Americans are visual people, easily distracted and driven by whatever catches their eye. While this is not news to anyone who has lived in the United States for any length of time, a new report underscores the importance of professional design, such as professional logo design, in branding a business.

The report, which was conducted and published by well-known search engine and website Yahoo, found that regardless of medium, good design is essential to business success. Consumers are more likely to look at interesting designs. Exactly what constitutes ‘interesting’ varies from group to group, but brighter colors and unique logos are universally more eye catching than their duller alternatives. Further, customers will look longer at an image if it is well designed and balanced according to basic aesthetic rules. The longer they look at an image, the more likely they are to recognize it later. This recognition can take a brand from obscurity to prominence in just a short time.

The effects of good design are most pronounced when it comes to websites. The study found that customers will stay longer at websites that they find visually pleasing and quickly leave those that are unprofessional or unattractive. Longer time spent at your website often leads to increased sales, and to less time spent surfing the websites of your competitors.  It is important that logo designers and web designers keep their target market in mind when creating any kind of design, because different groups have different aesthetic preferences.

However, this effect is not limited to websites. Brochures and advertisements also will be ignored by customers if they lack that professional edge. Customers are bombarded with professional advertisements every time they pick up a magazine, turn on the television, or even drive down the freeway. An amateur design job looks conspicuously shoddy in this context and will likely be ignored or even create a negative image for the company using it.

For these reasons, many small business owners are getting professional designs for their companies. While professional logos, professional annual report designs and websites were once used almost exclusively by large companies, they are essential even for the smallest, single proprietor operations. Our era is driven by professional design and brand recognition, and this will likely become even more important in years to come.

What does this mean for your brand and your business? If you want for customers to choose you over the alternatives, you need professional design services for your website, logo, and stationery, as well as any other media that your customers view.  You need for every part of your business to have that magic touch that only a professional designer can offer. This will not just lead to customers looking longer, but to more brand recognition and higher sales rates.

The moral of this story? If you are lacking the type of brand appeal that you need to make it in our competitive world, talk to a professional designer as soon as possible. There’s a reason corporate giants like Yahoo are doing research on branding and logo design: it’s the only way to get on top and stay there.

Sometimes a brochure design can make or break a sale. If your customers are interested in your business or your products, they make look to your brochure to find out the information they need to make a final decision. Failure to present this information and present it in a professional way in brochure design samples can mean the loss of a sale that might have made all the difference in your bottom line.

However, effective brochure design is not something that is taught in business school. In fact, it isn’t really taught anywhere. Business owners are expected to simply know what makes a good logo design, which is simply impossible. If you find yourself a little lost when it comes to this critical area, here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Start with a basic layout.

   This can be created either using a template or from designing a custom one with a designer, preferably the one who designed your logo design and knows your company brand. This layout will have places designated for your company name, contact information, logo design, logo samples and product information. You may also want space for a small amount of company history and client testimonials, depending on the amount of space you have.

2. Use graphics and colors consistent with your brand.

   These will help to build a brand that potential customers can use to identify your company. If your brand experience is consistent, many of your customers will return and continue to do so simply because they know exactly what to expect.

3. Organize information with headings.

   These will be slightly larger and bolder than the rest of your information and may even be in a different color. The headings should attract attention, convey basic facts, and make customers want to read more about your company.

4. Be a professional.

   Use the very best grammar and spelling you can muster and double check for errors; in fact, you may want to have that friend who majored in English proofread for you. In addition, you will want to use language that attracts customers, with key words such as: new, guarantee, proven, and others.

5. Use high quality ingredients where needed.

   There are times when a cheap printing job on bargain paper will be enough, but most brochures will need more. In general, the quality of paper and printing that you choose should be congruent with the market you are trying to reach. If you are dealing with middle class clients, a mid grade quality is okay; if you are talking to wealthier clients, then a high quality paper and the best printing techniques will be necessary.

Following these rules will make it easier for you to design the best logo that you can. Again, if you have any questions about this process, consult a professional graphic designer today. The important thing is that you end up with a brochure that can adequately represent your business and sell you effectively to interested customers and members of your community.

