A delightfully absurd take on everything from superheroes to office humor, twisted relationships, huggable animals, and more.
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An adroit mixture of everyday settings and extraordinary events.
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The world of business and finance gets skewered, as Bottom Liners tackles subjects such as foreign takeovers, office policies, getting a raise, and the fast-paced world of Wall Street.
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A wry look at the absurdities of every day life.
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In today's complex world of family issues, learn from Dr. Dobson's lifetime of practical experience in dealing with family problems.
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Because great design doesn’t have to break the bank.
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A “Brand” New Start
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Sunny Skies Ahead... Thanks to Photoshop!
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Just the Fax, Ma’am
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A Message From Jim & Diane Grant |
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Even Visionaries Don’t Always See Everything Clearly
No one will argue that Orville and Wilbur Wright weren’t visionaries. After all, they were the first to fly. But even they didn’t get everything right. In his later years, Wilbur Wright once said, “I confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years.” Orville, too, made a flawed prediction years later, when he said, “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”
Being a visionary is no guarantee that you’ll get every prediction right. After all, no one knows the future and the changes it has in store.
Here’s the way we see it: Even though you may not know what the future holds for your company, one thing you can be sure of is the reliability of our printing firm in meeting your deadlines and providing extraordinary results. From the day we opened, we’ve remained committed to our customers’ needs, and we will continue to strive to meet those needs whatever the future brings.
Jim & Diane Grant
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Idea of the Week |
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Creative, Low-Budget Design Tips
The low-budget project can be the bane of a designer's existence, or it can be an exciting challenge. With a low-budget project, the client usually has everything to lose. This letterhead project is probably all he or she can afford, perhaps for months or even years. It has to do the job right, or there may never be a second chance.
 You will find that it is possible to do a lot with a little.- Make a low budget into an asset by producing a package that’s stylishly down-at-the-heels.
- Spend the bulk of a client’s budget on one expensive but attention-getting element: a heavy paper, a die cut, engraving, or embossing.
- Rely on a strong design in one or two colors, with ordinary offset printing on common paper stocks.
Producing nice layouts and stunning graphics is only half the battle. Solving your client’s design problems is the other half. As a designer, you must try to create practical and aesthetic designs targeted to your client (and your client’s clients). Here are a few tips for achieving those goals:
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Printing
Most letterhead is printed with offset lithography, which offers more options than most people use. Die cuts, foil-stamping (a specialty printing service), varnishes, and a variety of other printing tricks can help make a piece stand out.
Logos
Most established companies have corporate logos that must be included in their printed products. While corporate identity design goes far beyond the scope of this article, even an outdated or downright ugly logo can, if used creatively, be part of a fresh, new design.
Artwork
Artwork gives a piece personality. It communicates without words and targets the emotions. Using scanners and laser printers, even clients with small budgets can reproduce personal photos and copyright-free images for their printed pieces. |
Use these tips, and represent your client, not as you think they ought to be, but as they are. Your work is sure to do its job. Then you will, indeed, be a great designer.
See more great ideas like this!
Click here to visit the Grant Printing Ideas Collection.
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Marketing Tips |
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Building a Better Brand
In today’s marketplace, brand awareness and brand building are important keys to success for many companies. But how do you define a brand? Your brand is more than just your company logo. It’s a reflection of how people view your company and the products you create. As you work to improve your brand, here are some thoughts to keep in mind:
Plan ahead. Begin your branding efforts by defining the objectives you hope to achieve. Then determine the steps it will take to get you there.
Think value. In its early advertising, FedEx used the tagline, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” The phrase was catchy, but more important, it created a perceived value about FedEx, based on reliability and speed that has carried over into everything the company has done since.
Deliver on your promises. By itself, FedEx’s marketing claim would have meant nothing if the company had missed deadlines and delivered its packages in an unreliable manner. To build a successful brand, you must put your money where your mouth is and deliver on your promises.
Give it time. Don’t expect too much too soon from your brand-building efforts. No brand was ever built overnight. Like most things in life, successful brand building takes time, patience, and persistence, so don’t give up too quickly.
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