4 Tips To Create A Brand Identity With Unique Designs

Are you ready to create a brand identity for your business? If so, your design has a significant impact on this. The pressure to create a design that represents your business’s values, and that offers commercial appeal often feels like a tall order to fill. 

While it can be complicated, if you follow a structured plan, you can avoid speed bumps and find all the best ideas. Keep reading to ensure your brand highlights your business and helps you create a memorable identity. 

1. Do Research Ahead Of Time 

No business operates in a vacuum. However, it is pretty amazing how many business owners forget this when they take on a design project. Some dive into new design ideas right away, completely neglecting the fact that their brand operates in a competitive market. 

If you want to make sure your brand looks great and make sure you do not make the mistake of mimicking an existing design, you have to research what your competition is doing. This is going to help ensure you use the graphic design principles that work for you and that you create a unique design that fits your brand. 

2. Understand Your Niche 

You have found out what your competition is doing and making sure your design is not repeating what has already been done. Now that you have this information, it is time to focus on what you want to do. 

The tricky part of this is that you have to make sure that your brand fits in the market sector and that it is relevant to the competition. The goal is to ensure your brand is unique and superior to the competition. You need to create a design that feels unique and fresh. 

At this point, the best thing you can do is to focus on your unique selling point – USP. What makes you different than the competition? Take some time to figure out what this is to stand out from everyone else that is offering what you offer. 

3. Get Your Ideas On Paper 

If someone encounters your brand for the first time, the first visual thing they are going to see is the brand’s logo. For most brands, the logo is a smaller interpretation of everything your brand stands for. You can interpret a lot of information about your business from the logo you create. From the font choice to the aspect of color psychology, there are a lot of factors to consider. 

Take some time to jot down all your ideas, font options, and colors to ensure you get a rough idea of what you want. Once you have several logo ideas, you can start narrowing down the options and find the one that works best for you and your business.

4. Get Professional Help 

When it comes to creating a unique design for your brand, there are a lot of things to think about. If you want to make sure you get it right, you must use the tips here and, in many cases, seek out help from the professionals. Professionals will help ensure you get the unique, quality design you want and need and that it helps create an identity that is recognizable, regardless of what you offer. 

With help from the professionals, you can feel confident you will get the design your brand wants, needs, and deserves and that your potential customer is looking for. Just find the right design agency to ensure that you see your vision come to life. Being informed is the best way to ensure the desired results are achieved.

Best Ideas To Generate Income As A Graphic Designer

Graphic design is a popular industry that many people keep on joining. One has to go through specific courses to be considered for the best jobs in this industry. Even though you have a regular job as a graphic designer, you can still earn some passive income on the side. This can help you stay afloat even when the regular job is not helping you realize professional growth. Try the following ideas to earn income as a graphic designer. 

Blogging 

If you enjoy writing, you can make some passive income from it. You should consider creating a blog that you can use to share content. The blog can grow with time if you work consistently on it. This can help you capture people's attention. You need to focus on posting the right content to attract a lot of people to your blog. Instead of only focusing on including texts, you should include images from time to time since they are more compelling. 

An excellent blog can help you get paid sponsorship from a brand or individual. If you don't like writing, you can still create a blog and focus on podcasts. Since many people nowadays like listening to podcasts, you can make money from this. Ensure that your content focuses on graphic design topics so that you can attract the right audience. 

Freelance 

Doing freelance graphic design can also help you earn extra income. You should use your creative skills to make some extra cash. Consider publishing some of the artworks you may have created before on a crowdsourcing site. You can even create stock templates, a logo, or graphics. Developing your own profile on a crowding sourcing site should not be complicated. Finding clients and project has become simple, you can find freelance graphic designer jobs on dormzi and similar freelance community or graphic design community being part is vital to your career. 

You can expose yourself to a broader marketplace by engaging in a crowdsourcing site. Such platforms also organize design contests that you can engage in. Making use of such opportunities can help you earn more revenue from your graphic designs. People who engage in such contests are required to perform different tasks such as creating business card designs, brochure designs, or a logo. 

Give Online Lessons 

You can also consider sharing everything that you know regarding graphic design with people through an online platform. Giving online lessons will help you earn some extra cash and inspire other people looking to join this industry. In this digital era, many people prefer e-learning over the traditional form of education. You should therefore consider giving online courses to students of graphic design or even hosting a specialized webinar. 

To succeed in this, you need to take your time to create quality teaching material and plan how you are going to shoot video. Though beginning to give online classes requires a lot of work, it can help you gain significant income. 

Establish A Workshop 

If you have been doing graphic designing for years, you can earn extra income by establishing a workshop. Look for adequate space that you can use to create your own studio. If you don't have enough space, you can still achieve this by utilizing a university library. A workshop allows you to meet new people and organize live sessions. Apart from making money, this can be quite rewarding since it will enable you to improve people's knowledge. 

A workshop can also help you get different business opportunities since it can increase your exposure. 

Come Up With An E-Book 

If you have excellent writing skills, you should consider creating an e-book. This gives you the chance to express your views and ideas regarding different issues. You can start with writing quality articles on various graphic design topics. Ensure that the articles incite action so that you attract a lot of readers. 

Consider Print-On-Demand Services 

Many graphic designers use this option to make some extra cash. You can use some of your designs to make different merchandise for customers and even companies. Some of the products that you can work on include notebooks, shirts, mugs, or décor. Adding your designs on such products can help you increase your reach.

