Fletcher Ward Design

Browser search mishtakes and spellink faux pairs

2010-09-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Whilst trawling the world wide web (anyone else noticed that the so called abbreviation 'www' has more syllables than 'world wide web'!) we came across this collection of crazy typos and browser search slip ups.
I hope this list provides some insight for your own search adventures, if any, or at least some insight into human nature and how people use search.
Our thanks to www.bonfx.com for these:

freelace graphic design portfolio 
Might want to check near your shoelace for that…

how to get graphic design work over 50 

Pretend you are 30 and see what happens.

+”freelance” + ”graphic design” + ”what to charge” 

Could you be more specific?

21th graphic design 

That’s easy. Just look for the 22th and back up one.

best grapich designer 

Talk to the best lgoo desginre and I’m sure he or she kowns someneo.

best typohraphy fonts loho 

I hreatly suhhest hetting a new keyboard to avoid this ehrehious error.

can i draw graphics like google analytics 

I don’t know, can you?

can you get a fifth color in cymk printing 

Let’s see. CMYK = 4 color process. The answer is no (unless you mean spot color).

can you print a 72 dpi image 

Test: hit print and see what happens.

can you print online images at 300dpi? 

This question will never, ever go away.

converting from 72 dpi to 300 dpi to print 

No, you can’t. Please stop.

does it take longer to scan 300 dpi or 72 dpi 

I’ll give you one guess.

effect on project when changing project hourly rate 

You lose the client, that’s all.

font combonations 

“I’ll have the Helvetica burger with a side of Futura fries.”

four thing u have to do in graphic design 

R u asking me 2 du this 4 u?

how to draw simple easy amazing things on a blank sheet of white 

Just get a pencil and paper and draw like Leonardo – how else would you do this? Silly question…

how to fix a fifth color in cmyk 

Your problem is due in large part to a lack of a fifth color being present to be able to fix.

how to print on 300 dpi 

How to print on 300 dpi what? Hmmm. Go to Staples and ask for 300 dpi paper, maybe.

i just got my degree in graphic design and i dont have a portfolio 

You may have gotten ripped off at your college.

i’m a graphic designer where do i get printed? 

It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing now, isn’t it!

i’m i to old to be a graphic designer 

Yes, the heavy lifting does exclude certain age groups from this physically demanding line of work.

if the web is 72 dpi why are higher res images better quality 

Because higher res images are better quality, which has nothing to do with the web.

jpg is 300 dpi but opens at 72 dpi 

Then your jpg is not 300 dpi.

like father like son spelled in all fonts 

Most things are spelled in all fonts, unless you are using sign language.

logos of a house sketches 

Lost me on that one…

many graphic designers are leave why? 

leave cuz can’t communicating client bill to financial pays.

pdf font like verdana 

What is a PDF font? And why do you want one like Verdana? Don’t we already have enough Verdana in the world?

photoshop resolution 72 dpi to 300 dpi 

NO!

photoshop resulution 72-dpi to 300-dpi 

N-O-!

prefered font for email  Use

Helvetica, which is faster than Times Roman because it has no serifs. Also, studies have shown 6pt Helvetica to be faster than 12pt Helvetica because it’s smaller.

printing higher than 72 dpi on web pages 

No. Stop it.

printing web resolution higher than 72 dpi 

You really need to stop it.

some things graphic designer would design for a client 

Like maybe a logo, a website, a mug, a book, a poster. Let me think of a few more when I get some time.

tips til pdf print 

When waiting for the PDF to print, you can 1) surf the web, 2) get coffee, 3) check out twitter.

unpaid freelance graphic design work in photoshop 

Who told you I did that?

what are the four things that we can draw 

We can draw 1) a potato, 2) a cow, 3) a car and 4) a vase. Other than those, we don’t know if we can draw anything else.

why should i be a graphic designer 

Nobody says you have to be a graphic designer…

will the role of the graphic designer and design have changed in any way? 

I can’t tell if this question is going to happen or if it will have happenend.

top 10 fints 

I know the top 3 are Hilvitici, Girimind, and Fitiri.

what is a one color print job 

It’s a print job with…one color. But it could also be a four color job, as long as all four colors are the same.

