A good logo can help make a company into a friend, into “someone” who is known, liked and remembered. There are infinite faces, and there are infinite logo designs. You want to make yours stand out in a crowd.

The process of designing a logo employs a fundamental set of variables in order to arrive at a simple, yet memorable result.

A memorable logo strengthens your brand recognition, distinguishes your product from competitors’ and serves as your identification for doing business. It sends a subliminal message to the viewer that elicits an emotional response.

Consider some of the best-known logos: Apple Computer’s apple, Nike’s swoosh and McDonald’s arches. Each is an uncomplicated mark that immediately conjures in your mind an entity different from all others. It also suggests to you how you feel about the company. The power of a good design is remarkable. McDonald’s is probably the best example of using a simple logo as a marketing force. The gold arches enjoy global consumer recognition with complete ambivalence and disregard for your current diet. Similarly, your logo is going to be your face to the public, now and into the future. You need it to be as resonant and memorable as possible.

Graphic Designers execute corporate identity using visual vocabulary, or syntax. Shape, line, direction, color, value, typography, style, space and form are several fundamentals that are centric to such a dynamic process.

The way that these are combined defines your image. Designers know that rectangles indicate stability, while circles suggest movement. Blue has the attributes of trust and power, while green speaks of life and nature. A serif typeface is conservative, while sans serif is informal – perhaps modern. The Graphic Designer uses these tools to reveal your company’s essence.

Typography, is itself an art form and standalone profession.

Using elements such as typeface, point-size, leading (the distance between lines), kerning (the space between letters) and line-length, the typographer gives a unique presentation to the words that express your company. Slogans and taglines must be visually shaped to reflect your core message. The better the typography, the more resonance the words carry.

In order to interpret your business to consumers, the artist needs to know as much as possible about its key aspects. Many designers will gather detailed information through a discovery process. The information to provide includes: What’s the consumer’s prime benefit from using your product or service? What’s unique about your company? Who are your competitors? Who is your target market? What’s their average age and background? Other questions concern your preferences. Does your company already have an identifying color? Are there specific colors or features that you want included or excluded? Have you seen logos for other companies similar to what you want? Does your company already have a tag line, or slogan?

How and where your logo will be used has an effect on its character. Will it be shown on the web? In print? On signage? On clothing? On letterhead and business cards?

Each of these applications has its own requirements. You want something that works well in every planned media. This also gives the designer some idea of the sizes involved.

Logos come in several types: text, iconic, illustrative or a hybrid combination. A text logo, or logotype, has no graphic, icon or illustrative standalone elements.

Along with these three main categories are many combinations, modifications and hybrids. An icon may be combined with typography that is either removable or integrated. An illustrative logo often includes typography for the company name. A particular graphic may be neither as lean as an icon nor as fully detailed as a rich illustration. Be sure that the logo design team you work with allows you the flexibility to find exactly the right image for your company.

Seasoned graphic designers help you to answer all of the design questions that arise. You need only to provide information about your company. As long as you know who you are, you’ll get what you need. Thinking carefully about your company’s brand as you go through the design process may be instructive as well as enjoyable.

Budding entrepreneur Scott Sussman and Graphic Designer Ron Bercume are delighted to announce the BETA launch of ILiveWithADisability.com (ILWAD.com).

Together they have taken on the fundamental development of the first social networking platform for people with disabilities and their families in 2010. ILWAD.com offers a safe and friendly atmosphere, which provides for a dynamic online support community with the best that both Facebook and Twitter have to offer.

ILWAD.com is the first social networking platform of its kind, empowering the people with disabilities and their loved ones with the tools and resources they need to live a happy and fulfilling life. Unlike mainstream society, at ILWAD.com you are not defined by the limitations of your disability, rather you are defined by what you continue to overcome.

The first RonBercume.com Short Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZUmX_yGMDM)

Sussman was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia, which is a subset of Cerebral Palsy that only affects his lower extremities. As the unveiling of ILWAD.com shows, Sussman does not let his disability hold him back. Growing up Sussman did the best he could to live a normal life, attending the prestigious Hun School of Princeton, where he played three sports: weightlifting, swimming, and rowing. Sussman continued on to the University of Miami where he studied Marketing and Sports Administration.

ILWAD.com offers all of the benefits of larger social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, but in a controlled, monitored, and honest setting. Sussman’s platform offers a place for people with disabilities and their loved ones to discuss sensitive issues that only other members with similar issues could relate with. The online community provides an avenue for self-expression, in which members can share success stories, brainstorm solutions to problems that they face, and share their battle for everlasting happiness.

Registration and membership is open to the general public; however, the community targets people with disabilities, their families, and supporters.

ILWAD.com is the culmination of Sussman’s willingness to fight and overcome the many obstacles society has thrown his way. ILWAD.com serves as a support group, social community, and exchange of free ideas. Sussman believes every American, despite their physical appearance or mental capacity, should have the respect and dignity they deserve.

Media interested in setting up an interview with Scott Sussman or Ron Bercume should contact the RonBercume.com studio at  (518) 524-8719 or ronbercume{at}ronbercume.com.

Google in another life was a search engine project called “BackRub”, created by Larry and Sergey in 1996.

On May 6, 2010, and for the first time since 1999, Google redesigned their corporate logo – some people may not have even noticed. While the logo was due for a makeover, the new design reaks of a reluctant conformity to web 2.0 stylistic movements in design that are being fueled by mobile media and the blogosphere. Love it or hate it, Google’s logo transformation is a classic example of how companies can subtly refresh their brand without sacrificing their corporate identity.

The revitalized logo takes advantage of a cleaner and crisper logotype. By removing the drop shadow, a bastardized gestalt variable is defunct – resulting in more vibrant colors with the help of a couple tiny tweaks to a modern palette. Among the changes, Google removed the Trademark™ symbol from the logo and substantially reduced the outer and inner shadow stereotypical of the over-used and abused Photoshop dropshadows of the 90’s. The new logo reduces distractions within the primary viewing area and improves readability by using defined edges and vivid colors that are burned into our subconscious and have been for years now.

A Logo For Every Occasion

Over the years, Google’s logo celebrates and mourns national and International events. The special logos are referred to as “Doodles” and honor victims of tragedy, celebrate our heritage, and recognize current events. Google celebrates lesser-known holidays as well, such as Lego’s 50th Anniversary, when the company constructed the word “Google” out of Lego blocks. Most recently, Google created an interactive logo that served as a PacMan game, in remembrance of its 30th birthday.

