Brand Design Blog, News and Ideas

I know I’ve said that you may never need a design book again with internet services such as Flickr around…

…But, if you’re stuck for gift ideas for the designer in your life. You could do worse than to purchase one of the great design publications from this list over at You the Designer.com

A blog I read recently asked the question:

Is good design just a formula?

In the situations he describes there are certainly formulas that work. Magazine cover and movie posters, often have a similar feel or structure. They might not all be pretty but they have had time to refine a design ‘that works’ for the market they are intended.

With the web, design has yet to reach a true working formula, Trends are moving towards solutions that work to fulfill their intentions, but we are yet to see a definitive design model that does all the things necessary to be great. Draw a reader, deliver a message, function well, be easy to use and in many cases, make a sale.

Design needs to carry a purpose. We should be designing to fill a requirement, whether that be function, communication or usability.

Design without purpose is simply artwork. Nice in and of itself, but it doesn’t fill a need.

Many designers see their work as an attempt to create a piece of art that appeals to their peers. When in actual fact they should be appealing to a specified target audience, who’s design sensibilities bear very little in common with their own.

Have a read and let me know what you think. I’ll be interested to hear your opinions.

Hi Guys and gals,

Do you love photoshop? …I do.

If you’re like me, then you’ll be happy to hear that I just stumbled across this blog post that contains 60 great little, free, photoshop tutorials.

I haven’t had a chance to check them all out, but the ones I had a quick look at, are definitely worth your time.

Have a look for yourself at: 60-advanced-adobe-photoshop-tutorials

If you have anything to do with web design or the internet, here’s a website that you really must bookmark.

Click here to view the Web Developer’s Handbook

I stumbled across this one this morning.

Is it a car? Is it a bike? You decide.

Either way it’s a exciting if not the most practical design.

The ‘Top Gear’ guys always do a great job in their reviews, so if you have time this one is certainly worth the watch.

BIKE OR CAR – video powered by Metacafe

Lists are all the rage on the internet. Everyone has a top 10 of this or a top 5 of that.

Here is another one for you.

What impressed me about this list, is the description that accompanies each link. It becomes far more useful than simply listing urls.

Check it out at: 99 Useful Resources for Graphic Designers

One of the major projects we’ve been working on over the last month is the 2008 Brisway Street Directory Cover and Point of Sale materials.

As part of the Ausway group of publications, Brisway is in world renowned company, partnering the Melway and Sydway Street Directories.

The push with this cover was to include major reference to the Australian Made quality of the product. Brisway is researched, designed, cartographically drawn, printed and bound right here in Australia. Very few publications of this size can say the same.

Working with our existing design from Melway and Sydway, we have completed the set by applying consistent branding now across all Ausway Projects.

You can find out more about the Ausway Group of Publications here.

Or, you can even purchase a copy of the 2008 Brisway online here.

While the design of this new airport is very impressive from an aesthetic point of view.

You have to ask yourself…Is the return on investment going to pay off on this one.

Every 4 years a country spends millions if not billions of dollars on impressing the world when holding the Olympic games.

I wonder if the return in tourism based on impressive visual effects would not be higher if the money was put towards service and staffing.

Let’s relate it back to business. Does great service or an impressive premise provide more referrals and increase your return on investment?

Check out more about China’s new airport here.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on forums and other blogs suggesting that business cards are no longer relevant in todays advertising.

Do I agree with this sort of statement?…Not at all.

Business cards are one of my most successful forms of marketing.

Other than referrals, business cards bring in the most new customers for my business.

Why do Business Cards Work?

The many reason is a simply one. You are attached to the business card when you hand it over.

A face to face conversation normally accompanies the presentation of a business card, meaning you’ve already had time to express to the prospective client your services, your sales messages, your personality and hopefully the reason you are giving the business card is because they have shown interest.

So is the business card really doing any work?

Yes. Once you’ve made a contact with a client in person they may not contact you straight away, so having your details on a memorial business card makes find your name and details straight forward.

I often have people contact me months later after a chance meeting at a BBQ or dinner party.

One point that comes up concerning the relevance of business cards in today’s age of communication technology.

Why not just add your details into the clients phone or PDA?

Sure, feel free to do this as well, BUT, a listing in a text based address book is going to be hard to find once a client has forgotten your name.

A business card carries branding as well as those precious contact details. The visual branding (logo, colours, company name and tag line) jog the memory and help your prospective client to place your name and phone number to what it is that you do.

But don’t people just throw business cards away?

People often throw business cards out as soon as they get home.

The trick is to design a business card that holds enough interest that the client thinks twice before throwing it in the bin.

Does the card look expensive? Does the card feel nice to hold? Is it interesting to look at? Is there something about this card that makes me want to hold onto it?

So, how do you create something of value in a business card?

Don’t use business card templates. If you want to make your card look and feel like everyone else, then go right ahead. Personally I want my business card to stand out in a clients mind. Using a template won’t give them the intensive to hold on to your details.

If you can’t do a brilliant design yourself hire someone to do it for you. Business cards have a very high return on investment when designed well. It’s worth spending a little extra to get it right.

Cheap printing will make you look cheap. The thickness and texture of the card. The colour. The clarity of the printing. All these things work towards making you look cheap or successful in the mind of a prospective client. You can still get great prices on printing that looks great, but make sure you do your research. The cheapest price is often the cheapest quality.

Make sure that your details are simple and easy to read. While it’s great to get creative with business cards and stationery. Make sure you always keep your eye on the point of creating a business card in the first place. A business card should always be about conveying your details. So, don’t make those details too small to read. Make sure you don’t have too much background interference, like photography, so the details become unreadable.

In keeping with the idea of making it easy to read. Don’t cram too much text onto one side of the card. This can also make it hard to read. Use both sides if necessary. Or, make firm decisions on whether your card really needs your home phone number, your entire service listing, does it even need your address. If a client can contact you successfully via, office phone, mobile, email and your website, that should be enough for them to get your postal address.

Business cards can be one of your most successful forms advertising and have fantastic return on investment.

Simply, take some time and create something of worth in a business card. You’ll come to see that even today, business cards are a relevant and powerful way to gain business.

While there is still great content in graphic design reference books, you may never need to purchase one again after looking at some of the functionality on flickr.com

Flickr is a photo gallery website. You can upload your photos and imagery free of charge and use it as storage or as a gallery that you can show your friends.

Sound cool, sure…but so what?

Well, the real power of flickr comes from the ability to tag keywords to your images.

For instance, if you have a screen grab of your website that’s just been redesigned, you’d tag it as ‘web design’. It then places your image into your web design category.

O.K. so that makes it easy to find sure but again…so what?

Not only can you view your images, but you can view everyone’s images. You can also do over all searches for certain tags, such as ‘web design’ and you’ll not only find your image but everyone other image that has been labeled the same.

Getting the picture?

There are thousands and thousands of great examples of great work you can view for inspiration and new ideas.

You can even create a slideshow based on these searches.

Check out this slideshow for Business Card design that I came across this week.

Pretty impressive right?

So go to flickr.com and try it out for yourself. Flickr has heaps of other great functions that I’ll talk about later so stay tuned.

If you come up with something great link to it in the comments area of this blog.