Sign Making for Designers 3 Easy Steps

Sign making is very different than designing for other mediums--even different than billboard because you have images to work with. Making a text only sign seems simple, but it's that simplicity that will ruin the effectiveness of a sign faster than you can say Helvetica, if you don't apply a few basic rules. Rules that I will kindly detail for you now:

Distill the Message
It's fairly common that people will ask for what basically amounts to a paragraph on a sign. Paragraphs belong on paper, in books or magazines, NOT on signs. So what do you do? Distill it.
A woman came to the shop needing a sign because her dog ha behavioral issues and she needed something more specific than "beware of dog." She suggested to me that "warning, dangerous dog on premises" go on the sign. The size of the sign she wanted was about the size of a sheet of paper. Putting all that on a sign would make the letters too small to be a warning. I asked her what she was trying to alert people of. She said it was that the dog would bite anyone who it was unfamiliar with. I suggested "Why not just put, 'Warning DOG BITES' on the sign." She was skeptical, until she saw the difference.

By distilling the message, we determined purpose. A sign's purpose will dictate a lot about its design. Which brings us to step 2, Deciding on Emphasis.

Decide on Emphasis
Not every part of a sign can be bold or it will lose it's meaning. The various parts of a sign must be broken up in order to create an information hierarchy. Going back to the dog example. The words "Dog Bites" are the largest things on the sign. Why? Because the word "warning" is almost irrelevant. If you were going to enter this woman's yard to attempt to sell her a vacuum cleaner and saw "DOG BITES" you would go to the next house right away because you wouldn't want to be bitten.

When deciding on how a sign should be laid out, you first have to determine which parts you will emphasize. Once you've done that, you can move onto step 3, arrangement.

Arrange the Message
Lets go back to our design again and change it up a bit. If we were to go with her original idea and try to arrange it, we'd end up with something like this.

Not bad. A different arrangement but not as effective. "Dangerous" is far too long to try to stretch on a sign this size. And being placed inside a box, it now competes with "dog" for supremacy on the sign. Arranging the sign means bringing all the elements together to look cohesive. The purpose of the sign is the message, the message should never get lost on the sign.

The "New" Elevator Speech

A few weeks ago while wrapping up at my sign shop I was approached by a very friendly Middle Eastern man who wanted to share his business with me. Working out at a flea market, people are always trying to sell me something but this guy's pitch was so amazing I just had to share it. Maybe, with any luck it will help some budding salesman out there.

Why it was awesome 1: He had a great opening
I was tidying up at the end of the day when he approached me. It had been a long, busy, Sunday but Mr. Salesman walked up briskly with a smile, handed me 2 business cards and said "Help keep us busy." Wow. I know that it's not much in the way of catchphrases as things go but the take away point is: a good opening is your foot in the door. If he'd come at me fumbling with his words, no eye contact or like he was going to go right into a lengthy pitch I would have slammed the figurative door in his face. Also his opening gave him a way out. Since he'd handed me a card, if I seemed uninterested he could thank me and leave without needing to explain further. He'd already told me he wanted by business in his greeting, the card would tell me what that business was and how to contact them if I ever needed or wanted to. His job would be done at that point if I hadn't given off vibes that I wanted to hear more...which of course I did.

Why it was awesome 2: He had visual aids
The business Mr. Salesman was trying to sell me on was pretty unusual...they sold tires, furniture, and were mechanics. The card he handed me was decorated with automotive stuff and had absolutely nothing to do with furniture. No problem, he had pictures. In just a few seconds he had his smart phone out and was showing me and a friend of mine pictures of the furniture. Granted they were just regular phone snap shots but they were easily accessible and organized into categories so if he was pitching to parents about kid's furniture it was an easy skip to the right set of pics. Handy and a time saver for both him and his customers.

Why it was awesome 3: He kept it brief
For as much as he showed my friend and I his pitch was around 7 minutes. The typical elevator speech is between 3-5 minutes but we did ask a couple of questions so I'll give him a break. Most people will give you 3 minutes if you talk fast, 5 if they're interested in your product. His quick speaking, just like his walk, didn't seem unnatural at all. On the contrary, it seemed appropriate. He was straight to the point. In. Out. Boom. Before you could really reach full annoyance (unless you were already having a bad day) he was wrapping it up and getting ready to leave. Customers are less likely to talk to you again if they didn't enjoy talking with you the first time.

