Posts Tagged ‘design’

6 Tips for Tri Fold Brochure Design

February 22nd, 2011

Small brochures, such as #10 tri-fold brochures, are a staple in the marketing world. They fit into envelopes and display racks and can serve as a low-cost sales and marketing piece for nearly any business.

As a professional—and some might say “high end”—graphic design firm, we used to rarely design this type of flyer. Rather, we were frequently hired to design more elaborate brochures and catalogs. When I started Visible Logic in 2001, the majority of our design projects were print design. Now, we earn more of our revenues from web site design. Yet, we’re seeing an uptick in requests for tri fold brochure design.

Why the #10 brochure remains important

Three trends contribute to the reduction in elaborate printed marketing pieces and the resurgence of the #10 brochure.

The increased importance of a web site for marketing, education and sales conversions
A more environmentally conscious public who prefers to avoid wasteful paper promotions
An economic climate that forces business owners to scrutinize marketing expenses

However, print is not dead, and many business owners still find printed marketed materials to be worth the money. Sales people rely on printed materials to initiate or help move forward a sales conversation. Trade show participants want something that can be handed out to prospects. Consumers request printed information about products and services.

6 Tips to improve your tri fold brochure design

Set up your margins correctly. The margins that are between panels should be twice as wide as the outer margins. This may look slightly odd when flat, but it means that you’ll have an equal left and right margin on each panel when the brochure is folded.
Use a template from your printer. If your printer can provide you with a template, use it. Often the inside flap is designed to be slightly smaller than the outer flap. This way it folds and opens neatly. You can figure out these details yourself, but a template will ensure it’s correct and also match the printer’s expectations.
Think about the order of information. Both the front outer flap and back (center) panel are visible without opening the brochure. Then, the inner flap becomes visible, at the same time the start of the inside left is exposed. The inside, inner flap (far right panel) is the last section to be seen and may be overlooked, don’t put your critical message there!
Use the inside 3-panels wisely. The biggest restraint on a small brochure design is that each panel is very narrow. This can be hard to fit certain types of content. So save that inner area for what really needs the space.
Print and fold your design mockup. Whether you are designing the brochure yourself, or receiving a proof from your graphic designer, print it out and fold it up. Printing it at full size ensures that the type size is as you expect (don’t rely on just viewing it on screen). Folding it will force you to make sure your panels are in the right order and that elements align pleasingly from one part of the layout to another.
Try something big. Most small, tri-fold brochures tend to suggest a very column-based layout. You know, each panel is a column of text. With that layout nothing ever gets bigger than about three inches wide. But choosing graphics that bleed off the edge or run into another panel can be a way to make your design much more impactful.

Here are a few trifold brochure designs that we’ve completed recently.

Tri fold brochure design for Speaking to Win

Tri fold brochure design for the Freeport Chamber of Commerce

Tri fold brochure design for the Community Energy Cooperative

Tags: #10, brochure design, design, tri-fold brochures
Posted in Design Basics | 3 Comments »

Even Non Designers Are Learning About Design and Branding

December 17th, 2010

Over the years, having trained as a professional graphic designer, there have been times I felt that other people didn’t “get it.” They just couldn’t see or appreciate good design. This is frustrating and saddening for me.

In design school you spend a lot of time learning about typography, grids and visual hierarchy. You learn to appreciate the nuances of composition, proper kerning and color management.

Then, you get thrown out into the real world and realize that a lot of people don’t care about these things. In fact, a lot of people can hardly recognize these subtleties even when they are pointed out.

Therefore, designers get a bit of a bad rap for being overly picky and are prone to stressing out about things the average person doesn’t care about.

Some people who don’t seem to value design may be quick to point out that nobody would notice or care about the details a designer would notice or care about.

But, that’s not true.

Let me give you an example. I quickly notice poor printing. I recently looked at a colleague’s business card and saw that the solid blue on the back was very uneven and streaky. He hadn’t noticed the effect previously and felt that his low cost business cards were well printed. But once I pointed it out to him, he joked that he could no longer stop seeing the streaks.

The bar is rising. Everyone is learning about design.

The web has brought everything to everyone, very quickly and easily. One negative (as seen through a designer’s eye) is that anyone can quickly create something, print something or publish something. Much of this stuff is junk. However, on the positive side, people are also better informed that ever.

