Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Color basics on and off screen

David Dresen, Director of Design, Logoworks

Hey, my logo doesn’t look the same on my website as it does on my business card! Why does my jpeg look different on my computer than it did on my designer’s computer? This print job sucks, it’s nothing like the last time!

Sound familiar? I’m sure many of you have asked yourself or probably asked your designer or printer these same questions. I know I’ve been on the receiving end of some of them myself, so let me try to address an issue that has great impact on your logo design, as well as how it looks across the many varied aspects of being viewed and displayed. Color theory and the understanding of how colors interact with one another, or what they mean, is a very involved subject. It covers far more ground than I can explain to you in one article, so let’s just try to cover some basics.

Most of us are familiar with the color wheel. On this wheel are all the visible colors we use on both computer and TV screens (RGB color, or Red-Green-Blue), and print color (CMYK, or Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black). There are three primary colors, and for every primary color there is an opposite color that is it’s compliment. The opposite colors are the ones that usually “look the best” or “feel good together.” Complimentary colors balance each other when used together, usually regardless of whether or not they are dark or light. What I mean by that is Red and Yellow being used together have a far bigger impact than choosing a specific value of red (light or dark). All other colors on the wheel correspond in a similar manner to their opposites, giving us all the visible colors our eyes can see.

This gives us a plethora of colors to use at our bidding and as a result we feel overwhelmed. We can’t figure out which colors look best, let alone which colors portray the feeling we want. Yes, colors are used to communicate and emphasize what we want people to “feel” when they view our products or identity. While non-complimentary colors usually convey a sense of aggressiveness or make us feel like they are “fighting” with one another, complimentary colors are just the opposite, and usually give us a sense of stability and cohesiveness. Certain color combinations are used in various business aspects, for example, the following colors portray a sense of nature.

If you wanted a more corporate look, then the following could be a suggestion.

How you choose your colors will have great impact on your design and what you want the viewer to feel when they look at your company and its image.

Besides the impact a color has on its viewer, understanding how they work with one another is also very important. Here are three aspects of color you should understand.

Harmonizing colors appear next to each other in the color wheel, and work well together, but when the value is too close to each other, they will appear “light or washed out.”

Complementary colors are separated by another color, and when printed or used next to each other, they can appear to “fight” or “jump.” If used apart from one another however, they can work well.

Contrasting colors are opposite of one another on the wheel, and provide high contrast, but will compete with one another if not used correctly.

When talking about RGB (computer screen) and CMYK (print) colors, there are multiple factors to understand as they are used in different situations. RGB color is formed from Red, Green and Blue. When they are combined, they form the color white as shown below. All computer monitors use this form of color. There are 256 variations of each color, and together they form roughly 17 million colors. This color mode is used only for computer monitors. CMYK or Process color is also known as four-color process. The colors respectively are; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This form of color is used in the printing arena, and all of the colors in the color wheel can be achieved by overlapping tints or percentages of each color. This process is by nature an opaque process, meaning the colors do not allow light through them like the RGB process does. When all the colors are combined, they form black as shown below. Color variations are achieved by printing tiny dots or “screens” over one another thus appearing as another color.

The most important thing to remember is that your logo will not look exactly the same on a monitor as it will when it is printed. In fact, it probably won’t look the same on your monitor as it does on your designer’s monitor. There are too many factors involved, mainly monitor settings and the program settings that created it, for there to be uniformity across the industry.

Now, if any of you are pressman, my hat goes off to you. I spent 18 years in the print industry, and most of that as a pressman myself, so I can say what I’m about to say and feel good about it.

If you’ve ever noticed business cards or brochures didn’t come out exactly how they looked when you reviewed them on your computer, remember that printing is very much an art, not an exact science. Printers, or “pressmen”, have to have an eye for detail and an understanding of color, physics, and mechanics to be very successful. The press doesn’t run itself, and although there are some amazing machines out there now the pressman still has to monitor the color and quickly be able to see the variations and subtleties of the process itself. Water, temperature, humidity, and acidity all come into play when printing. Each of these variables affect your color and the outcome of your job. Even if you have the same printer, the same press and the exact same environment as the last time your job was printed, you will receive variations in your job. It’s part of the package deal when you print. That’s actually what still makes printing an art.

