Just wondered if I could ask you about your advertising.
Have you heard about AIDA? No not the opera by Verdi, I am talking about the acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
• A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer with an eye catching picture or headline.
• I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features).
• D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
• A - Action - or "call to Action" very often people sometimes forget this part. This is what you want your ad to achieve. It could be to phone a number, visit a website, visit a shop etc
Nowadays some marketers add the letter S to form AIDA(S):
• S - Satisfaction - satisfy the customer so they become a repeat customer and give referrals to a product.
I hope this has been of interest to you. I have been helping clients large and small with their advertising for many years and would love to add your name to our client list.
So here's my "call to action":
visit my website at: www.jhurleydesign.co.uk
Thursday 27 May 2010
I can help you increase your sales!
How could I do that? By improving your communications and giving you a professional image through creative well-designed and effective graphic design.
Most designers see creativity as an excuse to pursue their own ideas at the expense of the client. We however believe that creativity is merely the means to an end - namely, to increase the sales and awareness of our clients, their products and their services.
Our over-riding thinking behind everything we do is “Function over Form” but we do put an awful lot of work into the “Form” as well.
Corporate Identity
Call it branding or a logo on a business card it boils down to the same thing - how you are perceived by your customers, prospects and even your own personnel. This is only one part of your marketing but is key to everything. Get this wrong and it will be a millstone around your neck. Get it right and it will open doors for you.
Promotional Literature
Another big gun in your arsenal of marketing ordnance. We have produced many successful promotional brochures, folders, mailshots etc. If you choose, we can write the words and supply the pictures and we’ll even take them down to the post office for you!
Sales Literature
The work horse of your marketing. Let this one carry all your products to market. We have a lot of experience producing catalogues, and sales literature. We are also experts in annual reports.
Advertising
We can give you a better song to sing. It’s called Aida (no not the opera by Verdi, I’m talking about the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This guiding principle is behind all our campaigns.
Web
“If you build it, they will come”. I don't know who said that, but it was probably a web designer. We design website that are attractive in both senses of the word. Not only do they look good but they pull in the viewers.
Exhibitions and large format printing
Big is beautiful. If you’ve got something to say then let us big it up for you!
OK that’s us in a nutshell. If you want to find out more about us please visit our website at: www.jhurleydesign.co.uk
Most designers see creativity as an excuse to pursue their own ideas at the expense of the client. We however believe that creativity is merely the means to an end - namely, to increase the sales and awareness of our clients, their products and their services.
Our over-riding thinking behind everything we do is “Function over Form” but we do put an awful lot of work into the “Form” as well.
Corporate Identity
Call it branding or a logo on a business card it boils down to the same thing - how you are perceived by your customers, prospects and even your own personnel. This is only one part of your marketing but is key to everything. Get this wrong and it will be a millstone around your neck. Get it right and it will open doors for you.
Promotional Literature
Another big gun in your arsenal of marketing ordnance. We have produced many successful promotional brochures, folders, mailshots etc. If you choose, we can write the words and supply the pictures and we’ll even take them down to the post office for you!
Sales Literature
The work horse of your marketing. Let this one carry all your products to market. We have a lot of experience producing catalogues, and sales literature. We are also experts in annual reports.
Advertising
We can give you a better song to sing. It’s called Aida (no not the opera by Verdi, I’m talking about the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This guiding principle is behind all our campaigns.
Web
“If you build it, they will come”. I don't know who said that, but it was probably a web designer. We design website that are attractive in both senses of the word. Not only do they look good but they pull in the viewers.
Exhibitions and large format printing
Big is beautiful. If you’ve got something to say then let us big it up for you!
OK that’s us in a nutshell. If you want to find out more about us please visit our website at: www.jhurleydesign.co.uk
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Protect your good name
Did you know that just because you have registered your company name with Companies House or have registered it as a domain name this does not mean that you have a registered trade mark?
If you have been trading for some time you will have a lot of goodwill invested in your brand and you will not want anyone else pretending to be associated with it or hijacking its reputation.
For this reason you may want to consider protecting your brand, trademark or logo by registering it with the Intellectual Property Office.
