It’s a wonderful thing to have choices. The reality, however, is that we often rely on the default instead of making conscious decisions to the contrary. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, but this tendency does affect all areas of our lives, including our business marketing.
Want a surefire way to get graphic designers all riled up? Replace a good typeface with a bad one… all over America.
Watermarks grace dollar bills, important documents, and checks and are there to prove authenticity, origin, or ownership. But what role do they play in online images and your marketing images?
You just got off the phone with your graphic designer and your head is swimming with terms like vector, bitmap, and raster. Even though it may have sounded like it, your designer wasn’t speaking a foreign language! Let’s look at these different image types and clear up the confusion.
Possibly the most expensive typo in history was made by NASA in 1962. The omission of a single hyphen in a mathematical calculation resulted in the destruction of Mariner 1 mere minutes after launch and cost $80 million. While your typos may not cause rockets to explode midair, they could keep your profits from skyrocketing.
“I decided to go into business so that I could work for free,” said no one ever. But is all free work created equal?
Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of physics states that every action has a reaction. But you don’t have to get beaned on the head with an apple to realize the universal laws of physics also apply to marketing.
QR codes are soooo 2011. The QR code has been declared dead over and over again, but was it ever really alive? Let’s take a closer look at this misunderstood technology and you can decide for yourself.
Modern and elegant, this condensed typeface feels classy and almost timeless. And yet, as all giddiness-inducing fonts do, it has a style all its own.
Can something as basic as design affect customers’ perception of your product? Yep, it can and it does. How, you ask? Take a peek behind the curtain and discover for yourself the psychological magic of “sensation transference.”
For the first time ever, Pantone’s Color of the Year is a duo. That’s right, the color for 2016 is actually two — Rose Quartz and Serenity. Another notable “first” is that it represents a departure from the usual bold rich color typically given this honor, being the first pastel shades in a decade. This is quite a shift from the norm — what does it mean?
I remember quite distinctly a time back in 2004, when this thing called ‘digital printing’ was scoffed at by ‘real’ designers. It was cheap and produced inferior results as compared to traditional offset printing. Well now it’s almost 2016 and technology has come a long way. Is offset printing still the best way to print?
It was September of 1965 when the color television revolution changed the world. Programming previously watched in shades of gray was now bursting in full color for all to see! It’s understandable that we are drawn to color; we equate it with life and vibrancy. So when I tell you that monochromatic has merits, don’t tune me out just yet!
Let me let you in on a little trick of professional graphic designers. This little last-minute tweak can make a huge difference—and it’s a key factor separating the amateurs from the experts.
New Zealand is on the hunt for a new flag design. On September 1, after sifting through a mere 10,292 submissions, officials revealed the top four design contenders to replace the country’s flag. As opinions from New Zealanders on the proposed designs have been mixed and mostly negative, we have to ask – just what makes for a good flag design?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a larger-than-life illustration of “when bad italics happen to good fonts.” This Leaning Tower Phenomenon, if you will, often occurs as a byproduct of good people who just don’t know any better. Read on to make sure you’re not committing this typographical sin.
Ooh, shiny! Do you like gloss? Well, who doesn’t? When deciding on the print options of your marketing materials, the question to go glossy or matte is a common one. It’s a simple enough question, but there are actually a few different ways to achieve a glossy look — any one of which can give you a different result. Read this before you order your next print job to make sure you know what you’re getting.
Most print pieces we see are solid and rectangular, but this doesn’t have to be the case. If you want to make an impression with a unique print piece, consider die cutting to add interest, increase memorability, and to reinforce your brand or a particular message.
It’s all about the curves. When you need a bold, yet feminine typeface, look no further than Ropa Soft Pro. No hard edges here, folks.
Here’s something to consider…if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to see it, did it have a color? There’s no denying that color is all around us, but how we perceive it is all in the eye of the beholder.
What role does psychology play in design? A big one. You don’t have to be a student of Freud to understand how basic psychological principles, when applied to design, can have a measurable impact.