Many of the things that designers obsess about used to seem like hocus pocus to an outsider. But now that people have so much educational content at their fingertips, and now that so many people have dabbled in their own design, I think we’re actually seeing a backlash towards better design.

I think we’re actually seeing a backlash towards better design.

People are reading about graphic design, website design and branding like they never did before.

American Express has launched an online project called: Project RE:Brand This combination web site, blogs and videos highlight the importance of design and branding to building a successful business by partnering real businesses with branding experts. American Express is helping to bring the idea of high quality graphic design and branding to the masses of small business owners.

What if you can’t recognize a well designed website, logo or brochure?

As a business owner there are many different areas of your business that you need to oversee. Some of these things come naturally, but other areas do not. Would you ever tell someone who didn’t like keeping their books that they could just ignore it? No, you’d likely advise them to turn over the day to day bookkeeping to an expert and then learn enough to understand their financial statements.

The same is true for design and branding for your organization. If you are unable to recognize and understand the value of design and branding, find an expert to help you. Build a relationship with that person, the way you do with your CPA. You need to include them in your business plans, share your goals, and be open about your shortcomings.

Remember that even if you can’t see a poor printing job, there are many others who can, and they are probably judging you poorly.

Again, some will counter that no one should be judging you by the quality of your printed business cards. But the reality is that first impressions, such as those that come from poorly printed business cards are almost subconscious. For people who care about these details, they now see you as someone who doesn’t care, without even consciously making that judgement.

Surround yourself with experts who know about design and branding and use their expertise to benefit your business.

Tags: Branding, design, expertise, graphic design
Posted in Branding | 4 Comments »

Nobody Reads: How Good Design Can Help

December 7th, 2010

One thing I find myself telling clients repeatedly is: “No one reads.”

That doesn’t mean that people are not publishing, buying and reading books. It has nothing to do with the idea of “content is king” on the web.

It refers to the fact that people are bombarded with messages, information, data and content and they learn to automatically filter out what’s not important. Therefore we need to streamline our messages to be as succinct as possible and also use design to catch someone’s attention and guide them through the key points.

This is especially critical in situations where you are trying to get someone’s attention.

Captive audience or casual surfer?

There are times when a reader is very focused, like when someone buys a book and then settles into their comfy chair committed to reading it, start to finish. But viewers surfing the web, prospects reading your sales materials, or magazine readers just glancing at your print advertising are not likely to read your content top to bottom.

It’s a bit depressing to think, after spending so much time word-smithing your text, that people are not reading word for word. But that is the truth.

And it’s best to write and design knowing most people skim. For example:

In web copy, keep the sentence structures simple.
On web sites and in advertising, keep paragraph lengths short.
Use bullets to highlight lists with key information.
Use headlines and subheads so that readers can skim to the parts they care about.

A personal story

Yesterday, I got burned by not reading something, and I want to turn it into an opportunity to demonstrate how design can help with conveying a message.

Our building manager announced a couple of weeks ago that Central Maine Power would be replacing the meters in our building and there would be “short interruptions in power” as they did their work. A sign was posted on the elevator bulletin board announcing the December 6th work. Because nearly all of our work is done on computers; and computers do not function well with “interruptions” in power, we pretty much had to close shop during the electrical work.

When I arrived at work yesterday at noon, I checked in with the management office to ensure that the work was completed and it was safe to turn on the computers. The manager’s face got that “oh no” look on it, as she explained that the date had changed and that she had definitely changed the date on the posters in the elevators.

Sure enough, she had changed the date on the posters on the elevator. But everything else about the poster looked exactly the same. This is a case where the design of the poster should have changed to reflect a new message.

While the original message had explained the planned power outages and the timing of the event, the new message should be: NEW DATE!!! Because this poster looked exactly like the one hanging there for the previous two weeks that had listed December 6th. I had just learned to tune it out, as there was no reason for me to actively read it again.

Lessons learned

Yes, I know. I should read and pay attention more.

But I think this clearly demonstrates the fight we are all in to get and keep someone’s attention. Use design to highlight the message.

Headlines should reflect what’s really of benefit to your reader
The extraneous details should be minimized
The design should pull the reader through the key information

P.S.

Our office will be closed on the morning of December 13th because of short interruptions in power.

PPS. As I left the building after taking the photo of our bulletin board. I saw this as I walked out my door. This is the outside of the Portland Museum of Art which is across the street from my office.

I definitely read it!

This is part of a special presentation by artist Jenny Holzer. Learn more here.

