As years go buy and our lives get busier and busier, sometimes we get too caught up in the day to day events to even think about our company image. Well the good news is, giving your brand a makeover or as some like to call it, ‘a shot of life’, won’t tie up too much of your time.

Actually, that is GREAT news, as your company image is everything and it begins with graphic design Brisbane… to be continued.

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Too many of us print is a foreign subject and would seem to be a fairly straight forward procedure. Send your files to the printer, printer prints and drops it off at your doorstep…

Well, in a nutshell I guess this statement is partially correct. But below the surface there is much, much more to printing. Firstly, how do you know who the right printer is for your job? Well, depending on what you are printing greatly impacts this decision, sending a job to the wrong printer could be a costly mistake.

Using a good Brisbane print management team, like the One Deep Design crew, they will know right away which printer will be best suited and most cost effective to be printed. And by the off chance our Brisbane print management don’t know of a printer, they will certainly hunt one down who prints a fine product at a great price.

With many years of brisbane print management under our belt, we know the top printers around town as well as the printers to stay well clear of (they are out there, trust us). That’s the great thing about brisbane print management, is we have already done the hard work sourcing the best printers.

Brisbane print management includes the entire printing process, from the beginning speaking with brisbane graphic designers, sourcing and liaising with various printing companies, through to the finishing processes. It is very common for brisbane graphic designers to also offer a brisbane print management service.

I hope this has shed a little more light on the topic of brisbane print management. If you like, leave as a comment to continue the discussion.

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Admittedly without being in and around print for the last 7 years, I would be in the same position as you probably are right now, slightly confused. This is the benefit of using Brisbane print management, (such as One Deep Design creatives). Print managers save you all the confusion and hassle, simply because they deal with successful print projects just like yours, day in day out!

Brisbane print management teams have one thing in mind and that is to achieve a brilliant final product. Print managers know who all the award winning printers are and they also know which printers don’t produce top work (the ones who should be avoided like the plague, they are out there). Print managers source the right printer for each one of your projects even if they are across an array of medias, so you only need to deal with the one person. For example say you have business cards and stationary to be printed, they would best going to an offset printer. Whereas if you had a series of roll up banners or A-frame signs to be printed, these would go to a large format printer. Maybe, your graphic designer has created a small brochure that you only require 20 copies of and you need them quick, well then the best option would be use a digital printer for cost effective and fast turn around reasons. These are just a couple of options a print management company will weigh up for you.

Also for those slightly tricky jobs, quality control such as ‘press checks’ are carried out to ensure everything is up to scratch and exactly how it should be. The upside of getting a great Brisbane print management team working on your side is they will handle all your projects from post graphic design through to delivery (from start to finish). Did someone say ‘convenient’? The way I see it is, print management is a worthwhile investment to protecting your brand from amateur printed materials.

I’m going to throw this out there and I’m sure most other graphic designers would agree with me (…maybe not so much you web designers!!). Even though the world we live in becomes more and more online and digital based each day, please remember, print is always going to be that extra bit more personal to your consumers. For example, compare an email versus a letter in the mail, which one gives you a more personal vibe?

Share your thoughts on print with us and tell us does your company use print management services or considered print management?

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Let me take you back to your high school days, where it was always the cool, attractive kids who got the most attention. Well logo design is absolutely no different, people are always going to be drawn to the cool, attractive logos and the plain, ugly ones …not so much.

This is exactly the reason why the worlds most favoured companies invest millions of their dollars into successful logo design and developing brand equity. When you think about it logos are to companies what faces are to people, without them we would have a very hard time identifying each other, wouldn’t we? And because we know impressions count, logo design must positively deliver who you are along with your companies personality within the valuable couple seconds consumers will give you.

You could say the way in which we Brisbane logo designers create these positive first impressions is by integrating a type of science into each logo. Brisbane graphic designers use many tricks which subconsciously tweak the way people see and engage with logos no matter the simplicity or how complex they may be. Some of those tricks are as simple as combining certain colours together and even the use of fonts plays an important role in the success of any logo design. Basically thin typefaces can give a more subtle and professional appearance versus bold typefaces which usually demand attention or show importance. I won’t go into too much detail about fonts here, they are another topic all together, I will save that for another post.

I am going to keep this post brief, but would like to leave you with something to think about. Without being dramatic, logo design is no joke, logos have been known to make or break companies. Therefore can you afford to grow your companies brand on an average logo design?

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Now the first few questions you will need to answer will go something like this; Which stock would you like to use? Are you printing in CMYK or Pantone colours? Do you require any embellishments, if so what are they? Spot UV, Embossing, Matt Cello? …you get the idea of where this is going.

Admittedly without being in and around print for the last 7 years, I would be in the same position as you probably are right now, slightly confused. This is the benefit of using Brisbane print management, (such as One Deep Design creatives). Print managers save you all the confusion and hassle, simply because they deal with successful print projects just like yours, day in day out!