I could go on and on about all the little things that made this a fairly effective pitch (not completely cause I haven't spent any money with the business yet) but I'd rather just refer you to a man who knows a lot more about speaking than I do. Ron Hoff. You can read the first pages of his most awesome book "I Can See You Naked" on Amazon...you can also buy it too!.

Audi's New Strategy

After a long blog post hiatus I have returned to the world of the living...well to the living world of the blogosphere. A few other writing projects pulled me away and leeched what little free time I had from my little journal here. Those projects are not yet completed but I would be remiss if I did not have at least one ad commentary post related to the better Super Bowl Ads for this year--even though it is kinda late.

Standing in a bar for the entire duration of a football came can be kinda tiring for some, but not for true fans of a "Super Bowl Experience" lots of drinks and food everywhere, Packers and Steelers fans alike griping and cheering in unison. Football season's grand finally was punctuated with a few really impressive commercials this year. As I'm sure you can tell from the title, it was Audi for the win, at least in my book.

In case you haven't seen it, here's the commercial:



Pretty funny right? Humor is one of the best ways to deliver a message and get people to remember it. But just what was Audi's message?

"This isn't your Father's luxury"

This message is communicated in 3 ways 

(1) the cast 

(2) the action 

(3) the dialog

The Cast

Kept in these amazing prison cells are the vestiges of Old Luxury, opulent rugs, decadent crystal, gaudy chairs and old people. I mean the true to life stereotype of what most of us consider the "Rich Old Bugger"--heavily wrinkled with white hair, just like Ebenezer Scrooge. The people we characterize as heartless, out of touch, and impractical stand behind gilded bars as 2 of the prisoners try escaping--one of whom is "The New 50" (handsome, grey haired and on the move). He's the one Audi wants us to identify with, mature--not old, smart, stylish and full of passion for life. Much like the way they want you to see their cars.

The Action

Escaping from this prison doesn't seem to be all that difficult (hint, hint). But the duo do have to break through a window. The dapper escapee is pretty agile going through the window while the typical bugger has to bumble though the opening. Its not just for comedic relief, the cat like reflexes and smooth style of the dapper escapee hearken right back to the main message "Your father couldn't/wouldn't but you can/will". It makes our subconscious believe that we are better than our parents somehow and so, we would want a better car, one just as action oriented as we are.

The Dialog

When the pair finally get outside, the typical bugger chooses the Mercedes because "his father had one." The dapper escapee chooses the Audi. How does he know it's a trap? Again he's smart. He knows that the typical bugger would be fooled into thinking that luxury only existed only in the backseat of a Benz. Oh but not Mr. Dapper, he knows what Audi wants us all to know after watching this commercial--luxury is a choice. The Audi driver chooses to drive himself, he has no driver, he doesn't need to depend on anyone. He makes his own decision based on style and preference, not on legacy.

For such a simple 1minute spot, Audi managed to embed an image in its viewers that will start to chip away at the crag of established luxury. Instead of attacking quality, styling, efficiency or some other typical aspect of determining car supremacy, they picked a stance that aligned them with one of the most famous high class car companies in the world and said simply "Luxury is your choice, choose wisely"

The Top 10 Uses for Twitter

I was late to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. To be honest, I didn't understand why anyone would want to post text message style updates to a blog format for other people to read. A former boss of mine convinced me to try it out before I wrote it off and thanks to him I was immediately hooked.

For a period of around 6 months, I was tweeting several times a day. At first is was all the regular boring stuff like "I'm hungry" or "Watching day time television, I heart Maury" ok so the last statement was a lie but I was another one of those useless twiple (twitter people) that babbled on about nothing until I started following people who actually had something to say. I felt bad that I didn't have anything to say so I stopped talking about what I was eating for lunch and started talking about design and movies and sharing opinions/information on topics that other people might find relevant. That opened up my world and I wanted to explore more uses for this blub-blog phenomenon.

So without further ado and in no particular order, here's the list:

1. Breaking News
Because of Twitter's constant stream of information, it's practically a news wire. Reliable and questionable sources alike post "news" from around the globe on a 24hr basis, in some instances a big story may break on Twitter before the anchors behind the desk at CNN even get a flash. Realizing this Twitter actually has a thread set up just for getting the latest news. If you like to be in the International-Know then you may have hit the jackpot.
 
