Direct Mail Works, So Why Pay Someone To Fix It?

Direct Mail Works, So Why Pay Someone To Fix It?

by | Jul 15, 2019 | Advertising, Branding |

Direct Mail Works, So Why Pay Someone To Fix It? “Direct mail works, so why pay someone to fix it?” It’s a question that we hear from time to time in the advertising business. Usually, its part of a larger conversation about creating a better brand position during a period of growth, a discussion about improving ROI (rate of improvement) for marketing efforts, or perhaps as part of an ongoing print advertising project. Improving your direct mail efforts can certainly increase your customer base and increase business leads, but most companies just end up leaving money on the table because they cannot get the attention of the right person. It’s a leaky faucet problem— small waste adds up and leads to bigger problems. Direct Mail: An Advertising Definition Direct mail is defined as anything which is mailed directly from your business to your audience. As a B2B business, this would be mailing materials directly to another business or the leaders of those groups. A B2C business would send these pieces directly to your customers, or individually through a large list of potential clients. This could be a postcard design letting people know about a new product or service that you have, this could be an invitation to a new event that you’re running, this could be a short letter introducing your business products or services in a great branded envelope, this could be a brochure folder in half in order to meet stringent US postal codes. This could even be a printed catalog (OK granted, there’s not really that many of those going out in the mail these days,...

Generate Design News for Advertising, Graphic Design, Website Design, and App Design

by | Jun 9, 2019 | Advertising, apps, Branding, Design for Business, Fonts, Graphic Design, Packaging Design, Press Releases, SEO, Typography, Uncategorized, Web Design |

Generate Design News for Advertising, Graphic Design,  Website Design, and App Design Over the last few months, Generate Design has been enjoying a rather strong uptick in calls to the office. Apparently, a lot of people have been enjoying the new content on the blog. First of all, thank you! Our team works hard to make sure that we’ve got good content in here which is original, and not a rehashing of stale old materials off of the web. Any business enjoys being able to have fresh, high-quality content. Any business worth it’s salt knows that if you keep giving people the same thing over and over and over again, you’re just going to make them sick of it. A few people have noted that they found us in email searches and their so new to the site that as soon as they clicked on the portfolio materials, they wanted to call us for meetings. That said, several people noted that they often travel from one blog post to the next and have a hard time deciding where they’re going to go. So, by request only, we have decided to put together this single post as a way to easily direct you to some of our best material in the past. Please enjoy these links and forward this material on to your friends and colleagues who could get great use out of it. Lorem Ipsum Fails: Why Real Graphic Designers and Advertisers Use Real Content The reason Lorem Ipsum is a mistake. Your marketer or designer is actively acknowledging that they have no idea what the content for a product is...
Reach Your Audience

Reach Your Audience

by | Aug 8, 2018 | Advertising, Branding, Design for Business, Graphic Design |

Good branding is the short, sweet and simple message you communicate to consumers at a glance. Think of branding as your company or business’s “elevator pitch”; it’s what creates differentiation between your company and the competition. Want to reach your audience? Read more… That’s why it’s important that branding is cohesive and, well, on brand. It needs to carry through from the website to the stationery, and cover everything in between. Branding has become so integral to a company’s being, that it is no longer just the visual identity that has to be reflective of your company; it’s the tone of the branding as well. Through typography, color palettes and tag lines, companies are able to solidify their voice. This voice could be technical, quirky, casual, informative – the list goes on. The most successful brands’ voice is indicative of the people they target. This element is an important one of a successfully cohesive brand – really knowing your target audience. To know the specifics of the target audience you’re trying to reach is key. Are you trying to reach young college students who enjoy hiking, parents with daughters, tech savvy adults? It may seem more advantageous to cast a wide net, but the success of your brand can hinge on how clear the picture of your consumer is. When you narrow your brand to fit the specific focus of your audience, the focus of your own company or business is crystal clear. With a crystal clear brand, you are able to express who you are as a company. You can highlight your ideals, at what you excel or...
Fonts: Serving Different Purposes

Fonts: Serving Different Purposes

by | Aug 1, 2017 | Branding, Fonts, Graphic Design, Typography |

Many people hold strong opinions about different fonts. Some believe Curlz and Comic Sans look juvenile and unprofessional, while others argue that Trajan and Papyrus are overused on movie posters. In fact, the marketing team for the hit movie Avatar received harsh criticism for the use of Papyrus. But why do people care so much about the way words look on paper? Humans have experimented with the treatment of fonts since Johannes Gutenberg created the adjustable mold for printing presses around 1440 AD. Font is derived from the word fondre, meaning to melt in French. Gutenberg melted lead, tin, and alimony, and he poured the molten mixture into his adjustable molds. Through his invention, Gutenberg allowed us to quickly and consistently create fonts of type. During his career, Gutenberg fashioned a font that replicated the gothic script that monks used when handwriting Bibles. However, typographers estimate that today, the number of fonts that exist in the world could be as high as 500,000. Times New Roman is probably one of today’s most used font families. For example, high school students all over the world use it when writing papers in MLA format. Stanley Morrison created the popular font for The Times of London in 1929. Times New Roman is a narrow font, so it is possible to fit more words on the page, which saves space and money for newspapers. While many writers consider Times New Roman a sensible font, others wonder why seemingly impractical fonts like Wingdings exist. Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes created Wingdings in 1990 to provide people with high-quality, scalable images that didn’t take up...