It's all about you!

2010-07-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

More ramblings

2010-06-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

Every 5 or 6 years I’m emptying out one of the cupboards at home and I come across my beautifully professional looking aluminium silver camera case.

I carefully open it up and gaze at the Nikon FE body nestling in the hard foam along with 4 Nikkor lenses, a flash gun, strap and various different size filters to fit the different lenses. (For the really sad, lonely and interested, the lenses are an 80-200mm zoom, a 105mm Micro, a 55mm Micro and the 52mm that came with the camera.)

When I first acquired this kit - over a period of months - I was going to get into photography in a fairly serious way and I read the right books and learnt about apertures, film and shutter speeds and got to the point where I could just about make the camera do what I wanted it to do under various different situations.

And then other things in life took over and when I next came across the kit, I found I’d forgotten almost everything I thought I’d previously learnt. But I was still keen so I started again and once more reached the stage where I could take a competent photograph.

And so it went on. I must have bought the Nikon about 25 years ago and when I came across it again the other week all the same old thoughts and feelings went through my mind. But before doing the usual thing and starting again I decided to have everything checked out and I took the case and its contents to a family run camera shop in Tottenham Court Road. I told the man the story about me trying to come to grips with photography at regular intervals over time and he took the case from me and asked me when I’d last used the camera. I hesitated, trying to remember when and he quickly told me that I’d answered his question - it was obviously not a recent activity!

Then, disasters! He told me that each of the lenses had mould in it and that it had already started to eat in to the lens coatings. Over time it would get worse. He was pleased that I had removed the batteries from the Nikon’s body but when he put new batteries into the camera it didn’t work in automatic mode at all. Basically, I owned a camera kit that probably cost around £3,000 and none of it was any good!

That’s the bad news. The good news is that I then decided to buy a digital Nikon which does everything and more that the old kit used to do. I know that the more sceptical reader will be saying that the kind man in the shop led me to believe that the old kit was no good so that I would buy a new camera but I don’t think so because I was there. Mind you, if you were a conman people would believe you wouldn’t they? No, I’m sure he was genuine.

A bit more bad news. I’m thinking that a bit like CDs and MP3 audio files that compress and thereby reduce quality - pictures have become degraded by modern technology. Today’s pictures are made up of pixels - each one being a single point in an image. From memory, I think that colour and mono prints were continuous tone and reason tells me that they would be superior to images made up of pixels. So like a lot of things in life, we’re sacrificing quality on the altar of expediency. I can feel a grumpy old man mode coming on!

All of this is to do with life really - none of it is too much to do with work. Except that if you need a quick, competent looking shot of anything, let me know - the new Nikon is really very, very good - it'll even shoot a 30minute movie! And it was never the composition of shots that was a problem - it was just the technical aspects.

Incidentally, the snap of all the old kit shown at the top of this blog was taken on the new Nikon.

Logos with hidden meaning

2010-01-27T05:26:00.000-08:00

Logos often use conceptual and abstract graphic design tricks. A cleverly designed logo often appears to be extremely simple, but look a little deeper and other elements can become obvious.

Whilst browsing the internet we came across some well known (and not so well known) brands that aren't all they appear.

You see logos every day, but are you aware that some of them contain elements that can be easily missed. Have a go and see if you can spot the hidden symbolism - off you go!

This logo is designed with a font where every letter is a variation of the number 8.

This simple picture of a young girl doing her yoga exercise contains a hidden element. The body pose is creating a map of Australia.

Has anyone ever noticed the logo while enjoying the bar. It clearly shows the Swiss Alps but …Toblerone originated in Bern, Switzerland - a city whose name means, “City of bears”. Look at the logo again you'll find the bear in the logo. Got it?

The swirl at first looks quite arbitrary but look closer and you can make out abstract letters representing SGG.

A packaging company, with the logo showing a broken down box in the shape of the letter “P”

The designer has integrated a bed with the letter “M”.

Notice that its logo represents Paris with the joined "tt"s of Lafayette forming the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

A standard film reel turned to look like a spooky ghost.