According to analysts, users spent 4.8 million hours playing the arcade classic on the Google homepage, which cost the economy over $120 million in lost revenue.

Google emerged as the search engine authority in the late 1990s; however, its popularity exploded during the dot com boom, becoming an international icon for Internet search. According to InterBrand, an international brand consultancy firm, Google is the tenth most popular global brand, trailing Disney, McDonalds, and Intel. Analysts predict Google’s brand is valued at over $150 billion, which is expected to increase as the company expands its operations. Google’s net worth shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as the search engine executed a majority of all search queries on the Internet in May 2010.

The Face Behind the Original Google Logo

Ruth Kedar designed the current Google Pop logo, which is based off of the Catull typeface. In addition to designing the Google logo, Kedar was one of the original founders of Art.net and was instrumental in the development of Adobe System’s Analog Deck and Duolog Deck logos.

Ron announces obeyyourlogo.com.

Logo design exists at the intersection of pure creativity and hard-nosed business. Identity is used to communicate brand integrity and to unify a message, taking advantage of both print and web systems. Your logo and core stationery are the foundation of your print system, used to tie together identity and to create marketable collaterals for everyday use.

10 Years, Hundreds of Projects

Ronald pursues a specialized agenda within the creative services sector, collaborating with his clients to maintain aggressive branding efforts. With the resources to execute full-blown corporate campaigns to imaginative logo design, he is personally involved in all stages of the process. Ron has officially announced ObeyYourLogo.com to make our specialized services available to a wider audience for the first time.

Obey Your Designer?

ObeyYourLogo.com is the second “Obey” special project ( ObeyYourPoster.com being the first ) published in anticipation of Ron’s biography “Obey Your Designer“. The biography is due for publishing later this year, and will be available in bookstores, Amazon and RonBercume.com. You can reserve a publisher’s pre-release copy once available by visiting ObeyYourDesigner.com.

Even the best graphic designer can’t clean up an oil spill, or save a negligent corporation.

Almost 2 months since BP’s riser pipe decided to spew millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the busted pipe continues to gush like a stuck pig.

Scientists, government officials, and various other types of experts have yet to find a solution, just as BP has failed to find a band-aid big enough to cover up this environmental (and PR) disaster. How will they fix the pipe? Who’s going to clean up the oil? Is my seafood safe to eat? With exception to special interests and lobbying groups, has anyone asked the dolphins about their feelings on this catastrophe? And how exactly does this relate to graphic design?

As graphic designers, we sometimes have clients come to us with “oil spills” in hopes that we can wave our magic wand and make the problems go away with the clone tool (that’s a photoshop pun for those who are not designers). Well, no matter how much of a rock star graphic designer you think you are, there are some messes that you can’t clean up. There are also some messes you shouldn’t even think about touching, or just like the oil clinging to our feathered Gulf victims, you’ll have a greasy mess that follows you around and drags down your career with the potential to hurt millions or billions of people.

If you haven’t followed me through the multiple oil slick metaphors, I’m talking about ethics in design. The subject is a big deal in a consumer societies, rivaling that of war time propaganda and it’s cultural effects on the lives of ordinary people.

Sometimes, we starving graphic designers have to make a decision between a paycheck and keeping our morals intact.

No one wants to have the millions of deaths caused by cigarettes on their conscience, so why would you use your graphic design skills to create ads for a cigarette company? Sure, you’re not handing that 17 year old kid a lighter, but you would be creating the ad that may entice them to pick up their first pack (which leads 50 years of puffing on those addictive tobacco products, then one day there is nasty cough followed by bad news and a hospital bed. Feeling guilty yet?). I’m sure you can think of at least a dozen industries within 60 seconds that have a major global impact on people, in a not-so-good fashion.

BP currently has its site redirecting at the time of this commentary to a “Gulf of Mexico Response” page that shows updates on how they are dealing with the already out-of-control situation. There are even detailed illustrations of their various efforts to plug the hole that have magically changed week to week, deadline to deadline ( I am assuming modified by a very frustrated graphic designer ).

But you know what?

When this is finally over, and the leak has stopped, and the sea animals are no longer being poisoned after 200 years… people are not going to say, “Remember when BP put up that nice website page that showed us how they were fixing the worst oil leak ever? That was wonderful!” Oh no, it’s much too late for that. If BP even survives the mess they’ve made, people will forever remember them as the jerks who put a smile on while protecting their own special interests ( to put that nicely ) with the monstrous oil leak that hurt the cute dolphins and messed up their precious beaches. You can’t fix that. So if you’re a graphic designer, consider carefully the next client you take on and the consequences of the part you play. Graphic design in modern culture is the front-line catalyst providing for access to the visual and emotional human experience.

Chose your clients carefully. Are they BP, Hugh Hefner or even the Marlborough Man? Don’t be a dolphin killer….

Are they someone you can truly create a message for that inspires positive change in the world, or are they asking you to clean up their oil spill? Self sacrifice does pay off when you can sleep at night and live your life with compassion and thoughtfulness!

Entertain this: The problem is not that the government did not have enough regulation in place. Any government east or west cannot do everything and should not be expected to in my opinion – specifically a government run by the people, as flawed as we all are. The problem is not that good people do not exist within the BP corporation that did not fight for what is right ( maybe just not enough of them ).

Perhaps the problem is that there are too many people within a global bureaucracy basing decisions on what may NOT be ethical or righteous, but because of the status quo and their own “bubble” of special interest. The consequences have been for decades denied, but can no longer be obviously ignored!

Long story short, we are now 40+ days out on any significant resolution. BP is not a new company, trillions have invested into drilling and discovery technology for decades industry wide. Compare the R&D funding for safety and response vs. discovery and production – it does not appear very ethical.

This commentary is dedicated to the lives lost in the explosion, their family and friends ( we have chosen to NOT talk about them within this conversation out of respect until now ). This commentary is dedicated to the lives that will be lost in the coming years due to this catastrophic event, both physically, indirectly and economically.

Contrary to statements you may occasionally find in the technology press, the brick and mortar business isn’t dead – it is simply evolving.

The model that supported its marketing for centuries, however, may be living on borrowed time. The Internet has transformed business, as the Industrial Revolution once changed the world.

An ever-increasing number of people are gaining Internet access and their using the revolutionary technology to make purchases. More importantly, perhaps, they are using it to make decisions about purchasing. Today, an effective Internet presence is virtually essential to the successful functioning of most businesses. With technology becoming more readily available and the web’s reach growing exponentially, the need for an effective website will become even more pronounced for small businesses and large corporations alike.