5 Tools To Make Sure Your Blogs Are The Best

WordPress has a plethora of plugins and additional tools to help your blog blossom. Still, perfection has no limits. That is why we have selected 5 of the best resources and tools to make you more productive, your texts more magnetic and your blog insanely successful! 

1. WePapers 

Even experienced writers need an extra pair of eyes to proofread their texts. It is great if you have a willing colleague or a designated editor but what if you are on your own and automated tools just don’t cut it? That is when services like WePapers come in handy. 

This writing service specializes in research paper help for college students, yet they do proofreading, editing, and content writing for blogs and websites as well. They can also help you out when you don’t have enough time to flesh out an article for your blog, you are low on ideas or just don’t have enough competence to tackle a particular topic. Simply outsource the post, set the deadline and you will get your excellent unique content hassle-free. 

2. Grammarly 

There are quite a lot of decent text editors out there, but aside from the top grammar checker, Grammarly offers the widest array of tools in its free mode, so it’s increasingly popular. Apart from seeking out the typos, out-of-place words, grammatical errors, omitted commas, and other such basics, it has readability, clarity, and goal-achieving score. 

Readability score assesses the average lengths of words and sentences, clarity score tackles the wordiness and complicated structures, and goal-achieving includes such parameters as the audience, tone of voice, intent, domain, and formality of your text. Pretty versatile if you ask me. The best bit is that you can work either in the app directly or install a free browser extension that seamlessly works with WordPress. You can simply type your post into the WordPress window and get an immediate feedback. 

3. Yoast SEO 

Search engine optimization is a necessary aspect of blogging, like it or not. For a beginner, who is only dipping his toes into the waters of SEO, Yoast is a perfect tool. It is simple, free (with a paid Premium option) and user-friendly. Install the plugin and write a post in WordPress as you would before. Now scroll down and look at your Yoast scores (readability, focus keyword, slug, title, etc.) If anything isn’t a happy green color, it needs your attention and isn’t perfect SEO-wise. 

However, this doesn’t mean that your text must check all the boxes. Sometimes you don’t want a keyword in the first paragraph to keep your tone of voice. Sometimes you must have lower than recommended keyword density to sound natural. It is fine – Yoast is not a rule, it is just a second opinion. It gives you an insight on how algorithms and bots see your text. You still write for people, but keep those guidelines in mind. 

4. Google Keyword Planner 

Okay, while we are still on the topic of keywords and SEO, let’s touch on keyword planning. Keyword research is a necessary step in content creation if you plan to make blogging a source of income or become an authority in your niche and build an audience. Of course, you can create great content without any knowledge of SEO and blog outreach, but to make your blog discoverable you must learn the ropes. This will help you to include the words that your potential audience will use while searching for the specific kind of content, thus leading them to you! 

Google Keyword Planner allows you to choose seed keywords and then provides a list of suggested search terms along with their search volume, so you can pick not only the most relevant but also the most popular and promising ones. No more guesswork. 

5. Canva 

Text is the soul and essence of your blog but to make it appealing and comprehensible for the audience you need to add visual content – we all know that. Yet this content must be meaningful, be an organic part of the text, and add value to it. So breaking up your sheet of text with stock images won’t do the trick. 

Canva, on the other hand, will. This is a platform for creating inorganics, charts, headers, and all kinds of custom images. It has various templates for all possible social media and you absolutely don’t have to be a designer to create unique and engaging images there!

9 Graphic Designer Skills Artistic Entrepreneurs Need

Forging ahead on your career path can fraught with bumps and challenges. This can be especially true for a career involving creativity. 

For some careers, like a teacher, for example, you get out of high school. You go to college. You student teach and look for a full time teaching position. 

Many careers follow a very linear path to get settled in them. Graphic design might not be quite like that.

Graphic designers are often creative souls who start by making some logos and getting experience. They know computers and help out some friends with branding. 

There are great professional opportunities in graphic design with the right set of skills. If you're interested in graphic design and want to pursue a career what skills should you have to land a job in the field?

Read on to learn about graphic designer skills needed for this career. 


1. Photoshop and Adobe Programs

Carpenters have a hammer and wood. Stylists have scissors and combs. 

Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator are the same for graphic designers. Nearly every graphic design job in the field will need you to be well versed and skilled in using these programs.

If you don't feel confident and well-versed in the use of these programs, consider taking a class. 

Spend some time working with them on your own. Learn the ins and outs of the program so you become a fluent user. 


2. Other Print Programs, Microsoft Office

The more diverse your skills are with any available design programs, the more marketable you become. 

Programs like Canva or Snapseed offer various platforms for graphic design. You won't know what programs your potential employer uses. The more you know about a variety of programs the better. It definitely helps to be a Canva pro though.

Also, be well acquainted with the suite of Microsoft Office programs, especially PowerPoint and Publisher. 


3. Typography

This is at the core of what graphic designers do, especially in today's technology-driven world. Typography is the art of letters and fonts. It's taking words and creating them in a visually pleasing way or as an art form. 

Graphic designers need to know the technical elements of typography. This broadens their ability to be hired. 

With so many companies, online and as brick and mortar locations, looking for branding and logos, this is an important skill to promote yourself as a graphic designer. 


4. Coding

Graphic designers do not need to have the same skills as a computer programmer. They don't even need to act as tech support. 

Having said that, as a part of a team involved in website design, having some skills in HTML will be very helpful. As a graphic designer, it is likely that many, if not most, of your client base will have websites.

