Important Design Elements for Poster Printing

By Charen Smith

job, jobs, career

When the pet shop next door first opened five months ago, there weren't much marketing campaign done. They simply organized their display window, put some ads in front, and started operation. But much to our amazement, people came and each one of them came out carrying something with them. Little by little the store started expanding and in just five months, they have bought the place next to them and expanded their business. Lucky stroke, perhaps?

Unknown to many, the pet shop was actually consistent in marketing its business. People thought the owner was lagging on its marketing campaign, but still it's managing to grab attention in the market. What many business owners in the area were missing was the fact that the pet shop was only using a simply marketing strategy to get its message out there. It's using the simple marketing power of posters.

In essence, posters are the better and cost effective way of getting bigger brand awareness than other means of advertising such as billboards and television ads. With a medium sized business like the pet shop, posters provided them an immense potential to promote their business on a large scale. There's no need to spend thousands of dollars for one ad alone. A well designed poster will give you greater market presence for a long period of time.

But what really made the pet shop's poster effective is its design. It was not overcrowded. It was simple and direct to the point letting people know of the poster's purpose in one glance. Here are some of the design elements present in the pet shop's poster, which can work in any poster as well:

1. Simplicity. Ask graphic designers and even customers and they would all tell you that a simple design is much better and comprehensible compared to an overly creative design. Although a colorful poster would easily grab attention, it's likely that the poster won't be able to hold that attention long enough for the reader to read the entire message. Though the pet shop's poster contains minimal colors and graphics, it was able to entice people to spend some time to learn about what the poster was offering.

2. Message. No unnecessary information must be included in the poster. Simply put there the message you want people to know and your basic information. Don't beat around the bush. Be direct, clear, and concise. Keep in mind that you only have a few seconds to tell people your message, so make the most of the space provided in your poster.

3. Printing. You don't need an expensive poster printing to catch attention in the street. What you need is a high quality printout, which will give you an effective and eye-catching poster. It doesn't have to be in full color, two- or four-color printing will do as long as you choose a good printer. Many printing companies today offer affordable printing rates. Choose carefully to ensure you get the resolution and print output you desire.

4. Place where to display the poster. Proper placement of your poster is critical. You would not want to post it in schools when your poster is all about owning a pet. Students won't be particularly interested in buying a new pet, unless they can convince their parents to buy them one. So, consider where you will post your poster. Make sure it is in a place where most of your target customers are.

Getting Your Brochure Printing Underway

By Kaye Marks

job, jobs, career

In any business, brochure printing is almost always a must. Definitely, it is one surefire way of making your potential clientele know about your business.

With the help of brochures, people can easily find the services and products they want. Therefore, if you want people to choose your product among the rest, you have to do your brochure the right way. This article will show you some simple ways of how to get your brochure printing underway.

It is important to know the four major ingredients when you print brochures -the concept of the design, accuracy, content and of course, quality. All these ingredients should exist for you to come up with an impressive brochure.

The first element that we will talk about is the concept of your design. To determine what design concept you will be employing, put yourself in the shoes of a consumer. What would it be about the brochure that would make you give it a second look? What would it be about it that would catch your attention? Yes, you can play with vibrant colors, an unforgettable and remarkable company logo, colorful products of your company, or some funny, catchy lines that will make your brochure sound and look interesting. There are no limits to your creativity. Explore and you will find.

The next key ingredient to consider is its content. Remember that these are not that big to contain all the things you want to say. They have been given a specific size to make you talk about your product briefly and concisely. Moreover, since you have limited space, it is important that you put in only the most important information about your product. Do not also forget to include photos and images, as these will help your readers appreciate your product more. However, aside from all these product information, it is also crucial to state what your business is really all about. Naturally, your potential clients must be able to understand what you are here for. Also, do not forget to include contact details of your company. You do not want to lose your clients just because you forgot to state your telephone or mobile number.

Another noteworthy element is accuracy. This refers to perfection and precision- the lack of any error, not even the slightest one that could endanger your credibility and integrity and would make your readers deem you as unprofessional. On top of all these, it is vital to avoid any errors in your contact details. When you have already conceptualized the layout, the next thing to do is choose your printing company. Look for a printing company that offers full color printing. These days, using black and white is not effective all the time anymore.

Last but not the least, another main component that you should consider is the printing quality. Do not let them become a mess because of poor printing quality. It is therefore important that you choose the right printing company. Read reviews online. Gather feedback. Seek suggestions and recommendations from your friends and colleagues. Also, make sure you choose the printing company that offers reasonable printing rates and turnaround times. This will ensure superior quality.

When all these ingredients are put all in, your dream outputs will finally be just within your reach.

