing: Also called Lithography, this is the most common printing process. It involves the transfer of ink from a plate to a blanket to paper instead of directly from plate to paper.

Digital Printing: This is often a cheaper alternative to offset printing and is essentially printing directly from a digital file to the page by skipping the plate making step.

Screen Printing: A design is burned onto a screen through an emulsion and exposure process. Ink is then pressed through the resulting ‘negative’ image left on the mesh, transferring it to the material of your choice.

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