HTML is the coding used to run web browsers. This is good knowledge to have to support you as a graphics person. 

Additionally, knowing some things about Java or C+++ may not be necessary but again, helpful. 


5. Branding

As a graphic designer, one important thing you will do for your clients is to help them to visually create their brand. Branding helps a business do marketing and gain customers through brand recognition. 

The designer's role is to help create a logo, decide on colors for the brand. They will help to take that logo and those colors and to use it different ways to support the brand. 

The graphic designer can even help to show how printed color versus digital color will play out in branding and marketing campaigns. 


6. Creativity

Many graphic designers end up in this career because they are creative souls who evolved to it. They have a creative brain or a passion for art. They are visual and can imagine a look and carry it out.

Creativity isn't necessarily something you can teach but it's significant for the job. 

Graphic designers have the ability to use that creativity to transform ideas into graphics and brands that help their clients in ways they couldn't imagine. 

All those who describe themselves as "creatives" have slumps or ups and downs with their creativity. It's important to do things to foster and fuel your creativity. 

Watch closely what is happening in the field. Look around you all the time for inspiration.


7. Communication

While this is an ancillary skill, it is nonetheless an important one. As a graphic designer, you will not only have to create for clients but also communicate with them.

The ability to effectively communicate those visual ideas is key to guiding clients through the design process. While a client might not understand how the designer creates graphics, they want you to communicate how it will help them.


8. Goals of Design

Like creativity, this is somewhat intrinsic. As a graphic designer, you need to understand the purpose and goal of creating a graphic design. 

Your role is to visually communicate ideas, messages, campaigns, slogans, etc. Your role is not only to draw things on the computer. 

Understanding the "why" of design is key to successfully creating good design. Know your purpose and role as a designer.


9. Established Design Process

Along with the big overarching goals of design, you have to have a personal process for creating design.

As a graphic designer, you need to know the goal for the design. What objective are you trying to meet for your client?

What steps do you follow in creating the design? What goals do you have to help meet through the process of design?

Understand how you approach the process of design and have a plan for how you get information and achieve success for the client through the design process. 


Graphic Designer Skills to Get You Hired

As a young graphic designer hoping to break into the field, it is smart to be aware of how you can best market yourself. Help yourself by creating a resume and portfolio that highlights these skills for potential employers. 

Having these 9 graphic designer skills will surely put you on the path to success in the field of graphic design. Now it is time to design!

7 Types Of Marketing Diagrams You Should Know

Marketing diagrams communicate complex ideas in an understandable way. At their simplest, marketer diagrams can be used to convey how a business operates; at their most complicated, they can map out the production of goods for international trade between companies whose economies span the whole globe. Marketing diagrams are essential for pitches, presentations, reports, online content, and infographics among other important uses.

This article looks at the different types of diagrams you may come across when writing reports or proposals and explains what they show. Make sure to read the entire article as it’ll help you pick the right diagram for your next marketing report. 

Flow Diagrams

Compared with other graph types, flow diagrams are useful for showing how items flow through a process or how information flows between people within an organization. They can also indicate movement in time such as day-to-day activities. 

Flow diagrams all follow similar principles: Each section is separated by a bold line with dots along its length, and the key information is written directly over the relevant section. The first or title box contains a brief description of what is to be shown like The Flow of Work on an Assembly Line. 

The subsequent boxes each show different but related aspects of this process such as two consecutive stages of assembly-line work. Arrows are then drawn to indicate direction; one arrowhead for flow in one direction and two for flow that moves back and forth. 

Process Maps 

Process maps are not dissimilar to flow diagrams. They also communicate how items move through a process, although often without the indication of time given by arrows. 

There are usually no more than six steps involved in any one process map; the name of each stage is written in a box along with its relationship to the others before arrows are drawn to show movement. The stages may be interconnected by lines or separated by dotted lines, depending on what level of detail is being displayed. 

Org Charts 

Organizational charts display the structure of an organization in pictorial form, showing who reports to whom and who has which responsibilities. 

As the name suggests, org charts are divided into different boxes that relate to the different levels of management within the company. Names are then placed next to each box, either inside it if they belong only at that level or outside it if they have responsibility for more than one section. 

Arrows indicate reporting relationships between members of staff. An arrowhead pointing towards a named person indicates that person reports directly to whoever is named, while an arrowhead pointing from a person to their boss indicates that the person has responsibility for whoever is named. The ideas may sound confusing but it’s important that you keep these in mind for your next presentation. 

As with process maps, dotted lines between org charts indicate that the section being described does not have a manager of its own who reports into another chart. 

Functional Charts

Functional charts map out the responsibilities of different people at different levels in an organization, in much the same way as org charts do. However, while they follow very similar principles in terms of data presentation, they are still different graphs. Each step is described by its own box and relationships between steps are shown with arrows. 

Functional charts tend to include more information than their process-based cousins. They also tend to use wider boxes containing large amounts of text. 

A functional chart's name is usually written in bold inside the first box; below this are two or three key areas that affect performance. Underneath these headings are smaller boxes that detail tasks within each category. These are followed by yet more boxes that detail the specific work done by each role. 

Chronological Charts 

Compared with other diagram types, these show how activities progress through time, usually with a line for each stage. 

Data may be shown in the form of bars next to the timeline. They could stand for quantities produced or resources used, for example. 

As with process and functional diagrams, chronological charts are named after their key element. This is written in bold inside the first box, then two or three main areas affecting performance are described along with tasks within them before smaller sections describe work undertaken. Arrows denote causality between stages. The earlier stages affect later ones directly while parallel stages do not interact. 