Your Plan Before You Advertise

By John Remark

job, jobs, career

When I ran my first advertising campaign, I didn't have a plan and everything went wrong. The first I did was to write the ad copy at the newspaper office. I was rushed and didn't have time to properly compose the ad. The second thing I did wrong was to place an ad in the yellow pages. Anyone know how long it takes for an ad to appear in the yellow pages. It's printed only once a year! The third thing I did wrong was not to use a printer. I photocopied my flyers which turned out to be a disaster. If I had gone to a good printer, I could have gotten some other ideas on layout and could have used colors. The internet was just getting started so that wasn't a factor at that time.

After that first campaign, I was able to improve on each succeeding campaign with better results each time. The ad copy for the newspaper improved each time. This is because I sat down and took time to write each ad before I went to the newspaper office. Needless to say, I never used yellow pages again and I searched for and found a good printer that was able to help with the layout and colors as well as the type and weight of the paper. As a result, each campaign improved and the results improved with it.

These days I use the internet since it has grown so big and dominates all aspects of daily life. I don't use the newspapers or yellow pages although they have gone to the internet as well. So why use them when I can get my own website and do what I want. I have a good website developer that knows how to build a nice site that's search engine friendly. This can then be easily marketed so that the website gets traffic.

I still use printed materials such as fliers, brochures and signs and am glad I found a good printer that can do both screen printing and digital printing. This is important because all my campaigns are small quantities, I don't need a huge printer that can do 50,000 magazine copies an hour. I need someone that can turn out short runs of high quality printing with a fairly fast turn around.

So, as you can see, a plan is important. It just took me a while to get there and I wouldn't do anything without one now.

Strategies That Work Using Promotional Items

By Matthew Zande

job, jobs, career

If you have tried so many promotional strategies yet remain to be weak in that area, then maybe you need to revisit your approaches and check if you are doing them right. Promotional Items are wonderful tools in augmenting your business and in reaching your targets. But if you do not know how to use promo items as an effective marketing tool, you will end up losing valuable resources or even your entire business.

Strategies That Work

There are several promotional strategies out there but not everything can work for your company. This is because there are other factors that you also have to consider before implementing your preferred approach. To help you on this, you can take a look at the following tips:

• Check out the latest trend. Giving away something that your target clients do not need is a waste of time and money. Know your target clients and check what currently makes them tick. If your target customers are the youngsters, then take a look at their present interests. Nowadays, the youth are into computers and gadgets. So you can consider music players, flash drives, and mobile phone accessories as your Promotional Items.
• Do not give them what they already have. A lot of promo items end up in garbage cans or lie idly on dusty corners because they were given to clients who already have such items or are already tired of receiving the same old merchandise from companies and business establishments. To avoid this, instead of flooding your target clients with Promotional Items that they are already tired of receiving, give them supplementary items for things that they already have. As an example, instead of giving them music players, hand them headsets with your logo printed on the earpiece or you can give them cell phone accessories instead of giving them cheap mobile phones that they won't be using anyway.
• Provide your items at the right time. The worst thing that you can do is to provide your Promotional Items while the employees of the company you are visiting are having a heated argument over an internal issue or going to campus to provide your promo merchandise only to find out that there are no classes. The point is that before you venture for promo items handing out, make sure that you check your client's schedules or the current state that they are in.

Designing Artwork That Will Keep Printing Costs Low

By Hal Armstrong

job, jobs, career

I often get "I'd like my logo on a shirt." This is the first thought to most small businesses but the logo has six or seven colors in it and it becomes cost prohibitive to print.

Printers, apparel or paper, base costs on the number of printing screens or plates that will be necessary. Many screen printing companies add a "screen charge" of 20 or 30 dollars per screen. For spot printing (typified by solid blocks of color without shading or gradients), a screen must be created and used for each color. Not only this but a screen must be created for each SIZE of print. Thus, a 3 color logo printed fully across and a 3.75" left chest will require 6 screens! With each screen costing $10 to $30, it is easy to see how costs can pile up.

When a design reaches 4 or more colors it is often converted to "CMYK" or "process printing" which is printed using only cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. Any color can be created from these four. A magnifier on a full-color magazine or newspaper print will reveal dots of these basic colors overlapping to form any desired shape. Lower grade prints are achieved by mixing only red, green, and blue. This limits the number of screens or printing plates but not all shops are equipped for this CMYK or process printing. The project is often contracted to a shop that is. Done in-house or contracted out with an appropriate profit margin added on, this type of printing can be expensive and make the project cost prohibitive.

To keep printing costs down, try to design your artwork using as few colors as possible. Sometimes a logo can be done with two colors and have the same impact as three or more. Also, if the substrate, paper or fabric, can be specified to be one of the colors in the design, that color can be a "show-through" thereby eliminating the need for one screen or plate and one print. This alone can reduce costs substantially.

Remember to avoid incorporating photo-realistic designs that will require direct-to-garment inkjet or process printing as these are usually the most expensive types of prints.

When I owned a previous company, I wanted to put my crews (which I felt represented us to our clients) in uniform. How I wish I'd had this advice as the logo I'd designed proved very expensive to print.