How Can Graphic Design Influence Spending at Christmas?
0Graphic Design Influence on the Christmas Shop.
Influencing people to spend with the economic crisis is not easy.
Spending money is sparse all over the world. Items are getting more expensive and more and more people are losing their jobs. And although this does not affect people’s Christmas spirits in wanting to give presents, it does mean they’re on a tighter budget and thus spend much less.
Advertising is not about making people spend, it is about making people want to spend. Influencing people’s actions is something which has been given a lot of thought about, especially in today’s current climate. This is why Glimpse Media are going to one of the world’s biggest Christmas shopping hubs, Paris, France. This is to undertake first hand research in discovering what graphic design techniques are being used in the real world, when times have never been tougher, to make people spend.
Our full report will be here very soon so keep checking back here, our research portal or our social media for updates.
What Does ‘Unlimited Revisions’ Mean?
0Glimpse Media pride in offering unlimited revisions to every single person who asks us to design something for them. However many people interpret this in different ways? Why would a professional graphic designer need to offer unlimited revisions to their customers if they were good? And although this is a good point, we believe that the benefits of offering unlimited revisions to our customers more than outweigh that belief. I have been really wanting to write this post for a while – to explain to you:
Why Does Glimpse Media Offer Unlimited Revisions?
All too often we see graphic designers who are not creative and just do what their customers ask. The designer does change some things if the customer asks but only once or twice. And if the customer is not happy with the design once all of their revisions are used, then it’s either bad luck or they have to pay to get what they want.
Glimpse Media have taken what is bad out of the normal design process and replaced it with what is good. Here is what we offer which conventional graphic designers don’t:
We Work With You Throughout The Process
Glimpse Media do not just give you a brief for you to fill in and leave you to it. We ask each question personally and assist you in answering each question which we use to create the perfect graphic for your company or service. Throughout the development stage, we give you our honest opinion on what we think would work and what would not work.
You Get Unlimited Revisions
And this is what the whole post is about – our unlimited
Image: Jomphong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
revisions. We do not believe offering unlimited revisions makes us look bad at all, we’re proud that we offer such a service to our customers. We, and so do our customers, believe that offering free unlimited revisions makes Glimpse Media a safe option because 100% of our customers have gotten exactly what they wanted. We work tirelessly with all of our customers to ensure that they’re always happy.
What Does Unlimited Revisions Mean?
Lets summarize what unlimited revisions mean to Glimpse Media. Unlimited revisions means that you can work with us knowing that you’re going to get exactly what you want and be 100% happy with the results. But also, the results that you do get don’t just look amazing but they work in practice and can provide you with real results!
Unlimited Revisions is a safe and practical way of ensuring that customers are 100% happy with their graphic design work.
3 Reasons Why You Should Not Design Your Own Graphics
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I have all to many people asking me what would happen if a company did not hire a professional graphic designer.So I thought I would finally write a post about why you should never design your own graphics. Designing your own graphics can save a lot of money in the short term but what about the long term? Many people use cheap templates off the internet or simply just stick to text as their logo. In the current climate, many businesses look for ways to cut spending but this can have a grave impact, especially when they are no longer investing into one of the fundamentals to any business – the graphic design. But what exactly are the reasons why you should not design your own graphics and hire a graphic designer?
1. Communicating the wrong image
Graphic designers are experts in marketing and know how to communicate to your target market. Designing your own graphics can mean that you have to spend a lot more on the advertising of your company. Get a professional to do it fro the beginning and you can be assured that your image is efficient and effective at communicating with your customers. Would you service an airplane? No – as you would leave it to the professionals to ensure that everything is done perfect.
2. Say Goodbye To Many Potential Clients
If you get your communication wrong then you will not be portraying the correct message to the wrong people! Customers are much more likely to go to a company with professionally designed graphics than a company who offers the same products but with graphic designs that are not as professional. Your competitors businesses cards who have been well designed are going to stay in your customer’s wallets for longer.