Matrix Diagrams 

Matrix diagrams are used to show how different elements are related. They are very useful for visualizing workloads or budget allocations as well as the links between different departments or job roles. 

A matrix diagram usually contains two axes: one showing the rows of data and the other showing the columns. This makes it is easy to see at a glance where any given piece of information should be situated. 

For example, an org chart may use red lines indicating responsibility for each box to key in the information next to the appropriate place on a matrix. 

Network Diagrams 

Network diagrams can represent projects, internal workings inside an organization or even informal groups within society at large. Whatever they represent, they are all fundamentally similar because they map out networks of connections. 

A network diagram usually has a central box inside which has the name of the section being described. From this core emerge lines that branch out into circles representing people or groups. These, in turn, connect to other circles that represent other people or groups. 

Lines between circle pairs indicate ways in which two entities interact with each other. Dotted and solid lines may be used to distinguish between informal and formal connections, for example. 

Make Your Marketing Diagrams

Finding out which marketing diagram is right for you can feel a bit tricky. Fortunately, with Venngage, you can create any of these marketer diagrams with ease. Check it out to design a professional marketing diagram today!

Quality And Efficiency: Understanding GoGoPDF In Various Ways

PDF or portable document files have been useful for years. With the situation everyone is experiencing today, more and more people depend online in looking for a job. If you work or take classes online, there's no doubt that these files are the most helpful tool you'll be having. From keeping confidential files to being a tool for education, PDFs plays a significant role in the online industry today. 

PDFs are versatile files. That's why most people that are working online work with these files as well. It's not just that, because you can also use PDF to exchange thoughts or communicate with someone. In fact, there are tons of things you can do with PDF files. So, if you want to utilize them better, here's a tool that could help you achieve your goal. 

What Is GoGoPDF? 

As mentioned, there are various ways to use portable document format files. With its nature, you'll be able to optimize, split, merge, compress, organize, and convert PDF files. But before you can do those things, you have to consider having a PDF tool. GoGoPDF is an online PDF tool, which is among the best online PDF converter as well. With this, you will be able to utilize every process and feature they have. 

GoGoPDF currently sits on the top lists of the best online PDF tools you can find on the internet. With its help, you'll be able to do many things when it comes to PDF files. This tool isn't just one of the best for a show, but they also provide top quality and efficiency in their services. That would actually ensure that you always get the outcome you've expected. 

Is GoGoPDF Guaranteed Safe To Use? 

A lot of people are actually worried about using a random application on the internet. Well, you already know that the internet is a vast and complex network, which can be a dangerous place for your data and files. Everyone can understand if you're just cautious when uploading your files on the internet. But it's different with GoGoPDF. They take pride in the safety of their customers. 

You don't have to worry about uploading your files or data in their system as they're currently equipped with top-notch security. One of the best things about using GoGoPDF is that they continue to respect their customers' privacy and confidentiality. If you want to know more, you can actually visit their website as they have their own customer privacy policy. 

Using their services may require you to upload some of your data or files, but no need to worry about it getting corrupted, stolen, or infected with Malware or Virus. Once you're done using the features, their system will immediately delete all of your recorded data from their website. That means they would wipe all corresponding data permanently. 

Can You Access GoGoPDF Anytime And Anywhere? 

One advantage of using GoGoPDF as your primary online PDF tool is that it supports various platforms. That means you can use their services and features without any problem. No matter what device or platform you have, you can access the website anytime and anywhere. You can actually use tools and platforms such as iPhone, IOS, Smartphone Android, Tablet, iPad, Linux, Mac, and Windows. 

However, you need two things before you can utilize their features and services. You need to have a device and a stable internet connection. The stability of your connection is essential, as it will be your key to a successful outcome. Once you have both requirements, it doesn't matter if you have a hectic schedule because you can still use their services for a limited time. 

Since their website is online-based, there's no need for you to install any software. The good news is that their services are free as well. 

Takeaway 

You can find PDFs in almost every corner of the internet, and for you to work with them better, you need to find the most suitable PDF tool online. So, If you ever found yourself looking for that, you might want to check out GoGoPDF. It doesn't just provide you a safe and secure network, but it could also give you the quality and efficiency you're looking for.

8 Tips For Smart Logo Design

Launching a new business or rebranding the one you have now?

For either scenario, designing the ultimate logo should be a priority. In that one image, people can pick up what your business is about and what kind of emotions or beliefs you want to enforce. 

Not sure how to design a logo? Not sure what may or may not work?

Don't fret, we have got your back. Read our logo design tips to make the most effective and memorable one yet!


1. Design in Monochrome

To design the ultimate logo, you have to start with a strong design. Unfortunately, many designers fall into the trap of making a logo in color. 

Guess what could happen if you had to print that logo in black and white? You might have to do so for a letterhead, for marketing purposes, or monochrome displays. If you didn't plan for that, the logo might look like a jumbled mess without the colors. 


2. Keep It Scalable

Never forget that your logo has to look good regardless of its size. Some designers make the mistake of putting too many details in their logos. It might look good on a website or billboard but it won't make any sense when shrunk down to fit on a business card or flyer. 

This is why it is better to design a logo using vector illustration tools, like Adobe Illustrator. You will get the chance to shrink or enlarge a logo before finalizing it and test how it looks in both extremes.