Two musical notes are bent in a way to make a heart and headphones.

An Online Food Delivery service, emphasising its online'ness. The logo shows a fork formed into an @ symbol

You've seen it thousand times but have you ever noticed the arrow formed between the letters “E” and “X”?

A company which designs tractors. The letters “E” and “H” make up a graphic representation of a tractor.

This Home Appliance company has used the negative space to indicate the “E” and “D” making the logo look like an electric plug.

Apparently the Big Ten College Group has eleven schools but they didn’t want to change their name. So they used their logo to hide the number “11”.

Hands up all you who just saw the smily face. The original concept behind this was that amazon.com has everything from a to z.

Sick brand? Perk it up!

2010-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

Branding is not fixed, it's a fluid thing that needs constant maintenance. We're sure you've invested a lot of time in your logo, corporate identity and branding but when did you last look at all the material you've produced? You need to check on a regular basis that everything is lined up with your target market, mission statement and market position.

This needn't be an onerous task but it needs to be done regularly. It's like client contact which you, as a good marketeer of course, allocate a fixed length of time to every day - don't you?

Regular reviewing of your brand is just as important. You almost certainly won't have to invest in a massive re-branding exercise but you will probably spot smaller items that you can tweak and adjust to more accurately reflect the philosophy behind the brand promise.

One of the main things to watch is the reality of what you're saying. Genuine messages speak to your audience and engage them on an emotional level. If you come across as too "businessy" and politically correct your audience won't warm to you as readily as they might otherwise.

You don't have to be overly trendy or edgy but you should be real and authentic. And this comes from liking what you do. If the only point of your brand is to make money then it will become obvious to your audience and sales will inevitably fall. You have to have a passion for what you're doing.

If you can, try being friendlier and sociable. Make special offers for visitors to the web site. Give your customers vouchers and coupons whenever you can see a real reason and they'll respond because, if they're interested, people like to be involved with anything that's genuine and driven by the passion we were talking about a little earlier.

And, sorry to say this but it's necessary, ensure that you have a branding guidelines manual.

There are some things about your brand that are cast in stone but there could well be other rules in the manual that can be broken to achieve good results - because branding is a fluid thing (where have I heard that before?) and the only really important thing is that you communicate the right message to the right audience. If you're not, it doesn't matter at all that your branding is consistent.

Sexy Typography

2010-01-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not type can be sexy. A rampant descender or a frolicking ampersand makes our toes curl. Good, creative, typography is one of those things that gets us designers all weak at the knees.

Whilst browsing the web we came across some of these fine examples for you to drool over. Enjoy.

The real customer experience

2009-11-25T04:17:00.000-08:00

The point of what follows is that however well you market a product, however well we design the brochures, application forms and website for the marketing of that product, the experience of the customer is finally what counts.

I have a current account at one of the large banks in central London and have recently acquired a new income of £200 or so per month. Rather than pay it into my current account I thought it would be a good idea to open a new savings account with the same bank but local to where I live in the country.

I walked in to the local branch and, lo and behold, there was a marketing man’s typical scenario - 2 members of staff talking at the back desk with nobody at the counter. I waited whilst they finished their conversation - in truth, not too long - and told them what I wanted to do. They told me that I would have to make an appointment with an advisor who came in to the branch on certain days of the week. These days were not convenient to me so I was given a 12-page application form to fill in and leave with them to pass on to the advisor. I took the booklet and left. I did gently remark that filling in a 12-page form was not what I had in mind when I walked in to a bank where I already had an account, albeit with another branch.

A few days later I told a young man in the London branch what I wanted to do and he came up with an extremely satisfactory solution, all within 10 minutes. And it was a pleasant experience - I really enjoyed spending time with the young man and being in the bank. I have now set up an account (or more to the point, the young man did) where I pay the money into my new account every month and obtain interest. I left the bank a happy bunny!

My experience in the local branch is just a small example of the frustrating telephone conversations we all enjoy with our mobile providers, public service utilities and isps.

