I just went out to check my letterbox to find it full of flyers from various local companies. I had a quick flick through it all to find two from local competing Gyms.

One had a clear message/imagery, logo, easy to read fonts and a call to action (where to go for more information). It used appropriate colours for their brand and industry.

The other unfortuantely was messy. VERY MESSY.
With poor images used (one of the “after” shots has had the man’s arm chopped off halfway).
Poor choice of fonts and colours.
A logo and call to action that were difficult to read and distinguish from the background.
And finally the message they were trying to say was lost and confusing.

I would be surprised if this flyer even turned over 1 new membership and they have just wasted money on ineffective marketing.

If I wanted to get results from my exercise / weight loss I would pay a professional to help.

If YOU want to get results from your marketing then it pays to pay for a professional designer.

YOU can email me at debbie@needeepindesign.com.au and together we can create an amazing flyer together!

I have seen many flyers and Facebook posts over the past week that have been cluttered / difficult to read or don’t have a call to action (i.e.; an invitation to an event with no address on where it was being held!!)

As much as I know you want to save money by trying to do your marketing yourself you could be losing money and clients by producing bad marketing.

You do what you do best…..
Now let us do what we do best!

Contact me via debbie@needeepindesign.com.au for a free, no obligation quote.

This is because your screen is made up of many clusters of three little lights called LEDs (which stands for Light Emitting Diodes for those that are curious)  in the colours of Red (R), Green (G), and Blue (B). Your eye tricks you in blending those three lights together to make a solid colour and depending on how BRIGHTLY lit those lights are will vary the colour produced. For example if only the Red light is on at 100% light and the Green and Blue were turned off completely at 0% light then you would see the colour Red.
And because of this RGB  is known as an additive colour mode. It is called additive because the background of a screen starts off black and then the individual LEDs light up in varying intensity adding light to black.

CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black), which is used for printing, on the other hand is known as a subtractive colour mode because the paper starts out white and the ink subtracts from the brightness of the white paper.
If you ever get the opportunity to look VERY closely at a printed picture you will see that it is made up of many tiny little dots of CMYK (unless printed in other formats which I will not go into here like spot or Pantone colouring) and they are printed very close together or far apart to once again trick the eye that you are seeing a colour. Rather than reproducing black by combining the three colours, CMYK uses an additional colour to RGB which is “Black”. Imagine trying to put three little dots on top of each other EXACTLY just to form part of a letter or even a straight line.

So back to the original point about looking at something so BRIGHT on your monitor and then printing it out to see it’s rather dark or BLACK on paper. Here is an example of how this might work.RGB actually has many more colour variations available than CMYK. When a file in RGB tries to print in CMYK it pushes the colours out of the range of the CMYK’s capacity and hence you get that “muddy” or “dirty look. However a CMYK file being converted to RGB is fine as the RGB palette can accommodate the CMYK variations.

A great designer should always work files in CMYK in the beginning and then only convert files to RGB if needed for screen products (like websites, powerpoint presentations etc) that way you always have images ready to go for print!

Have you experienced the outcome of printing a brightly coloured RGB file on the printer only to be disappointed at the dull quality? I would love to hear about it.

So why do you only want to budget $50 for  such an important part?

Lets start with what processes are involved in making a great logo?

1. The Design Brief: I try to emphasise how important it is that the design brief get filled in with as much detail as possible. A properly filled out design brief makes sure both parties understand the business including it’s selling demographic (age, gender etc), it’s direction and most importantly what exactly the product or service involves. Sometimes it brings up questions for the client that they hadn’t really thought of themselves yet either.
A well filled in design brief makes the logo design process a smooth one with the client coming away with exactly what they need or want.

2. Research: The designer must become familiar with the product or service. This involves looking up competitors and having a look at what works well in the industry but also what will help the client stand out in the crowd.

3. Sketching: This might seem like a redundant process for the client and I often get asked “isn’t it just easier to start putting things on the computer?”…  This stage should not be skipped. It’s important to get sketching with ideas and it’s exactly like a brainstorming session. I will often start with some key words the client has given me and then go from there. It’s also an easy way to cross off those ideas that really won’t work without putting all that time into mocking them up on the computer.

4. Setting up the artwork, reviewing and presenting: Finally at step 4 we get into setting up the logo options on the computer. This is where the designer will take a few of the ideas and start mocking them up, including selecting fonts and fine tuning layout from the sketches. It is very likely that no colour will be introduced until quite late in this stage if not at all as a great design will need to work in both colour and black & white. Eventually when the designer is happy they have met the brief they will present the options to the client for review.

5. Evaluation and revisions: This is the time that the logo will go back and forth between the client and designer to tighten up the design. Sometimes colour is not even added until this stage. This process can vary in how many changes will be made.

6. Completion and delivery: Once the client is happy with their new logo the designer will package it up for use. This should include various logo formats and options including black & white versions, options for printing & the web etc etc.
I encourage clients to also order a style guide for their logo. It lists out the various fonts used, colour breakdowns (useful for when the web designer is setting up that webpage), suggestions on how best to use and not use the logo etc. This makes sure that branding matches and is consistent with your new logo!

