Choosing the Appropriate Typeface for your Projects

Good Typography is beautiful and that's a fact. But how can you define good typography? There are millions of different typefaces on the internet and most of them are offered for free which makes it very difficult for designers to choose the appropriate fonts for logos, websites, posters etc. Today we showcase a fresh collection of the latest typefaces available to help you out a bit choosing some creative fonts for your projects.


Also if you are interested here are some tutorials that will help you out choosing the right typeface.

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Designing Style Guidelines For Brands And Websites

A website is never done. Everyone has worked on a project that changed so much after it launched that they no longer wanted it in their portfolio. One way to help those who take over your projects is to produce a style guide.

Edward Tufte once said: “Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard.” Although there’s no stopping some clients from making their website awful, by creating a style guide, you’re effectively establishing rules for those who take over from you.

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Lessons From Swiss Style Graphic Design

Also known as International Style, the Swiss Style does not simply describe a style of graphic design made in Switzerland. It became famous through the art of very talented Swiss graphic designers, but it emerged in Russia, Germany and Netherlands in the 1920’s. This style in art, architecture and culture became an ‘international’ style after 1950’s and it was produced by artists all around the globe. Despite that, people still refer to it as the Swiss Style or the Swiss Legacy.

This progressive, radical movement in graphic design is not concerned with the graphic design in Switzerland, but rather with the new style that had been proposed, attacked and defended in the 1920s in Switzerland. Keen attention to detail, precision, craft skills, system of education and technical training, a high standard of printing as well as a clear refined and inventive lettering and typoraphy laid out a foundation for a new movement that has been exported worldwide in 1960s to become an international style.

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Cover Letters for Graphic Designers

Why are cover letters so important? They provide the prospective employer with a brief review of your skills and abilities in the form of a letter. Letters are written much differently than resumes and can have a lasting impact on the reader. The best news is that writing one it isn't that hard, especially if you have already written your resume.

If you are wondering whether you need a cover letter or not, the answer is "yes". Employers are expecting a cover letter, but more important than that, you have an extra page to sell yourself if you write one. Even if you are an excellent Graphic Designer, you still need to convince the employer that you are worthy of a job.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Among the five design occupations, graphic designers are expected to have the most new jobs through 2014; however, job seekers are expected to face keen competition for available positions."

What does that mean? It means there are design positions available, but you are going to have to work hard to get the really great jobs.

One other note of interest: "Many talented individuals are attracted to careers as graphic designers. Individuals with a bachelor's degree and knowledge of computer design software, particularly those with Web site design and animation experience, will have the best opportunities." That is also according to the BLS.

Graphic Designers, generally speaking, are in a good labor market right now. That's wonderful news, certainly. You should not encounter difficulties in obtaining work.

What about that awesome position with the top salary that you have your eye on, though? Do you think the competition for that position will be greater? You bet it will. That means your credentials will have to be presented in the best light possible if you are to get the job offer. So, how do you write a great cover letter?

The cover letter builds on the resume and leads the employer toward it. Its goal is to get the employer excited about the resume. It is a sales tool, just like the resume is. Sell yourself in a compelling and exciting way. Inject energy and let your best qualities reach the employer through carefully written examples and anecdotes. Don't just state what you are capable of, show the employer what you have done in the past with vibrant language that attracts and invites the employer to want to know more.

You are a part of a significant sector of the labor market. You have to be your very best to get the great jobs. What skills and abilities do you have that you can offer the employer – and – how can you do so in a way that makes the employer pick up the phone and call you for an interview? Be personable, but professional at the same time.

Let your cover letter generate interest in your resume, then let your resume grab the employer's attention so that you are invited in for a face to face meeting.

A cover letter isn't likely to persuade an employer to grant you an interview on its own, but it is part of the whole package that WILL encourage an employer to want to get to know you better. Make it an exciting and enjoyable read and you will find yourself being offered the Graphic Designer position you apply for.

Author:
Carla Vaughan, Owner/Webmaster Professional-Resume-Example.com
Carla is the owner of Professional-Resume-Example.com, a web site devoted to assisting candidates in the job-search process. She holds a B.S. in Business from Southern Illinois University and has authored several books.
For more information about cover letters, follow this link: Amazing Cover Letters

Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website

We’ve all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make you cringe as soon as they load. But how do you keep your website from becoming, well, ugh. You could hire a professional web designer, and that’s expensive, or maybe you already hired a professional, or someone who claims to be professional, and you don’t like what they’re doing with your site. It all comes down to the K.I.S.S. principle; keep it simple stupid. And you’re probably asking well what does this really mean for web design.

Here are some basic graphic design/web design principles that you can use on your site:

1. Background, be careful what color you use for the background of your site. Yes I know that you’re trying to get noticed, but really they’ve already decided to look at your page so why does it have to be orange? Seriously though, consider how long you want people to be on your site, half an hour, one hour, more? Whatever the time chose your background color and then sit in front of your computer and stare at it, for awhile. Is the color easy to look at? Difficult? Does it make your eyes water? Does it make you calm? If you can look at the color for about fifteen minutes without a problem you’re okay.

2. Text, related to the above be careful what text color you use. Follow the rules above for determining a text color. It should be easy to read, and look at.