Keep all this in mind when you start your next project or head to the printer. Just remember, once you have given your designer a “direction” on color, allow them to use their trained eye and experience to guide you the rest of the way through the process. Just as design is a skilled career, printing is also an art. Maybe cut them a little slack next time you’re there to discuss the “subtleties” in your print job.

Related Topics: Branding, Design, Graphic Design, Small Business    No Comments    

To Ad or Not to Ad

Dave Dresen, Director of Design, Logoworks

Yellow pages or newspaper? Magazine or flyer? What about door hangers, internet ads, paper inserts, postcards or even promotional SWAG? The options for advertising are endless, so how do you choose which media to use, or even more important, the style, use of color, or size of the advertising piece you are contemplating? Well I can tell you that how you design an advertising piece relies heavily on the end use or means of production. Here are a few pointers you need to keep in mind when deciding upon your marketing approach.

Who is your target audience? You really need to have an understanding of who your audience is and what is the most effective way of making an impact on them. It’s not just a matter of sending them a coupon in the mail and expecting them to swarm your business the next week. We all know that unless you receive something in the mail you are expecting, looking to buy, or interested in, you won’t spend more than 30 seconds looking at it. The fact of the matter is even if you are interested in the material, and are looking to purchase, 80% of you will still use it under the birdcage. The importance of understanding your target audience and then giving them something they will be interested in is key to your success.

What are the most effective means of reaching them? There are many ways to go about advertising, and there are multiple factors to consider within this category alone. I will go over the most important ones.

1.Cost – This seems to pop up in whatever we talk about, but it is something you must consider, and has a big impact on all aspects of advertising. You first must know and understand that advertising is not going to be your biggest expense to your company, but it will have one of the biggest impacts on it, second only to your product itself. “You have to spend money to make money” is the easiest way to explain the importance of advertising. Don’t cut corners with this aspect of your business! It may be tempting to just go with the cheapest and easiest route, but, as they say, you get what you pay for.

2. Media – The type of media you use to advertise with coincides with cost, but I want to talk about it on its own because it’s important. Media is the material you choose to print on and the avenue through which you choose to advertise. Each media requires a different approach. For example, a billboard needs to be eye-catching, and extremely concise, while a brochure can be more informative and in-depth. Or let’s say you are putting one ad in the local paper, and another in a local business magazine. You don’t want to use the same ad in both media outlets.

Hey, didn’t he talk to us about branding and the importance of consistency? Well, yes I have and I’ll explain what I mean. Your local newspaper uses lesser quality, lower grade paper than the magazine, for obvious reasons of cost and efficiency. They also have different target audiences. So a simpler ad with fewer colors and a general message will probably work better for a newspaper, while a magazine ad will allow for costlier materials, a more targeted message and richer design because magazines allow for higher quality prints and go to a smaller, more specific audience.

If you want your ad to stand out, you have to understand where it will be printed, who will be looking at it, and what your competition is doing.

3. Professional Design – You knew I was going to get to this eventually. There is no substitute for a professionally designed ad. We know the quality of ads in the phonebook or newspaper (no offense Vinny), but if you want a clean, professional layout you really need to have it done somewhere else. Using ten different fonts, having bold, italic, and underlined text in the same ad, and squeezing starbursts in wherever possible is probably not the direction you want to go. Even if you are running nothing but phonebook ads, there is no reason you can’t have a nice, clean, professional design. This is where the branding of your product continues.

Don’t settle for the design you can get from the phone book company. You can easily have your designer do the ad and send it to them. Your ad will stand out from the competition if you get it professionally designed, especially if your competitors just went with the phonebook design department for their ad designs. I guarantee it! Every call that ad generates is one your competitors did not, and you’re that much closer to that Road King Custom or Bimmer you’ve always wanted.

It comes down to this; there are so many different ways to reach out to your customers that it really depends on how much you want to spend, but the one constant through all of this is the necessity of a professional design. Bill Bernbach, an advertising pioneer, once said that, “you can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.”

