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Turn Your Marketing Pieces into Marketing Masterpieces with These Five Design Techniques
Copyright 2005 Karen Saunders
It's almost 5 o'clock on Friday afternoon. Do you know where
your newest marketing pieces are? If you're a small business
owner, they may be buried on your desk because you've got so
many other important details to handle. Or they're still sitting
on your assistant's desk where she's staring at them hopelessly.
She's an admin assistant, for heaven's sake, not a designer, and
she knows what she's produced so far is not very memorable or
effective.
All of us would like to think our product is so good, our
services so unique, they'll simply sell themselves. Not so!
Strong branding, powerful images, compelling web pages and
outstanding marketing pieces make or break that upward sales
curve you crave so urgently. In today's market, your customers
and clients are influenced more than ever by the visual
presentation of your marketing pieces. If they are well
designed, they're likely to be read, remembered and respected.
Here are five simple, but essential tricks of the designer's
trade that you can use immediately, at little cost, and with
excellent results to profit you both short and long term.
1. Take advantage of quality clip art and stock photos Chances
are you're not an illustrator or photographer, but that
shouldn't stop you from using professional illustrations or
photos in your marketing piece. You can use clip art--sometimes
at a very low price--to enhance your layout. Check out the
Internet for sites that feature clip art or stock photo
libraries that provide a wide variety of quality and prices to
choose from. Use the same style of graphics throughout your
piece to create a consistent look.
2. Add dramatic contrast Using contrast means having clearly
apparent differences among the design elements that come
together on a page, business card, or computer screen. These
include contrasting colors, shapes, fonts, and sizes of text and
graphics. A high degree of contrast helps create dramatic
interest and draws the viewer's eye to specific areas of your
page. White space also provides contrast, aids legibility, and
gives the reader's eye a resting point. Controlling the amount
of white space you use affects the overall page design.
3. Repeat certain elements Good design calls for
repeating
certain elements throughout your piece to make the whole piece
come together visually. For example, use the same color, shape,
and size for all your bullets. Also make all your headers the
same size, color, and font. Go for more and repeat specific
graphic elements (e.g., boxes, banners, rule lines, etc.)
throughout the piece. A word of caution: When you review your
work, make sure you've used all of these design elements
consistently.
4. Pay attention to proximity Proximity refers to the exact
spatial relationships between elements. For example, you create
visual relationships between photos and their captions by
keeping the captions close to the photos. For subheads, a pro
positions them closer to the text below than the text above.
Apply this principle of exact spatial relationship to all other
graphic and text elements where appropriate. When you review
your work, make sure you've applied this spacing consistently
throughout.
5. Know when to use serif and sans serif fonts In general, when
you have a large amount of text, it is best to use a serif font
because it is easier to read than a sans serif font. Serifs are
the tiny horizontal strokes attached to the letters which help
the reader's eyes flow from letter to letter. Bold sans serif
(without serifs) are good for headlines and subheads because
they slow the reader down thus bringing more attention to each
word or concept. Some examples of serif fonts that are good for
body copy are: Times, New Century Schoolbook, Garamond and
Goudy. Some examples of sans serif fonts that are good for
headlines are: Arial Bold, Helvetica Black, Univers Bold and
Trade Gothic.
It's 9 o'clock Monday morning. You're smiling because you have
incorporated these important design elements into your marketing
strategy. You're ready to face a new week with vastly improved
opportunities to keep smiling at a growing bottom line.
About the author:
Karen Saunders is the author of the book, "Turn Eye Appeal into
Buy Appeal: How to easily transform your marketing pieces into
dazzling, persuasive sales tools!" Karen has helped thousands of
small businesses to increase their sales over the past 15 years
using her award-winning marketing design strategies. For more
free tips by Karen, visit http://www.MacGraphics.net .
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