3. Incorporate Brand Identity

Does your brand embody communication, the same way Twitter does? Does it focus on promoting joy, such as McDonald's? If you take a moment to check their logos, they both incorporate brand identity into their designs. 

You need to do the same thing.

Break down your brand's identity to one, solid concept, and then use that as the pillar for your logo design. If you can elicit the same emotion from the design, you know you've got an effective logo.

Not sure how to represent your brand with your logo? Learn how to better incorporate brand identity into your logo with the help of our marketing company. 


4. Double Entendre

Take a moment to look at the logo for FedEx. Do you see the hidden arrow between the E and X? Check out the arrow underneath the Amazon logo too and marvel at how it goes from A to Z, symbolizing how Amazon sells basically everything. 

These are visual double entendres. Logos with hidden meanings and visuals can go a long way in making them memorable. 

However, make sure you don't end up with a negative double entendre. Some designers don't realize their logos feature offensive imagery. A few of the worst offenders include the logos for the Arlington Pediatric Center, A-Style, and Locum.


5. Keep It Simple

Don't over-complicate things when designing a logo. It might be tempting to stuff as much imagery and text on it but the best logos are the ones people can remember quickly.

Think about the simplicity and efficiency people associate with the logos for Nike, Adidas, the Nintendo Switch, and Apple. 

Simple logos are easy to remember, easy to identify, and easy to market. They're also easier and cheaper to print because of the fewer colors involved. This is why the Apple logo shifted from using different colors to sticking with white.

Is it possible to use a complex logo and still find success?

Yes, but it's a rare case. One of the best examples of this at work is Starbuck's. It's quite complex but the elegant design and colors make it easy to recall.


6. Make It Active

Have you ever seen Twitter's original logo? It featured a bird perched on a twig. Take the time to look at it now. 

Arrows, shake lines, or drawings of action and movement in a logo can help achieve similar effects.

The new logo depicts the bird in flight. This gives the illusion of motion. A static logo won't be as effective because it'll look flat and dull. 

Making your logo active promotes a sense of momentum. It prevents people from assuming that your company is stale and too old-fashioned. 


7. Colors Matter

Don't simply slap colors onto your logo because you think they look good. Every hue can evoke a different emotion so take your time to plan your logo colors. 

Use the psychology of colors to your advantage. 

If you want to evoke a sense of excitement and joy, for example, you can focus more on the colors red and yellow. Do you want to give people formal and business-centric vibes before they even read the text? You can do so by utilizing black, silver, and white. 


8. Choose Typography Carefully

Your choice of typography can make or break your logo. Coca-cola has an iconic logo and it's stayed almost the same way for decades due to its memorable custom-made font. 

Remember that your choice of fonts can alter how the logo looks when scaled to a different size. It can be the deciding factor on whether or not people can read the logo. 

Avoid common and cliche font like Comic Sans or Times New Romans. Use fonts that embody the brand's core identity but is also unique. If needed, take the time to make a custom font from scratch.


Design the Ultimate Logo Today!

Remember that your logo is more than an image. It carries your company's identity and ideals. It's the ultimate representation of your business, crammed into one image. 

Now you can achieve that and more with these ultimate logo tips. Design the ultimate logo today for your business or brand.

Of course, building a good logo is only the beginning. You have to start shifting to build your brand and implement key marketing strategies. The good news is we've got you covered, so feel free to read more of our blogs and guides here, today! We have a wide variety of articles on business branding and logos.

A Guide to Classy On-Brand Product Catalog Design

One of the most impactful designs that you'll make as a business owner or as the marketing guy in your company is the design of your product catalog.

The right product catalog design will entice everyone who picks up your brochure to convert into a customer. The wrong one will serve as anti-customer repellant.

In this article, we've got a simple guide for you to follow so you know exactly how to create the kind of product catalog design that attracts and converts customers at a high deal value.


Pick the Right Size and Format

First things first: it's important that you pick the right size and format to use in your product catalog. Finding the right balance of size is the most crucial step and can often be the difference-maker in someone just glancing at your catalog and someone actually picking it up and perusing it.

You don't want your product catalog to be too big and unwieldy. If that's the case, then your catalog design will scream to viewers that your catalog is cumbersome, unnecessarily long, and difficult to read. None of these negative connotations are ones that you want crossing your customers' minds.

At the same time, you don't want your catalog design to be too small, either. Particularly if you're in an industry that has a lot more elderly buyers, some older folk can be turned off by a smaller-sized catalog, thinking that it will have small, difficult-to-read font sizes.

Once you've picked the right size, it's time to move on to format. The format will depend heavily on how many products you have to showcase in your catalog. If you have a fair few, then consider going with a full-on, book-style catalog. But if you have only a couple of products to showcase in the catalog, then consider using a tri-fold or something similar.


Image Quality Is Key

Remember the proverb, "a picture tells a thousand words." In no scenario is that truer than with a product catalog. At the end of the day, people don't want to hear or read about your product. They just want to see it in action.

By taking high-quality pictures of your products, you can ensure that your target audience has a good understanding of what your product looks like and how it functions.

Don't be afraid to pay a little more and invest in a professional photographer and photography studio to take those pictures. If you don't know what you're doing, then your own photography could hurt your business if placed in your brochure. This is because if your catalog has unprofessional pictures, that can lead customers to think that your product itself is made unprofessionally.

Thus, it's very much worth it to spring for the professional photographer who does this for a living. You'll certainly see a return on your investment in terms of more customers buying your products after seeing the pictures.