Websites are now a point of contact.

When a consumer needs something, he or she will often begin the search for information on the Internet. A readily discoverable website that explains the nature of a business and that provides essential contact information is rapidly becoming a necessity for that reason alone. The web is the phone book, the business listings, and the shopping mall store directory rolled into one. If you’re not there, you’re becoming invisible.

Many otherwise brilliant business owners openly mocked the idea that someone would willingly input credit card information into a computer to buy something from a stranger who might be located thousands of miles away. Now, it’s common. Resistance to online purchasing is dropping, too.

Websites are an opportunity for marketing and brand building. A smart business will provide visitors with a quality experience that emphasizes the business’ core message and that showcases its products and services. While other forms of advertising and promotion still have a great deal of value, a holistic approach to brand science and foundational marketing efforts must be top of mind with a web presence centric to any effort.

The old methods of marketing are slowly but surely losing their effectiveness.

Those who take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the Internet can thrive during this period of change instead of suffering through it. When you consider realities like those, it becomes quite apparent that the modern business, regardless of size, must maintain a high-quality website if it wants to retain its competitiveness. The Internet is not a fad. It’s not going away. It’s constantly growing and its popularity increases along with its rapidly expanding user base.

Graphic design has been a part of humanity since its earliest days.

Ancient art from all around the globe features what can be termed early graphic design. The period from the mid-20th century through today, however, is particularly interesting. We have seen significant changes in approaches and interesting innovations since the beginning of World War II.

World War II spurred a massive surge in poster art and design.

In an effort to propagandize and to recruit support for the war, both Axis and Allied nations communicated their messages via poster. While the United States tended to feature drab, straightforward design in these efforts, the British and French took more creative approaches. During the war years, France’s Jean Carlu combined newer artistic traditions (particularly Cubism) with a strong sense of composition to create bold and interesting poster art. Many argue that Carlu’s work presaged and may have significantly influenced corporate graphic design and logo creation.

The post-war economic boom in the United States and elsewhere created an increased demand for graphic design. While much of the work was rather straightforward commercial design exhibiting few innovations, there were exceptions to that rule.

The commercial nature of graphic design, embodied in the power and influence of New York’s Madison Avenue advertising firms, was briefly challenged on the economic outskirts by the growing counter-culture movement. Psychedelic art, for instance, gained a strong foothold in graphic design. Any threat to the power structure was averted, however, as the ad firms co-opted the unique graphical presentations. Psychedelia was tamed and retrained to serve its commercial master, becoming part of mainstream advertising and corporate identity structures.

While the bulk of graphic design in the 1970s and 1980s followed the relatively tame and structured approach of the European “international typography”, there was also room for pop art and a new wave aesthetic to leave a mark on the field. Designers like Neville Brody and David Carson laid the groundwork for a 90s look that celebrated experimentation and that played with structural expectations.

Today, graphic design is in an interesting state of flux.

Designers are drawing from a variety of approaches, creating hybrids and exploring new space with technologically-drive innovations. Both legitimate nostalgia and ironic sampling from the past function side by side in many spaces. It is as if the world of design is a simmering volcano, waiting for the eruption of the next big movement.

PANTONE: Getting Color Right.

Without having a way to define true color, you would not be able to determine if the blue logo on your company’s letterhead was exactly the same color blue logo on that is on your company’s envelopes. As you can see, PMS is extremely important in the world of both print and web media.

PMS colors

There are currently 1114 PMS base colors available. Many of these PMS colors are spot colors, otherwise known as solid colors. These PMS colors were created without screens or dots from a palette of 14 basic colors. Basic colors are then mixed in different ways to create a rainbow of variety.

Who uses PMS colors?

Most print and graphic designers use PMS solid colors, which are described by a three or four digit number that is followed by the letter C, M, or U. The C, M, or U is used to determine what type of paper stock the color is best printed on. C stands for coated paper, while U stands for uncoated paper. M stands for matte paper. An example of this type of PMS color is PANTONE 185C.

PMS also has colors that are specifically used for the fashion, architecture, and home industries. These colors are represented by a number consisting of two digits followed by a dash (-), and then four more digits. A TPX or TC suffix follows the last four digits. TPX determines that the color is best printed on paper, while TC means that it should be printed on dyed cotton. An example of this type of PMS color is PANTONE 14-4510 TPX, which is the color Aquatic.

The plastics industry also has its own set of PMS colors. These colors are distinguished by a Q or T followed by a three-digit number, a dash, and two singles digits that are separated by a dash. The Q stands for opaque color, while T stands for transparent color. An example of one of these PMS colors is PANTONE Q270–2–4.

What type of PMS guide should you get?

PMS has a variety of swatch books and chips that serve as guides for determining colors. PMS swatch books are composed of strips showing a few related colors, with their names and formulas printed alongside them. These PMS strips are typically secured together at one end so that you can fan them out. They can be purchased in color sets or as separate pieces.

PMS strips are printed on coated, uncoated, or matte-finished stock. What type of stock you prefer depends upon what your company is going to be printing. The type of stock used will directly affect the way the ink appears. There are some specialty guides made by Pantone that will show ink colors on foil, film, or other surfaces.

Another way PMS displays colors is on chips. These chips are tear-off samples of Pantone colors that come on pages in a three-ring binder. This type of display is beneficial to companies that want to provide color samples to their customers. For example, if you are working on artwork for your customer’s brochure, you can simply rip off a color chip and attach it to the brochure’s outline. This way, the customer can approve exactly what he or she will be getting from you.

PMS for first-time designers

Graphic Design and page layout software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and QuarkXPress to duplicate the appearance of PANTONE colors. In order for the program user to see the colors accurately, his or her computer monitor must be properly adjusted according to the program’s specifications.

If you are a designer who is using PMS colors for the first time, there are several things you need to take into consideration when preparing your design for printing. If you are using a desktop publishing program such as the four mentioned above, and depending on the current softare version release you must:

Open the Color window and observe the default color that is currently being used. Typically, the default color is not a PANTONE color, and is a CMYK color instead. You can find the color window in any of these programs by choosing Window, and then Color.

To make your default color a PANTONE color in QuarkXPress, right-click your mouse on the Color window and select New. A box will pop up, asking you what model of colors you wish to add. Different types of PANTONE colors are listed beneath this option. Simply choose the type that you wish to add. If, on the other hand, you are using an Adobe program such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign, you must get rid of the default CMYK colors first. Under Window, select Swatches. Then click Select All Unused. Choose which swatches you want to delete, and then click Delete Swatch. If some swatches do not delete automatically, then you must click on each one to delete it manually. To add PANTONE colors, select Window, and then Swatch Libraries. Then click on the PANTONE color that you wish to add. You will then be ready to use PANTONE colors in your document.