I strongly suspect that the heads of many of the large organisations we complain about don’t see the customer experience as central to the whole company. They don’t see it as something on which they should seriously focus. So they don’t have the machinery to collect this data and analyse it. To come back to my experience, unless I contact the bank concerned and tell them what happened, they will never find out.

Unless a company has the set-up to look for problems they will never know. They will see their footfall decreasing and their profits dropping but they won’t know why. And all that wonderful marketing and design work will be wasted.

When I’m trying to use a product that’s not working because the instructions don’t make sense or the parts aren’t fitting together as they should, I often say “I want the Managing Director of the company that made this, here, now!” This isn’t because I want to rant (well, perhaps a little!) but because I want him to share in the “customer experience.” Only when he has a real understanding of that will he understand how he can improve his company’s relationship with his customers and improve the bottom line.

As a matter of fact, whenever we are asked to design an instruction leaflet, we go to great pains to ensure that it makes sense and that it works with the product. We put ourselves in the position of the customer. This principle also applies to making up a set of Branding Guidelines. We make them clear. And we do this by assuming that in the future the client’s marketing manager/brand manager may be somebody we don’t know and that we might not be the company doing the work that has to conform to the Guidelines. This doesn’t happen very often of course! But the point is, we are putting ourselves in the role of the customer to ensure that everything works smoothly even when we’re not actually there.

Let us know what you think.

John Lewis or Dixons?

2009-09-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

Last evening I came across a tube card that read

"Step into Middle England's best loved department store, stroll through haberdashery to the audio visual department where an awfully well brought up young man will bend over backwards to find the right TV for you ... then go to Dixons.co.uk and buy it".

In the bottom right hand of this card the dixon.co.uk address was repeated with the strapline - "the last place you want to go".

(Dead right it's the last place I want to go - but more of that later!)

The main body of the copy was set in JLPGill, the John Lewis house typeface so there was no doubting whose customers Dixons were after.

Whilst my initial reaction was to be slightly shocked, I then had a second or two of admiration before I then started to get a little annoyed. I like John Lewis and the sardonic, mickey-taking tone of the copy made me resolve never to shop at Dixons - ever. Dixons were talking about a store that has earned my respect over decades and that has never, ever let me down. Whenever I have shopped in John Lewis I have always been treated with respect and courtesy and to hear them being criticised by a business that survives by selling at the lowest possible price by offering no service whatsoever makes me just a little angry. Dixons are typical of what John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) was talking about when he wrote:

It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.

If I ever bought something that didn't do what it was supposed to do, I know who I would rather have bought it from - and their name doesn't begin with a D!

If the cards are read by people who already buy on price from cheap companies, then they might (if they have the intelligence to recognise the JLP branding) have a laugh, carry on buying from Dixon's and never discover the meaning of service and quality. If readers have already discovered the joy of shopping in Middle England's most loved department store, they wouldn't touch Dixon's with a bargepole anyway and would only get annoyed at the copy on the card.

So I reckon Dixon's have shot themselves in the foot with these tube cards - it's oh so easy to be abusive about anything that's clean, wholesome and generally successful. Can anybody enlighten me as to the marketing strategy behind these cards unless it's to get people like me annoyed enough to blog about them?

Service - an old-fashioned concept?

2009-09-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a client request a large format canvas print mounted onto a wooden frame for use in his West End showroom window.

On the previous occasion we had done a similar job for this client I had been a little surprised by the cost of the job so I looked at 2 or 3 alternative suppliers. I chose one, not the cheapest, and sent them the client's high res 16mb file (upsampled to 56mb).

The supplier then surprised me by asking me to pay them by debit card - or credit card - before they would proceed. I had been talking to them over a few days asking them for different prices for different size prints and at no stage had they said anything about pre-paying for the job. The job had become urgent by the time the client gave the go-ahead so I registered my complaint before paying them with the company debit card. Small mistake - but still a mistake - by the supplier.

Then they sent us a proof which they wanted us to approve before proceeding with the job and which looked to me like a lo res pdf - which it was. I asked them - as politely as possible - how I could approve a lo res pdf that was less than 1mb for a file that was 56mb. They didn't understand the point I was making and I was told that all I had to do was to zoom in to the pdf until I was looking at a 100% representation. Another small mistake - but still a mistake - by the supplier that showed me that the person I was talking to didn't know what they were talking about.