Brisbane print management teams have one thing in mind and that is to achieve a brilliant final product. Print managers know who all the award winning printers are and they also know which printers don’t produce top work (the ones who should be avoided like the plague, they are out there). Print managers source the right printer for each one of your projects even if they are across an array of medias, so you only need to deal with the one person. For example say you have business cards and stationary to be printed, they would best going to an offset printer. Whereas if you had a series of roll up banners or A-frame signs to be printed, these would go to a large format printer. Maybe, your graphic designer has created a small brochure that you only require 20 copies of and you need them quick, well then the best option would be use a digital printer for cost effective and fast turn around reasons. These are just a couple of options a print management company will weigh up for you.

Also for those slightly tricky jobs, quality control such as ‘press checks’ are carried out to ensure everything is up to scratch and exactly how it should be. The upside of getting a great Brisbane print management team working on your side is they will handle all your projects from post graphic design through to delivery (from start to finish). Did someone say ‘convenient’? The way I see it is, print management is a worthwhile investment to protecting your brand from amateur printed materials.

I’m going to throw this out there and I’m sure most other graphic designers would agree with me (…maybe not so much you web designers!!). Even though the world we live in becomes more and more online and digital based each day, please remember, print is always going to be that extra bit more personal to your consumers. For example, compare an email versus a handwritten letter, which one gives you a more personal vibe? The handwritten letter of course…

Share your thoughts on print with us and tell us does your company use print management services or considered print management?

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Walking through your local Westfield shopping centre, it is easy to see the effect advertising has on the every day consumer. Advertisements in shopfront windows, advertising on massive LCD screens hanging from ceilings, heck, there is even advertising under your feet! Advertising absolutely everywhere…

While we are on the subject of advertising and shopping centres, it was just the other day I saw something unusual, 3 or 4 employees moving through the busy crowds holding banners and wearing mini billboard advertisements on their backs. Despite a touch of humiliation I’m sure the teenagers felt, they were certainly receiving looks from everyone around them. This kind of reminds me of what they say in Hollywood, ‘Any publicity is good publicity’ and I believe there is a certainty of truth in this which can be applied to Brisbane advertising.

Moving outside of the cool air-conditioned shopping centres, if you live in Brisbane like I do, I’m sure you would have seen somewhere amongst your travels, a small crew of scooters all towing similar billboard advertising behind them. Again, as humorous as it looks, they are definitely attention grabbing wether you like it or not and usually seem to spark a small conversation amongst viewers. If you ask me, these ideas are genius as Brisbane advertising is all about seeking as much attention as possible, that is what it really comes down too.

Brisbane advertising is a booming industry, where we are seeing each and every day new marketing strategies evolving, gimmicks and creative ways to spread brand awareness, engage with customers and turn leads into sales. This is where the million dollar question arises, ‘With so many Brisbane companies advertising, how do I get noticed above everyone else?’

• The first step is the most important one in my eyes and that is laying a solid groundwork; recognise your target audience. I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but never underestimate the importance of this.
• Now that you know who you are targeting, where are they looking? Example, say you are boutique kitchenware store of all things, then no doubt you would benefit with a full page advertisement in one of Australias popular cooking or homeware magazines. Or maybe your company regularly features displays at trade shows, roll-up banner advertising, flags and posters, advertising brochures and flyers are ideal for this scenario. Keep in mind, the more you awareness you can spread, the more brand equity and recognition you build.
• Budget. Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to worry about this one? Well unfortunately we do, so before you start thinking about advertising top to bottom, front to back on the side of a city bus, you must firstly establish your advertising budget. Usually your graphic designer or advertising agency will assist you with this, should you need it. At One Deep Design, we certainly work with our clients to gather advertising costs and options across an array of medias.
• Now that I’m breaking the Brisbane advertising process down, I’m starting to think I may have told you a small lie, each step really is just as important as the next. As this is the graphic design step for your advertising materials, this is what people actually see and accordingly develop opinions of your company. By using clever graphic design, advertising experts positively and visually communicate your message to target audiences. Just look at the examples above to see how vitally important quality graphic design is to advertising campaigns.

The great thing about advertising is, there really are no limits, I find this fascinating. Advertising is such a wide area. Advertising today is not limited to traditional ways of newspapers and magazines, the digital world is or should I say, already has, created a major impact on the advertising world. When I say digital, this not only means the internet but also the boom of smart phones, social media and digital medias like LCD screens and LCD billboards etc. Advertising is slowly but surely becoming more interactive, with the latest craze being QR codes a perfect example, not to mention the couple examples I gave in the first few paragraphs…

I do get a kick out of seeing and creating new, unique ways to advertise. Some of these advertising strategies I see and create are very bold and are often my favourites, funny enough also usually the most successful ones too. Defining a successful advertisement is simple, it grabs attention and gets viewers to take action. To cover all the various ways brands of today are advertising and promoting their products, would be one huge post, and a slight overkill. Really all you need is to climb aboard the advertising bandwagon is, think outside the square with big ideas and a creative team on your side to execute those ideas.