Design firms and print shops like ours depend on PMS colors to get jobs done accurately and flawlessly. Don’t underestimate their importance, for these colors have the ability to bring life to an otherwise black-and-white world.

In a matter of just a few short years…

Is WordPress right for you? Unless you have very specific needs, it will probably do the job. Before you dive headfirst into publication via WordPress, however, there are few things you’ll need to do. Here are your first steps toward getting started with WordPress.

First, get a grip on what WordPress is and how you can use it.

This basic “background research” will allow you to start developing a plan for your eventual site and can spare you a few headaches, as well. Luckily, there’s no shortage of information available on the web and you should be able to develop a solid understanding of the platform quickly and easily.

Second, if you’re planning on having a site that isn’t hosted by WordPress (and remember, the free blogs at WordPress are much more limited in terms of flexibility and purpose than self-hosted options), confirm that you’ll be able to use it in the first place on your host. While most hosts will handle a WordPress installation easily, there are some exceptions.

Make sure you host meets requirements, that you have access to the newest version of PHP and MySQL and that you know how to upload files to your host via FTP. You can generally resolve these questions by examining the information provided by your host as part of your account. In some cases, it will be even easier. Your host may very well offer easy, “one-click” WordPress installation.

Third, you’ll need to install WordPress. New users will appreciate hosts who make this nothing more than a simple point-and-click proposition. Others will have to work a little harder to effectuate and appropriate installation of the software. Consult the tutorials provided by both your host (if available) and WordPress to get the details of installation. If they don’t help you, a little online research should uncover a set of “do it yourself” instructions that will meet your needs.

Fourth, set up your WordPress blog based on the plan you’ve developed. Tweak settings to get the right “feel” for your blog and experiment with different options and settings. One of the nicest things about WordPress is its ease of use–and the fact that you can “undo” any changes you might make.

By digging in and adjusting the system and its settings, you’ll learn a great deal and will soon be on your way to becoming an expert WordPress user.

After you go through this four-step process, you’ll be able to elevate your efforts to a new level. You’ll be able to access WordPress’ even greater powers by uploading the perfect theme, plug-ins and making other adjustments.

WordPress is remarkably powerful and amazingly easy to use. Get started with the basics right away and position yourself to create a tremendous blog or website.

Only a few years ago…

If it was done well, it might inspire action away from the site, but the process was anything but interactive. The standard website mimicked the traditional top-down publishing model.

That is no longer the case.  Today, interactivity is an essential element of the successful site and is a key element of design.  Users have an expectation that a site will offer an opportunity for interaction.  The “virtual billboard” is a relic.

Interactivity in website design can take a variety of forms.

Blogs, for instance, generally allow visitors to comment and to interact directly with the author of the published material.  Blogs can also encourage readers to become site subscribers via an RSS feed.

Sales enhancements are another example of how one can code interactivity into their process in a meaningful and valuable way.  Instead of serving as a static catalog of goods, the site owner can opt to highlight sales and special products.

It does not stop there, however.  Much of the interactivity that is expected today stems from the so-called “Web 2.0” movement.  This visitor-centric approach is more interested in building community and in opening the door for sharing than traditional static sites.  Inclusion of “StumbleUpon”, “Digg”, “Technorati” and other social bookmarking site links that allow readers to quickly share your site with others are great examples interactivity encouragement.

The most rapidly growing elements of the Internet appear to be those focused on encouraging social networking.

That is why so many smart designers are making a point of encouraging that kind of social media involvement with potential customers.  While you can (and should) continue to encourage people to sign up for your email or newsletter list, you can also forge potentially valuable connections via sites like Facebook and Myspace.  The massive recent growth of Twitter should remind all of us that interactivity and social contact are becoming key parts of the online experience for many users.

Is your site suitably interactive or are you relying only upon a contact page buried somewhere in the site’s substructure as your only way of forging a connection with others?

If you have not hopped on the interactivity bandwagon, it is not too late.  There is still a great deal of market space for anyone who is committed to success. If you want your site to perform effectively, however, you will need to make a point of encouraging activity within its design.

Why, James Cameron?

Avatar has just made James Cameron public enemy #1 for all graphic designers. With a budget of over $200 million, top of the line visual effects professionals, and marketing collaborations including Coca-Cola and Twentieth Century Fox, how in the name of “Eywa” did this record-breaking movie manage to be released with Papyrus as its title font?

Even with all of Avatar’s beautiful visuals and oddly attractive eight foot tall blue people, graphic designers world-wide squirmed in their theater seats as the title and subtitles appeared on the screen in what is collectively known as their least favorite font. You would think that with all the artists and professionals involved in creating and promoting the movie, someone would have put the kibosh on the usage of this font.

Since no self-respecting graphic designer would have willingly used the eyesore of a font, we can only come to one conclusion:

IT’S JAMES CAMERON’S FAULT!

He may have a knack for creating movies that attract moviegoers like frat boys to cheap beer, but his choice of fonts is obviously attrocious. Why didn’t someone talk him out of it? Even if it involved force, illegal opiates, or simply deleting the font file from all the computers, someone should have put an end to the use of Papyrus in Avatar.

Placed on anything pertaining to Native Americans, Egyptians, other ethnic cultures, and now apparently aliens, Papyrus is sorely overused and abused.

Not only is it overused, but it has readability issues. Did someone really think we wanted to read subtitles in a font that looks like it was created with sticks and mud?

There are millions of other fonts available to choose from (with about half of them residing on my computer), and this movie had a budget that would have allowed for someone to make their own stinkin’ font.

Yeah, it’s that bad.

Instead, there is now a very ashamed graphic designer hiding under their desk from the barage of angry email pouring into their inbox. I mean, the only way it could have been worse is if someone had made Comic Sans the title font.

Email has become an essential means for conducting business.

Remember that emails containing any commercial or promotional purposes for a product or services fall under the law of spam, established in January 1st, 2004 and named CAN-SPAM. Some types of email messages are not subject to any spam related laws, unless the email receiver asks the sender to stop sending any further emails.

Spam accusations could cost you.

Always make sure before sending out emails that the message is in compliance with CAN-SPAM to protect yourself from any accusations.

You may consider using an email management system.