3. Font, no more that three fonts on the entire website. I mean that! A big mistake that I see a lot of times is the use of more than three different fonts, it get’s hard to read no matter how neat you think it looks.

4. Font size, no more that three font sizes either. Now I don’t mean three font sizes for each of the three fonts you’ve chosen. I mean no more than three fonts with a total of three sizes throughout the entire site, and if you can get by with less even better. It will simplify your site.

5. Scrolling, this is a big one literally. I’ve been on too many sites where I had to scroll down so far that my computer beeped at me. This is really important on your main page. Keep it very sparse, generally any information that someone has to scroll more than one full page down for will not be read.

This is only a start of course but it’s a start and it is on these issues that I see so many problems. Always remember that simplicity is best.

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Author
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

understanding Vector and Raster Graphics

Choosing the right design, the right designer and the right graphics is essential. Selecting the right business, the right platform and the right time is crucial. If you have an artistic hand but don’t know how to write, or you have beautiful voice and you don’t know how to sing, you may have a gift, but a paralyzed one.

You have a website and don’t know what its composition is; you have graphics and don’t know how they are designed; just the lack of this information you may lose your business.

Simple, yet complex, are the pages of your website containing graphics all together in every space. And those very graphics can hamper you, if not properly designed for an impressive deliverance to the customer.

If your site loads slowly in a browser, if your logos are not eye pleasing, if the fonts are not stylish, if the color combination and outline architecture is not smooth, you might be irritating your own costumer rather appealing to them.

Graphic design elements that are in your websites primarily are of two types; Vector and Raster.

Vector graphics is a geometric modeling of images, widely being used in Computer Graphics today. Vector graphics applies geometrical standards i.e., lines, curves, and polygons to represent images, while Raster graphics or a bit-mapped image, which is based on pixels in a grid, and contains information about the colors to be displaced in “bits”. Due to this raster graphics have fixed resolution, thus cannot be resized without losing image quality.

In addition, bitmap images have much large file sizes; however, vector graphics are prepared by many individual objects, and each of them are defined by geometrical data with individual properties allocated to it such as color, fill, and outline. Thus, vector graphics have free resolution and can bring high quality output at any scale.

Vector images are more flexible than bitmaps, and for that reason they can be resized and stretched. Additionally, images stored as vectors enhance appearances on monitors and printers with higher resolution, while bit-mapped images always appear the same, in spite of of a device's resolution. Another advantage of vector graphics is it requires less memory than bit-mapped images do.

The word vector graphics is typically used in the context of two-dimensional computer graphics. Today almost all computer video displays transform vector representations of an image to a raster format.

Vector graphics editors usually allow a user to spin, shift, mirror, stretch, tilt, a combination of primitives into a more sophisticated objects. Vector graphics are better for designing outlines, typography, logos, technical illustrations, diagram and flowchart, while bitmap editors are more suitable for retouching photos, photo processing, and artistic illustrations.

It is ideally good for simple or complex drawings that need to be photo-realism. i.e., for PostScript and PDF page description languages use a vector graphics model.

Vector graphic are perfect format for the Web as these are lightweight graphics to the websites due to its file size and problem free regarding physical height and width of the image.

These days, websites are filled with sophisticated icons, images, navigation bars, photographs, bottoms, logos, etc and for cutting the file size, vector graphics are efficient, smaller, compact, and scale perfect or independent resolution compare to the raster graphics.

Regarding programs which allows us to create and operate vector graphics, are called drawing programs, while programs that operate bit-mapped images are called paint programs.

Almost all graphics application these days, including CADD systems and animation software, use vector graphics; furthermore, printers like PostScript printers use vector graphics and fonts represent as vectors are called postscript fonts. While, dot-matrix printers, laser printers, and monitors, are raster devices, this means that all objects, even vector objects, must be translated into bit maps before being output which means, even vector graphic images must be interpreted to the raster graphic before the end product can be displayed on paper.

Interesting, yet most important note regarding these two graphics are, its similarity with the human organ behaviors; like bitmap images, the human eyes catches objects in a mosaic raster format by photon recipient nerves though physical world.

Another hand brain function perceives the objects as vector graphics in its visual world. As a result, the brain can easily recalls drawings like cartoon, logos, signs, images, symbols, banners, with outlines. Though the pixel image with mosaic format will be faded out, but the impression of outlines of the pictures will remain in the memory of a human being for long. Eyes cannot manipulate the objects seen in the outer world, it perceives as it is, while the mind can manipulate through its imagination in its mental zone.

If you have chosen the right graphics and the right graphic designer for your business, enrich your business with graphics that are web friendly, swift loading, attractive, impressive and much more than outlines that remain in the mind of your visitor for a very long time.
Your website design should be eye pleasing, mind snatching, impressive and overall appealing to the customers. Design simple, but yet make it striking!

By: Bharat Bista

Graphic Design using color

Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don’t realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors “say” in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.

If you don’t think that color speaks just complete this sentence, “red means ---- and green means –“ even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.

First let’s start with the basics. The color wheel. We’ve all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.

Color harmony, colors that go together well. These will be colors that are next door to each other on the color wheel. Such as blue and green. In reference to clothes these colors match each other. Instinctively most of us know which colors go together when we dress ourselves every morning.

