Make ‘em laugh! The funny business of designing marketing material

There’s a wonderful book called ‘A Smile in the Mind: Witty Thinking in Graphic Design‘ by Alan Fletcher, who was a legend in the design field.

His book has a plethora of clever ideas, questions and drawings, which really do make you smile and are all the more memorable for it.

What if you could embrace the theme of his book and make your customers smile when they think of you? Updating your marketing material with a fresh image can be a very successful way of capturing your audiences attention.

Could you re-brand your logo with a witty new motif that tells your customers exactly who you are and what you do? Alter the design of your business card to get across your personality better? Make use of under-used seasonal holidays such as St Valentines Day or Halloween and change your website header with a whimsical illustration? Or look at your written marketing material and consider changing the tone of your blog to inject a little humour or a more conversational tone.

If any of the ideas above appeal to you or you have any of your own I would be happy to help you fulfil them http://www.theusualstudio.co.uk/contact.htm

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Filed under: Marketing , humour, inspiration

Business Cards – Tips for making the best impression

With more and more of our communication moving into the digital relm its vitally important that the way communicate offline makes the right impression as well.

If you have taken the time to have a dynamic, user friendly website built for you, have you spent enough time considering your business cards?

Business cards may be small, but they have a big role to fulfill when it comes to marketing. They are often the first item you will give a potential client or customer which represent you and your company image.

Take an objective look at your current business card. Would you be impressed if you received one of these from someone else? Is it memorable? Would you keep it or throw it away? What’s the paper like? Has it been printed professionally or created on a home computer and printer?

Different aspects like the feel of the paper (matt, silk or gloss), its thickness, special print effects like areas of varnish or rounded corners, perhaps an unusual size or cut-out area. All of these little touches help to lift the best business card designs from the ordinary. Consider the impact colour has on the recipient. Most people have white business cards, but why conform to the norm? Try something different.

Next time you are looking to get some new business cards created, spend a little time and money considering how you can make your business cards memorable for all the right reasons!

Important things to consider:

• Image – clear design, portrait or landscape?

• Fonts – clear legible typeface which suits you company image

• Colour – bold signature colours, or special effects like neon or metallic inks

• Paper – matt, silk or gloss. Go for heavy weight 300gsm paper minimum

• Finish – have you thought about using Spot UV (high gloss varnish area)

• Wow Factor – is it a memorable design?

• Multi purpose – could your business card double as a leaflet?

Hope these tips are helpful! If there is any aspect of marketing or design you are interested to learn more about, leave a comment and I will write a blog post about it.

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Filed under: General, Marketing , Business Cards, design, Marketing, Tips

Advice for students: Work Experience

I often get emails from students requesting work experience placements at The Usual Studio and while I would love to be able to offer work placements Im unable to at the moment. However,  I thought it would be useful for me to write a few tips, aimed at students and recent graduates, on winning a work placement at your favourite design agency:

Send your email/letter/portfolio to a real person

A phone call or a bit of research online is usually all it takes to discover who is responsible for staff and recruitment. An email sent to ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ is not a good start.

Presentation, presentation, presentation

Once you have the right name, think about the first impression you are going to make. Put yourself in the design companies shoes – Would you be interested to receive a long, impersonal email which has obviously been sent to every design company in the area? It’s easy to tell which students have done their homework, taken a good look at your portfolio and identified why their skills or style may be a good match for your business and clients. So make your email or letter personal to each company. Also, don’t forget to include your details; email, telephone numbers are essential.

Show what you can do!

Whether you specialize in print, digital or illustration, always make sure you attach some examples of your work – or better still, send a link to your website, online portfolio or blog. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy or expensive to build, a free blog or flickr account can often be a suitable place to showcase your work.

Be different – show your passion

A varied, diverse portfolio is very attractive to a potential employer. Make sure your portfolio includes not only projects you completed at University but also personal self initiated work or any freelance projects you have done. If you are struggling to fill your portfolio, you could enter design competitions or set yourself projects.

Post something nice

Most designers still have a love for printed goodies, (it’s often why we wanted to become designers in the first place). So remind us of our roots and send some gorgeous printed material through the post. A small poster, postcard, sketch or sticker  - the possibilities are huge.