3. Blending in and never making an impression
Companies use their brand to make an impression in the marketplace. The Co-operative Group use their brand to portray Fair Trading, environment friendly images. Basically you get the impression that you’re be doing good things to the world if you shop at Co-op. People remember brands, if you do not have a professional brand then there is nothing to remember you by apart from that shop downtown that sells televisions. Surely you would rather be remembered for something more than just your location.
To Conclude
Yes, I admit – designing your own logo today will save you money in the short term. But I can guarantee that if you yourself are not a professional graphic designer 9 times out of 10, you will not make as much money as you would have done if you had used a designer.
If you want to start your own company but cannot yet afford the graphic design, then wait until you have saved up. If you currently own a company but have not yet used a professional graphic designer then please contact me for a free consultation so I can help you realise what you need to be done.
Research: What makes an exhibition successful?
0Graphic designers don’t often work with the organisers of an exhibition so it can be difficult to work out what needs to be done in order to make it a success. Glimpse Media has worked with the International Franchise and Branding Exhibition (IFBE) for the last two years to work out the necessary requirements.
To read the research, please click here or navigate to www.glimpsemedia.co.uk/research-exhibition.html
If you have any questions then please feel free to ask.
At the Front of Pioneering Research
0Glimpse Media are at the front of pioneering research in graphic design to ensure that all the techniques and methods we use are useful and will put your business at the front!
By researching what different techniques do on the mind of the consumer, we can all be assured that the work that goes into your project is not only impressive but pioneering.
Keep your eyes peeled for the latest reports to be posted here on the blog and on our research report page soon to be published.
If you have any questions or would like to contribute towards the Glimpse Media Research Project, then please contact us.
How well have we done?
0Briefing your graphic designer is important if you want them to do what is necessary and what you want. Good graphic designers stick to their briefs and work with their briefs to create their work. This is why we publish the brief of every project we do on our website for you to inspect for you to see how well we stick to the brief.
Are you the first to do this?
As far as we are aware, we are the first graphic designer to publish the design brief of our clients for you to see how well we do.
Why publish the design brief?
Before working with a graphic designer, you want to make sure that they will provide you with the results that you would want. By publishing the wants and needs of our clients along with their completed project, you can see for yourself how reliable we are. We believe by showing you the brief, you will feel safer.
Where can I find the briefs?
Design Brief
The briefs for each project can be found with the project itself in the portfolio. For example, to view the brief for the logo design of 95X, go to the logo section of the portfolio, find the 95X logo and click ‘The Design Brief’ to navigate to the brief.
What if I don’t want my design brief published?
All of the design briefs that are published on the internet are edited before being published so that they are more easily read. The design brief published includes a report of the project by the project manager. If you do not want the design brief published on our website, then that is fine as we do not have to include it!
Another innovative idea from Glimpse Media.
Extreme Logo Prices
1Logo design can be an expensive job if you go to the wrong people. I thought that it would be helpful if I wrote a blog post on the shocking costs of some logos. However not all of them are ridiculously expensive – some of the world’s best known logos are also ridiculously cheap! It’s a fascinating read which will bring light to the whole logo identity cost.
VeriSign – $1,280,000,000
VeriSign Logo
Yes! $1.28 Billion. However when you realize that the VeriSign check mark in question is used as an internet standard to show that the site being used in safe, over $170 Billion worth of transitions are taking place over the internet every year and to use the logo you need to pay a licensing fee, it does sort of compensate the price. However $1.28 Billion is still a lot!
British Petroleum – $4,600,000
- BP Logo
The sunflower design shown in the BP logo cost a huge $4,600,000 USD / £2,880,000 GBP. It was designed by ‘Landor’. BP needed a logo a new logo as it merged with Amaco in 1998 to become BP Amaco as well as subsequent acquisitions of Arco and Castrol. The sunflower was used to show the vision of the newly formed companies, bright and bold. In 2010, BP was identified as one of the most relevant identities of the decade by blog Brand New. It all sounds good but $4.6 million is still a lot of money, which ever way you look at it.
