Author: Website Design Weston

If you run a business and you have any form of corporate identity then you should care very much. How you present your company to your chosen market is fundamental to its success.

The graphic design process is crucial to any business, making it stand out head and shoulders from the competition. Whether it is the design of an entire corporate campaign or the creation of a simple company logo it still has to work effectively for you. There are four critical elements that should be seen in every logo design:
• It must be describable
• It must be memorable
• It must be effective without colour
• It must be scalable
Fairly obvious really but how does your logo stand up to these criteria? How does your company identity stand out from the competition?

Ask yourself why something is designed in a certain way. Consider why a particular colour is chosen instead of its opposite. Why use this font? Why include this particular graphic here? A good designer will think through every detail of a design and only include elements that will add to the design and re-enforce the brand.

Once your business is up and running you may think that any form of corporate identity will act to represent the company, visually creating a brand by default. Think again. If you look at the large corporations you will notice that their brand strategy stands the test of time for many years.

Many companies never change their logo design dramatically but only make the smallest of changes to keep the design looking modern and refreshed.

Benefits:
• Professional image
• Considered and long-lasting design strategy
• Make your company look bigger
• Stand out from your competition
• More effective

By Ben Smith
- Website design somerset- Professional Website Design Weston-Super-Mare

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/graphic-design-articles/what-are-the-benefits-of-graphic-design-and-why-should-you-care-383886.html

About the Author:

I specialise in Website design, graphic design, search engine optimisation (SEO), affordable print and website hosting. Experience in logo design, letterhead design, business card design, compliment slip design, leaflet design, poster design. Based in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset.
“>http://www.ben-smith.net”> website design weston-super-mare

Author: Touch Media Design

Okay, you have your products and you’ve decided you are going to design a catalog for distribution. But, where do I start? What should I do first when designing a catalog? What are the necessary steps to designing an effective catalog? In this article I will answer those questions for you and will give you a step by step procedure for designing your new catalog.

Ist Procedure: Decide who your target audience will be. This sounds easy but it needs to be done fist. You need to have who you will be designing a catalog for while you design your catalog. By doing this you will be able to picture how they will react to each step you take.

2nd Procedure: Decide what you will sell. See procedure number one for details. What I mean by that is that you do not want to add every product you have in your inventory if it is not something your target customers will buy. You can save money designing your catalog by leaving out items that are very unlikely to be bought by your target audience.

3rd Procedure: Separate your products so you can focus on them one at a time. Take each product you will be selling and write your sales text and price out so you draw out an idea of how each product will be displayed.

Also as you work on each item and write the descriptions, separately write out any details you will need to give your customer about size, color, and specifications. With some products you will be able to just use a little space in addition to the picture and explain everything there.

But with other products where more information is necessary, you will be putting together a page or more of just information as a reference or guide to buying the products in your catalog. So as you do each one, that is the time to make notes about additionalinformation you will need to offer the customer on another page.

4th Procedure: Photographing your products. . When designing your catalog, individual pictures are best. Group photos will save you money, but they will also make you less sales. Using a professional photographer is also a good idea if you can afford one. Your images are what sells your product so if you do a bad job at photographing your product, you will lose sales.

Summary: At this point you have most of the “pieces” you will use while designing your catalog. Just a couple more pieces and we’ll be ready to move on to actually designing your catalog.

5th Procedure: Informational Pages. Industrial product catalogs might need to give specifications, clothing catalogs need to offer more colors and sizes to choose from but not have it take up too much room on the product pages, and more.

You want to design the information pages of your catalog so that it is simple for the shopper to use. Do not use complex formulas and make them do calculations. Don’t make your customer think too much or too long or you will lose sales. You should have most of theinformation on the product pages where possible.

Other pages that might help your catalog’s design are special sales product pages, an index, etc. You need to decide how many pages ofinformation you will be including because when designing a catalog you have to remember that the number of pages is always a multiple of four.

6th Procedure: Pre-Layout. This is where you decide where everything will go. Will your information pages be on the inside of the covers or in the center, etc. You know you will have a front and back outside and inside cover. You will have informational pages, and then you have your product pages. Decide how it will read.

7th Procedure: Layout of product pages. Again, just like in the photography is you are not experienced in layout you may want to hire a professional to do the layout design of your catalog, especially for the pages that will display your products and descriptions.

If you intend to do it yourself, then there are some things you will need to know. Always place quality images at the top right hand corner of every right hand page. When your customers starts to turn the page, this is the first thing they will see. It needs to catch their eye and stop them from just flipping through the catalog.

Some people flip through magazines and catalogs from the back to the front, so the upper left hand corner of every left hand page is almost as important. You want them to stop and open your product pages so think of images that will catch their eye and make them want to see more.

Some catalogs use the easiest method of displaying products and information on each page. That is dividing the page in quarters, sixths, or eighths and giving each product it’s on little section. In other catalogs they display the photos and product numbers on one side and the correspondinginformation for each on the other side of the page. There are other ways as well, this is meant to suggest a couple of ways you can do it.

8th Procedure: Front and Back Cover Layout. This is one of the most important steps you will take while designing your catalog. If you have done everything else yourself, you still may want to consider having aprofessional design your covers.

