Making Color Work for You

What’s your favorite color? If you’re like the majority of responders to a recent color survey, you probably answered “blue.”

For some, that means your clothing, car, room décor, and all sorts of everyday items are chosen because they are blue, or whatever you said was your favorite color.

How about your advertising? Web site? Other marketing materials? Those things demand choosing color beyond personal preference.

For starters, we all have psychological reactions to color, heavily influenced by our culture. Some colors have taken on symbolic meanings. For example, the “good guy” wears white and the “bad guy” wears black. Red can mean passion, or it can mean danger. Green conjures visions of grass and nature, or of money.

And I’m talking about Western culture here. In Western culture, for example, it’s traditional for a bride to wear white. But in many parts of Asia, white is a funerary color. Brides there wear red, the color of good fortune. Western brides generally avoid red, because of negative associations (at least in the old days) with “poor morality.”

But maybe you knew this already, so time to move on to my point.

Designers for businesses pay attention to the positive and negative connotations of color when designing something seen by customers. For example, if your product is a financial investment service, it’s better to use a color theme of green (for money) or blue (for trust) then it is to use red (“in the red” or losing money). Seems obvious, right?

Then there’s the way colors make us feel. Some colors keep us calm and relaxed, others make us restless or alert. Some make us happy, others make us angry. At least symbolically they do. Green and blue are both restful colors. Yellows and oranges have more energy. Did you know those two colors are often deliberately used by fast food restaurant chains to give a subliminal message to “hurry up and eat”? The idea is to get customers to eat and leave to make room for more customers!

So as a designer for business, it’s important to understand what a typical customer feels about the product, and support that emotion with the wise choice of color in all marketing materials. You’ll make more sales that way.

Yes, the best marketing does keep a prospect’s attention. It does so with good copy and good design. If done well, it doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles. Color is just one of the tools a designer uses. But ignore the impact of color at your peril. That fuchsia color you love so well in your favorite sweater won’t work for a company making uniforms for security guards. Have you ever seen advertising on a web site for security guards with a fuchsia color theme? Probably not.

In choosing colors for business, keep a balance between the symbolism (obvious or not) of the color choices and the need to attract attention to your company, brand, or product. Choose colors that “play nice together” and aren’t jarring. And choose colors that support the message of the copy rather than detract from it. Never choose an aspect of design for its own sake, whether it be color, line, balance, contrast, or any other element of design.

Oh, and my favorite color? Blue, of course. Just like you, I’ll bet.

“Spheres of Influence” at BNI

Graphic Designers, even freelance ones, rarely work in isolation. They collaborate with other professionals to complete a project. Whereas designers provide concept and design, others on the team may guide production or distribution, for example.

I belong to a chapter of Business Network International (BNI), billed as the largest referral organization in the world. Members pass along referrals to other members, and this reciprocity builds businesses -- many members say their company’s annual retail sales are as much as 30% attributable to the word-of-mouth referrals they get through their BNI memberships. The BNI motto “Givers Gain” certainly is illustrated in those numbers!

My membership is a wonderful marketing tool, since fellow members are all marketing for each other. And I get to share my passion for my work every week in “60-second commercials,” and periodically in a 10-minute presentation to highlight my business.

One of the happy potentials of any chapter is the chance to build “spheres of influence.” Many businesses have a natural “fit” to work together -- such as florists, caterers, and photographers for weddings, or realtors and mortgage brokers to complete real estate transactions. These combinations are particularly likely to refer business to each other.

The most logical “sphere” I belong to within my chapter includes a printer and a sign maker. We’re looking for a representative of a promotional products company, and I’d like to see a web services provider, too. But beyond my sphere, I can also be of service to the realtor, who’s thinking of starting a newsletter, or perhaps the caterer, who wants a new web site home page, to cite two examples. And they are just the “inner ring” of potential customers – they have friends and business contacts who they can point in my direction. Remember the old hair care commercial where “they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on and so on and so on…”? Similar concept.

If you are a business owner, I highly recommend membership in BNI. You’ll likely get more out of it than what you put into it!

Marketing Budgets and Templates

In these days of economic squeeze, companies are looking for ways to cut costs. Marketing budgets might seem like a target for budget-cutting, but if they are cut too much, a company’s message – and the bottom line – may weaken, precisely at a time when it’s imperative to keep strong.

Desktop publishing and presentational software packages have come a long way in recent years, and many of these programs come with a variety of pre-made templates. More templates are available on the internet, and others can be purchased on a CD. Templates for layout, templates for business forms, templates for web sites. Seems like a great idea – use a template and save the marketing budget. This is especially attractive to small businesses.

But how many times have you endured another boring PowerPoint presentation and recognized the template they used? Or seen a web site and recognized a home page from a FrontPage template? Or looked at a newsletter and recognized a Publisher template? The templates were originally designed by professionals and do prevent you from making obvious gaffes. But then, what makes the presentation or web site or newsletter you saw different, if it looks like someone else’s? And what does it say about your company when the templates you use are so recognizable?