Tags: content, design, text
Posted in Design Basics | 5 Comments »

Connect your Design and Message for More Helpful Signage

November 5th, 2010

When I was at the Momentum Convention and looking for the classroom for my next workshop, I was confronted with this sign.

Confusing directional sign

Signs like this are confusing. The places that are to the left are on the right side of the sign and the places that are to the right are on the left page.

The layout of the elements on the page (or sign) should reflect the message you are trying to convey.

It’s a quick fix to make this sign much more helpful. Here’s my Photoshop’d version.

Redesigned sign with better, more helpful layout

What are your favorite confusing signs?

Tags: design, signage, signs
Posted in Design Basics | 4 Comments »

Connect your Words and Design for the Most Impact

September 26th, 2010

As a graphic designer, I’m sometimes put in the situation where I’m given terrible copy to work with. My client will provide me text for a web site, ad, brochure, or book cover that’s just weak. It’s wordy, has no punch or is just too blah to connect with the reader.

Most of us learned to write from high school and college essays. So we tend to fall into a very straightforward, linear mode of communicating. We never learned how to turn the story inside out or to get someone to look fresh at something that may be quite mundane. When the text is so plain, all the power of capturing viewers attention must be done with the graphic design. And while I certainly think there is great power in design, design always benefits from great copy.

You’ll create the most compelling message when the design and words echo each other and build upon the same themes.

A very simple example: Drive leisurely

This past weekend, I was camping at Winslow Park in Freeport, Maine. This park follows the usual design norms of campgrounds: wooden signs with chiseled letters to give directions. This is the sign you see when leaving the park.

They could have just had the the text read: Drive Slowly. But leisurely captures the idea of not just moving your car more slowly, but taking the emotional time to look around, enjoy your surroundings and appreciate where you are. By changing that one word they captured the feel of the campground experience: a laid back vacation.

From the design perspective they could have used a regular road sign like shown below. But that would have ruined the campground ambience. The feeling of getting away from it all.Using the campground aesthetic, even as you’re leaving the park, helps to continue your vacation feeling just a moment longer.

Now this is not to say that I think the design of the existing sign is anything exceptional. The kerning between letters is horrible. But, it is effective. It is clear and very legible. And it’s even a look a designer might pick up intentionally when building a brand. Maybe a logo for a wild game restaurant, or the interior design for a camping supply store.

The sign, especially with that word leisurely, just helps me relax.

Tags: camping, copywriting, design, text
Posted in Branding, Design Basics | 4 Comments »

How Important is “Uniqueness” in Design and Branding?

August 11th, 2010

The other day, I went into a coffee shop that I like to frequent in downtown Portland, Maine. They have an area where customers can put their business cards so that other customers may learn about their services. As I glanced over, I saw a business card that I recognized. I knew that I had seen the business card on the door of another suite in my office building. So I took a closer look, and read that it was a Yoga teacher’s card. I was confused because I knew there wasn’t a yoga studio in the same building as Visible Logic. I honestly was pretty perplexed until I realized that it was the same business card design used by two different businesses. One was a therapist; the other, a yoga teacher.

About one week later, I had a meeting with someone and we were trying to make some networking connections for one another. She opened her business card holder and I caught a glance of the same business card design, again. I asked: “Whose card is that?” And when my acquaintance told me, I realized it was yet a third business person in this small community using the same business card design. This person is an LEED AP (An aside: No, I don’t know what that means… do you? I can guess it has do with something with LEED energy stuff, but that’s all the card said.)

Business card from Portland, Maine business

Here is one of the 3 business cards. All use the same design template with different contact details

Uniqueness and differentiation are key in building a brand identity

This is in an unfortunate instance where uniqueness would help. Lack of differentiation is causing at worst confusion, and at best just a watering down of any sort of distinction between local businesses. Let’s say I was looking for a yoga teacher, but when I glanced at that card and recognized it as a therapist’s card I might not give it a second glance.

The bottom line is that all of these businesses are relying on a stock (I’d guess free) business card design. Probably each business owner went to the same online printer such as VistaPrint and selected the same free design. I’ve now already spotted three of these in our small community and there’s likely more.

If you’re trying to build a brand it needs to be distinct. What if another yoga teacher or therapist selects that same design? Then you’d look just like your direct competition; causing serious confusion and complete brand dilution.