A few things worth mentioning:

• Be sure your item is memorable and reflects you as a creative.
• Include a direct course of action, like a link to your portfolio or website. If people like your promo they will want to see more.
• Make sure what you send fits into a normal size envelope.
• Consider the environment – if you are going to send a printed promo, use recycled paper and don’t send 6 sheets of paper when 1 would do!
• Set yourself a budget for the promo item and stick to it, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to impress.
• Include a hand written note for the finishing touch.

I keep quite a few of the printed items I have been sent and pin them up in the office, Im much more likely to contact those students/designers who make themselves memorable, than if I am contacted via email.

Keep in touch, but not too much

A call, email or letter sent after the first contact with a company is a great way to remind them of you and keep in touch. Who knows maybe they now have a placement available for you? Keep contact to every 3 months or so.

Opportunity for you – be seen on Creative Boom

If you have any work you are especially proud of, which explores a new area of art or design, send me some examples and information. I contribute to online magazine Creative Boom and Im always looking for new talent to showcase on the website. If I like what I see I would be delighted to write an article about you.

Email me: hello@theusualstudio.co.uk

Post something: The Usual Studio, The Techno Centre, Puma Way, Coventry, CV1 2TT

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Filed under: General, Ideas , Ideas, self promotion, work experience

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 is a happy and successful New Year for you and yours. Best Wishes, Charlee

Filed under: General , news

Seasons Greetings!

This years limited edition Christmas card design, hand drawn with inks, coloured in Photoshop and sent in shiny silver envelopes to my lovely clients and collaborators. See a larger photo on Flickr.

Have a great time over the festive holidays everyone, see you next decade (the 4th January!)

Filed under: General , creativity, news

New Projects…

‘The Playful Teacher’ toolkit launches

November saw the launch of a very exciting, long-term project I have been working on with Harris School in Rugby. ‘The Playful Teacher’ is a research-based project which explores the idea of engaging students in learning through the use of play, games, unusual teaching materials and different teaching styles. The toolkit contains: a 24-page book, DVD of interviews, set of 6 postcards game and a poster for the classrooms; all packaged in a bright yellow mailer with custom sticker.

The concept for the project branding had to reflect both the serious, research based content and the fun, playful teaching style we are  encouraging. We struck the balance with a collage style school book which included  lots of different scanned papers and textures, post-it notes, hand drawn typography, sketches and 3d glasses. See the full project and lots more photos

Project leader Chris Browning commented:

“thank you so much for your work in designing our training document for teachers ‘The Playful Teacher’. I feel that it is innovative and accessible, truly reflecting the nature of our research project. The reaction of teachers has been very positive and now over half the county’s Heads of Maths have a copy!

You have always been extremely efficient and helpful in enabling us to meet our goals. Your positive and calm approach have also oiled the wheels when we have felt under pressure.

I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending your company to anyone; especailly if it’s a top quality product with top quality service that they’re after!” Chris Browning, Advanced Skills Teacher, Harris School

The toolkits have been sent out to 200 schools across the Midlands to educate them about ‘Playful Teaching’ and encourage them to adopt it within their own learning and teaching environments. Harris School have plans in the future to launch the project nationwide and produce an accompanying website. See the full project and lots more photos

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Filed under: New Projects , design, New Projects

Low cost, high impact Marketing for all…

Email Newsletters, a sociable way to keep in touch

The Social Networking era has changed the way we do business and connect with one another, E-Newsletters, email campaigns, however you  like to call them, are a  low cost and effective way to market your business. Whether you are a  family building company, international pharmaceutical brand or independent artist, Email Newsletters are a great way to remind people of who you are and what you do.

There are 3 key things to remember:

1. Make sure the email includes  useful information for your audience; this may be an article you have written about your industry or some relevant research or information you have discovered.
2. Only send emails to contacts you know well, no one like to be sent un-requested emails, these will be thought of us fondly as spam.
3. Frequency is  important, if you are running a short-term campaign weekly emails are fine, most  businesses will find that sending an Email Newsletter once a month is plenty.

The increasing number of requests for Email Newsletters has encouraged us to put together a low-cost package that includes: custom newsletter design and build, browser testing, email delivery and statistics reports from just £280, contact Charlee to find out more.

Example of a recent Email Newsletter campaign we launched for LeJu.