Limit Font Usage

Any product catalog that has too many fonts vying for attention simply screams unprofessionalism. You shouldn't be trying to use a gimmicky collection of fonts in order to entice new customers; your products and the pictures of your products should largely speak for themselves.

Rule of thumb: if your product catalog is beginning to look like a NASCAR car, it's time to rethink your design and font choices.


Leverage High Quality Paper

There's a difference in the way good quality and low-quality paper feels. Always spring for the heavier stock of good quality paper, because that simple sense of touch can have a huge impact on whether or not the buyer in question purchases your product.

The higher quality the paper is, the more that your prospective customers will think that your business operates at a high level. Touch is a very important sense; use it in your catalog design to your company's advantage.


Hire a Professional Copywriter

Writing is no easy task — you might be the best salesman in the world in person, but that doesn't mean that those sales skills will automatically translate over in the written word. In order to avoid any major copywriting gaffes, it's important to ensure that you hire a professional copywriting service like Bootstrap Business public relations that does this kind of thing for a living.


Be Clear With Calls to Action

Remember what your goal is with the brochure: for the prospect who's browsing through the products to buy one of those products. To that end, you have to make sure that you give the prospect the next steps for him or her to go through once they finish browsing the brochure.

If you operate a business that sells high-end machinery, then make sure you include contact info for and a call to action to contact one of your top sales reps. If you operate a business that sells clothing, then make sure that you have a number where customers can make calls to order clothes or a link to a website where the customer can order the same.

If you don't have a call to action in your catalog, then you're simply wasting your brochure. People will pick it up, read through it, and maybe even get a little excited about the products. But if you don't actually give them concrete next steps for them to take action and convert into customers, then only a very small percentage will become real customers.


A/B Test Your Results

Last but not least, remember that testing is everything. You shouldn't merely settle for the very first design that you come up with. Remember that there are a multitude of different factors at play that can influence the conversion rate of your brochure.

Come up with a few different iterations of the design, wording, and product imagery. Test them by setting each type out for customers to look through, and assessing the conversion rate of each one. Take into account not only how many customers converted, but also the average deal size they converted at. Then, you'll have a good idea of which product catalog designs work best for your industry and your company.


Product Catalog Design Made Simple

With this concrete guide to product catalog design in your hand, you're all ready to go out and build your own high-conversion product catalog.

For more business advice, be sure to check out the rest of the website. Visit the Marketing and Business sections of the Frugal Finance blog right now!

4 Web Design Styles And Trends To Watch For

Design is one of the most important aspects of building any website. Without a good, easy-to-navigate website a lot of people won't give you the time of day, meaning less traffic and fewer repeat visitors.

If you want your website to look great and drive traffic, it's important to stay with the trends and look to the future of web design. Here are five important web design styles and trends to pay attention to in in the modern era.


1. Big Lettering

It's all about big typography in today's day and age. The trend has been catching a lot of steam lately, with more websites opting for big, bold text that sometimes even takes up an entire page. 

Large text instantly draws the visitors' attention to it and will stick in their heads better than small, insignificant text. The larger the text the larger the importance that will be placed on it. Don't be afraid of making your text large; chances are if you're going too small, your visitors will feel overwhelmed by the information or simply won't care.


2. Simplicity

Simplicity has been on-trend for web design for a while now, and it's only getting more popular. 

Websites that keep it simple are easier to navigate and less overwhelming for the visitors. It's also easier to draw attention where you want it by using plenty of white space around images, text, video, or whatever you may want your visitors to see first.

Simplicity goes hand-in-hand with big typography. You don't always need a lot of words, images, etc. to convey your point. In fact, the less you use to get your point across the better.


3. Asymmetric Layouts

Following a grid has been the norm for websites since the beginning of the internet, but now that's going to the wayside. More and more often web designers are using asymmetrical layouts, where the navigable elements are scattered throughout the page following different angles.

Visual elements guide the eye where it needs to go, leaving guests with both an easy-to-use website and one that will stand out in the crowd. It may not be practical for all businesses or web designers, but if you're looking for an artsy flair this is probably for you.


4. AR Features

One of the cooler new web design trends is augmented reality. With AR, websites are allowing users to "try on" clothes and makeup virtually, view storefronts without ever leaving their chair, and more. 

People and companies are still figuring out exactly what AR can do for them and how it can help, so getting on the trend and doing something cool with AR will help put you at the head of the game.

You can check out our other website design posts for tips on how to get your web design started, and how to best implement the above tactics into your website.


The Future of Web Design Styles

Like everything, the best websites change with the trends. Utilize even a few of the upcoming new web design styles listed above and you'll be on your way to having the best website in your industry.

For more on web design, check out the rest of the blog and feel free to contact us. Also visit our SEO section to learn how to drive more organic traffic to your new website!