Color complements, colors that set each other off, they complement each other. These are colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Such as blue and orange.

Color depth, colors can recede or jump forward. Remember that some colors seem to fall back such as blue, black, dark green, and brown. Other colors will seem to step forward such as white, yellow, red, and orange. This is why if you have a bright orange background it may seem to fight with any text or images that you place on it. The orange will always seem to move forward.
Now you have the basics so let’s go further. Just because to colors go together or complement each other doesn’t mean that yo necessarily want to use them on your project. I opened this article with the meaning of colors now here is an example, keep in mind this is one example from western culture.

Color Survey: what respondents said colors mean to them.

Happy = Yellow Inexpensive = Brown
Pure = White Powerful = Red (tomato)
Good Luck = green Dependable = Blue
Good tasting = Red (tomato) High Quality = Black
Dignity = Purple Nausea = Green
Technology = Silver Deity = White
Sexiness = Red (tomato) Bad Luck = Black
Mourning = Black Favorite color = Blue
Expensive = Gold Least favorite color = Orange

So in designing your project it’s important to know what colors mean. You can now see why a black back ground with green type would be bad, beyond being nearly impossible to read, if your target market thinks that black represents mourning and green makes them sick. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

So you may want to include some research in what colors mean to your target market. Colors that would get the attention of a teen would probably annoy an older person and the colors that appeal to the older person wouldn’t get a second look from a young person.
Color may be one of the most overlooked aspects of design.

Author
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

color psychology and Graphic Design

Colors have psychological impacts; they are attributes of eyes, but are the chemistry of the mind. Colors are perceived though pupils and its effects are produced with associated nerves to the brain neurons.

Light reflecting through objects in different wavelengths and frequency stimulates different “cones” or color receptor cells of the retina in the eyes and makes perception possible for different colors.

Colors influence people through psychological changes and are associated with certain feelings and meanings. Colors exist everywhere else, it is omnipresent. Colors represent cultural, social customs and emotional values and its use in arts, printing, designing, websites, graphics, etc. – these days are unavoidable.

Choosing proper color is an essential constituent for your website and its graphics; as visitors to your website first encounters colors and graphics, before they read your textual descriptions.
Colors are used in website design and graphic design for various forms; use of colors can be for backgrounds, navigation, logos, and buttons; to emphasize, highlight, and symbolize your text description and outlining your site.

Despite the fact that your website is enhanced and fabricated with textual and graphical design, if you are using the wrong color combinations, then you are annoying your own visitors rather appealing them. As a result, to attract your customers, it is important to understand psychological behavior of your customers to your websites chromatics. The use of wrong colors results in the wrong impression.

Below are the details for color interpreted through different professions, culture, and physiology science;

Red: Red is a color of intensity, stimulants, love, gaudiness, blood, war, excitement, speed, heat, leadership, masculinity, power, passion, strength, energy, financial loss, Danger, fire, radicalism, aggression, stop, anger, and revolution.

Blue: Blue is a color of peace, unity, harmony, depression, coldness, ice, tackiness, winter tranquility, calmness, coolness, confidence, water, ice, loyalty, conservatism, dependability, cleanliness, technology, winter, idealism, and obscenity.

White: White a color of peace, innocence, cleanliness, simplicity, security, humility, sterility, winter, reverence, purity, coldness, surrender, cowardice, and fearfulness.

Black: Black is a color of power, sophistication, Evil, death, fear, anonymity, anger, sadness, mystery, formality, elegance, wealth, style, remorse, mourning, and unhappiness.

Green: Green is a color of nature, spring, good luck, illness, greed, vigor, generosity, go, grass, wealth, money, fertility, youth, environment, envy, misfortune, jealousy, aggression, and inexperience.

Purple: Purple is a color of spirituality, royalty, nobility, enlightenment, sensuality, creativity, wealth, gaudiness, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion, arrogance, and flamboyance.

Brown: Brown is a color of richness, stability, anachronism, dirt, dullness, filth, heaviness, poverty, roughness tradition, calm, depth, natural organisms, and nature.

Yellow: Yellow is the color of joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, gold, summer, hope, air, sunlight, hazards, dishonesty, avarice, weakness, cowardice, and illness.

Orange: Orange is a color of energy, flamboyance, playfulness, balance, heat, fire, enthusiasm, overemotional, warning, danger, fire, aggression, arrogance, flamboyance, and gaudiness.
Even choosing color is a professional skill in graphic design business, as it is not only just the colors, but are the color that stimulates the mind of your viewers. Graphic designs inevitably come with colors, and selecting the best ones for your business is an expertise.