I said that if they had faithfully represented the hi res shot I had sent them, the finished job should be alright and I sent them an email confirming all this. Some 5 minutes after this conversation and email they called to say that they now understood the point I was making and asked for approval of the proof. I pointed out - again very politely - that I had already given them the go-ahead in my email. Third small mistake - but still a mistake - by the supplier.

I can understand that they've probably had bad debts in the past and if they wanted me to pay up front they should have given me the option of perhaps paying 50% of the cost up front and the remainder once the job was finished or of at least telling me at the start of the quoting process that because I was a new customer they would like me to pay up front and that thereafter I could pay on invoice.

Now I know these individual small mistakes aren't all that important in the large scheme of things but they are not the way a customer - a new customer indeed - should be treated. The service they were offering was based around the way they wanted to work without any consideration for me, the customer.

It is doubly annoying when we bend over backwards to give our clients what they want and to conform to their way of working. We are in a service industry and there's a lot of competition out there so as well as it being a natural way of working with clients it's also a necessary way of working.

2009-08-12T06:56:00.001-07:00

We're ashamed to admit that we've recently missed out on a potentially large project because the client concerned didn't know, or had forgotten, that we did that sort of work. So we thought it would be a good idea - at least from our point of view - to remind you of the main areas of design in which we are experienced.

Corporate identity

We include under this heading, branding, logotype design, stationery, branding guidelines, in fact anything that relates to how you are perceived by the outside world. We produce corporate identities for companies large and small but perhaps the most famous name for whom we have designed a logotype and developed branding guidelines was Ernst & Young's international network of lawyers. It was a complicated exercise and had to take into account the legal stipulations in countries all over the world. We won an award for our work so if you'd like us to look at your corporate identity and set up branding guidelines to help maintain the consistency of that identity then we're the team! Even if you're a one-person start-up business it's still very important.

Web sites

As with other areas of design, each project is linked to the client's marketing objectives so each site looks quite different - except that they all look pretty good! The best way to check out our ability with web design is to go to our web site www.fletcherwarddesign.co.uk and check out what we've done for our clients. We are experienced in the design and construction of both Flash and HTML sites

Report & Accounts

We have been designing and producing R&As for longer than we care to remember. This expertise with the presentation of numbers is also utilised in the design of Financial Memoranda.

Newsletters

We currently design newsletters for some of our clients and feel that they are a frequently under used part of the marketing mix. Give us a call if you're even just thinking about a newsletter - we might be able to help.

Printed material

This means all those leaflets, brochures, advertisements and posters - anything that ends up being printed.

Charts, diagrams and Graphics

Another under appreciated area of design, we feel that we're pretty good at them! The World Cancer Research Fund obviously felt the same. We had produced all the charts for the previous edition of their 500-page tome "Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer" and they came back to us for the latest version. When clients come back it means we're doing something right.

Design - it's what we do. So call us.

Eco friendly font

2009-07-29T01:47:00.001-07:00

In the August issue of the National Geographic magazine there's an article about a so-called Ecofont based on the Bitstream face called Vera (quite nice actually!). To quote from the article, the font has been designed to use less ink than other faces thereby saving money and resources as well as money. The Dutch marketing firm Spranq says that a company with 5,000 workers could save up to £75,000 a year from its printing costs. That's around £15 per person per annum - around 28p per person per week. More realistically perhaps, a 5-person office could save around £75 per annum!

The type has small holes that reduce the overall printing area of the type by 20% at 10pt without reducing the readability and this is the optimum size for its use. Anything much larger than this and you can see the holes and much smaller you are not making much of an ink saving. As somebody else says in the article, "it makes you think hard about ink, not just paper and printers."

We think it's great that somebody is thinking about things like this and, after all, if we only use it for home and internal office emails, we'll be contributing just that little bit. You can download the font at ecofont.eu.

What do you feel? Is the trade-off between aesthetics and reducing your damage to the planet and its resources worth it?