You can find out more about this on their website: www.ipo.gov.uk
Registering your trade mark gives you the exclusive right to use your mark for the goods and/or services that it covers in the United Kingdom.
When you have registered your trade mark you can put the ® symbol next to it to warn others against using it. However, using this symbol for a trade mark that is not registered is an offence.
The advantages of a registered trade mark are:
• it may put people off using your trade mark without your permission
• it allows you to take legal action against anyone who uses your trade mark without your permission
• it allows Trading Standards Officers or Police to bring criminal charges against counterfeiters if they use your trade mark
• it is your property, which means you can sell it, or let other people have a licence that allows them to use it.
If you don't register your trade mark, you may still be able to take action if someone uses your mark without your permission, using the common law action of "passing off".
but it can be very difficult and expensive to prove this so by registering your trade mark, it is easier to take legal action if you need to.
There are around 200 trademarks registered every week so the availability of certain combinations of words are becoming limited by the day.
If you have been trading for some time you will have a lot of goodwill invested in your brand and you will not want anyone else pretending to be associated with it or hijacking its reputation.
For this reason you may want to consider protecting your brand, trademark or logo by registering it with the Intellectual Property Office.
You can find out more about this on their website: www.ipo.gov.uk
Registering your trade mark gives you the exclusive right to use your mark for the goods and/or services that it covers in the United Kingdom.
When you have registered your trade mark you can put the ® symbol next to it to warn others against using it. However, using this symbol for a trade mark that is not registered is an offence.
The advantages of a registered trade mark are:
• it may put people off using your trade mark without your permission
• it allows you to take legal action against anyone who uses your trade mark without your permission
• it allows Trading Standards Officers or Police to bring criminal charges against counterfeiters if they use your trade mark
• it is your property, which means you can sell it, or let other people have a licence that allows them to use it.
If you don't register your trade mark, you may still be able to take action if someone uses your mark without your permission, using the common law action of "passing off".
but it can be very difficult and expensive to prove this so by registering your trade mark, it is easier to take legal action if you need to.
There are around 200 trademarks registered every week so the availability of certain combinations of words are becoming limited by the day.
Saturday 22 May 2010
Design by committee - a recipe for disaster
You are no doubt familiar with the expression: "Many hands make light work"?
I want to tell you that this might not be such a good idea in the design evaluation process. In other words - design by committee does not work.
Now I know these days everyone tries to be as inclusive as possible to make sure that nobody feels left out. And of course it is a sensible policy to consult with your colleagues and, more importantly, people outside your organisation when designing a piece of marketing material, sales literature or website.
But in this situation a better proverb might be: "Many cooks spoil the broth"
The following is a (nearly) true story:
A few years ago I was commissioned to design a series of information booklets.
I came up with what I considered was a very attractive design which I presented to the client.
He loved it. "I think the design is brilliant", he enthused "But ... can I just show it to a few of my colleagues to see what they think?"
That seemed a perfectly reasonable suggestion so a week later I had the following feedback:
"Well, most people thought it was great ... but somebody didn't like the typeface so - could we just use 12pt Verdana throughout?
"Oh and someone else didn't like the colour so we have decided to just have it in black and white.
"And the managing director's mother's next door neighbour didn't like the pictures - so we think it's best to take out all the pictures."
I made up that last bit - but you get the idea.
It ended up as something they could have just typed in Word and knocked out on a desk-top printer!
So what I am trying to say is when you are designing something ideally there should only be one person who has responsibility for agreeing the final design.
By all means canvas opinion and see what other people think, but remember it is impossible to please everybody. You have to evaluate all the feedback, take on board the suggestions that you agree with and respectfully disregard those you don't agree with.
That way you will end up with a great-looking and effective publication and the sanity of your graphic designer intact!
I want to tell you that this might not be such a good idea in the design evaluation process. In other words - design by committee does not work.
Now I know these days everyone tries to be as inclusive as possible to make sure that nobody feels left out. And of course it is a sensible policy to consult with your colleagues and, more importantly, people outside your organisation when designing a piece of marketing material, sales literature or website.
But in this situation a better proverb might be: "Many cooks spoil the broth"
The following is a (nearly) true story:
A few years ago I was commissioned to design a series of information booklets.
