Erin Ferree's Articles

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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...
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.
Follow Up With Your Clients
A follow-up tool such as a post card, HTML newsletter, or note card is essential to make sure that your services stay "top-of-mind" with the people that you meet. It's said that a prospect needs to hear from you seven times before they will make a purchase. So it's important to create tools and a system to enable you to followup with your prospects once you've made that initial connection.
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.
The Art of Website Maintenance
Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information.
How Search Engine Optimization Helps Small Businesses
You've probably heard people talking about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and wondered if it would help your business. The answer, in short, is absolutely!
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.
Stop Making Excuses. Your Website Must Match Your Other Marketing Materials
At first glance the title of this article sounds obvious — that your website would look like all your other marketing materials. Of course that's just something that would have to happen, right? But I run into more and more entrepreneurs who want to break this rule. Creating a website that looks significantly different from all of your other marketing materials just tends to be a bad idea.
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.
Designing Your Email Newsletter
Another commonly-asked question is how to design the newsletter to make it the most effective. This breaks down into several questions and considerations:
Marketing Tips
General graphic design and marketing tips for small businesses