• Branding
• Watermarks
• Quality
• Quantity
• Location
• Alt Text
• Purpose
• Dimensions
• Orientation
• Unique

Branding Your Marketing

Branding is a major aspect of your online presence and business in general. Branding refers to the colors, fonts, and the like that are unique to your business and make it easy to recognize your company and it’s purpose. When designing marketing materials (either print or digital), everyone knows to have your logo somewhere, but there is more to do in order to make your business marketing cohesive. You should strive to use your color palette on your marketing. For example, our color palette features a light blue, navy, light gray, green, orange, and teal. The first three (light blue, navy, and gray) are our primary colors and are used in our logo and a majority of our marketing. The latter three are our accent colors and are used on more in depth marketing items like the website, brochures, and business cards where I have a lot more information to accent.

Watermarks

Watermarks refer to a label or stamp of sorts used to show ownership of a unique image. You can use your logo, company name, or another unique item within the photo. Depending on the item you choose, you can add it to the corner of your image (in order to not detract from the image itself), you can keep it seemingly invisible by adding transparency to see the color that you’re laying it on top of, or by having it bold and visible (like how shutterstock does).

Quantity & Quality

Now it’s important to understand that while images are some of the best performing aspects of digital marketing (higher interactions rates, etc) that you don’t want to over do it. A good standard to live by is that you should include an image at topic changes or every 150-200 words. As for quality, it’s important to use the right dimensions in order to prevent an image from being pixelated or blurry. This also depends on the location such as facebook banner, instagram post, blog banner, or website graphic. You can find the correct dimensions through a quick google search or by asking your web developer for the different places in your website. Web design relies heavily on images to create an enticing site for users.

Purpose, Alt Text and Uniqueness

The final section of importance is the purpose, alt text, and uniqueness of the image. Google favors using unique/custom images. This is important because you want Google to prefer your post and put it up high in the search results. If you express the purpose of the unique image in your alt text clearly, then Google will rank you higher in the image search results, enabling more people to see your post. You can create custom graphics in Canva, Photoshop, or even just by taking images yourself.

If you’re looking for help with web design, graphic design, or any other digital marketing needs, feel free to reach out and we can help you find your marketing strategy.

The post Graphic Design | Make the Most of Your Visual Online Presence appeared first on Blue Shift Web Services Blog.

Logo Design

The first place you should have a professional do the work is your logo. Logos help define a brand and are often the first thing that people see about your business. Logo design is a major skill and there’s a lot that goes into it, more than just slapping an icon with a font.

Having a professional design your logo ensures: 

• Industry relevance
• Brand recognition
• Proper file types for all purposes

Not every file type is fit for each purpose. For example, printing a logo on a shirt will generally require a source file like pdf, ai, or eps. Whereas online you’ll need a jpg or png file to upload to each site. Use a PNG file for a transparent background.

Brand Kit

Having a brand kit allows you to have a cohesive brand across all platforms. A professional graphic designer will be able to optimize your logo and branding materials for each platform’s dimensions. For example, a Facebook cover is a different height and width than an instagram post. 

Brochure Design

Brochures are a wonderful way to hand out information about your business. You can use a variety of different brochures throughout your business no matter the industry. You can have brochures dedicated to specific services, or for the overall purpose of your business. Benefits of having a professionally designed brochure are: 

• Skilled layout of information
• An appealing handout for all events
• A simple way to provide information to potential clients

Social Media Graphics

With social media on the rise, making sure that you’re looking the best you can on each and every post is a must. Posts with images or videos get 650% more engagement than a plain text post. While it is possible to DIY your social media graphics, a professional will be able to have a cohesive brand message throughout your social media profiles. Social media managers will often handle creation, scheduling, and engagement of social media posts for you. 

Menu Design

Menus are a vital part of services and restaurant based businesses. A graphic designer will ensure that your food and services are not only displayed in an appealing manner, but also that all the information that should be given is part of the design as well. Having a memorable menu also promotes brand loyalty and brand awareness. 

Flyer Design

Flyers are a classic method of event promotion. They should encourage people to participate in or come to an event. To really engage the viewer and convert them, there are some surefire ways to set up the flyer. From where you put the contact information to how you place the eye-catching details, there’s a lot that goes into a good flyer design. 

Email Headers and Graphics

The top of an email is forgotten or misused a good portion of the time. This is a place that should not only be consistent and eye-catching, but multileveled. The very top should be your logo, your branding, the second part should be a relevant image to what the email is about. A graphic designer (or email marketer) would be great for enticing your subscribers into opening, engaging, and converting through the images in the email.