By: Bharat Bista
Source: http://findinarticles.com/a69su7Ohq/7827/Color-Psychology-and-Graphic-Design.html

difficult clients and How to Handle Them

Kerry has done a terrific job of defining some of the major aspects of a difficult client. In the spirit of being proactive, I thought I would take a stab at providing some solutions to these problems:

problem: pay very little, yet be the most demanding.
solution: increase your hourly rate/standard project fees to accommodate for the “hand-holding” that you might have to do on a project. The funny thing is that when you raise your prices, it creates an image of quality in the eyes of your client.

problem: dabble in design (mess around in Photoshop), and call it expert experience.
solution: You are the expert in design, but you must be cognizant that your client is the expert at what they do. If your client hands you a rough design, it is not because they want to pay you less of take over your job, instead it is usually because the client feels so compelled to visually articulate what they know so much about. Sometimes this does help so don’t automatically brush the client off and act as if they have nothing to contribute.

problem: have unreasonable deadlines, and wonder why they should pay you.
solution: Always, always, always define the major milestones and payment details in a contract before any work is done. Every contract that you have should state how much you will be paid, when you will be paid (thirds is typical - 1/3 up front, 1/3 half way, and 1/3 on delivery), and who will pay you (large corps often have a long method of payment approvals - define it early and save the hassle of tracking it down for the next two months).

problem: hold little regard for the graphic design profession.
solution: Build up your clients respect of graphic design by providing them with materials such as “Good Design Is Good Business” or AIGA’s Client Guide to Design. You must also be willing to accept the fact that some clients won’t respect you at the end of the day - so if this is the case then you need to seriously think about letting your client to make room for another client that will appreciate your talents.

problem: have no clue what designers do, and are unwilling to learn.
solution: This problem is very similar to the previous, but we should also acknowledge that often a client doesn’t want to learn what we do because they do not have the time to. It is in our interest to inform the client of what we will do for them right from the start. Make sure you always outline the exact services you will be providing in a contract. Also, make sure it is written in layman’s terms so anyone can comprehend it. Much too often we get caught up in using esoteric words that go right over our clients heads - which only makes them frustrated and annoyed.

problem: expect designers to read their minds, and get angry when you don’t.
solution: We are not mind readers, but we are communication experts. It is our job, as the designer, to extract all of the information we need from the client to provide the right solution to their communication problem. If the designer is not solving the solution, then they have not asked enough questions to make sure that they understand the problem. Likewise, we also have to be open to the fact that there may be multiple problems that can’t all be fixed with one, nicely packaged, solution.

problem: bring unknown others into the design process, and let them make approvals.
solution: At the beginning of a project the designer and the client should designate one contact on both ends that will handle ALL communication between the two parties. The designer will like this because it keeps them from getting a barrage of messages from all different directions, and the client will like it because it allows them to get all of their project updates from one person. You’ll find that designating one person at both companies will also smooth out the approval process because it often forces both companies to make sure the team agrees with the feedback before sending.

problem: insist on their design vision with no input from the designer.
solution: Most clients feel they understand their product/brand better than the designer can, and for the most part, they are right. The client eats, sleeps, and breathes their product, while the designer comes in for a short period of time, examines limited information on the product/brand, and then is expected to design with the insight that they truly understand the product/brand. We should be open to hearing clients vision when it comes to the overall concept - after all, it is part of our discovery process! But we shouldn’t allow the client to “pixel push” us by directing us on the smallest nuances of our design solution. Place more emphasis on your design presentations to the client and thoroughly explain to them why you’ve created the solution you have. This will get them to comprehend exactly why that 2pt blue line is there, hopefully squashing any attempts to outright move it.

problem: have little respect for the designers time.
solution: This problem is a little more difficult to solve. First we have to define exactly what time means. We can define it as “the span it takes us to complete a project or task”, or we can define it as “period spent in meetings with the client and answering/handling correspondence from the client”. Either way we define it, you will find that the problem can be solved with one solution - be honest. Be honest with the client when you tell them how long a task/project will take. If you think it will take you a week to do, and the client keeps pressing that you get it done in two days, then be honest with them and say that two days is not possible and you will need at least one week to do it. If the client still persists then you have two options, do the rush and charge more for it (always charge more for a rush) or say “no thanks” to the client and move on. Clients will only respect our time if we respect our time - plain and simple.

problem: give nothing to the designer to work with, and wonder what’s taking so long.
solution: This goes hand in hand with “expect designers to read their minds, and get angry when you don’t” above. It is the designers job to pull as much information out of the client as possible. It is also our obligation to let the client know when they should expect to see a design. I think every designer I know has a comp and revision process they follow, but few outline when they will be administering this process with a written schedule. At the onset of the project, create a schedule that outlines your expected delivery dates, design presentation dates revision presentation dates, feedback dates and final project hand-off.

Source: http://www.graphicdefine.org/

the role of Typography

Graphic Design is a very challenging creative and artistic job. Graphic designer has to be able to solve the task given and comes up with the idea of visual communication which not only attractive but yet persuading the viewers/readers to grab the message behind it and arouse the emotion, logic and certain needs. Generally, graphic designer use a lot of pictures, symbols, letters and any other graphic elements.

Sometimes, Graphic Designer is assigned to do the lay out or composition of many words or long sentences on many pages. In this case, letters or typography is no longer as an additional element but they are the main element of the graphic communication known as books, brochures or catalogue.

Either as an additional or main element, typography has a very important role to determine the result of visual communication. Many designers think that the most important in design is the thought or the idea and how it would be executed. They consider typography as an additional element.

