Poster

This poster looks like it would have been one of those “simple” projects…  It turned out to be quite time consuming!  One of the things I learned quickly with Nationwide Ag is that their audience knows their industry well, very well.

When I first created the poster, I chose a picture of cows that I thought were good.  They were dairy cows and that is a big market for New York.  The sky had a perfect shade of blue and the grass was beautiful!  The pictured was super colorful!  But apparently, it was not the correct type of dairy cow that is bread in New York.  This poster was being created to hang in the New York Farm Bureau agents office to help promote Nationwide Ag as a new sponsor.  So, I had better get the correct cow or the point might just not be as effective. 

Then I found a picture of a few dairy cows that were the type they were looking for.  Nationwide was happy with the picture we came up with and sent it on for approval from Farm Bureau.  It came back with a big stamp of rejection again as this time one of the cows was a “sick” cow.  After quite a few laughs and insight as to what makes a sick cow “look” sick in a picture, we fell upon the picture in this poster.

I came up with this caption and couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out.  I like the play on words we used.   “Have you HERD?” is very catchy and it makes you want to read the copy.  Exactly what we wanted to accomplish with the poster.  Job done!

New York Farm Bureau was so happy with this poster, we made it into postcards and other marketing pieces.

Postcard

Ad Slick to be customized by agent

Full Page Magazine Ad #1

Full Page Magazine Ad #2

This half page ad is going in a promotional piece that targets the apple growers.  Loved this great picture I found online to use in this ad.  Makes you want to eat an apple!

Ad promoting coverage for apple growers

Nationwide Agribusiness supports many companies from a third party perspective.  This ad was created for one of their dealers, KFSA. They wanted to promote themselves in a grain elevator book that is going to be published.  Finding this picture of an old grain elevator on an open range was exactly the feeling they were looking for.

Full Page Ad for Grain Elevator Book

Here is another ad for a grain elevator book but this time we are promoting Nationwide Agribusiness.  Loved this picture!

Full Page Ad for Grain Elevator Book

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!

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…

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!!!

Although a professional, easy-to-use, and friendly website to represent your company is the critical foundation that you must have in order, the rise of Social Media has opened new doors for you to connect directly with your customers online.  Using these unique tools to broaden your online presence and further connect with your market is a matter of doing a few simple things.

• Develop A Plan – This may seem trivial, but establishing an objective-based plan for what you and your company plans to do within the Social Media world is critical to avoid wasting time and developing the most efficient use of your time.  Social Media is not difficult to get involved with, but it does take time, so having a plan in place will help you and your team use time wisely and allow for objectives to be met.
• Establish A Few Social Media Websites To Engage – With so many options online, determine a few good websites that you feel there would be value in getting involved with.  This not only means that the user base is advantageous to your business, but that you enjoy the website and can work with the tools available on this website.
• Update Your Website – Once you start establishing a base of websites you’re involved with, be sure to reconnect your own website to these accounts, so that current clients have the opportunity to further connect with your business in the environment that they’re also a part of.
• Stay Current – Once you have the plan in place and start setting up your visibility within the Social Media world, don’t let things go stale.  Try and allot a small amount of time each day to update your accounts.
• Reach Out – As you become more efficient within the social network or online community you’re engaging, do your best to reach out and make new connections within the online environment.  Along with broadening your reach within the networks you’re a part of, step out a bit further by trying to understand and use additional social media outlets.

Another option is to contact me and we can review your business needs.  I have seen firsthand how many of these tools have helped my business.

So, yesterday I sent out a ton of requests to people to be a connection with me, recommend my work, or let me join their groups on Linkedin.  Just when I thought that I was in the big world all alone as a freelancer, I now feel like I have a whole group of supporters to rely on and get answers to problems when I get stuck.

What other forms of social media are out there that I haven’t even dipped my toe in yet?  I have heard of yelp and flicr, but haven’t really done much with them.  I guess I have learned my lesson and need to get on that quickly!

If we aren’t friends yet on these different forms of social media that I am connected to, invite me!  I would love to connect with you!