Category: Graphic Design

You Want Me to Design What?

You Want Me to Design What?

Posted on | by Daniel Combs
Graphic Design, Marketing

What separates good graphic design from great graphic design? You will get many different answers to this question, but is there a single definitive response? Yes, there is: Having an eye for what works and what doesn’t. This is what takes graphic design from good to great. It’s looking at a project from many different angles and weighing it against the industry you’re designing for to produce a piece that pulls someone in and causes them to want to take action on it.

Think of it this way, graphic design skills are the tools, but the eye is the “hand” that wields the tools. Below are 8 design principles that make up having a great “eye” and can mean the difference between someone just looking at your design or a great project that draws people into your message and causes them to act on it.

“There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for” – Milton Glaser

Elements of a Great Eye

Alignment

Every element of your project should flow together seamlessly: text, shapes, imagery. Each part should align to each other and not look like it was just “thrown” together. There is a place for everything. Alignment is critical to give the reader/viewer a “path” to follow in the design.

Visual Hierarchy

The primary focal point is the message you’re relaying to the reader/viewer, so you want to make your message stand out. What you want people to see first needs to have the most attention in your design. Big, bold, fonts; colors based on the industry, etc. This will go a long way to getting the reader’s attention.

Contrast

This plays well together with visual hierarchy and can help your message stand out even more. Contrast simply means opposites and doesn’t just apply to colors only, it is the opposing of thick vs thin, modern vs traditional, and many other things. It will assist in navigating the viewer to where you want them to go.

Repetition

Repetition is the overall layout of your design. It helps your project remain organized & consistent. This entails colors, font choices, layout (for certain projects), etc. At most, you should only have:

  • 2 to 3 colors in most instances (use a good color pairing tool).
  • 1 to 2 font styles, or “font family” (one family if the font has many different thicknesses, like Montserrat or Bahnschrift).
  • Consistent layout design, especially if only a certain part of the design changes like a different image or dates.

You don’t want to have all of your elements competing against each other from project to project (outside of normal planned visual hierarchy & contrast implementations).

Proximity

This is all about organization and placement and goes hand in hand with alignment and repetition. Where does everything go? How does the text go with the images? Where do I need to place the text? Grouping elements together by color, size, shape, etc., will help to keep the overall design clean and uncluttered.

Balance

Keeping your design balanced is vital. When the overall design looks messy and sloppy, it can push readers/viewers away and you’ve lost their interest. A great design is well balanced and not overpowering in visual appeal and impact. Are you portraying a message of action? Do you want people to be informed? How about bringing people joy? Keep people’s attention with a balanced design and they’ll be enticed to want to see and know more about your message.

Color

Ok, we’ve mentioned color a few times so far. There is a lot to color that most people don’t know, yet alone understand. Colorology (yes, that is a term, you can Google it) is a vast area when it comes to great graphic design. Colors can cause people to respond in certain ways. A staggering 85% of buying decisions are made just on color alone. Logos are the “frontline” of marketing. How many times have we stopped at a McDonald’s just seeing the “golden arches”? Was it a planned trip? No, we just saw the bright logo and stopped in and grabbed something to eat. Color goes a long way in portraying your message.

Oh, and by the way, Yellow is optimistic & youthful, it grabs the attention of window shoppers. Think about that the next time you stop and grab a Big Mac or walk into a store because you saw the Yellow ##% off sale sign in the window.

Spacing

Adding space to your design can help drive the focus to the area that contains your message. Most often this is called “negative space”, areas of the design that doesn’t contain any design elements. It can often be a solid color, or even blurred out parts of an image (such as part of the background image). Using this effectively when needed will make your design stand out and allow for a huge impact.

The Final Draft

In great graphic design, some or all of the above elements are used to convey a message to your readers/viewers. The most important first step is to look at graphic design as a consumer and not as a designer. Start with asking questions to yourself. What makes me interact and engage with a graphic? How do I respond to the overall design of a graphic that I’ve seen? What is it that pulls me in and keeps my attention?

Having the skills along with the eyes for graphic design in one package are hard to come by and here at The AD Leaf ®, our designers have both. They are ready & desire to take your projects to great new heights. Give us a call at 321-255-0900 and let us help you make your graphics pop! (Ok, I had to use it at least once, lol)

Digital Marketing Strategy

Why Businesses Need Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio Vegas NV
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, Marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website Design

Why Businesses Need A Digital Marketing Strategy To Survive COVID-19

In the coming months, businesses of all sizes are going to become extra reliant than ever on their digital marketing strategy. Without wanting to sound too much like a killjoy, in many cases, it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times that are ahead. 

The unparalleled, and almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge to any business model. 

B2B companies, in particular, rely on the annual circuit of trade shows and exhibitions to network and build customer relations. In industries that are not digital-native, they may also be less sophisticated in their digital growth and customer relations strategies. Especially in the case of smaller businesses that are used to getting new customers strictly word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation, their loss is going to come as a shock if it hasn’t already.

Larger companies are now finding themselves in the position of having potentially lost millions of dollars from canceled events alone. They won’t claw back the hours of time and expense spent on preparations for this year, but insurance and flexible cancellation policies are going to leave them with some marketing budget to reassign. Digital Marketing in any aspect is likely going to be the clear and obvious choice here, and companies that may not so much as had a Facebook page before will need to move into social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, and even influencer-led campaigns. 