The truth is that typography could be the main idea of the graphic communication and could be the only effective visual communication. In some cases, we found that the mistakes of the typography usage could ruins the whole design no matter how good the design is. The result is that the viewers/readers couldn’t get the message that we try to deliver. Some designers, especially the beginners don’t have the sense of harmony (yet) which is one of the graphic design principles. They were inclined to use fonts based on what they like, even more, they use them almost in same size, without considering the harmony, balance and yet headlines, sub headlines and content.

Choosing the type of fonts has some consideration, which are:
- the style of design (classic, modern or futuristic style)
- what design is about (the product)
- the size of the media
- how much information to put on

Try not to use too much kind of font on 1 page, two different types of fonts is the best. You can play around by make it bold, italic, use different size or different colors to make them looks vary.

By: anton ardjanggi / www.anarddesign.com

creating a Brochure

Why does your business need a brochure?
A cover letter to a potential client can present only a small fraction of information about your business. Potential clients are often swamped with business mail and a letter may be scanned for a couple of seconds then trashed. A face-to-face meeting is a great way to tell a potential client about your business or expertise, but sometimes it's not possible to get a meeting with just a phone call or introductory letter. Or, what if someone you've met weeks ago suddenly becomes interested in your service but can't match your name with your business card in their Rolodex?

A brochure will fulfill all of these business needs. Brochures are a great way to package a lot of information about yourself, your business and expertise into a format that is easily mailed or handed out at a business meeting or given to current clients to pass on to possible referrals.

Brochures range from a simple two-fold design using one sheet of 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch paper to an elaborate 9 x 12 inch pocket folder with 8 pages stitched in and insert sheets. Good brochure design involves not simply producing a flashy design, but a careful analysis of your target market, what level of sophistication is needed and consideration of your market niche in order to make a great first impression. And, last but certainly not least, your brochure should leave a potential client with something he or she is hesitant to throw away.

Today, in the age of E-Mail, multi-media presentations and the Internet, it's easy to assume that a web site can take the place of a printed brochure. Having a web site really can't replace the immediate visual impact of placing a brochure into a prospective client's hands.

Getting started
If you've never created a brochure, start by collecting a number of brochures (including competitors') that represent a wide range of quality--from simple one and two-color on textured stock to slick 4-color glossy brochures.

By asking yourself what it is that makes a brochure attractive and effective to you, it will be easier to make a brochure for your own business which will convey the message and level of sophistication you require.

Next, you will need to create some basic brochure copy about your business. Even if you're not a professional writer, putting some thoughts and facts about what your business does on paper will help make more concrete what information your brochure needs to convey.

When writing copy ask yourself:
- Is my company an industry leader?
- Does my company have a market niche?
- What distinguishes my company from my competitor?
- Do we offer better value, service or selection of products?
- Do we have anything new or different to promote?

Questions to ask yourself:
- Who is your target audience?
- What message will get a potential client's attention?
- What kinds of brochures and what level of sophistication are typically crossing your client's desk?
- Does your product or service require photographs or illustrations to help convey your message?
- Will the brochure need to be a self-mailer?

Key information to include in your brochure:
- Mailing address.
- Phone number (and 800 number if you have one).
- Fax number.
- E-Mail address.
- Web Site address.

Be sure not to include in your brochure any information which is subject to changing in the next 12 months or so. Also, be wary of using a specific person's name as a contact person unless he or she is someone you know isn't going to leave in the next year. The same goes for printing photographs of people. There's no sense in spending several thousand dollars to create a brochure only to have it become out of date because someone leaves the company.

What does a brochure cost to produce?
Brochures can vary from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Because there are so many variables involved in producing a brochure such as quality of paper, number of ink colors, use of photographs, number of brochures printed, etc., it is difficult to estimate the final costs until all the specifications are determined.

Four color process printing, varnishing and special treatments such die-cutting, foil stamping can add additional costs to producing a brochure, and may well be worth it if they enhance your brochure and the image you wish to project. Other cost considerations are whether you need professional photography, help with writing or editing copy for your brochure.

Even if you don't know all the details of your brochure when getting started, it's a good idea to create a budget. Start with determining how many brochures you will need to use during the next twelve months including mailings and sales meetings. If you have seen a brochure with a similar amount of information and photographs as you need for your brochure, a designer can use it as a model for determining printing and production costs.

Another consideration when designing a brochure is postage. Larger brochures will be more expensive to mail and if you are planning on doing a large mailing as part of your marketing, an oversized brochure may be expensive to mail. Larger brochures don't fare well through the postal system and often end up wrapped around other mail. Brochures which fit in a standard #10 business envelope give you the best buy in terms of postage and protection while mailing. Using a business envelope also allows you to mail a cover letter and business card as well.

Updating an existing brochure
I worked with a client once who had sales of over a million dollars a year, but was still using a dated, unsophisticated brochure produced by a printer nearly ten years earlier. While reputation alone helped the company's sales, their brochure was doing very little to promote them as a cutting-edge company to potential customers who had never heard of them.

If you have a brochure you produced a few years ago, it might be a good idea to have your brochure evaluated by a someone outside your company to make sure it projects the image of your company today and sets you apart from your competition. Often, a small company will produce an inexpensive brochure just to have something for a trade show or for telephone inquiries. While short-term needs are fulfilled, not having any kind of long-term plan for a package of coordinated materials will lead to a "hodge-podge."