Email marketing services offer many features such as the creation of email lists, email list management, and advertising tools to help promote your email campaigns. A good email marketing service will also help you to stay in compliance with the CAN-SPAN act.

If you are looking for an email management service, we would humbly recommend Constant Contact- Ron Bercume and SeeMore Media are now partnered with this complete e-mail newsletter and list management solution. Constant Contact provides all the necessary tools to properly send business e-mails to a large or small distribution contact list.

Start your FREE 60 day trial today!

Managed eMarketing Solutions
Ron and his team take things a step further by developing managed marketing solutions for our clients. We can setup your Constant Contact account and show you how to use e-mail marketing to most effectively compliment your existing marketing efforts.

Why Constant Contact?

Constant Contact maintains a skilled customer support team. The Constant Contact team is available 24/7 to assist you and answer your questions.

Features:

- Unlimited email campaigns with personalized follow up messages.
- Customized templates.
- Unlimited personalized broadcast newsletters.
- Addition of op-in forms and pop-ups with Constant Contact web form generator.
- Automated ad tracking & complete account control.
- Full statistics account with an automated email reporting system.
- Automatic undeliverable email handling.

Using an email management solution may drastically cut down on the time you spend on email on a daily basis. It can also help you create and deliver targeted email campaigns which stay in compliance with all applicable laws.

The construction of business identities and logos requires more than just brainstorming some visuals and hoping for the best.

Good logo design exists at an intersection of creativity and hard-nosed business sense. Educated designers generally focus on several essential factors before beginning the production process.

Let’s look at four of those essential factors. These represent part of the process that underlies successful corporate identity construction. Good designers are not just sketchbook talents. They have an understanding of business and marketing that is as well tuned as their artistic skills are.

Brand Strategy: The designer needs to develop a strong understanding of the client company’s strengths. He or she also needs to recognize the client’s weaknesses. Smart designers will go beyond the obvious, developing an idea of why customers in the company’s market make decisions and how those preferences are developed. This information helps to inform the designer’s work and provides a point of reference for testing its effectiveness.

Brand Science: The most highly-sought creators of logos and corporate identities approach their work with a pronounced business sensibility. They treat their work like one of the company’s assets – which it is. They often make and test adjustments and alterations, divining an idea of the financial implications of those changes. This unique ability – a combination of business acumen and artistic insight – allows good designers to realize creative and memorable angles and approaches. It often separates design novices from the top corporate identity teams.

Naming: A logo may be the face of a company, but these days creating a marketable identity often involves giving the business a name as well. If you are faced with the challenge of naming a business, you should take voice of the customer and competitive intelligence data (as well as similar elite-level business strategies) into account. You must also concern yourself with legalities, trademarking, copyrighting and the like.
This is where a designer must combine creative instincts with intelligence, education and research. A company may be able to survive a variety of poor decisions, but a weak name is not one of those manageable errors.

Brand Identity: After a designer knows what he or she is working with and has determined who that client is, it is time to put all of the pieces together. This is the construction of an overall brand identity wholly consistent with the research and business understanding developed earlier in the process.

Only after these steps are completed should a design team actually begin production. Thinking of corporate identity creation as a fast or purely visual endeavor is inaccurate. The graphic designers who create effective and memorable brands realize that an effective final product must be built upon an informed foundation.

Have you considered Search Engine Optimization?

Congratulations: Your small business should significantly benefit from an online presence. To make the best use of the Internet, you should strongly consider learning about and investing in search engine optimization, which is the process of making your site attractive to search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) so that they reward it with a high profile when people search for information related to your business.

Do you really need to worry about search engine optimization (SEO)?

Many website owners have a feeling that SEO is complicated, time-consuming and beyond their capabilities.

They assume that having a site in place and letting people know about its URL will be enough to make the whole project worthwhile.  They don’t see the need to learn about SEO and implement advanced SEO principles.

That perspective is misguided, though.  If you are running a for-profit website, a site designed to support your business, or are simply publishing something that you’d like people to read, you need to have a basic understanding of some core SEO principles.

You don’t need to be a professional computer nerd.  You don’t need to understand the role of latent semantic indexing in Google’s algorithm.  You don’t need to concern yourself with the fine details of Page Rank hoarding via the utilization of the “nofollow” attribute and whether it’s really a good idea.  You just need the basics.

Search engines are the way people find information on the Internet.  Search engines exist to build a bridge between people searching for the service you provide and your website. Don’t you want to be certain that when people are looking for the kind of information you’re providing that their preferred search engines will let them know about you?

Search engines are the primary means by which websites get traffic.

The number of visitors who directly type in an address or who visit from a referring site pales in comparison to the number of people who can be delivered to your site by search engines.

If you want people to see your messages, you need to leverage the power of search engines and that’s what SEO is about.

You’ll want to develop basic SEO skills even if you don’t plan to lift a finger to promote your site because you’re planning to hire a firm to do the job. You want to have enough information to understand what the firm is doing and why they’re doing it.  Otherwise, you’ll be in the uncomfortable position of giving a third-party significant influence over one of your assets while you sit by, unsure of what they’re doing, its value, and why you’re paying for the service.

Don’t worry, getting a grip on SEO basics isn’t that tough.  With the right tutelage, you’ll soon develop the knowledge you need.

Your company has almost everything it needs to be successful.

Sometimes, image is important. In most cases, image is everything in a competitive market. The quality design of logos, business cards, stationary, marketing materials and similar graphic elements are basic, and are vitally important to your business’s ultimate success.

A logo graphically represents your company’s identity. Often a logo is the first thing a potential customer will notice.

After seeing your logo a few times, people will immediately think of your company’s name. A company logo should visually display what your company is about.

If your company manufactures boats, you may be well-served by a logo with a visual representation of a boat, but the more unique, artistic, striking and memorable your logo is, the better. It is a mistake for the owners of fairly new companies to attempt to design their own graphic elements and marketing materials, especially if they do not have experience in art or marketing. Marketing materials which are unprofessional, shoddy or even laughable will cause your business to look small and unstable. Why would someone want to do business with a company that is not even confident (or knowledgeable) enough to invest a few dollars in a professional logo and some good business cards? They probably wouldn’t.

To be successful, you should offer an appearance of organization, quality and professionalism to your clients and potential clients.

Your stationary, envelopes, and business cards should generally match each other in both color and style. With these considerations in mind, make the smart choice and have your company’s marketing materials professionally designed. Simple things such as marketing materials can make or break a company.

themeophilia: a premium WordPress community driven to populate the digital landscape with one-of-a-kind themes.

