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 overall look of the site was easy to create as Holly was one of those customers that knew exactly what she wanted!  It was a pleasure working with her and if you are in need of renting your current home or know someone who would like to rent, contact Holly.

www.reinhardtproperties.com

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!

First thing on my agenda is to get back into cardio shape!  While I have been doing Pilates and loving it, I need to still get in that cardio.  After much deliberation (over a few cocktails non the less…) my husband and I have decided to give our current fitness facility a rest and we are going to give the new place in town a run for it’s money!

Because I am a marketing freak and love to analyze people’s businesses just on how they react to a potential client, I decided to put this new place to the test!  I called and left a message one morning that I was interested in signing up and so was my husband and friend.  I thought if I mentioned more than just me it would be a little more bait on the hook for them.  And guess what… he never called me back.  I waited 24 hours and nothing.  Now, if I was starting a business like this, my #1 priority would be to get people in there to pay the bills!  I realize they are just opening and the place was still a vacant unfinished space at this point, but without customers, it is kind of hard to pay the bills.

So, in my own fashion, I stop by.  No one there but construction workers.  Then I try and see if I can find any info on the place to take a look at.  Nothing.  Ouch!  At this point, I am growing  a little weary of the whole place and frankly their management style!

But because I am so intrigued and want to know more, I stopped by later that afternoon and lucky for THEM the owner is there.  After my brief, kind of nice, kind of meaningful “Why didn’t you call me back?” conversation, the manager has managed to suck me into this place and showered me with apologies.  I am looking at this situation as maybe a place I can be of assistance.

Yesterday we had to meet and do all of our initial assessments.  Today is day 1 – plyometrics.  I am so scared.  Never done those before and they just sound painful.  But, I will be there with my bucket of water… and a business card.  These people need some marketing help, quick!!!

IAFP – International Association for Food Protection

I have had the pleasureof assisting these awesome people with their latest project, creating a theme around their 2011 Annual Event in Milwaukee.  They are also marking their 100th year of service and were in need of a logo to state this.  While these two events are completely separate, we needed to make sure the “looks” worked well together.

Here is the 100th Anniversary logo we came up with.

I will post the annual event material soon!  The colors aren’t coming through correctly this morning…

studio 3

We have been busy getting business cards, letterhead, flyers and everything else in order for Amanda at studio 3.  Below is a taste of what their business cards are going to look like.  Very happy with the way things are turning out for her!  We are doing a front and back full color business card.

I could upload more, but instead I need to get working on studio 3′s newsletter!  Yes, another thing to add to my list of capabilities.  I am designing newsletters and sending them out every month for clients.  Calling myself their “Virtual Assistant!”

When I look back at choosing my companies name, I can honestly say, I started with just my name being business name.  Then, I moved on to my initials.  Pretty common moves so far…  Then, I added 26 (my anniversary date) to my initials.  It was starting to feel better but we were still not there.  Then, my husband called one day and said, “I got it, Design 26!”  I loved it right away.  It sounded catchy yet creative yet it was going to require someone to think “I wonder what the 26 stands for???”  For me, I felt that would bring my customer closer to building a relationship with me.  They would reach out and ask what the significance was of the 26.

My company name stayed that way until I re-organized my website.  In that process, I was consulted to add the word “Graphic” to my name.  Design is a very broad word and adding the word graphic to it would give my customers that much more knowledge in what I offer.  It also would help Google find me when that customer searches for a graphic designer as opposed to just a designer.

So, my name has been changed now for a little over six months.  My business cards haven’t changed yet.  They will once this stack runs dry.  I would love to hear your thoughts regarding my process.  Recently I had someone ask me what a graphic designer even did.  That made me think again about whether or not I had chosen the correct name…