As a business grows, the image of the business can outgrow the first brochure's image. Often other collateral such as pocket folders, product inserts, etc. are produced at different times by different printers and the result is a corporate image that is not coordinated, with different kinds of paper used and ink colors that don't match--not professional at all.

It is tempting to take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach and leave an existing brochure alone--for years. However, now could also be the ideal time to produce a truly professional brochure which will set you apart from your competition and give your potential clients something they will keep on their desk to serve as a memory jogger when you do a follow-up call.

Why have a graphic designer involved in creating your brochure?
Many businesses are producing promotional and sales materials internally or are relying on a printer to put a brochure together for them. There's nothing wrong with either of these approaches, provided you have the time and expertise to make all graphic design decisions that will produce a sophisticated brochure that's right on target. It's rare to find a printer who has a graphic designer on staff who will put a creative spark in your brochure, and relying on in-house talent doesn't save you money when it actually costs you lost sales.

Using a graphic designer can free you from having to make all decisions about your brochure by yourself and will provide you with an outside perspective on how to communicate to your audience. A designer can provide you not only expertise on typography but can help you with selecting ink and paper and some direction with your brochure and help guide you through the process from start to finish.

In addition to making design decisions, a graphic designer can serve as your project manager and will see the brochure from concept through successful completion. Most designers work with several different printers and can provide you with a printer that has the capabilities to print your brochure. If you need help with writing your brochure copy, many designers work with freelance writers and photographers.

Some Parting Advice . . .
Carpenters have a saying, "Measure twice, cut once," which applies to creating your brochure. By defining what your brochure should do and doing some research first, your brochure can be effective, informative and get prospective clients' attention. By utilizing design and printing professionals and by paying close attention to details, you can have a brochure that truly represents your business and is something you can be proud to hand out and mail.

About the Author
Vann Baker is the president of Design-First, a marketing company specializing in corporate identity and collateral development. Vann has been helping small businesses and Fortune 500 companies to create brochures, newsletters, catalogs, websites and more for over 20 years. http://www.design-first.com/

how to use White Space

The client asks you to “fill in that space” with a bigger headline. Critical defense of your use of white space will be one of the regular conversations you have as a designer. White space, also known as negative space, can be compared to the empty space on a living room wall or even an open field in a city park. Without these open areas life feels oppresive or cluttered. Use white space to allow the viewer's eye to rest or create tension between elements.

Use white space to create dynamic solutions.
Twentieth century artists and designers revolutionized our visual environment with asymmetry. Centered designs with equal amounts of white space surrounding your text and image elements rarely capture a viewer’s eye. Consider these examples:

- Paul Rand’s Art Institute of Chicago catalogue cover
- Gustavs Klucis’s posters
- Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting
- Alexy Brodovitch's magazine layouts

Keep Text Cells or Columns Small
We've all come across Web sites that have text stretching across the entire length of the browser. While that might be readable on a small monitor, it's very difficult to read on a when the browser window is maximized on a large monitor. The alphabet-and-a-half rule is a handy way to make sure you are creating legible line lengths.

Avoid Trapped White Space
White space allows the viewer’s eye to rest so don’t give them an uncomfortable space to rest in. White space trapped inside a design will stop the flow of the design and feel awkward or static. Reposition or resize elements to rework the negative space. A simple exercise to learn about white space: Print out a design that you are stuck on. Cut the elements apart and play around. Consider asymmetry, scale, and contrast when rearranging.

Identifying Rivers
Beginners should take this quick exercise in identifying rivers. Take a freebie magazine you might find in the coffee shop. Turn the page upside down and let your eye wander through the columns of text. By turning the page upside down your eye will view the letters as abstract forms not as words. A long white area that forms between rows of text is a river. Look closely at the design and evaluate what you would do to fix it. Change the font size? Adjust kerning? Edit the text?

Avoid Rivers
A river is the trapped white space in the middle of a text column between words.
This happens most often when type is set justified as the words are pushed or pulled to fill the column width. Work closely with the editor to change the words as needed and then finesse the letter spacing. Rivers may be a symptom that your line length is too long or too short for the size of text you are using.

By: Mary Beth & Paul Trautwein / www.graphicdesign.about.com

how to Generate a Good Newsletter Design

A newsletter has been a great avenue for marketing a business. However, it should not be forgotten that the main purpose of the newsletter is to provide information that is indispensable to the readers.

When you make a newsletter, why not compare it with all the other newsletters that are available in the market. This is important to see if there's something bad with your newsletter design. Take a look at your design and match it up to the other newsletters. Does the design look disorganized? Is the page in a mess? Or does it appear dull?

When it comes to newsletter printing, you should take into consideration that the design of the newsletter is very crucial. It is necessary to come up with the best design and apply it to your newsletter print. Why is the newsletter design important? The design is important for it has a great effect on the impression of your readers about you. If the newsletter that you produce features a professional look and feel and is readable, then there's a great chance that it will receive the highest readership. But if the newsletter does not appear nice, then it will imply a bad image about your company.