2. Link Sharing
This was one of my favorite parts of Twitter. Since I followed a lot of designers, they were always sharing links to their latest work, good inspiration places or just free stuff. It can take a lot of time to root out good, free, design resources online, but with someone practically spoon feeding it to me, I had more time to focus on work and my blog. Even if you aren't in the market for information, link sharing can benefit your business by driving traffic to your site.


3. Corporate Communication
One of the companies I follow on my twitter account is Popeye's chicken. I know it sounds silly but they're one of the few national chains who are using Twitter effectively as a means of corporate communication. They engage customers in "conversation" and announce special deals online that are too time sensitive for an email or similar campaign.


4. Trend Alerts
In case you aren't all that familiar with Twitter, there's something called a Trending Topic that indicates what most people are talking about right that moment. People who's jobs depend on "keeping their finger on the pulse" of something or other can and usually do make good use of this feature. Anything from which person most people are considering casting their vote for on American Idol to World Series favorites can be found within the millions of tiny posts happening every second on Twitter.


5. Networking
Connecting to people and having them connect to you is what networking is all about. Twitter makes it easy for you to link up with potential customers, clients or business partners and see what's going on in their world. Making yourself more involved can pay off...big time. 

6. Creating Specialty Communities
 If you like gardening, you can follow a bunch of accomplished gardeners, a local greenhouse, a plant nursery, and an organic seed company if you wish to create your own little news feed of things relevant to you. Twitter allows you to personalize lots of mini news feeds for all your different interests.

7. Job Pulse
Finding a new line of work or hiring a new employee with Twitter has become so popular that instead of just searching for the tag #jobs an entirely separate search engine has been created to help jobseekers find gainful employment.


8. Personal Branding
One of the things that creatives do well is personal branding. Writers, photographers and designers are all using twitter to stay in touch, share their work and promote their personal brand. Everything from the way they write their tweets to the profile background speaks volumes. If you are your business, hype you, and let Twitter do all the heavy lifting.

9. Live from New York It's....
Twitter has the ability to provide great play by play action, whether its a football game or a conference. Because of its brief and immediate nature--and the fact you can tweet from your phone--live "simulcast" accounts of events can be given with ease.

10. Sell
After my journey of self discovery with Twitter, I finally found its best use for me--selling. I design a line of Anime inspired Tshirts and since most of my followers were interested in the same things, I started posting links to my Zazzle Store for people to check out my new creations. It actually boosted my sales a bit and it didn't cost me a penny.

After all the nice things I've said about Twitter, I should add that I logged in just a few days ago for the first time in almost two months. Which brings me to my next point, if you decided to use Twitter for a business reason, don't follow my example, you have to make a continuous schedule and stick to it. To have an abandoned and dilapidated twitter account connected with your business speaks volumes, negative, negative volumes.

Additional Reading (Articles are from 2007-2009 at the hieght of Twitter popularity)

The Top 5 Ways Smart People Use Twitter

17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners

Top 10 Uses of Twitter

 

Lessons from the "Great Detective"

http://www.bigtimeattic.com/blog/

I've been a Batman fan since...well since the 90's. Other kids were aspiring to be like Superman when they grew up--practically invincible with a Kirk Douglas chin--I on the other hand was drawn to the mysterious allure of the Dark Knight. There was something about his melancholy and generally disinterested attitude toward others, his "gray area" moral standards, and his uncanny ability to be reborn an infinite number of times within the DC Universe only to have another area of his complex psyche become the focus of  new comic, movie or animated series.

There are a lot of things that can be learned from everyone's favorite Vigilante Playboy--like money can't buy happiness or women in leather body suits can't always be trusted--but did you ever stop to think that Bruce Wayne could teach you a thing or two about...marketing??

Be a Detective
Batman has been referred to by a lot of names, and with Christian Bale dawning the Cape and Cowel most recently in the Dark Knight film, people tend to forget that even though The Batman is a heroic figure for justice, in his essence, he is a detective pure and simple. With no superpowers, psychic ability or even a Steven Hawking rated IQ, he manages to solve crimes and apprehend criminals by use of his sheer intellect. How? Partly by paying attention.

It sounds simple enough but paying attention when it comes to marketing is hard work and takes a lot of time. There are 3 main areas that should always have your attention:

1. Your customer's demands
2. Your competitor's service
3. Your own efforts

You'll find that if you pay closer attention to customer demands you will identify ways to improve your product or service. If you keep tabs on your competition, you can keep up more easily with trends in the market or even simple sales promotion. If you scrutinize your own efforts you'll know what you're doing now, what you've done in the past, what works, what doesn't and what you might like to try. Now that you've armed yourself with information you can conduct business more effectively.