SEO

2009-07-23T02:51:00.000-07:00

Does anybody out there agree with us that the system that the web crawlers apparently use to decide on a given site's importance, and therefore its ranking, seems somewhat invalid?

Apart from the site itself and the way it's constructed, the most important thing, we're told by Google, is the number of backward links to the site.

This means that there are lots of companies out there employing cheap labour to build links - sometimes spurious - to their sites to get the number up. There are, at least from what I read online, lots of companies outsourcing to emerging nation firms to establish links.

How does this contribute to the genuine validity and authority of a site?

Of course there are a number of other - genuine - contributing factors to moving your site up the ratings and these at least seem to make more sense but to rate a site by the number of backward links seems somewhat unfair and old-fashioned.

And almost every company that approaches clients says that it can get them on to the first page of the search engines but how can this be? You only have to think about it for a moment or two to see that this is impossible for most normal sites. You can almost always get yourself to the top of a search list if you type in a very specific phrase that is included on your site but if somebody searching for a general product or activity types that into a search engine window then the chances of you being at the top of the list is extremely remote.

How do you feel about this situation? It would be interesting to at least know that we're not alone!

Are you interested in commercial property?

2009-06-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

One of our clients has just sent us an email relating to the services they offer in the property market and it occurred to us that somebody out there might be interested. They are not a large firm and from personal experience we can tell you that you receive the best of attention.

They aren't aware that we're putting them on the blog so if you do have reason to call them you can surprise them by letting them know where you heard of them!

Their email read:

I want to ensure that you and your colleagues are aware of the full range of properties we regularly handle and our areas of expertise for these property types.

Adlers are regularly involved with

• Petrol stations

• Car dealerships

• Roadside properties

• Restaurants

• Leisure premises

• Casinos

• Offices

• Property and Asset Management

Our areas of expertise include:

• Acquisitions

• Disposals

• Rent reviews

• Lease renewals

• Compulsory purchase

• Valuations

• Managements

• Expert witness reports

If anything in these lists strikes a chord, please contact me and I will introduce you to the relevant partner.

I have also attached a copy of our Web brochure, this provides contact details for all Partners and a further insight into our work. Each section of the brochure is accessible from the green headers and the side bookmarks.

Regards

DAVID R HUNTER BSc FRICS ACIArb MEI
ADLERS - CHARTERED SURVEYORS
29 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HX
Tel: 020 7224 2244 Fax: 020 7998 1417

Mobile: 07973 817107

www.adlers.co.uk

View our specialist areas:

Roadside Restaurant/Leisure Office Management Property Instructions

WHAT MAKES GOOD DESIGN

2009-05-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

What makes a good graphic designer, and how can you be sure of getting good graphic design? The graphic design market can be confusing. At first sight, inexpensive graphic design looks readily obtainable, because there are a lot of good people out there eager to get some references. But for the customer, getting the right graphic design is not easy. In fact it's a problem. Because what is the right graphic design?

Just because someone can work with Photoshop or has a graphic design qualification does not necessarily mean they are a good designer. An able designer needs far more qualities than just a good eye for colour, form and detail. Design is an entity.

Good graphic design tells a visual story. Good graphic design employs succinct psychological tools, such as reactions to and associations with forms and colours. But above all, good graphic design is a visual expression that functions in optimised interaction with communication and strategy. This makes heavy demands on the designer's ability to integrate design into the whole. It also calls for considerable insight into the customer's firm, the purpose of the message and the underlying strategic thinking. Because like communication, design must reflect the customer's profile, appeal to the customer's buyers/partners, and also distance the customer from his competitors.

A good designer must therefore be able to be creative within the framework laid down by the customer. Bubbling creativity is of no use without a sense of context and economic realism. A designer must be capable of focused working within financial and time limitations. This is the challenge, and it is one of the areas a good designer gets paid to master.

That the designer must work within the framework of the customer's situation and market can surprise no one. But this does not mean it is the customer who sets the limits. The customer possesses an in-depth insight into the circumstances of his business. But precisely because he is so deeply involved it is important that fresh eyes should be brought to bear.