In view of that, careful planning should be practiced in conceptualizing a design for your newsletter. Actually there are no standard rules in designing. It's just that it is best if you will observe the tried-and-tested practices of those who have already made newsletters and became successful with their goals.

There are elements that make up a good newsletter design. The most important element that should not be ignored is the content. A newsletter is considered to be good if its contents suits what the readers expect. The content should be something that stimulates the interest of the readers. It should be readable in the sense that is contains the there important qualities namely: consistent, readable and don't clutter. It is the content that serves as the meat of the newsletter.

In addition, the newsletter should not be dull and monotonous. Adding some spice to your publication can rouse the people to read. And the only thing that will stir up the reader's interest is consistency. It's important to sort out your words and get rid of the unnecessary details that may distract your readers. Consistency is of the essence for it puts all the other elements in order.

Make sure that the design of the newsletter will help you get noticed. It also helps if you will be creative in experimenting on a certain design concept that will match your publication. Overall, having a great design is needed to ensure that your newsletter printing job will turn out successful.

About the Author
Charmaine Joy Caro developed her passion for writing when she joined essay writing contests during her elementary years. Her writing skills were made even more improved when she took up the course Bachelor of Arts Major in English.

Source: www.getmyarticles.com

3 steps to creating a Knockout Corporate Logo

A corporate looking logo can effectively make you look far more important than you actually are. By adopting this simple 1,2,3 step guide we can turn your existing crummy logo into a world beating effort - garaunteed to impress the ladieees.

Step 1 - Choose a dull font such as helvetica
In the world of high flying executives and corporate back slapping deals done upon yachts etc. the one thing almost all self-made millionaires will agree on is that you must give the impression that your company is a straightlaced solemn outfit. Standard fontfaces such as helvetica or times will signify your ability to fit in with suits without ruffling too many feathers and will be looked favourably upon by those all important investors looking to harvest some of their cash in your business.

Step 2 - Choose a dull colour such as grey
Battleship grey - has there ever been a colour more appropriate for the deadening nature of high corporate investiture? No, not by my reckoning at any rate. But surely a grey logo among a sea of other bland logos is just going to get lost isn't it? Hmmm, I've got to hand it to you, you're right but do you know what - if we add a smidgin of royal blue somewhere within our hypothetical logo we achieve the type of chin stroking brilliance that committee members and associate directors can spend literally minutes debating before abstaining to the golf course and soho massage parlours.

Step 3 - Choose a dull symbol such as a circle
Right, this is where our creative minds get to have some fun. Do we put the grey/blue circle before the words or after? Above or below? Whatever you choose to do make sure it doesn't involve anything too clever or inspiring. Remember our aim here is to look 'corporate' and sensible not like some kind of fun loving chimps, you gets me. Right the logo should be just about complete and ready to enter the exhilarating world of corporate high life. To celebrate why not throw a lavish party inviting your corporate buddies like Dave and Steve from down the pub?To summarise, what we want to achieve is an air of 'dullness' yet reliability. Choose a dull font, keep the colour palette strictly dull- nothing too interesting and if you must add a quirky symbol of some sort make sure it keeps well within the dull spectrum of ideas i.e. a circle or square. Corporate Logo Design is not rocket science but if you want to give off the right impression you've got to go with the flow. Right now where did I leave that bowl of cocaine I'm off to a corporate party. Toodle pip.

By: Horatio Farquaar / www.articlesphere.com

winning logo lesign - how to earn big money from your logo designs

Making a living out of selling Logo Designs can be fraught with danger. Cuthroats willing to slash your throat on street corners, drug crazed thugs and conniving conmen are just some of the things to avoid. Its a jungle out there so make sure your logo design is bulletproof.

Buy Low - Sell high
In terms of outlay the resources you'll need to produce your logo designs are pretty minimal and the returns can be huge. What you'll need is either a pen and paper or in todays modern fangled world a mouse and computer to produce your designs. Pop along to your local electrical retailer and see what offers they've got on for computers. Alternatively make one yourself out of an old radio and a broken down TV. Hey presto a fully functioning desktop publishing empire for the price of a cup of tea.

Look close to home for design inspiration
Now that you're fully set up to produce quality logo designs, you've actually got to come up with some rather fancy ideas. A good place to go for inspiration is the front living room where you'll be amazed to find lots of branded products just waiting to be copied and served up as your own logo design ideas. Another place you might want to look at is your own kitchen. Go on, take a look in your fridge - it's brimming with things like cream cheese, beefburgers and probably some skanky vegetables. If that doesn't inspire you to create, I don't know what will

Hands up who wants a logo?
Your hardest task in making your logos pay for your living is going to be finding anyone vaguely interested in what you have to offer. Once you've asked your small circle of friends and family for the umpteenth time whether they want to pay you to produce a logo for them, its time to look at advertising your services to a wider audience. Try producing a TV commercial using a movie camera and the help of a local TV production crew. Once your ad is shown on primetime TV those orders will start to rollin...

...or they would have done, but for one fact on this journey of self discovery we forgot to build ourselves a website or leave a contact number for people to call. In hindsight remember to have a website designer build you a logo design website before you spend thousands on producing your tv ad. OK, for arguments sake lets say we had a website ready beforehand and now we've got something like 200 logos to produce, how are we going to cope? Outsource, my friend and soon like this article recommends - you'll be earning BIG BIG money baby. Damned right.