How To Choose The Right Fonts For Your Business Branding

Choosing the right fonts for your business is an essential aspect of your branding, marketing, and advertising. Here are some expert suggestions for picking the right fonts associated with various aspects of your business:

Top Fonts For Startups

An appropriate startup font has a great deal to offer. It plays a vital role in preserving your brand’s identity and building up your logo design’s integrity. It is advisable to do a font research when brainstorming ideas for your logo before seeking a logo design service. A good font selection brings together the design more astutely. You can ignore the conventional fonts in particular with your business industry, but even if you go the fun or quirky way always make sure it comes together with the design in a subtle way. The number of fonts available online may overwhelm a person while researching for their logo design. If you’ve already streamlined the rest of the design aspects, but still stuck in searching for appropriate fonts, you’ve come to the right people! We will discuss top 7 trending fonts which are absolutely free to help you out before you seek a professional logo design service. There are as following: Al Fresco by Laura Worthington Classy but not very fashion specific, it centres more towards a sophisticated look. Designed by Laura Worthington, it comes in two script style typeface focusing on modern calligraphy. With an elegant flair it comes it promotes unconventional font style to satisfy your desire of timeless beauty! Hey Brother! By Dionis Dei Created to perfection by the graphic designer, Dionis Dei, “Hey Brother!” combines strong edgy look combined together with smoother curves. It has a modern, sci-fi look to it mixed together with sharp letters exhibiting a distressed vibe to any design inspiration. Featured and popularized by the famous Swedish DJ Avicii, it is the pure reflection of modern globalized culture! Smaq by Andreas Leonidou Ideal for posters and huge printing collaterals, Smaq is a decorative typeface designed by the genius, Andreas Leonidou. Eight different styles of this typeface have already been introduced, with an eye-catching bevelled look and feel. You can play around with this all-caps typeface with your heart’s content, using different font shadows and line shading. Wesley Gothic by Kutan Ural A modern all-caps typeface used for branding and sought by entrepreneurs looking for logo design service. This edgy font designed by Kutan Ural is suitable for huge signage collaterals like posters and billboards. Be it typography or any other design project, Wesley Gothic stands out from the crowd with its razor-sharp, edgy look. Neon by Aga Magdziak The cool-toned, molten font created by the talented Aga Magdziak is great for social media usage, or for logos designed for the IT sector. It is a perfect blend of many artistic elements with its prominent texture, successfully grabbing everyone’s attention. It is kept minimal and trendy, but not too over the top. Otto by Non-Format Designed by the prestigious and highly esteemed design team, Non-format, it gives off a universal style statement. Incorporated with the delicate typeface, the hints of block colors give off a very noteworthy impression. After all, Non-Format’s previous work has been greatly acknowledged by monster brands like Nike, Uniqlo, etc.! TJ Evolette-A by TypeMe A contemporary font style designed by the ingenious TypeMe, impressively complements fashion and lifestyle logo designs. With its streamlined look, it could be used for extravagant results with its innovative and stylistic sets. All the fonts discussed in this blog are free of cost, and easily accessible. It is of an utmost importance to go for the right font for the branding of your startup. Fonts add great meaning and personality to a brand’s image out in the public. Here’s to hoping you make good use of the shared information before seeking a logo design service! Good luck!

Picking The Right Fonts For Your Resume And CV 

A good font is the one which is neat, clean and easy for the eyes to read. While writing a resume font should be selected on discretion. Popular fonts used in resume are Times New Roman and Arial. However these two fonts are two of the most over used fonts while writing a resume. Although Times New Roman and Arial are considered industry standard while writing a professional profile, there are other font options to try out which offer better visibility and makes your resume stand out in a pile of Arial and Times font resumes. Calibri Calibri has a neat Sans-serif typeface. It is the default MS Office font in versions 2010, 2013 and 2016. It replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word and replaced Arial as the default in PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and WordPad. It is also the default font in Office for Mac 2016. Calibri at 12 pt with 500 to 750 words can easily fit inside 2 pages of resume without compromising on the visibility. Cambria Cambria is a serif font commonly distributed in MS Office products. It is part of a suite of typefaces called the ClearType Font Collection which is made to look good on a computer screen. It is equally legible for printing also. It is branded as the new Times New Roman. Garamond Garamond is a good alternative to Times New Roman. It is a Serif typeface font with a history of 500 years. The modern version gives a polished classic look. Garamond is better to use when you have to condense your text to within two pages. Garamond can contain more text into single page without compromising on the readability when decreasing font size. Didot Didot is a neoclassical Serif typeface font. Didot offers you style with elegance without fancy typefaces. This can be used when you have a resume for a designing or photography industry. Didot is suitable to be used in headings. Helvetica Helvetica is considered as the King of fonts. It is used in typography and by designers. Helvetica is a Sans-serif clean font with exceptional clarity. It is used in the logos of many corporate companies like Microsoft and BMW. Helvetica is included in Mac systems; however it needs to be purchased if you want to use it in Windows systems. Fonts That You Should Never Use In Resume Some of the fonts are too fancy to be used in a resume. Fonts like Courier, Brush Script, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Impact, Trajan Pro etc. are not professional but are too fancy to be used in a resume. Hence do not use these fonts in the resume under any circumstances. 