Some people call it Market Research, but it's really just detective work. Just pay attention, gather information, then put the pieces together to create a personalized marketing plan. It's a simple notion that will pay off in the long run with the right amount of hard work.

Have a Database
In the Batcave there is a giant computer. Batman's database. Since he isn't super-human, there's no way he could be expected to remember all his case notes or analyze compounds just by looking at them--that's what his tech is for.

Ok, so you've started paying attention to your business surroundings. You have your notes and your ideas about how this puzzle should fit together. Now what? Make a database. I use the term loosely to refer to any collection of information...not just spreadsheets and forms. Its important to organize what you've amassed into something useable. Have a lot of business cards you've collected from clients or prospects? Scan them and create a computerized version of a rolodex or go low tech if you don't want to spend the money on new software and just type them up and save an electronic file. Know about competitor promotions? Make up a calendar detailing the dates then put your information in right beside it. Whatever it maybe you've collected, turn it into something you can use.


Even Loners have a Support Staff
It's no secret that while Bruce Wayne may have been the outgoing type, Batman was decidedly less...amiable. But despite his gruff nature he still managed to have helpful friends. Justice League aside, Batman had his faithful butler Alfred, crime fighting companion Robin and eventually another sassy compatriot Batgirl, to help out (even though he acted like he could handle it all on his own, regularly).

Sometimes marketing can be too big a job for just one person, or it may be the case that what you're doing is outside of your realm of expertise. That's ok, just ask for help. If you decide that you want to send thank you letters to customers who purchased from your new holiday catalog but you aren't a very good writer--ask for help. If you aren't sure what kind of commercial you should have to promote your car dealerships 4th of July sale--ask for help. If your latest product has customers beating down the door to buy and you can't possibly fill all the orders yourself--ask for help. Help can come in the form of a friend, colleague, family member or paid professional. Use the resources available to your advantage, there's no shame in asking for help--especially when it will lead to greater business success.

Other than having the best array of villains of all time, Batman can--and does--teach us a lot about ourselves and the world. Smart decisions are made with good information, working smarter means a better use of your tools and British butlers are the best at keeping secrets. Maxims to live by for one and all.

F-Word Marketing: The 10 Minute Summary

This post was inspired by one of my favorite authors on the subject of marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson. In one of his books he talks about the F-word. "F" meaning Free. He goes onto elaborate on all the free things a guerilla marketer can do to boost their business, several pages worth excellent advice, and well worth the read. However if you don't have the time, or the book, you can take a look at my little summary that should only take you 10 minutes to read, that is if you don't stop to take notes...

People
Let's stop to think for a moment. Seeing as how this post is coming out around the holiday season, I'm sure there have been a lot of school fund-raising catalogs floating around your office. Ever stop to think why? Because its easier to ask someone you know to buy stuff from you than someone you don't.

A parent helping their kid out with sales is going to start with their "inner circle"--friends, family and co-workers at they are on generally friendly terms with. Levinson reminds us that it doesn't cost a penny to market to these people, often a simple conversation is enough to turn them into a customer. And if they are a happy customer, guess what? The will tell other people. People who might give you a try because they are on generally good terms with the person who recommended you. The power of people is often underestimated or completely over looked but always remember, no people, no customers. No customers, no business.

Information
The Internet has spoiled and entire generation of people, myself included, into thinking that if you look hard enough, you can get pretty much anything for free. While that is true to a point, and the quality of said "anything" can be highly suspect at times--the real issue is people like information, free information. If you give out free information, people might like you too, or at least like your business.

But you can't just give out lists of the most common pet names of the last year or stories about your Aunt's bunions and expect people to want to hang around. Free information has to follow some guidelines:

1. It has to be useful
2. It has to be current (especially with facts and figures, anything over 5yrs old is considered out of date)
3. It has to be relevant to your customer's problem/situation
4. It has to be easy to get to, read and pass on

Basically, if you're going to give out free info--say on your website or in the form or a monthly newsletter--make it so good people will think they should be paying for it!