Most business owners know about the importance of logo design, but did you know that packaging is an important part of your brand as well? Your product packaging will be an element of your brand that customers interact with on a daily basis. In many cases, potential customers will find out about your brand for the first time by seeing your packaging outside of your actual location. Your packaging should be a recognizable, attractive, and carefully designed part of your company brand. Here are a few tips for making that happen.

1. Stick with your brand. The shapes and colors that are part of your logo design and locations should also be reflected in your packaging. However, these are not the only parts of your packaging that will be part of your brand. Consider your packaging shape, design, and materials carefully and make sure that they fit seamlessly with the rest of your brand. While you want for your products to stand out on the shelf, they also need to fit neatly into your store and your entire line of products. Where appropriate, your business logo should also be included on your packaging. This will ensure that your customers associate their favorite products with your company and know immediately where to find more.
2. Be clear about your product. One mistake made by many companies is not expressing their product’s purpose on their packaging. Customers may hesitate if they don’t know exactly what your product does from its packaging. This moment of hesitation can cost you a sale, so make it easy. Show in print and in picture what your product will accomplish.
3. Solve a problem. Modern life is full of problems and challenges. Your products should solve some of these problems for your consumers. But how will they know what problems you are solving? From your packaging, of course. Design your packaging with a problem solving focus in view at all times.
4. Think green. The modern customer is more concerned than ever about how a product and its packaging will affect the environment. When possible, choose recycled materials and those that are easily recycled as well. You’ll get bonus points if your packaging is designed to be re-used within the customer’s home. Always think about ways to reduce packaging and reduce waste at the same time. These efforts will save you money and win brownie points with eco-minded consumers.
5. Keep it simple. As with all aspects of graphic design, simplicity is the key to success. Removing non-essential elements will make it easier for customers to identify and remember more important aspects of your packaging. Further, a simple design is almost always the most attractive one. It’s a win-win situation that no company can afford to ignore.

Packaging is an important part of your brand—so important that you simply cannot afford to neglect it. Your packaging will determine whether customers buy your product and whether they continue to buy it on a regular basis. If you have any questions, talk to a graphic designer about how your packaging can be the very best.

Can good design change the world? A design conference in Rhode Island seems to think so. This conference offers people from every niche in the design community a chance to learn about innovations in the design community, share ideas, and get to know other people with similar interests.

The event, which lasts for three days and is set in Rhode Island, offers a mixture of presentations, workshops, lectures and discussions to help bring together the design community as a whole. The emphasis is on changing communities, renew our environment, and alter tired patterns of thinking through better design, as the name suggests.

One would expect a conference based on design to have a superior logo design, and this one certainly seems to fit this tall order. The image is of a large globe made from dots in different sizes and colors. If you look closely, the blue and green colors are patterned to resemble our very own globe, tying into the environmental aspirations of the conference. Purple and yellow provide islands of bright color and optimism in this image. Further, the use of several different elements to create a single whole is directly representative of the social goals of this conference and the fact that people from different industry niches and geographical areas are represented here.

While this dotty motif is more than a little trendy in both graphic and logo design, it should be noted that this logo is only being used in 2010. That makes trendy motifs perfectly appropriate and even ideal, as they represent the unique sentiments of our times.

The words ‘a better world’ are written below in lower case letters that coordinate with the image in a calming deep blue. The words ‘by design’ are positioned below in smaller letters in a slightly lighter shade of blue. It seems significant that the emphasis is first on creating a better world, with design in a distant second place. The year is written in large letters, although the trendy dot motif will likely date the image to approximately this era anyway.

Logo designs can be advantageous for a variety of events. They help to define and refine the goals, and advertise these goals to would-be attendees. Further, a visual identity can be used in different event materials to help tie them into the event itself. It is easy to see the A Better World by Design 2010 logo looking good on signage, invitations, nametags, and a variety of event materials.

If you are thinking about having an event in the near future, you should talk to a logo designer about designing a logo and a visual identity for your occasion. Not only will you end up with a logo, you will have a color palette, a font, and a well defined event ‘personality’. Logos don’t just represent organizations; they help to sell them and even to explain them to the rest of the world. This type of visual marketing is one of the most powerful types, a force to be reckoned with in a world flooded with images and events vying for our attention.