By: Horatio Farquaar / http://www.articlesphere.com

logo designers - the 5 Point Plan to Designing a Stunning Logo

If we had a dollar every time somebody gave us their opinions on what makes a great logo we'd be able to at least buy a round or two round The Porter during happy hour (providing they'd allow payment in dollars). So, are there any big secrets to putting together a recognisable brand? Indeed there are my friends, read on if you dare...

Sign of the times
Back in the seventies it was reasonable enough for logo designers to simply choose a fat bottomed psychadelic font, add a bit of glitter, stick on a few stars and hey presto you've got yourself a logo. These days clients are a little more discerning and demand you at least use felt tip pens or magic markers to colour in the fiddly bits. So how are things likely to look in ten years time? The canny logo designer always looks backwards as well as forwards and we wouldn't be surprised to see some of those retro fuzzy felt style logos making a reappearance come the year 2020.

A call to action
When you see some of the most striking logos in the street what do they shout out to you? 'Buy Me!', 'I'm Lovely - Eat me!' or 'I am a serious looking company and far too important for the likes of you?' You see, every logo says something about us and how we go about our business. If you are really serious about getting your message accross then hit people with a big dumb no-brainer of a logo and you'll not go too far wrong.

Know your market - intimately
Market research is the be all and end all of whether your logo design is going to have an effect or not. To really know your market you've got to get inside the mind of the person you are looking to attract with your design. If you're designing a logo for a perfume manufacturer, try walking around a department store and allow yourself to be sprayed by the orange faced women on the cosmetics counter to truely get an inkling of their way of life. If you're designing a confectionary logo, act like a proper fatty and slob out on the settee stuffing your face with chocolate bars while watching the telly. Knowing your clientelle will pay dividends in the long run.

Search and you will find
Where to get inspiration from? Well it can come from many unusual places. If you've run the creative juices dry wracking your brains trying to think of a novel design for yet another dreary company logo, go and have a creative dump. The khazi may not be the first choice for the aspirational graphic designer but you'd be surprised at how many eureka moments have occurred while sat upon the porcelain straining the onions.

Create a superior broad-based secure protocol
What? I hear you ask. Well the 5th - some would say scraping the barrel - point to our logo design masterclass, is talking up your logo design using some interminable marketing speak garaunteed to fill airtime if not exactly making any sense. It's quite acceptable to offer a client a simple helvetica based typed logo design just as long as you can express to them the need for minimal juxtaposition among the ever increasing commercial based prioptic competition they are up against, while keeping a straight face. so there you have it. I think that's cleared things up. if there's any questions be sure to read the next exciting installment...

By: Horatio Farquaar / http://www.articlesbase.com

how to be a good logo designer

I would like to discuss about a few tips on becoming a good logo designer. Being a good logo designer is not simply being good with logo design software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. It is about being good at understanding what branding is about and how it affects advertising and marketing.

When companies come looking for a logo design, the logo designer should be in a position to analyze the company, the industry, the competitors and brand principles in general to come up with concepts that work on the attributes of these factors. An effective logo should have an impact on its target audience. It should be able to deliver the intended message instantly. As they so often say, you have 4 seconds to grab your customers attention and when one sees your logo design they should be affected at some level almost immediately.
The problem with the current online logo design industry is that due to cut-throat competition and price wars due to fly-by-night companies mushrooming, genuine corporate identity companies are not in a position to get good logo designers and to invest the time it takes to create a good company logo. Sacrifices have to be made in order to pay the bills and keep the business afloat.

However even in such situations designers can follow some simple steps to ensure that they produce quality logo designs. These steps are by no means exhaustive nor are they intended to be the best possible advice. They are just a collection of ideas that I and other logo designers in Logo Design Works employ to be effective in creating logos.

1) Always ensure you understand what the client wants
It is very important to understand completely what the client is looking for. Some times clients do not have a clue as to how their logo should look. In such situations you will have more room to experiment and try out new ideas. But when a client has put some thought into their corporate identity, then it pays to listen to the client and not be shy about asking questions. If the client says they want to see some sort of a "pyramid" in the logo design, then it is your job to understand why and what of that request. Why does the client want to see the pyramid? What kind of pyramid would he/she like to see? 2D, 3D?

2) Always research a little on the industry in general
Before starting to put any thing on paper or on the screen, always spend at least 30 minutes researching the industry the client belongs to. What kind of companies are out there? A simple search on Google will reveal a bunch of companies in the same industry. Looking at their logos and their branding efforts will tell you about the current trends in that industry.

3) Always look at the competitor identities
It is also a good idea to check out the competition. This helps you identify the current trend so that you can see the similarities and come up with ideas that will make your client's logo stand apart. It will also help you realize what is working or not in that particular industry.

4) Try to comment on each of the concepts
I have noticed that when several concepts are presented to the client it always pays to comment each of them with notes of what each element in the logo design means. This helps the client see where you are coming from and also enhances the value of the concepts. Many times clients simply do not understand what a concept might mean and there fore would not like it.

By: Jeff Marsh / www.logodesignworks.com