Keystrokes
Keystrokes are free! Well, they are after you buy the computer. So maximize your investment by:

• Starting a blog-its another great way to share information for free, like I'm doing right now
• Creating a newsletter-perfect solution for online retailers because it allows you to announce sales and specials without spending money for a direct mail campaign
• Being social--and by that I mean social media. Advertising on Twitter and Facebook may cost a few bucks here and there but user accounts are free so use them to stay in touch with customers, announce specials, or create a community around your product/service

I'm sure if challenged to, you could come up with more marketing tricks that are 100% free than I have listed here. Good. Think hard and write them down then do them. A good marketer doesn't always need money to spend, just a little time and elbow grease. Reading this post should have taken up only 10 minutes of your time (maybe less!) so there is plenty left over for you to get to work. Good Luck and may the F-word be with you.

3 Things I Learned from Fishing that I Should have been Taught in Marketing.

I really like to fish, sort of. I guess I wouldn't consider myself an avid fisherman but there is something very relaxing and zen-like about standing on the shore under the sun just waiting. Waiting for the moment when you get a bite. The exhilaration of that singular moment and the thrill of the catch is enough to keep hundreds of thousands of people coming back...its also enough to support an entire network devoted completely to fishing.

While I was standing on the shore with my Partner in Crime I started to think of all the little things we do when we fish. It then occurred to me that it would make a great blog, if I could only find the time to write it...


Be Persistent, Be Patient
This has got to be like the Number 1 rule of fishing, one that I usually forget. I'm always in a rush to get out on the water and start reeling 'em in and after about 15 minutes of waiting with no bite, I'm usually convinced that there are no fish and I want to pack up and go home. My partner, however, always plans to wait a few hours and spend all day at a fishing hole if necessary. He's there for the long haul and knows that it takes time to find the fish then convince them to bite. Patience and Persistence wins every time, he always catches the most fish.


This principle is one of the keys to marketing. Marketing is not instant. It takes time. People, like fish, have to be massaged into wanting your "bait." They need to see it enough times, be comfortable with it and decide, "this is an offer I can't pass up!" then you hook 'em. It could take an hour before you get that first bite or it could take a month, but if you prepare your plan with the long haul in mind, you'll catch a lot more fish than your opponent.


Change your Bait
I'm sure you've seen a fisherman's tackle box before (or at least wandered down the fishing supply aisle in a Wal-Mart at least once, even if by accident) and noticed all the odds and ends. There is a reason for the multitudes of different bait out there. Quite simply, different fish like different things. I'm sure each company that manufactures these little plastic miracles puts a lot of work into figuring out the psychology and physiology of the fish they were aiming to entice with their lures--but I just buy what I think will work. I buy things that I think are pretty, lures that I don't have and ones that I see other people using on TV. I try them all and keep what works and put the others aside. You never know what a fish will jump at so you have to be prepared with options.

Having a "marketing mix" is an important way to start your first efforts. Since you don't know what will work for you, its best to try as many things as you can afford (and reasonably execute). As time goes on you'll find out, through response tracking, where the bulk of your customers are coming from. Once that becomes clear, you can stop sinking money into marketing that produces no returns and double up on your winning "lures."


"You Don't Catch Bass with a Bream Hook"
When I started fishing again as an adult, I just thought a hook was a hook and you just tie it to some line and throw it in the water with some bait on the end and that was that. Wrong. I was quickly informed that you "don't catch bass with a bream hook" meaning you have to know your target and use the appropriate tools to catch them. I could put that tiny bream hook in the water with a hundred hungry big mouth bass and would have missed every one of them. Why? Cause you need a heavy duty hook for a heavy fish.

Knowing your target is where most marketers have their biggest problems. If you don't have an accurate cross section of your customers then you're liable to waste time and money trying to entice people who weren't in the market for what you were selling in the first place. Once you know who you're marketing to, the next step is to make sure your "hook" is the right one. Dangling a foreign sports car in front of a customer base over the age of 70 may seem like  good idea, after all they probably have more disposable income than a college student or young professional, but in all reality the likely hood that they would actually bite is pretty slim. Don't believe me? Just take a look the next time you're out for a drive, you won't see too many Maseratis outside the lodge for bingo night.

The Zen of fishing is pretty educational and if you're a small business owner responsible for your own marketing, I suggest you take a day off, head down to the lake and just stand on the shore for a few hours. You'll learn a lot about yourself, your dedication and whether or not you have what it takes to really "catch fish."