No.one.knows.what.I.do. 

There, I said it.  I realized that I work my tail off and am struggling to find new business leads because I am not educating my potential clients or my potential clients referrals.  That is  big problem given that I run by almost 95% referrals.  So this post today and the many going forward are going to be geared to help you understand what it is I do.

Although my company is called Graphic Design 26 (also realized I maybe should change that today… another blog post though…) I do so much more than just graphic design.  I graduated with a Marketing degree from ISU (Go Clones!) and my main love and passion is and will always be marketing.  I get marketing; it is natural for me.   I am also a salespersons dream customer as I can be suckered into almost anything!  That being said, I can also sell almost anything to anyone.  You just have to figure out how that product can help them.  Many times that will be in ways they didn’t even realize they needed.

I create logos and illustrations, brochures, mailers, newsletters, sales collateral and pretty much any other form of marketing materials for companies any size.   The difference with me is that I am going to take that piece you want created and am going to make sure your idea is the best idea to get you your end result!  That is Marketing 101.  I want to make sure that what you are creating (and paying for) is going to work for you.  Perfect example…  How many people are heading to Homecoming parades in the next couple weeks and will get the “flyers” from businesses and really, truly, read them?  Not too many of us unless they are colorful and real flashy!  We are going to spend more time on the pieces that we are given that we have something to do them.  A bracelet, a tattoo, a magnet…  The flyer is going to go in the bag with the candy and will probably just get thrown away with the candy we don’t like.

Along with the physical marketing pieces that companies need to promote themselves, they also need to be marketing themselves with some form or forms of social media.  I too was in the same boat as many people and had no idea what all these different mediums of social media were or how they would benefit me.  The more I have dug into them and thought about ways they can help my clients, the more educated I have become.  And the more I have realized I need to use them for my own business.  It is hard to not promote a business to use them, after all, many of them are free marketing!  You just need to determine which ones are going to be the best fit for your objective and for your clientele.

I have created websites and maintained them for smaller companies from templates.  It is how my own site was created.  I have designed the look of wesbsites for bigger companies too.  I don’t write code but I know a great local company that does and I work with them to  make the site look and function just like I envision it.

Here is a piece that I have created recently to hand out about what I do.  It is very basic but it at least lists everything I do.  I hope this helps the many of you who have always wondered what I do or what a graphic designer does.  I am now going to call myself a Graphic Designer AND Marketing Consultant.  I think it just sums up what I do best.  The good part is that once I give you those ideas, I can then do them for you.  We don’t need to look further!

The second piece is a one page flier that was going to be sent via email and also printed targeting football players.  I created the piece in black and white so that we wouldn’t be favoring any one team more than the other.

We first created a logo for the 100th Anniversary.  They are going to use this logo over the next year to help bring awareness to this wonderful business achievement.  We wanted it to be universal enough yet eye catching so association members would see the value in the achievement.  The logo also needed to be able to blend with all their current marketing materials.  To the left is what we came up with.  I was really happy with their choice.  Like many other times, I gave the client three to choose from.  This client just happened to choose my favorite one!  Always nice when that happens.  Makes me realize that we might have similar taste and this process will move smoothly!

Next our challenge was to create a logo for the annual meeting.  This ended up turning out just like we needed but it didn’t come with a little sweat.  The challenge I was facing was trying to tie together, International Food Protection, 100 years, and Milwaukee Wisconsin. What do they all have in common???  I decided to just do a logo that was based on font and text and bring the look and feel to the materials instead.  So, I proposed to my client this logo but I showed it to them in a piece so they could get the feeling that I was wanting.

Here the Invitation to Exhibit for the annual meeting.  It showcases the feeling that I am looking for and the logo all together.  This was helpful to assist my client with getting the big picture.  In the background, you will see pictures of the five most popular attractions I found when I Googled this location.

It is always nice when you can create material for clients and they are hosting in place like CA and  you can use palm trees or in CO and you can focus on the mountains.  But for Milwaukee Wisconsin, how do you pick just one thing that will target your whole audience.  We went with color and lines that all tied together a common feeling.

This project is going to consist of many different pieces.  Some to be mailed and some to be set out during meetings and in the office.  This piece was created to be taken with them to the meeting that was held this year.  A perfect place to target your audience for next year!  It is rather hard to understand the layout so I will do my best to describe it.

Once it is printed and folded this is a tri-fold landscape handout with a finished size of 5×7.  The first picture is the inside and you can see dotted lines where it is to be folded.  The second picture is the front cover, back cover and the first piece they see when they open the handout.

Once I get one of the final versions in the printed form, I may take a picture so it will better help you understand the layout.  Small but packed full of information all tied together in an eye catching way!

After seeing her many examples of amazing work (very jealous designer here…) where the items are designed around a particular fold, I have to admit, they caught my attention.  Let’s be honest, how many tri-fold brochures really capture our attention and make us want to “Read more!”  Just turning your tri-fold horizontal is enough of a change to capture the audience’s attention.

My favorite fold has to be with the double gate fold.  I received a small piece that came folded down to a 4×6 size.   But when I opened it up, it was so captivating and I couldn’t help but read more!

Check out her site for some interesting info on folding – www.foldfactory.com.  Confirmed to me that there really is someone obsessed about EVERYTHING!!!  My wheels are turning with ideas on how to fold that next marketing piece!!!

Following is the booklet I made for them and the additional pieces they needed.  Notice on the cover, I put a picture of the Iowa Speedway (location of the event) inside the semi truck grill.  I was so happy with how that turned out!  The book is eight pages long.  Trying to create a piece that is exciting for the trucking industry proved to be a challenge for me!  Not an area I was too familiar with to begin with.  Now, I can say I get it a bit more!

Front Cover

Back Cover

Inside spread - page 1

Inside spread - page 2

Inside spread - page 3

Inside spread - page 4

Inside spread - page 5

Inside spread - page 6

Pride & Polish Application

Registration Form

Sponsorship Opportunites - front

Sponsorship Opportunites - back

Exhibitor's Contract

It was one of the more fun logo’s I have created in awhile since it involved something I love so dearly!  If you haven’t tried Pilates, wait no more!  It is a great form of exercise.  I have also included a few other options that I gave her to choose from.

The Winner!

Other options…

Additional Marketing Collateral

Business Card - front

Business Card - Back

Rack Card - Front

Rack Card - Back

My husband works with sales for a major bank in the US and he keeps telling me that research shows many people will through a tri-fold brochure in the garbage before they even look at it.  Being that I create those for clients frequently, I don’t like hearing that.  That is what I was getting ready to create for myself!  Only problem is that  I just couldn’t bring myself to do this without adding a creative twist making the brochure a different size or adding some type of embellishment… but, that is when the price went up too…  I can’t win.

So I thought some more…  With social media changing so much I find myself spending so much time on perfecting my website as that is my  main reference for my business when potential clients want to see my work.  In my field, it is key.  So with that knowledge and thought process behind me AND my website finally starting to take final shape, it is time for me to create some postcard “teasers” for my business.  For me and my business, that is the best bang for my buck I believe!  Stay tuned, I will post it when I am done.