To position your company as unique, the marketing materials you use should also be unique. Hire a professional graphic designer to create custom designs. One who understands your business and your audience. One that will help you stand out from your competitors. One that can work collaboratively with you or your writers to craft a message that is irresistible to your clients and prospects. And keep your bottom line strong. One other thing: professionals can guide you with creative ways to save money that you may never have thought of.

Templates aren’t all bad, by the way. There’s no reason a good professional designer can’t design a set of custom templates just for you, so you present a consistent look with your marketing materials, whatever the format. That’s a win-win: you can reuse your own custom templates again and again, differentiating yourself from everyone else, and you can do so without breaking your budget. That should be music to the ears.

Finding (and Sharing) My Passion

One of the newsletters I subscribe to had an article the other day about finding your passion. It was part of a larger topic often discussed among freelancers regarding finding your own unique niche, setting yourself apart from the competition. Freelance Graphic Designers distinguish themselves by specializing according to format, industry, or business demographics. Some court small business owners, while others prefer large corporations. Some provide only print designs, and others design for the web.

So, where does Pen and Brush Communications fit? I offer many services, as my web site at www.penandbrushcommunications.com illustrates. The “passion” article I mentioned earlier reminded me that I’m particularly energized by designing Direct Marketing materials. Sales letters, postcards, brochures, newsletters, and eBooks are the projects I enjoy the most. I’ve also done brochure-style web sites and flyers. Passion is contagious, and is easy to share. I’ll share my passion for my work with every one of my clients. You can count on it.

PC or Mac?

Which is better? That's a question that has been bandied about ever since the early desktop personal computers became available.

The wisdom back then was that for "computing tasks" a PC was best, but for graphic design, an Apple Mac was best. The Theatre department where I taught had Apples. In the time since each platform was presented to the marketplace, they have gone through many changes. The answers to the "which should I buy" question have changed, too. The "depends on what you use it for" answer is still probably the best guide, and the runner-up answer is "depends on which software you want to run."

I've used both over the years. Sometimes for work, and sometimes for play. Sometimes the company for which you work requires one or the other, so you don't get to choose for yourself.

Most of the time, I've worked on a PC. That's largely because of my background in computer programming, and because most of the companies I worked with were PC-based. So the computers I've owned mimicked what was most often used at the client site. Working on a PC has many headaches, to be sure, but lack of graphics software is no longer one of them. Luckily for me, the best graphics software is largely available on both platforms now.

When I went freelance, I had to decide whether to continue with PCs or move to the Mac. And I decided to protect my earlier investment in software by continuing with PCs for the time being. Both my desktop and laptop computers are PCs. My Time Management and Financial Management software runs on PCs. I have the entire Adobe Creative Suite loaded and I just upgraded to Quark XPress version 7.0. I can continue to submit work via PDF files, which can be read by anyone on any machine.

However, my next big purchase may very well be the Apple MacBook. I've seen the latest Apples in action, and I'm rather envious. I'm leaning strongly toward investing in the Apple side of things, partly to keep up my "Mac skills" and partly to provide more services to more clients.

So you see, even after two decades of comparing personal computers, it's still "Apples" and oranges. :).

Good Design Transcends Formats

I used to teach design. At the University level. I taught about the principles and elements of design, such as Line, Shape, Size, Color, Texture, and also Balance, Symmetry, Contrast, and Harmony. But here's the thing: my design work was in the discipline of theatrical costumes. Yes, that's right, I was a theatrical costume designer before I went into graphic design.

How does that apply today to my freelance graphic design career?

The cool thing about the switch in career is that I didn't have to "re-learn" from scratch. I already had the foundations down pat. The basics of color theory didn't change. There was a similarity in balancing the various design elements of a costume with balancing the various design elements on a page of a newsletter, a sales letter, or a brochure.

Clean design, in both formats, is design which telegraphs its subtle message without overpowering the main event. It supports the main event, but doesn't overpower it. In costumes, clean design isn't cluttered, and if it's done well, you notice the actor, but not what he's wearing -- the costume usually doesn't draw attention to itself. The same is true of clean design in marketing materials. Good designs make the message easier to read, or to respond to. But they aren't "design for design's sake" -- that is, the design itself should not be more important than the message.

Which brings me to another point. Good theatrical designers learn early on that a theatrical production is a collaborative effort. The director, set designer, costume designer, lighting designer, and actors must work together for a successful production. The same is true when a freelance graphic designer works with an art director or creative staff to produce marketing materials. It's especially critical that the graphic designer work closely with the copywriter.

And if the designer is good at articulating the vision behind the design choices, that collaboration can sizzle. Regardless of format.

Today my formats are brochures, web sites, presentational materials, newsletters, posters, flyers, and sales letters. I still have deadlines, budget constraints, and priorities to meet. I still must ensure project quality and integrity while meeting project goals and objectives.

But I also still care about good design!