Themeophilia was born in March of 2009 to Ron Bercume. He raised themeophilia from a little bit of CSS code to the fully coded WordPress site it is today, and loves it for the strange, sly, wise child it is. Ron is a graphic design ninja who spends his day making things look good while blasting his brain with punk rock. Then he goes off to play with his children (the human ones) and his dog. Sharing the office with Papa Punk is Rachel Bruen, a graphic designer who also tackles some creative writing and task management (it’s tough keeping Ron on the ball). Rachel contributed to the wicked writing in themeophilia’s ad banners and theme overviews, as well as some other random snippets around the site.

If you’ve ever felt insulted or as if you’ve just become a satiric joke, you can thank our writer Tim Follos who has also contributed to the site.

Themeophilia developers and editors that work together to make the site and themes more tastefully titillating.

Themeophilia is a site dedicated to obsessing over and loving everything WordPress. The goal is to give you (our best friends!) fantastic WordPress Themes that go straight to your brain with a kick of wit and an injection of soul, bringing a smile to your heart and a tear to your eye as you slowly decay and die while engaged solely with a computer screen (just kidding, or are we?). We, the victims of modern life, love WordPress for its power, simplicity, and open source opportunities. We love what we do, and we will continue doing it as long as possible for the love of WordPress.

Graphic design does not emerge without assistance.

M.F. Agha: Agha took the helm as art director at Vogue in 1929.  He pushed to make visuals a primary, rather than a secondary, component of magazines.  Agha advanced sans serif fonts in typography and pushed forward the development of fashion photography.

Steven Heller: Heller works professionally in design, but he’s best known for writing over 100 different books on the topic.  He is widely considered one of the most knowledgeable sources of design information and one of the field’s top critics.

Saul Bass: Bass was a relatively successful commercial artist who became something of a celebrity in 1955, after designing the title sequence for the film The Man with the Golden Arm.  Bass revolutionized the appearance of screen credits and went on to work on scores of films.  Later, he did corporate identity work for the likes of AT&T and Minolta.

Paul Rand: What do Westinghouse, the United Parcel Service and the American Broadcasting Company have in common?  Paul Rand, a designer inspired by European avant-garde movements, created logos for all of them.

Lester Beall: Beall is known for his use of harsh angles, photographic silhouettes and iconic imagery.  He produced countless magazine covers, was a prolific designer in the commercial world.  He has usually remembered for his innovative and arresting Depression era government posters.

Alexy Brodovitch: His years as art director at Harper’s provided him with a platform to increase the significance of photography in magazines and to introduce mainstream publications to design inspired by expressionism and other art movements.  One of the first design gurus to fully make use of the power of white space.

April Greiman: Greiman, who is still actively challenging the way people interpret two- and three-dimensional space, she is often credited for encouraging the popularity of the New Wave aesthetic.  Constantly bucking convention, Greiman makes extensive use of computer graphics in her design work.

This collection of modern graphic design pioneers represents only a small fraction of the group that one could properly name to a design all-star team.

Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geisnar, Bradbury Thompson, Neville Brody and others warrant recognition, too.  These innovators and talents have been the driving force behind the development of modern graphic design, and my own personal development, education and professional career.

Businesses spend a small fortune on print advertising.

Amazingly, advertisers often fail to produce truly effective ads.  They spend their money on second-rate ads designed by the publisher’s in-house staff after little more than a quick conversation with a sales representative.

When advertisers do take their investment seriously, that usually consists of trying to negotiate better deals on ad space. In some cases, it involves improving the quality of the ad’s copy. Rarely, however, do those who are placing ads spend enough time or thought on the visual aspect of their promotions.  Larger companies with advertising staffs and expertise may bring the issues to the attention of the publisher.  In most cases, however, consideration of graphics and design do not receive much scrutiny.

That is a real problem, too.

Research clearly indicates that appropriately handled insertion of graphical elements will boost conversions over traditional sales copy.

Likewise, a visually appealing design will attract attention in ways that “the usual” cannot.

If you are part of the great majority who do not spend much time or effort on the actual appearance of your ads, you are spending a great deal of money while settling for second-rate results. Even those who don’t have a good eye for design or who have no idea how to effectively integrate graphics and images into their ads can benefit from improving print publication advertising design in accordance with these recommendations.

That may entail additional discussion with the publisher.  In some cases, it is possible to “get more” out of their in-house teams.  It is more likely, however, that improving the quality of the print advertising will require proactive efforts on the part of the advertiser.  Whether this requires professional assistance or simply an increased effort will depend on the individuals involved.

The bottom line is that advertisers are operating in an incredibly competitive environment.

The old ways of constructing print ads are dying.  Readers expect more and are not attentive to flat work.  Competitors may be aware of this and might be improving their work already.  If you do not put forth the effort necessary to create memorable, attractive advertisements featuring top-notch design and professional graphical elements, you are wasting they money in your print advertising budget.

Make the decision to do better.  You can improve the quality of your print advertising.  Doing so will result in a much better return on your advertising investment.

Direct mail marketing continues to be a favorite promotional method.

Direct mail marketing works only when the targeted recipient looks at the materials.  Research has demonstrated that a direct mail piece needs to entice the reader from the beginning.  If it falls flat and fails to draw the recipient’s attention, it won’t produce results.

That’s why quality graphic design should be a component of any serious direct mail marketing strategy.  The inclusion of appropriate graphics and smart design will beautify the mailing and will attract attention in ways even a great headline can’t.

Recipients are often inundated with incoming direct mail.

In order to stand a chance, your piece must trigger an immediate interest in the materials.  Copywriters have honed their skills and refined their approaches to direct mail in order to produce the best possible results, but the words on the page can only go so far.  In the words of the oft-repeated old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  Graphics can make a monumental difference in response.

Use of corporate identity graphics and carefully crafted design has other advantages, too.  It inspires a level of comfort and a sense of legitimacy, which can produce a marked hop in conversions.  They use good structure and appearance to attract attention.  They also aid in the effort to build brand awareness.

If you’re sending out a mailing without a graphical component, you’re invariably losing ground to those who know better.  Direct mail experts are growing increasingly aware that the visuals accompanying text can have a profound impact on response rates.  Your competition may already be making use of graphics and design strategies that go beyond the traditional direct mailing “look”.

Carefully evaluate the next piece of copy you plan to use for direct mailing.

Now, consider what that message might look like if you freshened it with a professional design facelift and appropriate graphics.  How do you think performance would compare?

In almost every case, you’ll be able to sense the opportunity for improved results.