The Right Fonts For Your Website

The choice of font you use at your website can be affectedby so many different elements: personal taste, style, screenresolution and size, operating system, monitor age,background and - not last - re... The choice of font you use at your website can be affected by so many different elements: personal taste, style, screen resolution and size, operating system, monitor age, background and - not last - readability and ease of use. The most common font used for print ant the Web is Times New Roman. This is the default font of many applications including most of the Microsoft Office Suites. That is not to say it's the most readable or comfortable font; on the contrary, Arial, Courier and Verdana are considered more readable. A study conducted at Wichita State University in 2002 titled: A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which Size and Type is Best? found these amazing results: Times New Roman was deemed the least preferred font in 10 or 12 point size. Arial was most preferred in the 12 point size and Verdana was the most preferred in the 10 point size. Overall, Verdana was the most preferred font for readability and ease of comprehension. The fonts considered most legible are Arial, Courier and Verdana. As far as looks, Times New Roman and Georgia are preferred over the others. All the above appears to imply that for design choices, like when a large font is used as a decoration, Times New Roman or Georgia is the choice. For general speed of reading and less strain on the eyes it's Arial if using a small font. Verdana was the choice for best compromise between legibility and speed. All the above should be included in the building plans for your website since they can affect the looks of so many items, such as: Headlines, header tags, choice of colors, links, contrast and decoration. You can compensate for many elements of styling by using different fonts and sizes. For example, if you are super imposing text upon a graphic perhaps it would be best to make the font bigger to help the eye separate the font from the image. The same common sense approach can be used for the body areas: use colors that will bring out the text and make it easy for your visitors to read your website. Don't use dark fonts on a dark background because they are very hard to read. Likewise, do your best to copy well established convention by making the colors of your HTML links in standard colors such as blue for unvisited, purple for visited and so on. Overall, don't use more than 3 types of fonts on your website and do your best to include the "Big Picture" in your design. Show a few completed sketches to your friends and family and ask their opinion. Revise and re-do as often as needed. As a time saving measure, make sure to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for your website design because it allows you to change the font style of a complete website by just changing the information in the style sheet. A real time saver when you have a 100 page website. Above all, your website should have its own theme and style. It should have text that invites the visitor to explore more and be easy to read and understand. The visual load on the eyes should be as small as possible to prevent fatigue. The general look should be one of integrated design with user friendliness as its ultimate purpose. 

What Fonts Should Be Used For Business Cards

Design and material are not the only elements you should think about when you create your custom business cards. In addition to these two, you also have to consider the font you are going to use ... Design and material are not the only elements you should think about when you create your custom business cards. In addition to these two, you also have to consider the font you are going to use for your content. When designing, it is crucial for your business card printing pieces to have the right font and at the same time the appropriate size. Your text should be not too small or too big for your print card. If it is too small, it would be difficult for your target audience to read your information. On the other hand, big letters just do not appear professional and with your limited space, it would be hard for you to cram all that information. Hence, there are standards that you have to adhere to help you create a distinguished business card without appearing like you do not know what you are doing. First off, there should be a balance in the sizes of your text in your address and contact information, and your names and title. When designing your text, be sure to have your address and phone numbers between 7 to 8 point sizes. Your name should be 1 point bigger than these two elements. That means that if your address is at 7 point, then your name should be 8. On the other hand, your title can either be 1 point smaller than your address text size or similar to it. Your company name in contrast to all these elements should be from 12 to 15 point sizes. There is a reason for making these sizes standard ones. If you happen to use different sizes for all your elements, I would not be surprised if your marketing tool looked disorderly and untidy. It will only confuse your prospects and clients. The key is to keep your sizes consistent so that your content would not appear disorganized. In terms of how large or small should you go with your text, your words should not be smaller than 6 point. Use 5 point if you put everything in capital letters. In your name, it should not be more than 11 point. The address has a maximum of 9 point. You should also consider the type of industry you are in. Most professionals go for smaller sizes such as 6 to 7 point text, especially for their addresses. Then again, it is much larger when sales agents produce their business cards. But be wary also of fonts that print particularly smaller than the average size. When you use these fonts, be sure to adjust your sizes 1 point higher so as not to make it difficult for your readers to see your text.

The Fonts You Should Use For Your Business Logo

Many entrepreneurs think that the font for their business name is like a trophy wife—just there to look pretty, all perfect hair and manicure. So, they try to find a font that looks cool, often without looking at any of the features of the font itself. But, the font in your logo is a busy little element. It works 4 jobs! Many entrepreneurs think that the font for their business name is like a trophy wife—just there to look pretty, all perfect hair and manicure. So, they try to find a font that looks cool, often without looking at any of the features of the font itself. But, the font in your logo is a busy little element. It works 4 jobs! So, what are the font's jobs? The font's job is to be legible and scalable, to make your business name look good, and to strengthen your entire brand story. Let's break these elements down one at a time. 1. To be legible Your business name should be able to be read easily, quickly, and clearly. Make sure the letters are spaced far enough apart, so that they don't bleed together visually or when printed. Make sure that the letter shapes are distinguishable from one another—that your lower case "I" doesn't look like an "L," for example. Also ensure that you can read it at a glance. Most people won't pore over your logo. They'll just skim it. You want to make sure that the font that you choose is not difficult to read. This becomes even more important when your logo is featured on a sign, vehicle, or billboard—where your viewers will be passing it at a fast pace. 2. To be scalable Your logo should be able to blow up to billboard size and scale down to postage stamp size and be readable across all of these different options. Make sure that legibility doesn't suffer when size changes. Scaling up usually isn't an issue, but scaling down can be a real problem on ornate or heavily stylized fonts. 3. To make your business name look good Choose a font that includes good letter shapes for all the letters in your business name. For example, some lower case Gs look pretty funky — so if your business name includes a G, you may want to stay away from fonts that include strange Gs like the one on the right. 4. To support your brand definition This is your font's last job, and it can be done in different ways in your logo, depending on how much of your brand story is told by your logo icon. If you've told most of your story with the icon, then all the font needs to do is support that. If you choose your logo font carefully to perform these 4 jobs for your business, then it will be more than just a pretty face—it will help your logo to be more effective. 

Conclusion


Choosing the right fonts for your business is an essential aspect of your branding, marketing, and advertising. Keep these tips in mind to pick the right fonts associated with various aspects of your business, startup, or brand.