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Erin Ferree's Articles in Business

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  • Where to put your contact info on a trifold brochure
    When you're designing a trifold brochure, you have to put your contact information someplace on the brochure. The only question is, where?
  • How A Strong Brand Identity Helps Overcome Customer Reluctance
    Many small businesses, especially one-person businesses, don't see the point in investing the time, work and money in creating a brand identity. After all, they're very good at whatever it is that they do, and they should be able to make more than "just a living" by simply putting up a website, being themselves, and delivering a high-quality service, right?
  • Rebranding Is an Excuse to Party in Your Business
    Once the redesign is done, many small businesses launch it silently. They change their logos, business cards, and websites one day—sometimes without so much as an announcement or a "By the way... " to their customers. Not only are they potentially confusing and alienating them, but they're also missing out on a great excuse to party!
  • How To Stand Out At A Trade Show
    If you're setting up a display at a trade show, you have to do more than just pay for a booth space, put on a nice outfit that morning, and walk in the door for your company to get real results. You have to think about how you'll cut through all the "noise" to get in touch with your target audience.
  • Why your Business Brand Shouldn't Be An Exact Mirror Image Of You
    Customers and prospects are more concerned about their needs, their businesses, and their situations than they are about how good you are. What they want to know is how you're going to help them. And if you're a one-person business, they're likely to be more concerned about the fact that you're the only one there rather than being thrilled about your experience.
  • How Your Business Should Act Like A Snowflake
    Just like snowflakes, your business will have several different types of uniqueness. On the surface, you'll want your brand and marketing materials to look unique, so that when all of your materials go out, they can stand out from your competitions'.
  • Time to "Get Over" the Rainbow (in your logo, that is)
    Ah, rainbows. They're beautiful things, stretching across the sky, like Mother Nature apologizing for wet, nasty weather. It's no wonder that so many people love them. But, love can quickly turn to hate if you use a many-colored palette in your business brand.
  • Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's Brand
    When you first start a small business, you create your brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more often than not it's based on a guess. Then once you actually start doing business, you may find that your business isn't following the same path you set out on.
  • The Domino Effect of Changing Your Logo
    It's a rainy afternoon and you've got a hot cup of tea and a box of dominoes. You set them up on end, one next to the other in a snaking line across your dining room table. Then you bump the first domino and watch as the rest fall down, one after the other.
  • The Building Blocks of Visual Vocabulary: Flexibility
    Just like the sidekicks help out a superhero, your Visual Vocabulary together with your logo helps put the kapow into your brand identity. These Visual Vocabulary "sidekicks" are the graphics, font styles, colors, and layouts you use in your materials, and even the type of paper you print your materials on. One of the best features of a Visual Vocabulary is its flexibility.
  • Why Entrepreneurs Divorce Their Logos (And Why It's A Bad Idea)
    Remember how excited you were when you first designed your logo? How beautiful you thought it was, and how you couldn't wait to get your first batch of business cards printed so you could show it off? How you excitedly described its meaning and subtleties to your mom (and your clients?) And the rush to the trademark office to get your new love "made official"—what excitement when the papers finally arrived!
  • 9 Keys to an Effective Logo
    The right logo, with the right characteristics, will boost your visibility, credibility and memorablity – which means more business for you! These characteristics include...
  • What Rushing Your Design Project Really Means
    If you don't plan to allow enough time for your project to be designed, printed and delivered, then you may still be able to have your project completed in time, but the design will have to be rushed. This means that your designer will put aside other client's work and work late nights, even weekends, to get your project out - but at a price. And the price takes several forms other than just financial.
  • 13 Tips for Finding a Graphic Designer
    Are you ready to hire someone to design your logo, collaterals, or artwork for your website? Well, here's just the information you need to get the best results from hiring your first (or your first successful) graphic designer. To assure that we begin on the same page, a graphic designer designs your marketing materials — the print- and web-ready art which are then turned over to a printer or coded for the web for the final outcome.
  • 9 Tips for Getting the Best Work From Your Graphic Designer
    A graphic designer's goal is to provide you with the logos, artwork and page designs that best fit your business, personality, industry, and target market and conveys your offerings and differentiators. The experience of reaching that goal can be extremely smooth and pleasant if you know what to expect upfront, and if you understand that you do need to work with your designer, as opposed to just letting them loose to create with little input.
  • Types of Logos: Text, Symbol and Combination Logos
    There are three basic types of logos: text, symbol, and combination logos. The type of logo that will work best for your company depends on a number of considerations, such as the size of your company, the uniqueness of your name, and a variety of other factors.