The days of sending a “plain Jane” letter on a sheet of white paper are behind us.  Today, you’re best bet of generating optimal results will involve the use of graphics and professional design elements to your direct mail outreach.

If you’re not convinced, run a few tests.  Send a portion of your list a standard mailing.  Offer the visually improved version to another segment.  Compare response rates and return on investment.  You’ll soon be making graphics and superior designconsiderations as you develop future mailings.

Today we see logos everywhere.

That was not always the case, though. For centuries, logos were little used. Only over time have the changed from an interesting rarity into a ubiquitous part of the commercial landscape.

The idea of a logo dates back to the simple identifying ciphers of ancient Greece. These generally consisted of a single letter paired with a symbol or simple design to create a distinctive identifier. They were used by those in positions of great power and were not part of the everyday life of most people.

Those early efforts at logo creation evolved into the marks and signets of kings and queens.

In time, they would become useful and accessible to those who did not possess royal lineage. In fact, they would become critical to almost every business. That shift, however, was still centuries away.

Wider use and adoption of logos began in the thirteenth century. Individual craftsmen would “mark” their products as an identifier of their handiwork. This practice had obvious utility and it soon extended beyond the realm of masons and furniture builders. By the 1700s, traders had developed the habit of marking their goods with simple logos, as well.

As the industrial revolution took hold, the frequency of logo use became even more pronounced. What was once strictly for a few powerful people was now a mainstream part of identification.

An interesting application of the logo appeared in the American west during the 1800s.

Individual ranch logos were seared into livestock as identifiers. The branding irons of the old west were merely means of putting one’s mark on his property.

Over time, the logo became more than a simple identifier. Although logos still served that function, it became clear that they could have a greater value. By the 1950s, the logo was not a mere symbol. It was an asset.

Logos became the faces of business. They were used as part of corporate identities to communicate brand and to unify messaging. What was once a way for a king to seal a letter is now part of how businesses establish their credibility and sell everything from financial services to hamburgers.

Posters have quite a special place in the history of graphic design.

The technology to produce lithographs came into being in the late 1700s. As is so often the case with new technologies, it was costly and lacked ready availability. As such, carving-based printing continued to dominate the scene until the 1870s.

During the 1870s, the poster became a dominant force in Europe.

Cities were plastered with posters featuring both imagery and typography in an attempt to curry favor with consumers, to announce sales opportunities and to introduce new products.

In the 1890s, Toulouse Lautrec became the most celebrated poster artists. Some of his works, including his Moulin Rouge poster, were almost immediately recognized as a legitimate form of fine art, even though they had clearly commercial purposes.

By the 19th century, however, Lautrec abandoned poster art and the genre was in something of a slump. Filled with uninspired imitations of previous decades’ successes, it appeared as if the commercial poster design landscape might be destined to become a commercialized wasteland. Fortunately, a new generation of artists embraced the poster, reviving the relevance of the form.

Leonetto Cappiello’s posters were a marked departure from earlier offerings. He tended to focus on a single, simple image and used wild attention-getting strategies and/or humor to evoke an audience response. His work was a hit and it inspired a new approach to poster art.

Commercial graphic design in posters took a backseat to the global war effort during World War I.

Between the first and second World Wars, however, it became a launching pad for approaches steeped in the modernist perspective and for art deco. World War II, predictably and necessarily, turned poster art back to war-oriented concerns.

As the post-war economy advanced, the era of the poster slowly slipped away. Television, radio and newsprint carried more power and reach than the old poster. It was well past its heyday. That didn’t prevent innovation, however. The psychedelic posters of the 60s, the Warholian pop art of the 80s and the structured, straightforward approach embodied in the International Typographic Style all found homes in the world of commercial posters.

Today, posters are used less often than they have been for well over a century. However, they do still make appearances and they still serve as an exciting opportunity for graphic design specialists to put their techniques and creativity on display.

You want your website to be appealing to visitors.

You need to create a page that the Googlebots and other spiders will love.  You want them to report back on your great content and everything else you have to offer.  You want to impress them so that your site will appear when visitors type in search engine queries relevant to your content.

Making your site attractive to the search engines can be a tricky proposition, but it’s well worth the effort.  The search engines will be happy to send you a great deal of free traffic once you have your ducks in a row.

That requires some knowledge of search engine optimization, or “SEO”.  Although SEO is a deep topic featuring nearly unlimited advice and multiple strategies, there are a few things factors that tend to be more important than the others are.  Let’s examine a few of them.

Content and Keywords.

If you want to rank highly in the results when someone searches for “blue widgets”, your site had better address blue widgets.  You need to have the right content.  It pays to have the right keywords in place and to have original material that doesn’t appear elsewhere.  Good content will impress your readers, encouraging them to link to you, which also helps a great deal in terms of SEO.  There’s a reason they say, “Content is king!”

Note: At one time, websites could rank well for terms by using them repeatedly.  The less-refined search engine algorithms of the past failed to identify that kind of misleading “keyword stuffing”.  Today, they spot it a mile away.  There is no magic number for the proper keyword density, but if you’re targeted terms are showing up more than they would in a natural, authentic discussion of an issue, you could run into problems.

Metatags.

This element of your site’s code helps to advise the search engine of what your website is about.  It can also advise search engines of if and/or when to check your pages and can provide other information.  Quality metatags featuring your keywords and a concise description of your site can have SEO value.

Note: Metatags don’t pack the SEO punch they once did and some people argue that they’re not very significant these days. However, they do have some potential to improve rankings, particularly with non-Google search engines.  Webmasters should know that keyword stuffing and other “tricks” in metatags will NOT help with respect to SEO.

Good Code.

You want the search engines to “read” your pages accurately and completely.  You also want them to notice that you’re providing a user-friendly experience and quick load times.  This means that your site should be free of extraneous code and that you should opt for the most efficient ways to presenting your material.  A sloppily coded site won’t help your SEO efforts.

Note: A perfect example of this is the fact that sites utilizing cascading style sheets (CSS) will consistently outperform equivalent sites relying on older tables in the coding.  The need for a well-built site is one reason why many webmasters opt for content management systems (CMS) that create consistent and smartly coded pages.

Inbound Links.

Search engines notice when other sites are linking to yours.  They perceive these links as evidence of your site’s potential value. In essence, they’re seen as votes of confidence.  If you want the best SEO results, you will need to make the acquisition of inbound links a priority.  Great content will help in this regard, but you can proactively seek out linking opportunities to aid your site.