I came up with what I considered was a very attractive design which I presented to the client.
He loved it. "I think the design is brilliant", he enthused "But ... can I just show it to a few of my colleagues to see what they think?"
That seemed a perfectly reasonable suggestion so a week later I had the following feedback:
"Well, most people thought it was great ... but somebody didn't like the typeface so - could we just use 12pt Verdana throughout?
"Oh and someone else didn't like the colour so we have decided to just have it in black and white.
"And the managing director's mother's next door neighbour didn't like the pictures - so we think it's best to take out all the pictures."
I made up that last bit - but you get the idea.
It ended up as something they could have just typed in Word and knocked out on a desk-top printer!
So what I am trying to say is when you are designing something ideally there should only be one person who has responsibility for agreeing the final design.
By all means canvas opinion and see what other people think, but remember it is impossible to please everybody. You have to evaluate all the feedback, take on board the suggestions that you agree with and respectfully disregard those you don't agree with.
That way you will end up with a great-looking and effective publication and the sanity of your graphic designer intact!
Wednesday 19 May 2010
How to design great looking brochures without a designer
The best way to have professional looking promotional material is to employ a professional. However, if for whatever reason, you want to design your brochures in-house, then here are some tips that I hope you will find useful.
1. Control your font usage
Just because you have loads of fancy fonts installed on your computer it doesn't mean you have to use them all to make your page look interesting. Decide on 2 different font families - one for headings and one for main text. Choose contrasting fonts types. For instance you could use a serif font for text and a sans serif for headings. (Serifs are the pointy bits at the ends of the letters. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface, a typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning "without"). You can vary it a bit, however, by using different styles (i.e. bold, italic etc) within the same family.
2. Use appropriate fonts
Typefaces unconsciously convey mood so, depending on the content, use a font that is sympathetic to the subject matter. For instance Comic Sans would be ideal for a baby clothing catalogue. I'm just using Comic Sans as example here because you are probably familiar with this font. I am not necessarily recommending it, as personally I hate it!
3. A picture is worth a thousand words
Illustrate your narrative with appropriate pictures. If you can get away with a generic image, use stock photography. There are many microstock photolibrary websites on the internet where you can buy very professional photographs for just a few pounds. The one I prefer is Dreamstime.com. Pay a few more pounds and get a high resolution version - if you buy the web resolution (72 dpi) it will look fine on a monitor but terrible when it is printed. Icons, Illustrations etc are similarly available but be careful that you use the same style of graphic throughout your document. Nothing looks more amateurish than lots of different styles of of clipart.
4. Less is more
You don't have to fill up every square inch of the page - unless, of course, you are designing a newspaper! Use the white space creatively. A dense block of type will put people off. So cutting down the words and opening up the "leading" or line spacing will give your publication a more modern, cleaner and easier-to-read look.
5. Add a bit of variety
Break up the rigidity of your layout with a few quotes or testimonials in a larger type size or put a few interesting facts in a tint box or "side bar".
6. Nail your colours to the mast
Try not to use lots of different colours. Restrict your palette to a few "corporate" colours that reflect your company branding. Use black for your main text and use the other colour(s) for headings, sub headings rules etc.
7. Do it in style
Professional publishers use style guide to ensure consistency throughout their printed media. You don't have to go that far, just have a few simple rules about when and when not to use capitals for instance. The trend these days is to use less capital letters and less punctuation. So avoid excessive exclamation marks!!! (like that) and take out all the double spaces after a full stop. That may be correct for typing but not typesetting. Also while we are on the subject of consistency, decide upon a font and make it your "corporate font" and use it for all you publicity material - this will reinforce your corporate image.
8. Widows and orphans
These are short lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. In other words, when a paragraph runs into another column or page make sure there is a minimum of 2 lines at either end of the paragraph. The Chicago Manual of Style defines a widow as, "a paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page/column, thus separated from the remainder of the text" and an orphan as: "A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column."
9. Size matters
Unless you are designing a book for visually impaired people or a children's picture book, don't set your main text above 12pt. In fact personally I would never go above 10pt. Also, if you are using say 9 or 10 point, then set the pages into double column rather than have the text stretch right across the full width of the page otherwise you may end up with single line paragraphs which look odd.