Pepsi – $1,000,000
Pepsi Logo Design
Pepsi have recently undergone a brand new logo redesign. The newly designed logo consists of different shapes yet contains the same colours. This logo was designed by the Arnell Group for a costly $1,000,000! A lot of companies believe “you get what you pay for” and whilst this is true to an extent, at Glimpse Media, we believe that Pepsi have gone past the point of diminishing returns.
London 2012 Olympics – $640,000
London 2012 Olympic Logo
As a resident of England, the London 2012 Olympic logo is something I have become very familiar with. It has brought much controversy with it as many people in the United Kingdom (and all over the world) dislike the look of the logo. Wolff Ollins created the logo charging £400,000 GBP / $640,000 USD to the London Olympic Committee.
Nike – $35
Nike Logo
I first learned about the price of the Nike Logo when I was about 15 years old in my first graphic design class. Anyone would have thought that because Nike is such a huge corporation and their logo is become one of the most recognised logos, that it set them back a lot. A lot of work and thought went into the Nike logo which adds to the mystery why the logo cost so little. For example, the shape of the tick (often called the ‘swish’) is meant to resemble the wing of the Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike. Carolyn Davidson, the designer of the ‘swoosh’ who originally charged $35 for the logo became Nike’s advertising agency. In 1983, Carolyn left Nike however not long after, Nike offered her a diamond ring with an engraved ‘swoosh’ and an undisclosed amount of Nike stock. So yes this logo cost only $35 to begin with, but Nike’s gift seem to have covered the rest of the cost.
Why are these prices so high?
The main question here is why are so many big corporation’s logos so expensive and are the logos really worth this much. Is what you pay what you get for? While this can be true in many circumstances, we have seen clear evidence above that this may not be the case. Many graphic designers do not just charge for the amount of work they have to put into the company but try to get as much as they can – which is a shame.
If a company has £5,000,000 to spend on a new logo, then some graphic designs would charge $5,000,000 even if it only took $1,000 of time to produce.
So why should I go to a graphic designer if they’re so expensive? I can get cheaper and even free logos off the internet.
Whilst you can find cheaper logos on the internet which do look okay, they’re not tailored to your business needs. They’re not perfect for your company and so would reflect the wrong moral values of your company to your customer. You need your logo to be unique, to stand you out from the crowd.
If you go ahead and use a logo template off the internet of acquire a free graphic program then sure it will be cheaper in the short-term but it will cost you a fortune in the long run.
Graphic design is not just about art. It involves technical experience and marketing knowledge. A graphic designer can work out what your logo be like in order to maximize your impact. Logos need to be different depending on what industry you work in. Some logos need just text with clear lettering, some logos need a symbol or icon with text and some logos require a much more extravagant design with perhaps no text at all. Rely on a template and you will get none of years experience which a graphic designer has.
So how much is too much?
Get a logo template off the internet which you can edit yourself for free will result in a weak logo which your customers can clearly identify. So if you are passionate about your business working, you have got to invest in its identity. But what should you pay? At Glimpse Media, we have done days of research which is always ongoing to find what is happening to the costing of logos and branding. For one logo, you would be looking around the $200 on average. At Glimpse Media however we provide logos starting from $150 for 3 logos for you to choose from. However what about a complete branding package, then you would be looking at more of about a couple of thousands of dollars. At Glimpse Media however, we can provide it for just $1,300! We believe that if you are charged any more than this, it is just your perception of you get what you pay for and may just be being led a long by your graphic designer.
Our Brand New Store
0Glimpse Media’s store has opened its doors ready for you to purchase our graphic work at such cheap prices!
Glimpse Media Graphic Design Store
Unlike other graphic designs you may find at other stores, we also offer work that you can open even if you don’t have any expensive software.
There are two types of license available, if you would like it for personal reasons of even for commercial purposes, then you can purchase the regular license. However if you intend to use the work on clothing which is going to be sold or on a website template that is going to be sold then an extended license is necessary.
5 things graphic designers should avoid
0We love our work, right? Helping other people with something we are passionate about and are good at! Great! But, working as a graphic designer means you must have your wits about you otherwise you can get into some sticky and fairly costly situations. I have written a list of 5 things that graphic designers should avoid. Some are mistakes I have made and some are just down right stupid – but it happens! Keep reading my blog post if you want to be an efficient graphic designer without breaking the law.