Note: All links are NOT created equal.  The best links in the eyes of the search engines will come from thematically related sites that have some authority of their own.  It doesn’t pay to waste your time and energy accumulating weak links when a single “power link” can have as much power as hundreds, if not thousands, of low-value links.

Sitemaps.

A sitemap is basically a structured outline of how the pages of your site are organized.  You should generate a site map and then submit that map to Google and Yahoo via a webmaster account.  This will give them an idea of what their search engine robots need to “crawl” and can improve your rankings measurably.

Note: You don’t need to hand-code that site map.  There are tools available that will generate one for you.  Evaluate your site map before submitting it.  Look for flaws, orphaned pages, etc. and use it to “clean up” your site for optimal performance.

These are just a few of the things you’ll need to know about SEO.  Search engine traffic can be one of the most valuable commodities around, so it does pay to understand what you need to do to secure it.

Creative graphic design is incredibly important to your print-based marketing success.

A copywriter will tell you that words sell. He or she will be telling you the truth, too. The right words will produce much better results than weaker ones. A great copywriter can be worth his or her weight in gold because of this.

What the copywriter might not tell you is that those words can sell even better when you present them in the right context. We are referring, of course, to the design and non-textual components of your print advertising.

Utilization of quality design and attractive graphical components will, put simply, make you money.

People respond better and in greater numbers to an attractive created design. Those who limit their print advertising to standard, “old fashioned” promotions, fail to get anywhere close to optimal rates of return and conversions into sales.

The opportunity to improve the bottom line directly is not the only reason to embrace creative design in print. It also creates the chance to use those ads as part of your overall brand-building strategy.

If you are doing things the right way, you’ve already committed to using your logo and other components of your corporate identity across all areas of your business. Your graphics are gracing everything from business cards to media kits to stationery. That is because forging a clear and attractive sense of your business’ identity fuels credibility. It creates an image of expertise and resulting higher level of trust.

Are you relying on the same advertisements that you have been using for years?

If so, it is time for an upgrade. You need to inject those ads with a healthy dose of creativity and design skills. It is time to utilize whatever it takes to create better ads. That means thinking about design in ways that you may not have up to this point.

Extending your corporate identity and your creativity into your other advertising efforts may seem like a great deal of work. It may not be easy and it may require handling some aspects of your advertising approach in a different manner.

That effort, however, may become one of the best bargains you have ever made. The front-end work required to implement a creative approach will not compare to the advantages you will secure. There are so many good reasons to tap into a more creative approach.

Our brand spankin’ new, right off the lot aphiliate partner program has been launched in beta, baby cakes format. We are still working out some bugs, but you can sign-up today, and start posting graphic banners to your site and share in a 50% per sale payout. Check it out, click here.

Sometimes we fail to make seemingly obvious connections. Consider these two facts.

The effectiveness of email marketing is best summarized by a saying that’s repeated in the Internet marketing community literally thousands of times every year: The money is in the list.

Second, good landing pages are critical to creating desired responses on the Internet. You want to send your visitors to web pages that have been carefully designed to evoke your desired response. In many cases, those landing pages are the heart of the sales process.

And they work. Pages that are custom-tailored to the demographic make up of those who visit them always out-perform more “generic” landing pages.

Those are two facts of business life online.

Anyone with experience in online marketing knows that these two strategies are powerhouses on an individual level.

However, for some reason, many people fail to make a connection between them. They don’t build the bridge between these two techniques.

How can you dovetail the power of email marketing with the proven performance of a well-designed landing page? Simple. You build unique landing pages for each of your email campaigns.

Instead of sending traffic to a standard landing page regardless of the exact message you’ve been using in your emails, you can create custom pages that offer a higher degree of synergy with your marketing approach.

You consider the message of your email campaign and you apply that message to a landing page built specifically for that campaign. Instead of “dropping off” your visitors at a page that may not be wholly consistent with your email efforts, make the smart move by building a more cohesive sales environment.

The result? Higher conversion levels.

You’ll see a spike in sales as your prospects experience a seamless transition between the content of your email and the offer embodied in your landing page. That allows you to create a more compelling narrative and to deliver a far more effective sales message than you can otherwise. There are no jarring gaps, no minor inconsistencies in tone or content.

The workload isn’t particularly taxing, either. Whether you’re using a good content management system or a template-driven site, you can whip up custom landing pages relatively easily. While some may necessitate “from scratch” copy or significant revisions, others will only need minor tweaking to work.

Building a bridge between two widely recognized marketing strategies is obvious. It’s logical. And it works. It’s shocking more people don’t do it.

Most of us almost grasp the value of good graphic design.

A perfect example of this is the opportunity to boost email marketing results with the addition of quality graphic design and corporate identity elements.

If you are still thinking of email marketing in terms of black text on a white background, it is time to recalibrate your thinking. Today’s web user is capable of receiving and viewing graphics in his or her email messages and on subsequently reached landing pages. Companies who continue to ignore that reality are incapable of generating a maximum return on their email marketing efforts.

One of the strongest justifications for creating a consistent visual corporate identity is its ability to create greater brand recognition.

You want people to know and to remember you and what you offer. Including well-designed graphical components, like your logo, to email provides you with another outlet to reinforce that identity.

Visual business identities also serve to increase the credibility and reputation of the company. They send a message of professionalism, organization and trustworthiness. Inclusion of consistent graphical elements in an email marketing campaign provide businesses with a way to secure this advantage instead of “disappearing” into a plain black and white world where all senders would appear to be on equal footing.

Those rationales for the inclusion of graphical elements in email marketing messages may seem almost theoretical to some.

Their effect, however, is nothing of the sort.

The recognition and reputation they help to create has a very real bottom line impact.

Email marketing campaigns, like all other marketing messages, are judged eventually by the return produced on investment. Many have discovered that utilizing logos and other aspects of corporate identity in email marketing can produce a significant and measurable increase in sales and conversions. To put it bluntly, using your graphics increases sales.

Are you still trying to compete for attention and sales with emails that appear no different from those from co-workers, family members, phishers and scammers? If so, reconsider your approach. You can utilize proven design techniques and corporate identity elements to create emails that reinforce your brand and that send a clear message of credibility. Successful companies have long recognized the use of these components in other marketing strategies. Technological innovations now allow you to harness their power in the increasingly competitive world of email marketing.

Looking for a way to send mass e-mails to your customers or prospect list?

Ron Bercume and SeeMore Media are now partnered with Constant Contact, a complete e-mail newsletter and list management solution. Constant Contact provides all the necessary tools to properly send business e-mails to a large or small distribution contact list.

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