  • How to Make Your Website Search-Engine Friendly
    One of your ultimate goals when creating your small business website will be to ensure that the website can be found by clients and prospects using Internet search engines (for example, Google, Yahoo!, and so forth). But there's not a lot of understandable information available about what the average small business owner can do to improve the number of search engine "hits" their websites get.
  • Font Basics for Branding Your Small Business
    You've designed your logo. Now you need to create some great marketing pieces to promote your business. But what pieces to create? There are so many options available that it can be difficult to decide which pieces will be the strongest and best way to publicize your business. No matter what that business is, we recommend these pieces as a first step toward marketing it.
  • The Layers of Your Brand
    Branding is a hot topic in marketing these days, but it's defined in different ways and looked at from different angles. There are many components that make up a brand, and we call each component a Brand Layer.
  • Business Card Basics
    Making a great first impression often begins with your business card. Your business card is typically the first of your marketing materials that a new client will see. It should clearly tell your client who you are and what you do at first glance.
  • The Great Two-Sided Business Card Debate
    A business card is one of the most important marketing pieces that you'll develop for your company, since it is typically the first piece of your marketing materials that a new client will see. One of the most debated points in business card design is whether to print information on just one side of the card or to use both sides. There are many views on this controversy, and here are some that we frequently hear.
  • No Logo?: Launching a Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You
    The initial lack of customers and cash flow often causes new small business owners to put off designing a logo and marketing materials professionally "until they get a few clients" or "until they get started." Unfortunately, designing their own marketing materials when they launch their businesses instead of having them professionally created will make getting those initial clients more difficult.
  • 15 Reasons Small Businesses Need a Brand Identity System
    Business and marketing experts urge small business owners to "brand" their businesses with a logo and a set of consistent marketing materials — a brand identity system. But they rarely explain the reasons behind this advice. A logo and consistent marketing materials can increase your sales and revenue, because they convey the following impressions...
  • Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down
    "Brand identity" is the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a Web site, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other professionally designed pieces. Many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses.
  • Good Design Doesn't Get Done In A Day: Part 2 of 2
    With all of these considerations, it might seem that you need to start planning your design project many months in advance of your event. But the truth is that a lot of these steps can be done quickly. It still is advisable to allow as much time as possible to address each step thoroughly and without rushing the project. If you follow this method your finished design will usually be better and more effective.
  • Good Design Doesn't Get Done In A Day: Part 1 of 2
    Lead time is one of the most often overlooked aspects of a design project. For some projects it's not a huge concern — you just need to get your designs reasonably quickly so you can start marketing. You should expect quick service from any designer.
  • A Logo Without Your Name... Can Be A Big Branding Pain!
    Why a small business shouldn't design a logo that's only a symbol (like Nike's swoosh).
  • How to Determine Whether You've Chosen a Good Niche
    Choosing a niche—a small, focused target market—for your services can be very beneficial to your business. It will help your clients to focus on and identify the services that you offer, and it will help you to develop deep expertise in a single area—and "niching" will help you to raise your rates and create a successful business.
  • Define Your Difference To Stand Out and Make Your Business Shine
    Thoughtfully defining your business—and your differentiation—will help you to understand who you are, what you do, and what makes you different. Not many small businesses take the time to answer those core questions about their business, but those answers are essential to creating a strong brand identity, focused messaging, and effective marketing materials.
  • Focus Your Definition
    You have so much important information that soon all of your marketing materials are crammed full of text and information. Most small business owners have this problem. They are so excited about their business and everything they can do for their clients. They make the mistake of putting it all into their marketing materials.
  • Marketing Tips
    General graphic design and marketing tips for small businesses
  • The 9 Advantages to Using a Visual Vocabulary in Brand Identity Design
    Visual elements are a major part of your business's brand identity design. The keystone of that design is the logo, but in many cases, the logo isn't enough to convey all of your brand attributes. A visual vocabulary is a way to reinforce and add to the messaging that is contained in your logo.
  • Attract More Clients With A Brand Identity
    How A Logo Impacts The Know-Like-Trust Factor
  • Logo Files: Versions of your logo that you should own
    Your logo is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats. Having a library of logo files will enable you to send vendors the types of files they need (for example, other designers, printers, or other service providers).
  • 9 Keys to an Effective Website
    Many small companies choose not to invest in a professionally designed website, although a well-designed Web site may raise the company's level of professionalism and exposure – AND drive business and sales!
  • Color Part 2: Formats and Systems
    There are several color formats and systems available for mixing and specifying colors. Here, we explain three of the most common systems: RGB, CMYK, and Pantone colors.
  • Starter Website Plan for a Service Business
    For many small businesses, getting even a basic website up can be a daunting task! To simplify the process, we've created a basic site map for a starter website for a service business, which requires a minimum of work on your part
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