How good is it when you’ve been mulling something over in your head and then you hear or read something espousing the very same idea but argued more eloquently than you do in your head, and suddenly your point of view becomes crystal clear?

It happened to me last week.

I was listening to an archive issue of Design Matters. Debbie Millman was talking with Louise Fili, a New York based graphic designer who specialises in food packaging and restaurant identities.

Note the identity part. That’s the bit that interested me.

In the

Research shows that the core strengths of direct mail have persisted and in some cases has grown stronger and is often the driver that pushes customers online. The research shows that mail is still opened, still adds value, still kept and still drives response. There is no doubt that digital has transformed marketing but it hasn’t replaced direct mail for a very simple reason. Customers still like getting mail. It's the ying and yang thing

Customers make it very clear just what they prefer to get by mail. They value mail for

Regardless of the type of material you want to get printed, choosing the paper stock is a critical aspect of the printing process. Whether you are printing posters, business cards or letterheads, you always get to choose the paper they need to be printed on. Actually, this part of the process is not that complicated, provided that you have a basic idea on your paper options.

There are three paper characteristics that affect the quality of printing on paper – the weight, opacity and finish. Finish has something to do with

Everyday you meet someone new, which later on can be your new boss or perhaps your new customer. Upon that first meeting, the person makes snap judgments about you: Are you someone trustworthy? Do you look like someone professional and credible? These judgments are often made at lightning speed, mostly in just a span of seven seconds.

In business, first impression is important. Although you can’t stop people from making snap judgments about you, you can always influence those judgments to work in your favor. You can tell them to make

There is actually a lot of ways to create a good marketing strategy. One good technique to consider is using postcards. As one of the striking print media used by many businesses today, post cards give businesses a creative and eye-catching way to draw in customers.

Nevertheless, before you go ahead and create, here are things you need to work on:

1. Start with a plan. Even the most trained soldiers do not go into battle without a plan. So, before you create, determine how you would like it to look like.

Graphic design has become an important part of many industries. People are basically visual creatures. Quality and quantity may be important but oftentimes, it is the visual appeal of the business that becomes the striking point. It adds a competitive edge to the business, making it interesting to the public.

Graphics come with many applications to every small business. It starts with the branding. In order to create an interesting and compelling logo, there must be graphic design involved. A good logo design consists of simple lines, shapes and colors which

If you are using Photoshop to print brochures, then here is the list that you will probably want. Below is the big list of Photoshop effects that should help you in designing your color brochures. Not even brochure templates can teach you precisely what these are. You have to really understand these effects and see how they contribute to better looking and more powerful custom brochures.

So just read on and discover the best effects that you can use for your color brochures using Photoshop. This should be easy enough to

Every business owner knows how critical it is to be in touch with their customers. They have to constantly speak with them and stay visible so their customers won’t forget about them. Reaching out doesn’t actually take a lot effort. You simply have to carry out an effective marketing campaign that will let stay in front of your customers.

Now you are probably thinking that you don’t have the money to do all this. Although it would require some investment, an effective marketing campaign doesn’t actually cost a lot. With a

Don’t just stand there! Fight the sluggish and bad economy with cheap posters! That is right! If you have a business that is having difficulty in today’s market environment you should try and think of going for the basics again when it comes to advertising and marketing locally.

Full color posters can be your key to more local visibility as well as your chance to actually foster a nice local following for your products and services. So here are my tips in using some creative color posters to help fight the

Promotional products are things like hats, mugs, T-shirts, water bottles, pens and basically anything else that you can put a logo on. If you look around your office or home you will probably see many different promotional products lying around. This is one reason why promotional products are better than advertising... people actually keep them. They are usually useful and are things that you might buy anyway, like pens and mugs.

With promotional products you know which people got them because you control the distribution. An ad might not always get