The critical difference between design and branding

Design is just one part of branding. It specifically is about building a brand identity or visual position for a brand. On the other hand, branding projects are just one type of design projects that a graphic design studio or web design company may handle. You can read this post about Tropicana packaging to understand more about the difference between design and branding.

Is there a problem with the design of the card? No. The design is elegant. The color palette is pleasing. The larger organic shapes on the right are a nice contrast to the subtle geometric pattern on the left. The typeface is a bit difficult to read. If someone showed me this design and asked for a critique, I would not be horrified.

But, if someone asked me if they should use this as the basis of their brand identity I’d tell them to stop immediately. You need uniqueness to differentiate yourself and build a distinct look for your brand.

Are there times when a lack of uniqueness is OK?

Most graphic designers and web designers pride themselves on creating distinctive design solutions. However, one reality underlying the usage of free business card templates, low cost web site templates or royalty-free photos is that most small businesses have a very limited budget for their design needs.

My clients are in this boat too. I’m often working under the barriers of restricted budgets.

So I wanted to show you an example from my own work, where I got caught using the same design elements as someone else. But I’ll show you why it wasn’t critical to the design and branding for my client.

Below is a book cover design that Visible Logic created. The cover was meant to be part of a series, so that the dominant design elements would be recognizable even as small details changed. You can read more about the book design project and see the design of the other covers here.

Let's Eat Out! Book cover design by Visible Logic

Just this week, I received an email from Borders Books that looks like this:

E-Newsletter from Borders Books

Right next to offer #1 is that same royalty-free image of the women eating at a restaurant that we used on our cover. I recognized it immediately because it was an image that I searched for, and it was an image that went under a lot of scrutiny from the client. But the reality is that in both cases it is just a quick way of making the viewer think “restaurant”. In neither case is it critical to the design and/or brand identity of either product.

This is a case where uniqueness is not that critical.

Sometimes you have to…

When you are forced to use design elements that are not unique, make sure they are NOT the one-and-only, the most critical, or the defining element of your design. Use free, low-cost, or widely available elements such as graphics, images, photos and decorative elements carefully. Ensure that they do not define your brand identity.

…

If you’ve seen other examples of that business card design above, I’d love to have them. I’m making a little collection. Also, if you know where the design comes from, I’d like to know that too—thanks!

Tags: Branding, design, uniqueness
Posted in Branding, Design Basics | 3 Comments »

It’s Hard to Stand Out When You Use a Free Template

July 26th, 2010

I recently purchased a Xerox color printer, (the Phaser 6280, which I love, by the way). As part of the warranty registration process I am now on Xerox’s email list. I just received this e-newsletter that had me cringing at the contradictory advice given.

Xerox E-Newsletter (click to enlarge)

The e-newsletter’s first head line is:

10 ways to stand out from the crowd

The second headline and article are:

More free business flyer templates. With our new professionally designed business flyers, there are now over 20 free designs you can use to look your best in print.

It’s really hard to stand out from the crowd, when you use a free template. The worst case scenario is that your competition is actually using the same template as you. This is more common than you think. If you are the travel business you choose the travel theme. If you are a florist, you choose the floral theme. Unfortunately, that’s what everyone else is doing, too.

What differentiates you from your competition? Is it that you sell flowers? I don’t think so. Rather it’s your unique way of combining different types of flowers, or your incredibly fast delivery, or your guarantee that the bouquet will last for 5 days, etc. The themes presented in templates—whether they be printed brochures templates or web site templates always focus on the lowest common denominator. They can’t be distinct enough to make you stand apart from others in the same field.

As Xerox realizes, you need to stand apart from the crowd if you wish to recognizable, well-known and trusted. A distinct brand identity can do that for you in a way that no stock template can.

Tags: Branding, design, templates
Posted in Branding, Business, Design Basics | 2 Comments »

Good Design Saves Money, Doesn’t Look Cheap

June 29th, 2010

As you pull together your brand identity you need to look at design as well as production costs. First you need a well designed business card, then you need to get it printed. In addition to web design there are development and hosting fees. As a business owner, you’re probably looking for ways to minimize expenses; but you need to understand how and where you can safely cut corners.

Where can you save money?

For example, there is a plethora of online printing sources that will print your cards cheaply; and many times they will look like that — cheap. If you know your way around printing, you may be able to score some decent, but well-priced cards. However, many new business owners don’t know anything about printing, so they end up with thin paper and poorly reproduced artwork. If you want to read about my own experience getting some cards printed online, read this series of posts.