Numero Uno – Copyright
Never steal images without permission
Okay, you have a client who needs a website finished by this evening and you’re running a bit behind. You need to find an image of a lama wearing a hat. Not any old hat though, a fez. You quickly in a blind panic turn to google and borrow one of there and stick it on your clients website. Done. 
No. Well, you could be done if the owner of the image finds their image on someone else’s website. The fact is is that the owner of that image had spent a lot of money creating that work and you can come along and take it for nothing. I have heard of stories of a graphic design firm stealing a $10 image off google and sticking it on their client’s website only to be fined a whopping $4000!
There’s an easy way to avoid this, do not use images of google unless you have the owner’s permission to use it. Otherwise use the images below where you can acquire images for you to use anywhere.
www.istockphoto.com
www.sxc.hu
www.gettyimages.com
www.shutterstock.com
Another great way of gathering images is using Flickr’s new feature to filter out images that you cannot use for commercial purposes or can modify with creative commons.
If you do ever need an image of a lama with a fez on… go to www.sxc.hu where you can find the images used above.
Number 2 – Vector Logos
Always design logos in the vector format
What is a vector logo?
A vector is an image which can be resized to as big as you like without getting blurry or pixelate. Turn that image into a logo and that is a vector logo.
If you go to a graphic designer for a logo, you want a logo design that you can use anywhere. That is not possible if the logo you are provided is not a vector, this means the logo cannot be stretch when needed, for example on the side of a billboard.
If you’re trying to find a graphic designer, ask if they design their logos in a vector format and if they say no – you are better off going to a graphic designer who does as it will only save money and energy later on.
Number 3 – RGB / CMYK
Always remember to set the mode to RGB or CYMK
What on earth is RGB and CMYK?
RGB and CMYK are acronyms. RGB is Red, Green & Blue and CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black – sort of acronym really.
creativity103.com
Your printer does not contain every shade of every color possible and and so it it uses only four colours which can be mixed together to create a large number of other colours. Your screen contains little things called pixels, there are three types of pixel, red, green and blue. These pixels adjust their brightness to create every other colour you could think of as red green and blue are the three primary colours.
So where’s the problem?
This is something I use to do quite often however I have tamed myself out of it now. In software such as Photoshop, you can change which mode you work in, either CMYK or RGB. RGB for screen work and CMYK for print work. As you can guess, the easy mistake to make is forgetting to keep changing modes! School boy mistake but one which can cost.
Number 4 – Your Portfolio
Honestly couldn't think of any other image.
I am going to say the message as soon as I can so you even if you don’t read this paragraph, you get the message:
DO NOT PLACE YOUR LOGO OR ADVERTS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO!
I have seen all too many graphic designers put their own logo and adverts into their portfolio. I can understand that your portfolio may be looking a little empty but don’t place your adverts or logo in your portfolio as it makes potential clients think your struggling to find work and appear to be not very good. A good idea would be to make up briefs if you have to in order to beef your portfolio up.
Number 5 – Using Comic Sans
Avoid using Comic Sans.
*Sighs*
*Sighs*
Comic Sans is just one of those fonts that have been used too much and now is seen to be “disgusting” within the graphic design community.
I remember comic sans from a school newsletter I use to get – every week I sighed that it was still being used. Try it for yourself – look at the image on the left.
What mistakes have you made which you wouldn’t want any one else to make?
What is the funniest mistake you have ever done?
As a customer, what’s the worst mistake a graphic designer you have used has made?
A new resource every graphic designer will need
0Badly written or scarcely updated blogs are everywhere. Blogs vandalised with advertisements. Articles littered with poor spelling and grammar. Posts without any purpose which waste valuable space on the Internet. Well we aren’t like that. Add Glimpse Media to your list of favourite blogs today to keep updated with amazing special offers, free products delivered straight to you, advice which change the way you think about graphic design.
The New Glimpse Media Blog
You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars or pounds on publications which give you advice. You will be able to find great things here for FREE.
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