Business Cards

When people think of business marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is generally a business card. While there are plenty of template based design companies out there like Moo or VistaPrint, having a unique card can be what really sticks you in the mind of your clients. A professional graphic designer can curate an amazing card that not only contains the vital information about your business, but also encompasses all your business is. 

Infographics

Information is remembered more through a visual format than in text format. Having an accompanying graphic will generally increase your engagement while keeping your brand at the forefront of your message. A great use for a graphic designer is to create an infographic that will entice, inform, and engage your audience.

Blog Images and Banners

Again, blog images and banners are an amazing way to boost information retention and reader engagement. They allow you to have something shareable for your audience.

The post Everything You Need A Graphic Designer For appeared first on Blue Shift Web Services Blog.

Pantone

Pantone’s announcement is awaited with bated breath by designers everywhere. This year’s color was “Real Blue”, PANTONE 19-4052. The Hex code for this color is: #0b4e82. I’d use this color for added splashes of color throughout the site, maybe call to actions, links, and sometimes background color with white text.

In addition to their color of the year, Pantone released their “Colors for Spring/Summer 2020” color palette. Included are a variety of oranges, blues, reds, a couple of greens and four neutral colors; ash, brilliant white, lark, and navy blazer. This colors will make an amazing palette for your social media and blog post graphics this year.

Flame Scarlet (PANTONE 18-1662) : #f30003

Saffron (PANTONE 14-1064): #fd9e00

Classic Blue (PANTONE 19-4052): #0b4e82

Biscay Green (PANTONE 15-5718): #41dcbf

Chive (PANTONE 19-0323): #343d12

Faded Denim  (PANTONE 17-4021): #6a90b0

Orange Peel (PANTONE 16-1359): #fd720f
Mosaic Blue (PANTONE 18-4528): #016995

Sunlight (PANTONE 13-0822): #f9dda0

Coral Pink (PANTONE 14-1318): #f49986

Cinnamon Stick (PANTONE 18-1345): #9b2b02

Grape Compote (PANTONE 18-3513): #5a305f

Lark (PANTONE 16-1324): # c78645

Navy Blaze (PANTONE 19-3823): #121a2b

Brilliant White (PANTONE 11-4001): #f2f5fe

Ash (PANTONE 16-3802): #7b6967

Etsy

Etsy’s color of the year is referred to as “Color Crush”. This year they picked “Chartreuse”. This green shade makes just as bold of a statement as Pantone’s “Real Blue”! The Hex code for this color is: #dfff00.

Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore’s list of color trends has 10 colors. They say that “muted” color palettes are in this year. I’d use the following colors as backgrounds for splashes of color, link colors, and text colors.

White Heron: #f1f2eb – Background

Golden Straw: #f0deb6 – Background
First Light: #f0e3df – Background

Thunder: #beb9ae – Background

Crystalline: #cad5c9 – Background

Cushing Green: #647262 – Text/Link Colors
Windmill Wings: #bdd3ee – Background
Oxford Gray: #8391a1 – Text Color
Buxton Blue: #9eb7bb – Background
Blue Danube: #2e5a71 – Link Colors

Canva

Canva is an amazing graphic design tool that has three levels of pay tiers: one free and two paid tiers. Their color trends for 2020 are : 

Calming, nature inspired palettes.

Think lots of green, blue, and brown shades. 

Bold, contrasting colors

They suggest using one or two vibrant colors and accenting with natural colors to tone done the intensity. They used the following image as an example.

[INSERT IMG]

Venngage

Venngage is another tool for creating stunning infographics. Their graphic design trends for 2020 are: 

Muted Colors – Muted colors are desaturated with black, white, or complementary colors. 

Color Gradients – Gradients are making a comeback for backgrounds this year.

Abstract Illustrations – Simple illustrations are on their way out with abstract, dreamy one taking their place.

Minimalist Landing Pages – Gone are the days where busy “Click here! Click here!” pages were acceptable. Minimalist landing pages help with SEO (As long as they meet the minimum word requirement!) by speeding up load times and being compatible with mobile devices.

Better Branded Animations – GIFS are the new “it” factor in 2020.

Genuine & Neutral Stock Photos – These are often correlated to color trends, and as the trends shift to a more neutral muted palette, so do the stock images.

Flowing Shapes & Lines – These design features help create a sense of genuine feeling and a natural approachable vibe. 

Heavy Simple Fonts – There was a time when unique fonts dominated the design field, but heavy simple fonts (bold Arial for example) are heading into the lime light this year. 

Don’t have enough time or knowledge to do your own graphic design? We can help. Our trained eye and love for design make a great pairing that will help your business look professional, beautiful, and eye-catching online. 

The post 2020 Graphic Design Trends of the Year appeared first on Blue Shift Web Services Blog.