How much time do you think would go into this whole process? Even a basic logo design (which can sometimes be one of the hardest to do) can take a minimum of 10 to 15 hours. For a $50 logo thats a whole whopping $5 per hour!

What about that company that tells me I can get 3 logo options for $50???

What is the first thing most people do these days when looking for something? They visit their favourite search engine (i.e. Google, Bing etc) and type in some keywords like “logo design” “affordable” “cheap” “branding” etc etc… They then come across these companies that promise the world (and sometimes within 24 hours!).
How do they do it? They use various shortcuts including; using clip arts, stealing from competitors logos, using recycled parts from other logos and even mass outsourcing to overseas countries. They will also sometimes only send you a low resolution image that you pretty much can only use on a website and will not even be good enough quality to put on Facebook!

So what should I be paying for a logo design?

This is a question often asked and is a difficult one to answer. It would be lovely if a magic number could be formulated to provide clients and designers with an easy way to figure this out but unfortunately there isn’t one. There are many various factors involved with the costs of logo design including how big the company is, how many logo options need to be presented, how much research is required, how many variations on the final logo need to be submitted …. the list goes on.
The best option is to contact your designer to gauge an idea on costs. This will require the client to have done a little homework prior to contacting the designer so as to be able to provide them with relevant information.

If you would like a quote for a logo design please send us an email enquiry >>>  CLICK HERE

Many times I will get a client that comes to me with an idea for new artwork and they present me with something they have seen elsewhere (wether it be in a magazine or via google etc) and ask me “can’t we just copy this or do something similar”. No…. NO AND NOOOOOO!!!!!

Copyright is a very serious issue and there are some serious legal consequences for breaching copyright.

Here is an extreme and blatant example of copyright.
“Frying Nemo” and their $5000 in signage   &   One of many “Finding Nemo” Promotional Posters

I have no idea what the owners were thinking (actually I have a feeling they thought they could get some free advertising).
Firstly I really think that the name “Frying Nemo” is a really inappropriate name for a fish and chip shop. I am sure all their clients with kids would not appreciate having to explain to their children about why they would want to “Fry Nemo”…… hmmm

But this is not just a case of “Oops our name is similar”, they blatantly went and did an almost exact copy of the branding and typography!!!!.
There is no “grey line” argument either about which came first or even who copied who in this case.

This was a bad move on the part of the owners but it also makes me question whether their graphic designer thought to mention something to them as well?
Read more about the story here: Frying Nemo V’s Disney

On the other hand you can look at the case of the “Wambie Whopper”. This small little hamburger shop (what is it about fast food and copyright??) that has won a copyright battle with Hungry Jacks Pty Ltd.

The home of the Wambie Whopper is in Wamberal on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. This small Take-Away shop had been making their Wambie Whopper for more than 20 years when Hungry Jacks Pty Ltd (the exclusive Australian fast food franchise of Burger King Corporation) got wind of them using the word “Whopper” and tried to get them to change it. This resulted in a massive Facebook campaign which ended up being a winning formula for the small take-away shop with Hungry Jack’s owner Jack Cowin flying the white flag and in part of his statement he announced “The decision to withdraw related to our sensitivity to being labelled a ‘bully’ and as a bigger company endeavouring to treat a small business unfairly. That was not our intent.”
Read more about the story here: Wamberal take-away shop wins Battle of the Whopper – Newcastle Herald

Just because you have registered a business name, company name or domain name does not in itself give you any exclusive rights to its use—only a trade mark can give you that kind of protection. It is definitely worth looking into getting more information about Trademarking new ideas that way you are completely guaranteed that you own the name or idea.

Here are some handy links:
Copyright Australia : www.copyright.org.au
IP Australia: www.ipaustralia.gov.au (IP stands for Intellectual Property)
Business.gov.au : Register your trade mark | Registrations & Licences

I find doing the chalk art quite a joyful endeavour. It brings me back to basic layout, typography and more importantly those hand drawing skills that are so often not used now.
I have always been a “hands on” learner and I also really find the tactility of the chalk appealing.

It has and is still a major learning curve in getting it to look good and I have recently stumbled across a little hurdle with regards to coloured chalk not showing up as vibrantly as I thought it would. It will be a trial and error process to see what works best in this regard.

I am also really excited to be trying out a method of preserving chalk art for longer periods of time so you can keep those hand done works of art!

To finish off here are a few tidbits of information that I thought would be interesting to share (In regards to my “Pick a Seat not a SIDE” project).
– 2 hours sketching ideas and layout
– 4 hours in “chalking”
– 3 pieces of while chalk used
– 8 cotton buds (otherwise known as cue tips)
– 2 paper towels
– 1/4 cup water
And enough chalk shavings/dust to make approximately a cup of fantastic chalk paint for my son to get creative with!