It’s all about understanding where it’s OK to save money and where you’ll end up looking cheap.

As many of you know, I recently moved my office. To decorate the new space, I decided to frame and display some logo designs that we’ve done in the past. It’s a nice way to showcase some of our design work for people who stop by the studio.

I had to find some frames, and I needed at least a dozen of them; so they couldn’t be expensive. I’m a small business owner watching the bottom line, like just you. I checked out Target, some craft stores and ended up at the Christmas Tree Shop. If you’re not from New England you may not be familiar with this quirky, bargain-hunters’ dream. It’s one of those places that you’ll never know what you’ll find, but they always have an assortment of home decorating and housewares items that are inexpensive.

I headed to the frame department. All were inexpensive. Some looked flimsy, were poorly manufactured, or had chipping finishes. But some of the most basic ones were acceptable.

Keep it simple. Keep the quality.

I purchased twelve of these basic, black wooden frames. They are simple and square. And they cost only $3.99 each.

I didn’t try to make it look like gold leaf, or have fancy mattes. I chose a quality material (wood, rather than plastic), a basic style (square shaped and flat edges), and a simple finish (flat black paint).

It takes experience to work within limits

Framing up these logos got me thinking… It’s often the person with the most understanding who can cut corners, save money, use templates, etc. and still have it all look good. In this case, I was able to see which elements were critical to having a professional look.

Another example is web templates. If you don’t know anything about web design, it’s hard to make a free template look very good. But an experienced web designer could make the most of even the most limited web design template. But then, a good web designer would probably never use one of those cheesy templates.

It’s sort of a catch-22: templates, clipart, inexpensive printing and do-it-yourself systems are supposed to make someone look professional with minimal cost; but they often backfire and make you look even worse.

Three ways your graphic designer or web designer can help

Consider the entire budget. Start by providing a budget for what you want to accomplish. Then both the design and the production or development fees can be factored in.
Consider long terms costs. It can be painful to put down a lot of money upfront, but many times when you consider the long terms savings, it worth it. For example, a Content Management System (CMS) has development costs upfront, but saves you from going back to your web developer for routine updates. By saving those hourly fees, the CMS will eventually pay for itself.
Think long term. Unfortunately, I’ve been in too many situations where clients try to penny pinch so hard that they end up doing one small-scale project after another. With none of them having the effect or impact they want. For example, they might build a small non-CMS-enabled web site, then re-do it with a CMS. Or, they pay the design fees for an ad, but only run it once. Branding, marketing, web site optimization are all ongoing and long term projects.

Most importantly, allow your designer to use their expertise to help you find a cost-effective solution.

Tags: cheap, design
Posted in Branding, Business, Web Design | 2 Comments »

Your Web Site Is Your First Impression

June 8th, 2010

In my last post, I talked about first impressions as they had to do with physical spaces, such as your office or storefront. When I tweeted about the blog post I asked: When Does A First Impression Start? Many people responded to me (without reading the article) that first impressions start with your web site.

@jesch30 Responded to When Does A First Impression Start? with: “The first glimpse of a website”

In this internet-focused world, web sites have trumped the business card, or logo as the key brand identity element for making a great first impression.

Of course there are times when we meet someone from a business face-to-face first, such as at a networking event. But the reality is that for many of us our first response when hearing about a new company is to check out their web site.

We immediately make web site first impressions based on:

How easy it was to find: Is their business name the URL itself or did I have to Google-around to figure out which was the right web site.
The first look at the web site itself.

I don’t think any of this is too much of a surprise. We all go through this exercise of checking out every thing, every one, every company, every product first on the Internet. But what pains me is to hear the backlash against design. I read about how elements such as search engine optimization or conversion rates are more critical to your web site success. I even hear developers and internet marketers who claim that designers sacrifice those things in the name of design. The fact is that without a positive first impression your viewers (potential clients and customers) will quickly move on to one your thousand or so competitors.

That’s not to say that at Visible Logic we don’t care about the key elements of search and the fact that a web site should be a business tool, not just a pretty face. In fact, we just had a client tell us:

Our web-based sales have quadrupled since you redesigned our site!

How did we do that?

We built the design using CSS and HTML without an over reliance on images and graphics for informational elements. This is a best practice for making a site that’s easy to search and easy to maintain.
We designed the site in WordPress which made it easy for the client to keep it updated. We also used the Platinum SEO Pack to prompt the client to fill in key words and descriptors that enhance searchability.
We assisted the client in setting up their Google Local account and seeking reviews from their customers.
Oh, and did I mention… we designed a visually appealing web site. That is the part the client always hears about: how great her web site looks.

