Underlying Meanings to Consider in Poster Designs
A large part of advertising is the ability to move individuals emotionally, and being aware of the subtext in your poster printing design will allow you to use them to create an emotional reaction. Several aspects of underlying meanings in design can affect that response, for instance, the colors and subtext lend to the feeling of the poster, and culture can change the meaning of a message. Here’s how you can make these factors work for your poster printing designs:
Colors
The colors you choose for your poster printing will work for you or against you. If you would like for your design to excite customers and move them to action, you should choose warm colors. Reds, pinks, yellows and oranges are all warm colors and each color, or a combination of these colors, will give you the emotional response of excitement. Cool colors such as blue, green, turquoise and silver have a calming effect.
Subtext
The subtext of your poster printing will be more successful if it offers a familiar experience. Many designers reach into the pre-existing pool of imagery from previous company ads and use the familiar pictures in their design. People respond well to something that they feel comfortable with. Familiarity is comfortable, so take something old and make it new.
A fresh take on already existing design can be accomplished by following some of the current trends. Your poster printing will be most effective if the subtext is modern. An outdated design will hurt the image of your business, but a trendy design can boost your image. Be careful, however, that you do not become cliche. Use a trend that has not been over-used or that has existed for a long period of time.
Culture
Any form of communication is most effective if it corresponds with the culture in which it takes place. Color and images will mean different things in different cultures. The color combination of red, white, and blue will mean patriotism to an American. This can create a strong tie to the poster because of the already existing cultural tie to those colors. If you keep cultural differences in mind, you can make your poster printing even more effective.
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The To-Do List For Promoting Local Services
Businesses who rely almost solely on a local target audience, such as dentists or medical doctors or landscapers, have the somewhat difficult task of making a personal connection with customers while also showing themselves to be on the same professional level as larger competitors. If you are a business that offers services locally, you may find yourself at a loss as to where to start with your promotional efforts. You know that some kind of brochure or poster printing is necessary, but what is the most important steps to take first and how exactly do you complete these steps successfully?
Essentials of Brochure Design
A brochure needs to well designed or it will end up in the trash. Brochures should clearly tell the customer what it is you are offering them, how to get it, and why they should want it.
1. Decide exactly what you want your brochure to achieve.
Your goal with brochure printing should be simple and easy to identify, and everything about the brochure should work toward this goal. Don’t overcrowd your brochure with too many products or too much information. A brochure should get the customer interested in the products and tell them how to get them or how to get more information. Clarity and brevity are the keys to a successful brochure.
2. Speak to the customer.
Don’t just list features of your products; this can bore your customer. Instead, tell them how your products and services will help them. Write your copy with the customer in mind, and make them want your product by appealing to their emotions. Write from their point of view and use words like “you” instead of always speaking from your company’s point of view.
3. Be clear and concise.
With brochures, your space is limited, so you may be tempted to pack a lot of information into a small amount of space. This is usually a bad idea. Write and rewrite your copy until it is as clear and brief as possible. Use plenty of white space around the text, and space between lines, to increase readability. Consider using lists to tell about your product instead of long paragraphs. Make it easy to understand your brochure even if you just skim it.
Green Marketing in an Unstable Economy
Sustainability and “going green” have been on consumers for the past couple of years. Going green was the issue du jour for most of 2007 and 2008 according to GreenBiz.com. And now with people losing their jobs and issues of paying the rent are at the forefront of consumers’ minds? The green momentum started in the last couple of years is bound to slow. But many consumers are willing to buy green, if they can afford it or if they think it’s important. If you’ve got a green product or if your entire company is built around sustainable products and practices, don’t totally switch off the green marketing machine. Just give it a little tweak with these strategies.
Interesting Ways To Wrap Your Presents Without Hurting Our Trees
Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products for birthdays, Christmas and other celebrations, according to The Recycler’s Handbook. And, annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons, according to the Clean Air Council.
And getting rid of the paper by burning it in the fireplace is a huge health hazard! Decorative wrapping paper is made in countries like China that have looser environmental regulations, which means the paper can contain lead, synthetic inks, plastic film and chlorine-based foils that release toxins into the air when burned.
Of course, reusing wrapping paper is one way to help the environment around the holidays. But a more popular trend is wrapping presents in decorative boxes, recycled tote bags and other unconventional materials other than paper, says the Washington Post.