10. The proof is in the reading
Finally use the spell check facility but don't rely on it - it's not fool-proof. Get as many other people to proof read your copy. Don't just do it yourself as you can become word blind. When we read, we scan the words in blocks, we don't look at the individual letters that make up each word and we anticipate what comes next, so try reading backwards and look at each word without trying to understand the meaning. Also it's very easy to overlook the big headlines and just concentrate on the main body text, so don't forget those headlines.
Always ask your printer for a final proof before printing. Remember once it's printed it's too late!
1. Control your font usage
Just because you have loads of fancy fonts installed on your computer it doesn't mean you have to use them all to make your page look interesting. Decide on 2 different font families - one for headings and one for main text. Choose contrasting fonts types. For instance you could use a serif font for text and a sans serif for headings. (Serifs are the pointy bits at the ends of the letters. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface, a typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning "without"). You can vary it a bit, however, by using different styles (i.e. bold, italic etc) within the same family.
2. Use appropriate fonts
Typefaces unconsciously convey mood so, depending on the content, use a font that is sympathetic to the subject matter. For instance Comic Sans would be ideal for a baby clothing catalogue. I'm just using Comic Sans as example here because you are probably familiar with this font. I am not necessarily recommending it, as personally I hate it!
3. A picture is worth a thousand words
Illustrate your narrative with appropriate pictures. If you can get away with a generic image, use stock photography. There are many microstock photolibrary websites on the internet where you can buy very professional photographs for just a few pounds. The one I prefer is Dreamstime.com. Pay a few more pounds and get a high resolution version - if you buy the web resolution (72 dpi) it will look fine on a monitor but terrible when it is printed. Icons, Illustrations etc are similarly available but be careful that you use the same style of graphic throughout your document. Nothing looks more amateurish than lots of different styles of of clipart.
4. Less is more
You don't have to fill up every square inch of the page - unless, of course, you are designing a newspaper! Use the white space creatively. A dense block of type will put people off. So cutting down the words and opening up the "leading" or line spacing will give your publication a more modern, cleaner and easier-to-read look.
5. Add a bit of variety
Break up the rigidity of your layout with a few quotes or testimonials in a larger type size or put a few interesting facts in a tint box or "side bar".
6. Nail your colours to the mast
Try not to use lots of different colours. Restrict your palette to a few "corporate" colours that reflect your company branding. Use black for your main text and use the other colour(s) for headings, sub headings rules etc.
7. Do it in style
Professional publishers use style guide to ensure consistency throughout their printed media. You don't have to go that far, just have a few simple rules about when and when not to use capitals for instance. The trend these days is to use less capital letters and less punctuation. So avoid excessive exclamation marks!!! (like that) and take out all the double spaces after a full stop. That may be correct for typing but not typesetting. Also while we are on the subject of consistency, decide upon a font and make it your "corporate font" and use it for all you publicity material - this will reinforce your corporate image.
8. Widows and orphans
These are short lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. In other words, when a paragraph runs into another column or page make sure there is a minimum of 2 lines at either end of the paragraph. The Chicago Manual of Style defines a widow as, "a paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page/column, thus separated from the remainder of the text" and an orphan as: "A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column."
9. Size matters
Unless you are designing a book for visually impaired people or a children's picture book, don't set your main text above 12pt. In fact personally I would never go above 10pt. Also, if you are using say 9 or 10 point, then set the pages into double column rather than have the text stretch right across the full width of the page otherwise you may end up with single line paragraphs which look odd.
10. The proof is in the reading
Finally use the spell check facility but don't rely on it - it's not fool-proof. Get as many other people to proof read your copy. Don't just do it yourself as you can become word blind. When we read, we scan the words in blocks, we don't look at the individual letters that make up each word and we anticipate what comes next, so try reading backwards and look at each word without trying to understand the meaning. Also it's very easy to overlook the big headlines and just concentrate on the main body text, so don't forget those headlines.
Always ask your printer for a final proof before printing. Remember once it's printed it's too late!
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