Sign up to receive The Usual Studio’s monthly email newsletter, which includes exclusive promotional offers, marketing articles and latest project news

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Filed under: General, Marketing , Ideas, Marketing

New projects…

Type Illustration for Creative Boom

To celebrate Halloween, I went hunting for my favourite ink pens and created a scary hand drawn type illustration. My brief was to create a banner design for online magazine Creative Boom, which regularly features the work of guest designers and illustrators. As a regular Contributor to the magazine, I was very pleased to be asked to produce their special themed design!

LeJu goes Digital for Spring Summer 2010

Regular client and leading ethical and sustainable jewellery label LeJu, asked me to produce a simple and stylish Digital Catalogue for their Spring Summer 2010 collection. The pdf Catalogue was a great alternative to a printed version, saving trees, money and time; the project was completed in just 2 days! The catalogue will be hitting in-boxes of LeJu’s Retail and Trade customers this month.

Sucessful magazine launches Issue 2

Following on from the phenomenal popularity of Issue 1, West Country based pharmaceutical consultancy the St Thomas Court Group immediatley asked us to work on Issue 2 of their magazine, launched in October. This time round both page numbers and quantity were increased by an impressive 20% to meet demand from their group members and contacts.

Bucking the recent decline in the publishing industry, the magazines success has been built upon strong editorial content, features from guest contributors, insightful information on the best deals available, adverts from top industry brands  and a witty spoof letters page, illustrated with a topical cartoon by us. We’re now  working on Issue 3, due out January 2010.

Filed under: New Projects , design, illustration, New Projects

Marketing Ideas for the Festive Season

How do you keep in touch with your clients? Do you call, email, meet-up, send promotional leaflets or gifts? Perhaps you just hope to bump into them at networking events?!

Most companies work very hard to win new clients, but they forget its just as important to work hard at keeping them. One of the best ways to connect is through Social Networking websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, however traditional methods such as cards, letters and promotional gifts should not be forgotten either.

So, with the festive season approaching, consider how you are going to remind people of you and your business. Would your clients appreciate a personalised Christmas card, an e-card, or maybe something more unusual like  a delicious Christmas cake! Whatever you choose to send make sure its useful, thoughtful and represents your brand and personality.

If you would like The Usual Studio to design a Christmas card for your company, contact Charlee, prices start from just £300 which includes an original design, print and local delivery of 250 silk cards and envelopes.

Filed under: Ideas , business, inspiration, Marketing

10 tips: How to Generate Creative Ideas

Ever been lost for inspiration but have a deadline fast approaching? Most artistic types get creative block from time to time, I have found several different technique which have helped:

1. Go for a walk A short walk will wake you up, clearing your head for a day of creativity. Try going before work or perhaps an afternoon stroll will give you the boost you need after lunch.

2. Do something else Often an idea will appear in the most unexpected places, when you aren’t consciously thinking about it. Sometimes you may be going to sleep, taking a shower or traveling on the train and that elusive idea will pop into your head.

3. Play a word game Although this may bring back memories of school or college – it can work! Write down a topic on a large sheet of paper and get mind mapping.

4. Go traveling If you have the time (and money) to spare, a weekend break to a different city may be just what you need to reinvigorate your creative brain and get the ideas flowing again. Just remember to take a notebook, sketchbook and camera with you.

5. Visit a gallery or museum Instead of doing your research online, head to your nearest art gallery or museum and get exploring.

6. Chew gum The rhythmic action of chewing gum is said to help relive stress by getting rid of nervous energy, it can also help improve focus, concentration and alertness.

7. Grab a coffee and people watch People are wonderfully diverse, small snippets of conversation, huge ranges in fashion, an hour’s people watching may give you great ideas for your work.

8. Visit a second hand shop Charity shops and antique stores are full or weird and wonderful objects, which may prompt ideas. They are also a great place to look for props and research material.

9. Buy a plant Office greenery improves air quality, brightens up a dull corner of your desk and is said to improve creative thinking.

10. Go to the pub If all else fails, take some time out and go to the pub! Some of the greatest ideas for businesses, products and projects have begun in the pub, so grab a friend and see if you can come up with the next big thing!

This blog post was originally written for Media Talent Bank, which is a collective of creatives, media organisations and freelancers. I regularly contribute posts to their blog.

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Filed under: Ideas , creativity, Ideas, inspiration