Innovation is a word commonly used in the value sets of many companies. But being innovative means being willing to move boundaries – not least within oneself. There is a difference between being creative and being innovative. Being creative means getting the best out of the given framework. This can be done by any good designer. Being innovative means thinking beyond the given boundaries to take a fresh look and set new boundaries. This takes courage and trust – on the part of both customer and designer. The best graphic design is therefore produced by a designer who knows the key questions to ask the customer and who transcends the conventional, and by a customer who has confidence in the end-result, dares to break limits – and to invest in the future.

Creativity, inspiration and above all motivation must never be forgotten. Because being a good graphic designer means being thoroughly tuned in, finding inspiration in the oddest things, and preferably also having access to exactly the right sources. An awareness of current and future trends is thus an integral part of a graphic designer's toolbox. This awareness provides the source of the inspiration that the designer passes on to the customer, but is also enables the designer himself to achieve self-renewal and find fresh creativity.

It should be clearly understood that a professional graphic designer does not necessarily have his own style. This is because the designer's job is to supply a message that has to fit the company's view of itself, the company's strategy, and the company's desired market position. Another reason is that the design must appeal to the values of the users. Good design must be design that works: design that helps generate revenue and optimise the understanding of the message. Such design can only result from thorough preparation, an analytical appreciation of the company's message and market, and naturally a creative mind.

Visit www.fletcherwarddesign.co.uk for examples of corporate identities we have produced.

WHO CARES ABOUT YOU?

2009-05-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

Probably not your clients! They’re not interested in you having just bought the latest Hokey Cokey 2000 or even in the products you’re trying to sell them. And yet so many companies go on in their literature or on their web site about when they were founded, how they make this product or that and that they have just moved to a magnificent new site.

What your clients need to know is what you or your products are going to do for them. What are the benefits?

So many advertisements and leaflets talk about the companies themselves when all the people reading them want to know is:

what are these products/services going to do for me?

what will they do for my business?

how much money will they help me to make?

I saw it amusingly summarised by the phrase, “Everybody is tuned in to one radio station - WIIFM - What’s In It For Me?

If you’re not too sure what it is that your customers want, there’s a very simple technique - ask them.

This may involve you in discussing the problems facing them and their business but you can then use the information to give them a product or service that precisely matches up to their expectations. And your clients will get to think of you as a listener who really cares about their business and how it can grow as opposed to you keep telling them about yours.

POSITIVE PRESS

2009-05-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you but I’m getting heartily fed up with the media going on and on and on about the current financial situation!

The media didn’t actually create the “credit crunch” but they have revelled in the glaring headlines and stories of companies closing down.

I’m not advocating a ban on news about the situation but I do wish it could all be toned down an octave or two. And there’s always a silver lining or two somewhere. Perhaps we could hear a bit more about them.

We’re in a hole but there’s a rule for what to do when you find yourself in a hole - stop digging! All that blathering on about how bad it all is contributes, I’m sure, to the overall situation - or at least how we feel about it.

WEB WRITING

2009-05-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

Because the web is a casual, laid back sort of medium, there’s a temptation to be more casual in the use of language but there are some good reasons to be considerate about what you write.

Firstly, well written copy keeps people reading for longer,

secondly, people will trust you more if you can spell and write properly, and

thirdly, it makes you more intelligible to the search engine “spiders”.

Make sure that the person you select to create the copy is able to write in a reader friendly style. They may well be somebody who understands the main features of your company and/or product (perhaps somebody who sells?) but probably not a person who knows the products in the most intricate detail. Please don’t use technical language (unless you’re selling something technical to technicians!) when ordinary English will do. Keep the sentences short and simple.

Following on from the using the right person to do the writing, make sure that your site tells the customers what they want to know - as opposed to what you think you ought to tell them. There’s a difference. Of course, if you sell a wide range of products, the writing becomes a matter of organising the products in logical order but if you’re selling a relatively small company or one product you can afford to emphasise the benefits to the customer.

Make sure you explain things from the customer’s point of view - don't assume that they know the things that you know.

Reading lots of wording on a computer screen can be hard work so do include pictures and/or graphics and make sure the pages are designed by a professional designer. Well, we would say that, wouldn’t we!