Understanding what your customer wants, how to reach them, and then how to deliver that message in a manner that will produce the most conversion is something you need to work through with your design/marketing team. If you don’t have one, or aren’t sure if you have one we would love to help you out.

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The Golden 5 of Stationery Design

David Dresen, Director of Design, Logoworks

I appreciate your unrelenting desire for punishment. It seems that there are some people out there that are actually reading these articles, and between you, my editor, and myself, I have a following of at least three. Thank you for your time and support. I addressed the different types of logos last month, and why or why not you should choose a specific type. This month I’d like to address the next step in the process: your stationery design.

You now have a logo that represents you, your company and your future. Congratulations, now what? How do you take that image, that first impression, and make it work for you? How do you continue to establish that important brand? The next step in doing so involves you personally. It is your business card and stationery design. This step should not be considered lightly since your business card is sometimes the very first impression people will receive of your company. The design should solidify your brand that was created through the logo, and also provide vital information for your customers to get a hold of you. Before you start to think of every item you sell or every service you provide, STOP!

The same design principles that I have talked about in every article still apply here. A clean, professional, functional look is vital. I have a list of 5 items you need to consider before you start to add all that clutter to your business card and stationery design.

1. Lets start with the biggie first, MONEY. How much are you willing to spend? This topic alone could be an article in itself because of the multiple factors involved in the process. I might have to address this in a future article, but for now, here is a quick sampling of items you need to consider.

· Is the design a standard size? This applies to both the letterhead and business card.

· How many colors are you using?

· Are you going to utilize both sides of the letterhead and business cards?

· Are there any bleeds, meaning does the ink go off the edge of the page?

· Is there going to be embossing, foiling or die-cutting?

· The stock you’re printing on plays a big role in the cost. Don’t use any stock that is a special order from your printer, unless you understand the cost involved.

If you have money to burn, take advantage of some of the fun things technology has for you, but don’t get carried away!! Remember, a strong, clean design will always be better than a cluttered, expensive one.

2. How much is too much? The use of SPACE in design is probably one of my favorite design elements to use, and one that the customer doesn’t usually understand. “There is too much wasted space.” “I could easily use that space for more products, or listing all my services.” “How about using that area for putting all my credentials and certifications.”I hear all these things. But before you have this conversation with your designer, consider the following: White space, or space in general, is vital in a strong design. Allowing elements to stand out without blasting them at the viewer through color or size is very beneficial. A cleaner design will not only allow the viewer to recognize important elements faster, but it will also entice them to actually look at something longer. What a concept; someone actually looking at the business card you just gave them!

3. This may reduce my readership down to two, but I have to bring up WATERMARKS.

I have to admit, there might be a use for these, but there is definitely no excuse for using a watermark in more than one color. First, a watermark by name is not meant to be readily seen. If you go and get a piece of cotton letterhead stock, and look at it through the light, you will see something magnificent, an “actual watermark”. That is how they are intended to be used, something very subtle, elegant and clean. Keep watermarks to a minimum, and only use a single color when you do.

4. Does the design interfere with FUNCTIONALITY? That funny text in the middle of the piece of paper is there for a reason. The sender usually has something important to communicate to the reader. A good design should NEVER interfere with the message being delivered. The design elements are there to compliment and strengthen, not distract, the reader.

5. A good design will incorporate KEY ELEMENTS of the logo into the design. This can play a major role in the branding of the identity the designer has created. If done correctly, you will be able to push your branding beyond just using the whole logo or mark. For example, the Bahamas logo uses a stylized leaf pattern, and that leaf pattern is used to expand their brand throughout their collateral material. The result had been an extremely strong, impressionable marketing campaign that has helped them boost their tourism revenue.

These are just a few of the things to be considered when starting your stationery package design. I want to re-emphasize the theme that I have established in all my articles, that of a clean, professional look. There is no amount of money that can make up for a poor design that in turn establishes a poor impression on your customer. Your stationery design is meant to be an extension of your brand, but more importantly, retain its functionality.

Related Topics: Design, Graphic Design, Small Business    No Comments