This, of course, means there are opportunities out there for the taking and a key factor in resilience is adaptability. If it’s standard in your industry to go out and meet new customers face-to-face before you do business, adapting may mean opening new channels over web or social media platforms where introductions can be made and relationship fostered. In the coming months, you prospective clients are going to be less open to the idea of letting you walk through the door and shake their hand, and no-one really has any idea how long this will last and whether this will lead to longer-term change. 

We are going to be in some uncertain times, but with the increase of remote working and a collaborative approach, companies are going to turn to digital channels and embrace the transformation. There has already been a real spike in the last few weeks from companies wishing to create or update their websites, launch new social media channels and campaigns focused on home-workers and a real focus on using influencers and SEO to reach new audiences. 

Being confined to the office — or even the home — rather than on the road on sales visits or at events, means marketers are going to have more time to develop digital marketing strategies. This means researching where your customers can be found online, and how different approaches and tactics might impact your success. If your organization previously put minimal efforts into digital channels, now is going to be a prime time to revisit them. That could be as simple as giving your website or social media pages a refresh, or a more innovative approach. 

A key point to note is that a lot of corporate entities use up about 50-60% of their marketing budgets on events. When things go back to normal, budgets will most likely be going back to those live face-to-face events, but if organizations can see the benefits and opportunities that digital marketing can offer, they might understand the benefit of adding it to their long-term marketing strategy. 

Channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn Live are going to be crucial moving forward as the ability to connect with a targeted audience real-time is very beneficial, if not essential. 

It’s certainly true that the coming weeks, or months – or however long this situation lasts – will be a challenging time for any company that isn’t ready to think about how they will replace the opportunities that have been lost. 

As long as businesses can approach the shift to digital marketing strategically, there’s no reason why it should just serve as an emergency fill-in but could carry on providing long-term value when the world eventually gets back to normal. And of course, this would make companies more resilient to deal with any future pandemics. Do you need help with your Digital Marketing Strategy? Looking to take your social media or SEO to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today and weather the storm that is COVID-19!

Marketing Agency

5 Reasons To Hire A Marketing Agency VS An In-House Team

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio Vegas NV
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, IT Services, Marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website Design

Should you hire a Marketing Agency or build an in-house team?

In today’s digital landscape, there is no shortage of marketing options for businesses. From freelancers and marketing agencies to hiring your own in-house team, companies have more choices than ever before, specifically when it comes to online marketing. As your business grows, you will need to consider how your marketing will be handled, including whether to hire new employees and build an internal marketing team or empower your brand through a Marketing Agency.

While each has its own advantages, a full-service Marketing Agency provides substantial value to large, medium, and even small businesses. They strive to build cohesive and effective brands, put organizations in front of their customers and audience, and drive sales through awareness.

5 Reasons to Hire A Marketing Agency

1. Unparalleled Experience

Why piece together individual talents when you can hire an experienced Marketing Agency to handle everything for you? One of the major advantages of hiring a Marketing Agency is a professional experience. In fact, a good agency will have specific knowledge in a wide range of industries and markets, along with experience facing a diverse range of scenarios and challenges never encountered by many newer business owners. Having a knowledgeable and experienced staff at your side can produce immediate results for owners, helping to quickly get your marketing efforts off the ground.

2. Broader Skillsets

It can be difficult to locate suitable in-house employees with branding and marketing skills such as SEO and graphic design. By hiring a Marketing Agency, you’ll not only have the necessary tools to achieve your vision for success but a suite of creative services at your fingertips.

For example, a full-service Marketing Agency can assist clients in everything from rebranding their company image and website, developing their print and direct mail campaigns, and creating a social strategy to boost SEO and PPC campaigns. With a Marketing Agency, a client may choose to utilize one service or all them–whereas, with an in-house team, businesses are limited in what they can achieve.

3. Fresh Perspective & Inspiration

Another major advantage of hiring a Marketing Agency is a new perspective. A marketing team can help inject new life into marketing efforts, helping to identify unseen opportunities and enhance current campaigns. One example is social media marketing. With more companies looking to broaden their social reach through sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, a Marketing Agency can significantly enhance a brand’s approach to social media, including how they’re perceived by their audience.

4. Speed, Efficiency, and Consistency

As an up-and-coming business owner, you’ll be forced to wear several hats when getting your business off the ground. Generally speaking, this will almost include tackling aspects of the business you’re unfamiliar with, such as branding and digital marketing. With only so much time in the day, it’s important your marketing approach doesn’t suffer from time restraints or inexperience. Hiring a Marketing Agency can easily solve this dilemma.

5. More Affordable Than Hiring In-House

The cost of hiring and maintaining a team of in-house marketers can be very expensive. For smaller businesses, this expense may be too much to afford.
One of the more surprising benefits of hiring a Marketing Agency is cost-effectiveness. Along with providing a plethora of knowledge, experience, and skillset, a Marketing Agency is almost always more affordable compared to hiring a full-time marketing team. For example, after hiring a marketing manager, web designer, graphic designer, content writer, and social media manager, the total cost can reach upwards of multiple six figures a year! And that’s not even including the cost of employee benefits.

Marketing is the heart and soul of any business. At The AD Leaf ®, we’ve spent the last 25 years working with a diverse range of clients — from healthcare and technology to governmental, law enforcement and consumer goods — to perfect our approach to marketing, advertising, and branding. From strategic creative direction to engaging digital marketing, our extensive marketing team is here to handle every aspect of your business.

Want to enhance your content marketing? Looking to take your social media to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today!