Turn Your Marketing Pieces into Marketing Masterpieces with These Five Design Techniques
Copyright 2005 Karen Saunders
Its almost 5 oclock on Friday afternoon. Do you know whereyour newest marketing pieces are? If youre a small businessowner, they may be buried on your desk because youve got somany other important details to handle. Or theyre still sittingon your assistants desk where shes staring at them hopelessly.Shes an admin assistant, for heavens sake, not a designer, andshe knows what shes produced so far is not very memorable oreffective.
All of us would like to think our product is so good, ourservices so unique, theyll simply sell themselves. Not so!Strong branding, powerful images, compelling web pages andoutstanding marketing pieces make or break that upward salescurve you crave so urgently. In todays market, your customersand clients are influenced more than ever by the visualpresentation of your marketing pieces. If they are welldesigned, theyre likely to be read, remembered and respected.
Here are five simple, but essential tricks of the designerstrade that you can use immediately, at little cost, and withexcellent results to profit you both short and long term.
1. Take advantage of quality clip art and stock photos Chancesare youre not an illustrator or photographer, but thatshouldnt stop you from using professional illustrations orphotos in your marketing piece. You can use clip art–sometimesat a very low price–to enhance your layout. Check out theInternet for sites that feature clip art or stock photolibraries that provide a wide variety of quality and prices tochoose from. Use the same style of graphics throughout yourpiece to create a consistent look.
2. Add dramatic contrast Using contrast means having clearlyapparent differences among the design elements that cometogether on a page, business card, or computer screen. Theseinclude contrasting colors, shapes, fonts, and sizes of text andgraphics. A high degree of contrast helps create dramaticinterest and draws the viewers eye to specific areas of yourpage. White space also provides contrast, aids legibility, andgives the readers eye a resting point. Controlling the amountof white space you use affects the overall page design.
3. Repeat certain elements Good design calls for
repeatingcertain elements throughout your piece to make the whole piececome together visually. For example, use the same color, shape,and size for all your bullets. Also make all your headers thesame size, color, and font. Go for more and repeat specificgraphic elements (e.g., boxes, banners, rule lines, etc.)throughout the piece. A word of caution: When you review yourwork, make sure youve used all of these design elementsconsistently.
4. Pay attention to proximity Proximity refers to the exactspatial relationships between elements. For example, you createvisual relationships between photos and their captions bykeeping the captions close to the photos. For subheads, a propositions them closer to the text below than the text above.Apply this principle of exact spatial relationship to all othergraphic and text elements where appropriate. When you reviewyour work, make sure youve applied this spacing consistentlythroughout.
5. Know when to use serif and sans serif fonts In general, whenyou have a large amount of text, it is best to use a serif fontbecause it is easier to read than a sans serif font. Serifs arethe tiny horizontal strokes attached to the letters which helpthe readers eyes flow from letter to letter. Bold sans serif(without serifs) are good for headlines and subheads becausethey slow the reader down thus bringing more attention to eachword or concept. Some examples of serif fonts that are good forbody copy are: Times, New Century Schoolbook, Garamond andGoudy. Some examples of sans serif fonts that are good forheadlines are: Arial Bold, Helvetica Black, Univers Bold andTrade Gothic.
Its 9 oclock Monday morning. Youre smiling because you haveincorporated these important design elements into your marketingstrategy. Youre ready to face a new week with vastly improvedopportunities to keep smiling at a growing bottom line.
About the author:
Karen Saunders is the author of the book, “Turn Eye Appeal intoBuy Appeal: How to easily transform your marketing pieces intodazzling, persuasive sales tools!” Karen has helped thousands ofsmall businesses to increase their sales over the past 15 yearsusing her award-winning marketing design strategies. For morefree tips by Karen, visit http://www.MacGraphics.net .
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