Leave a comment and tell us about your advertising strategies or a success story, no matter how big or small, we would like to hear about it. And like always, any advertising or general questions fire away…

Best of luck on your brand awareness journey!

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*Please note, the above images are not work of One Deep Design.

People like pretty pictures! That’s why you see the smart companies are out there making the upmost of Brisbane’s professional photographers. Without trying to offend anyone here, the photographs you’re taking on your iPhone4, probably won’t cut it when it comes to leaving an impression on market savvy consumers.

Professional photographers are a creative bunch who have the talent to capture emotions of all kinds. In the case of promoting a product or fashion line for example, the emotion of desire will be portrayed in the photographs. Or in the effort of raising awareness for a charity or not-for-profit organisation, a professional photographer may aim to play with emotions of sympathy to encourage the public in supporting their cause.

Advertising photography. As we have all heard hundreds of times before now, ‘a picture tells one thousand words’, this is the truth. Have you ever noticed how some of the most effective advertisements out there are created from just one vibrant professional photograph and a couple of bold words to compliment the photograph? Yet they communicate the companies message very clearly and successfully.

I must write on another benefit which I believe far outweighs the use of amateur photography. Say the day of the photo-shoot arrives and annoyingly, it’s a miserable overcast one. Well the photographs will no doubt appear dull and just generally unflattering. Not to worry, luckily there is a little program called Adobe Photoshop (a photographers best friend), which has the power to significantly change the overall mood of any photo, even drop in a nice bright blue sky to replace ugly grey clouds or clone out any flaws… This is just one instance, but with the limitless capabilities of photoshop on side of all good professional photographers, your photographs are bound to look like a million dollars when using great photographers.

Let me ask you, can you afford to risk your companies brand with amateur photography? I’d like to think not…

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Some of you may have heard of Networx Events, incase you who haven’t, they are a company who host informative and inspirational networking events in Brisbane. Well, a couple hours ago I was just one of the crowd carefully listening in on Nick from Decoder and Jack from Dais as they had their brains picked about brands, branding, brand equity and anything else brand related.

This hour of brand discussion only reinforced my beliefs and the importance of building a company upon a quality brand identity. The first question fired was, ‘Brand identity, is it more than just a logo design?’ Yes. Simple answer, yes, much, much more. Brand identity, definitely does include your logo design (it actually makes up a major portion of your brand identity), although corporate colours, fonts, graphic elements and imagery are also contributing factors. So if you are new to the whole brand identity thing, I will now attempt to bring you up to speed with the basics.

To begin with, some small businesses may only need a logo design and a couple corporate colours to get up and going, not necessarily a brand identity, but that is fine. On the other hand companies who rely on making an impact in the market place don’t stand a chance without a defining brand identity. Without trying to scare the pants of you, we do live and work in very cutthroat times. Consumers of today have no time for boring brand identity, consumers want interesting brands that thrive personality (keyword there ‘personality’, very important). Brand identity must accurately portray your companies personality, culture, ethics and promise, visually. Investing in cutting edge brand identity assists customers to communicate, gain trust and engage with the end user.

Lets sit back for a minute and think, what is one common factor amongst all successful companies we can see? I’ll tell you if you haven’t already guessed it, they have clever brand identities which are easily memorable, timeless and let’s not forget, they look great, they have appeal! Flexibility is another factor worked into great brand identities, by this I mean, works well and looks even better across a range of medias, from car decals to stationary to uniforms and anywhere else required…

Please, take a second to flick through the images at the top of this post, as these are brilliant examples of brand identity at its best. If you are a fellow graphic designer or branding expert and feel like I’ve missed something important out of here or would like to contribute in anyway, I urge you to post a comment below. Otherwise if you’re searching for graphic designers to develop your own unique brand and have questions, we would like to answers those too.

Until the next post, stay creative folks!

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We would like to share a few logo design secrets with you. Graphic designers have a solid foundation of principles that ensure logo designs will stand the test of time. What are they? Glad you asked. Here are several basic logo design musts that have been followed to create some of the most iconic logo designs:

• Great logo designs do not have to include intricate details, sometimes the simpler the better.
• Top logo designs project confidence and strength.
• Excellent logo designs and brands rarely use more than two font typefaces.
• If the brand name is memorable, it will find its way into the logo design.
• Distinguished logo designs are easy to describe.
• Notable logo designs use effective colours to spark desired emotions.

Armed with these common characteristics of top logo design, you will be able to understand your favourite graphic designers as they create your company’s fresh logo design. It is important to remain individual and not to imitate other impressive logo designs, as it will severely compromise your logo design brilliance.

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