With that in mind, here are 16 ways to wrap presents from Represent’s FuturePresent’s Design Challenge that will hopefully give you an idea of how to be more green the next time a birthday, holiday (Valentine’s Day) or graduation celebration comes around.
The items in FuturePresent’s Design Challenge range from dressed up Tupperware to old ice cream bags (find them at antique shops) to a seashell to give jewelry in. Here are a few snapshots from their collection. View their website for the entire set. What ideas have you come up with?
What Shade of Green Is Your Business?
Many companies are making great strides in becoming more environmentally responsible. But it’s hard to turn green all at once; most companies don’t have the money to overhaul their business model into a green one at one time. And, there’s nothing wrong with tweaking materials, light fixtures, paper sources, etc. one at a time. According to Todd O’Donald of MediaPost’s blog Marketing Daily, many brands are fearful of antagonizing eco-enthusiasts by touting their greenness before they’re completely green.
But O’Donald says there are different shades of green when it comes to customers and businesses alike, so companies should market any green changes that have taken place. (more…)
8 Ways To Green Your Office
There are plenty of reasons why a business should go green: to help save the environment; to save our future generations; and to save the Earth’s wildlife is among the top reasons. There’s always that one reason that isn’t stated, but implied: for a greener (read: better, more favorable) company image. Face it – if going green made a company look bad, most wouldn’t do it. Yes, this sounds selfish, but when it comes down to it, companies that go green are helping the environment, no matter what their original motivation.
And it’s not hard to do. Implementing little changes here and there can make a big difference. Here are 8 such ways companies can go green without overhauling their business model.
1. Turn the lights off when you leave the office. It’s pretty simple, and it’s something you can do at home as well. Many office buildings leave all or most lights on all night, and for what? To light a burglar’s way? If you have a security system, forego the lights when you leave the office. And, when you go to a meeting during the day, turn off the lights in your office then. If everyone turned off their lights when they weren’t in use, the impact on the electric bill and energy use would be great.
2. Turn off computers, printers, fax machines, etc. when not in use. By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode when you go home for the night, you could save about 40 watts of electricity per day. That’s about 5 cents per day, or $18 a year saved just for your computer. Now imagine if everyone in the office did that!
I realize people have server updates to worry about, but just schedule those for a few times a week and let employees know to keep their computers on those nights. You can still save a lot of electricity and money by shutting down two to three nights a week.
3. Buy products with the Energy Star logo. Products with this logo, like printers, scanners and fax machines, have the U.S. Department of Energy’s stamp of approval for being energy-efficient. According to the Energy Star site, an Energy Star-compliant scanner may use as much as 50 percent less energy than a noncompliant one.
4. Don’t print memos, emails and other nonessentials. Usually, you only need one small piece of info from an email, like a name or time and date of a meeting. Jot this info down in a notebook (recycled paper notebook!) instead of printing it out. Keep a folder in your email or on your hard drive for emails and PDFs that you want to keep. Only print out the ones you need.
5. Use recycled copy paper. Hammermill’s Great White Recycled Copy Paper is just as bright as virgin copy paper, but is made of 30 percent post-consumer content. You can find it at Restockit.com for $45 for 10 reams (5,000 sheets). Staples has 100 percent recycled copy paper that’s FSC-certified for $52 for 5,000 sheets. Non-recycled copy paper costs only a dollar or two less than recycled (and some recycled papers are even cheaper than non-recycled!), so you have no reason to not go recycled.
6. Let your keyboard or phone do the flying. Instead of flying to corporate headquarters every month or quarter for a meeting, do it over the phone or over the computer. With web cams and phone conferencing, your company can save a lot of money and carbon dioxide by limiting travel.
7. Recycle. Recycle bottles, paper, old equipment, shipping boxes … everything! Contact your local recycling center and they can hook you up with bins and boxes for your recyclables. Most computer stores will recycle your old equipment for free, which keeps lead and other harmful toxins out of our soil.
8. Print marketing materials, sales materials, quarterly reports, etc., with a green printing company. These types of printed material are generally handed out to hundreds, if not thousands of people. And how many people keep them? Not many, unfortunately, so it makes sense to print any bulk items with a green printing company that uses vegetable-based inks and prints on recycled paper. This way, two companies are now lowering their carbon footprints.