The reason this step is so important to catalog design is twofold. One your cover is what will get your customer to want to browse through your catalog in the first place. A bad cover is like having a store that sells fashionable clothing in the ghetto. If your target customers will not come to the store and go inside you have no chance to sell them anything.

The second reason is that for each catalog you send out, you want several potential customers to read it. When the person you sent it to lays it down somewhere, you want others who see it want to pick it up and browse as well. For this reason both the front and back cover is important. You do not know how they will lay it down.

9th Procedure: Finding a printer for your catalog. Before you start designing your catalog, you may want to find the printer that will be doing the printing for you. The reason is that they can help you know what requirements they have for your artwork, images, and layout, and will help you choose theprinting methods that will work best for your type of catalog.

I saved this for last, but it is really the first step to catalog design. The last thing you want to do is design your catalog, then find out your chosen printer cannot print your catalog the way you have designed it.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/procedures-for-designing-a-catalog-36103.html

About the Author:

http://www.touchmediadesign.com – TOUCH MEDIA DESIGN is a full-service creative company specializing in assisting both online and offline businesses in web design, e-commerce, catalog design, graphic design, product photography, printing, and marketing.

Author: graphic design Melbourne

A thoroughly prepared client brief is half the success of a rebranding or design project. Attaining all the necessary and relevant information from the client and a comprehensive insight into the client’s brand provides you with a great foundation for the right brand identity and design solution.

As a designer or brand consultant, a properly prepared client brief gives multiple sources of ideas to work with. Unless you have a clear understanding of what the client wants and needs you waste your time trying to design something out of nothing and the client ends up spending more money than budgeted for as a result of the required modifications…which naturally makes both parties very happy….

Depending on the particular project you will need a specific design brief. That means if you are developing a website or creating a business card, the client design brief will be different. However, there is some general information about your company and what you want to achieve, which should give a good idea in any design situation. Here are some general questions that will help me and fellow designers and consultants:

• 1. Title
• 2. What is the nature of your business? What does your business do?
• 3. What is your target market?
• a. Age
• b. Sex
• c. Income
• d. Occupation
• e. Location
• 4. What is unique about your business or product?
• 5. Who is your competition?
• 6. What is your aim? What are your goals?
• 7. How do you want your clients to feel about the brand? What is the message you want to communicate?
• 8. What is your budget? Range?
• a. Providing a rough guide enables the consultant/designer with an idea of the type of marketing and design solution that can be provided to you.
• 9. What is your deadline?
• 10. Provide the designer with current and past design and marketing materials.

To see how you can improve the image of your brand click here: graphic design Melbourne

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/how-to-prepare-an-effective-design-brief-for-graphic-design-projects-804583.html

About the Author:

Graphic Design Melbourne

Author: Website Design Weston

The design process is crucial to any business, whether it is creating a simple company logo, or the design of an entire corporate campaign.

Once your business is up and running, any form of corporate identity will act to represent the company visually creating a brand. If you look at big corporate companies you will notice company branding stands the test of time for many years before it is appropriate to re-develop.

Many companies never change their logo design dramatically but only make the smallest of changes to keep the design looking fresh.

It is worth taking time and not rushing a company logo or corporate identity design as your design will represent your company and be around for a very long time.

Logo design is creating a unique symbol / graphic to reflect your companies image and vision. A successful logo becomes a symbol of your companies identity, shows your professional and should be used on your on business cards, letterheads, compliment slips, vehicle signage or website.

When you choose to have a logo designed ask for a few different designs to choose from, each logo should have its own character and style. Giving you the best options to suit your needs.

Your logo design should be professional and prove to be a statement of your business to new / existing clients, suppliers and staff, your logo design needs to easily identify its purpose and values of your company and bring instant credibility.

If you own a small company, with a well-designed logo your business will look big. It will look more professional inspiring confidence to your customers.

A striking logo is paramount for the image of any business, small or large. The design creates a starting block for a companies corporate identity, the right colours, fonts and is of great importance when starting to design business cards, compliment slips, letterheads and a website, keeping all styles consistent throughout creating your brand identity.

Logo design types

High / Low resolution

If you are looking at starting a new business, you will need a logo. All logo designs should be unique to your business, no templates, no free graphics or clipart, just bespoke designs for your company.

Below is a break down of the different types available:

Logo designs for onscreen
Low resolution RGB 72dpi

Ideal for websites, emails, PowerPoint presentations and general onscreen viewing only. Because of the small size they can be downloaded very quickly but are not suitable for print.

Logo designs for print
High resolution CYMK 300dpi

High Resolution Logo Design

Must be use for printing high quality material e.g. letterheads, business cards, compliment slips, banners, posters etc. This means your logo will be clear and crisp when printed, if a low resolution logo is used it is likely that the end result will be blurred, blocky and illegible.

Logo design – redraw and enhancement

Alternatively, if you do not require full logo design service, you could re-design, redraw or enhance your existing logo for print or website use.

By Ben Smith
Graphic Design Somerset

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/creating-a-brand-identity-with-professional-design-383884.html

About the Author:

I specialise in Website design, graphic design, search engine optimisation (SEO), affordable print and website hosting. Experience in logo design, letterhead design, business card design, compliment slip design, leaflet design, poster design. Based in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset.
“>http://www.ben-smith.net”> website design weston-super-mare