If you are a business owner or marketing person charged with redesigning your company’s web site, it can be overwhelming to sort through all the things that are critical to a web site design and development project. You will hear about search, about conversion, about content, about social media. Each is an important pillar to how effective your web site is.

Just don’t forget that first impression. Spend the time and money to work with a profesional who can create a strong brand image for you, in those critical first seconds when someone arrives at your web site.

Tags: design, impressions, web
Posted in Branding, Design Basics, Web Design | 5 Comments »

Get the Right Logo Files from Your Graphic Designer

May 6th, 2010

If you hire a graphic designer to design your logo, make sure that you get the correct files once the logo is finalized.

Vector vs. Pixel Based Graphics

Generally, designers will work in Illustrator to design your logo. Adobe Illustrator is a vector based program, rather than a pixel-based program like Photoshop. Vector-based images can be resized both larger and smaller without diminishing the quality. On the other hand, pixel based images do not resize well. As you can see in the example below, the vector-based Illustrator file (top) is created with just a few points and a mathematical formula determines the curves and lines in between. The pixel or bitmap based Photoshop file (bottom) looks digitized and has blurry edges when resized from a low resolution file.

The vector version (Illustrator eps files) of the Visible Logic logo.

Visible Logic logo resized from a pixel-based program such as Photoshop.

Your final logo artwork will probably be an Illustrator eps (Encapsulated Post Script) file. Now it’s likely that you do not have Illustrator, so you will not be able to open the file. But that’s OK. You only need to be able to place the finished eps file within documents or provide it to vendors for such things as business card printing, signage, etc.

File type: eps

An Illustrator eps file is the gold standard for your logo files. In fact, if your logo designer says they are working in Photoshop, you are probably not going to get files that will be universally useful for you, your printers, your other vendors, etc. And it will in fact cause problems for you in the future, if not immediately. Whenever you have a reason to pass along your logo to a professional, give them the eps version, unless another format is specifically requested.

The benefit of an eps file is that it can be sized up or down without restriction and without deteriorating the image quality. It also has a transparent background so that the logo can be placed in any situation without a problem. A jpeg, on the other hand, will always have a white box as the background of the logo. Professionals such as graphic designers, web designers, printers and sign makers can convert the eps file to whatever size and format they need.

The problem is often that you may not be able to place an eps file in documents such as Word or Powerpoint files. Whenever you are working on something that requires your logo, always try to use the eps file first. If the software does not let you place or import an eps, then you will be forced to use an alternative format.

File type: Jpeg

Jpegs are the most common image types that many of us are familiar with. They can be easily placed within Word and other software programs. There are two common problems with jpegs files: they do not resize well, and they have a background fill (such as white). Therefore jpeg images need to created with their end use in mind.

Here are some examples. If you are creating a jpeg for a large, printed poster, then the file should have a resolution of 300 dpi, it should be set up four-color (CMYK rather than RGB), and should be at a large enough size that it does not need to be resized very much upon placement in the layout program. On the other hand a web graphic should be saved at 72 dpi, and in rgb format. The size should be close or exactly what it will be on the web page. If you are placing your logo on a black background, for example, you’ll need to create a jpeg with a black background.

As you can see, it’s easy to end up with a large library of these images because you need one for every specific usage. And, you may not have the tools to make all these variations. You’ll need to start with the eps file to create the jpegs in these various formats, and your designer may need to be the one to do that for you.

File type: gif or png

Gifs and png files are an alternative to jpeg, but allow for a transparent background. However, they have essentially the same limitations because they are also pixel based. You will again need to create the file with the correct size and resolution for the end usage.

Developing a library of files

Whenever we design a logo for a client, we provide a large library of final electronic files. The key files are the Illustrator eps files, and we usually provide them in Pantone (PMS) color, four color, grayscale, black, and white versions. That handful of eps files are the most critical.

Then, we build a whole library of jpeg and gif files. We create a wide range of files in different sizes and resolutions to span most of our clients needs. As you can imagine, this is a large library of files. It is not uncommon for us to provide up to 100 different variations for them.

What kind of files did your logo designer provide you? Were they sufficient?

Tags: design, file type, logos, must
Posted in Design Basics | 8 Comments »

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