Most sports teams are known not by their stats, but by their team mascot. Sports team mascots are crucial to a team’s success because the mascot can be a crucial piece of the team brand. An effective sports team mascot will create an increase in team morale, fan pride, and product sales. A less professional sports team mascot will make the team seem less legitimate. The first step to team building is building a mascot the team can be proud, and the first step to that goal is to hire a sports mascot design professional with a proven mascot design samples portfolio.

A graphic design professional with experience in sports team mascot creation will be able to design a mascot that you and your team can wear with pride for decades to come. The graphic designer will consult with you to find out exactly what makes your team special. Then, they will transform that unique personality into a sports team mascot that perfectly represents your team’s values and mission. Most people who hire a graphic design artist are surprised at the high quality and simplicity of the finished product. These professionals are very good at putting abstract ideas into a tangible form.

Universities in particular need to have a strong sports team mascot. We created such a mascot logo for the Simson University Sports Team. The team later communicated to us that the advent of the new team mascot had actually boosted their performance. Here are a few pictures of the sports mascot in action.

Once you have a sports team mascot that expresses your team’s identity, your next objective is to get that image out in the public as much as possible. Every piece of paper that leaves your offices should have the sports team mascot on it, from game schedules to sticky notes. Signage, bumper stickers, and decals all must have the mascot as well. Even your uniforms should proudly display the sports team mascot. By making your new mascot as ubiquitous as possible, you will ensure that it is linked to your team in the heads and hearts of your fans and your community.

The most important piece of merchandise to feature your sports team mascot will be logo shirts and other logo apparel. Logo apparel is a win-win situation for every team. First, you make money from the licensing and sales of these products. Second, they provide no cost advertising for your team. After all, every person who wears one of those logo shirts in public will be interacting with others. Last, it builds support for your team. The more that your fans feel like a community, the more people will want to join them in supporting you. The larger your fan base, the better your team will play and the more opportunities they will have. Mascot t-shirts and other mascot apparel are crucial to the success of a team, which is why no professional sports team would ever be without them.

There are a variety of reasons to have a good sports team mascot. It makes you a more concrete entity to fans and members of your community. It allows you to infuse the team with personality and purpose. Having a mascot and a high level of branding also improves team morale, giving your players something to rally around when they are feeling discouraged or exhausted. Sports logo design forces you to transition from a ragtag group of individuals to a cohesive whole. This alone can change the course of your team’s future.

Do you really need a graphic design firm for your annual report design? Consider the purpose of an annual report. This important document communicates valuable information to stockholders and other important people about your company’s activities over the past year. Do you want a document that expresses your company’s progress to look unprofessional or uninteresting? Most people would answer no, and that is why professional annual report design is as important as professional printing.

There are a few things your graphic design firm will do to make your annual report as appealing as possible. First, they will create a theme that matches your organization’s values and corporate brand. This theme will include a color scheme, artwork, fonts, and ways of creating emphasis. Having a theme that permeates every aspect of the design both ties the report into other documents put out by your company and makes it easier for people to read. A document without a theme can look either unprofessional and plain or muddled and confusing. Neither of these options will create a good impression of your company.

Second, the graphic design firm will design a cover for the annual report. This cover will reflect both your company’s brand and its progress over the past year. Your logo will likely be used as well as any new products that were introduced over the past year. The cover will coordinate with the theme of the annual report design and also set the tone for the rest of the report. The way the cover is arranged and designed may be the most important aspect of annual report design and printing, because it is the first impression that people see when picking up the document.

Third, the graphic design firm will add the finishing touches that make the report cohesive. Graphics will be added through the annual report design to illustrate key points and make the report more interesting. Key parts of the report will be emphasized through subtle font and color changes. The different pieces of the annual report design will be put together like a puzzle to create an attractive and complete picture. The result is a compelling annual report that will interest your shareholders and present your company in the best possible light.

As you can see, the graphic design firm supplies everything except the actual information and figures. They have the greatest challenge of annual report design: turning your company’s dry numbers and facts into an attractive and readable document. This is not something to be attempted by an amateur; most major companies either outsource their annual report design to a graphic design firm or have an in-house team dedicated solely to its design and printing. If your company is smaller, you will be happy to know that hiring a graphic design firm for your annual report design is actually a simple and affordable process. Don’t let your company fall behind the competition by having an unprofessional annual report design. Have a graphic designer create a document that will both impress and express.

What Can a Graphic Design Company Do For You?

If you are like many companies, you have used a graphic design company to create a logo. However, there are many other ways that this field can help your business get a leg up on the competition. Graphic design is not just for logos anymore. With the help of a graphic design company or logo design companies, there are no limits to what you can do. Here are just a few of the high value products that a graphic design company can design for you.

Business cards If a business card is like a handshake, what does yours say about you and your company? A business card needs a good business card logo and a design that sets you apart from your competitors. Don’t let your business card act as a sweaty, limp handshake; let a graphic design company work with you to develop a strong, unforgettable design for your business card logo.

Brochure Design. Are your brochures ending up in the waste basket? Unfortunately, a standard brochure, however informative, is not likely to get much more than a glance. A unique brochure design will not just tell your audience about your business and its services; it will keep them interested and tell them valuable information about your company’s professionalism and attention to detail.

Website design. Modern people look to the internet as a source of information and referrals, so a lackluster website may be chasing away customers. This is where a graphic design company can do wonders for your customer traffic. A high quality website can act as a portal to funnel interesting parties to your business. Without an interesting, professional web presence, potential clients will never your business card logo or unique brochure design.

Letterhead and stationery. If you are sending out letters, bids, and other written information on plain paper or, worse, on poorly designed letterhead, you are doing yourself and your company a huge disservice. Just like a less than unique brochure design or a business card logo that isn’t quite right, poorly designed letterhead will tell your customers that your business is poorly run. Luckily, the right graphic design company can save you from this fate. Well-designed letterhead and stationery will place your logo in a way that is professional and prominent without distracting from your message.

Advertising. Does your company spend money in advertising? Whether you advertise through flashy web banners or television commercials, a graphic design company is a valuable addition to your advertising team. Graphic designers know how different shapes and colors affect the public. They can help you design an advertisement campaign that is attractive and compelling to your target audience.

Catalogs. Do you do much marketing through catalogs? With the help of a graphic design company, your next catalog will have your text and graphics placed in a way that is more enticing to your customers. These extra sales will more than compensate for the costs.

As you can see, a graphic design company can create a variety of attractive, professional products that will pay for themselves in higher sales and a better reputation in the community. What else can a graphic designer do for you?

Contact a graphic design company to find out!

Check out the full list of graphic design services that we offer.

Good news to all entrepreneurs! I read in Kiplinger, a personal finance and business forecasting company, about Congress’ initiative to develop an easy-to-understand federal regulations guide for small businesses. Apparently many federal regulatory agencies do not pay attention to the growing needs of small businesses.

Regulators will get called before Congress each year to defend their guides. It means, for example, that representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the Internal Revenue Service will have to prove to lawmakers that they’re producing these guides and writing them so businesses can understand them. The 1996 had no such enforcement provision.

If this will push through, we can kiss goodbye those confusing legal jargons and other nonsense technical terms that make a simple process too complex for ordinary people.

More importantly this new initiative has some financial implications. With user friendly regulations guide, you need not hire lawyers as often like what we’re doing today. I’m not saying that we no longer need lawyers, we still do!

So you’ve started up a small business and you need some branding, some corporate identity. You want a logo designed, some business cards, maybe even a website theme. You want to hire a designer and can provide them the specs they’ll ask for.

Question is, after that, can you manage not to interfere, not to tell them that you could get it cheaper if your nephew did it. Most designers know what they’re doing. (Though if they give you the London 2012 Olympics logo disaster, maybe you chose the wrong designer.)

If you’re inclined to micromanage, you need to watch this small compilation of YouTube videos about logo design and graphic design. Some are even funny, and most will shed a bit of light about what graphic designers do – including the variations in the logo design process. Enjoy. (Hover over the SplashCast player to see the navigation arrows – in case you want to skip a video.)