First up was the brainstorming. As usual I sat in front of my whiteboard armed with a texta (marker) staring hard into the board waiting anxiously for that amazing idea to come rushing to my head………..15 seconds pass…. its taking too long lets google some keywords to find some  sort of inspiration or idea. “Marketing” and ”business growth” were the first words I searched for in google images. Not surprisingly charts and graphs dominated the results. So after some more brainstorming and running some ideas past some people around me I came up with the concept that I would use a chart to show how I could help a business grow. It needed to be a creative image to show my creative side and challenge my design skills.

Lets get started

First task was to design or find a graph which would be suitable for my header design. I decided to see what istock had available first to hopefully save time and Im glad I did this because there were an abundance of good graph images available. It is important when looking for these images that you have a picture in your head of what you want to achieve as well as thinking through the details. For example I wanted to create an image which used depth and perspective so I need a chart image which was designed with the front of the chart seeming closer than the back of the chart. After looking through many images I noticed that most were designed with the camera angle very high. This caused a problem because the picture in my head was to have my photo and the background image taken from a low camera angle, reason being that the image of myself I knew would be quite small so wanted every opportunity to get at least some detail of myself and what I look like in there. So after about an hour of searching I finally find an image with a low camera angle that Im happy with.

Finding a background image was easy. I had an image on file that was from a while ago that I had taken just outside of Newcastle NSW Australia (I have done some editing to this earlier to make mountains bigger, another story)

Me, Myself and I

After spending half an hour doing my long wavy hair Im now ready for the dreaded photo shoot. Using my little Canon 400D Digital SLR camera I step out into the daylight for the first time that week searching for the best place to shoot myself (take a photo of myself, Im not that depressed). This is where a good artist or designer will triumph over an inexperienced one. Its all in the lighting. Note the light source from the graph image and background image both come from the left. Light source? you ask. Im talking about the sun. In my header image I am using three images combined so for the image to seem realistic the most important factor is that all three images have the light source (sun) coming from the same direction just as it would in real life.

The idea was to have Jason Coe building this chart proving that the results would be much higher if a business utilised Jasons skills and experience. Finding the correct angle to stand and the right camera height was going to be tricky enough without having to make sure that the correct side of my body was facing the light source. Taking advantage of my lovely assistant (and wife)  Kristi I had her model for a few photos so I could find the best position and adjust the exposure and shutter speed on the camera. I then took up my stance, breathed in deep (to deflate the tyre Im growing around my waist) tilted my head back a little (to avoid showing off more chins than a chinese phonebook) while my wife snapped away. To my surprise we got a couple of good ones first go and I could now move on to the fun part, photo manipulation.

Cut, Paste and Make It Real

Starting with the chart image I used the pen tool in Photoshop to draw a shape layer around the object. When I do this I have the fill transperancy set to about 10% which allows me to see through the shape layer while seeing where I have been. I had to be sure that my path was accurate, leaving no “white” edges. Once the shape layer was completed I set the transperancy back to 100%, double clicked the background layer in the layers pallette to make it a new layer and put that layer to the top. With that layer still selected press Alt+Ctrl+G to create a clipping mask. I then dragged both these layers into my landscape background image and merged them. I resized it then placed it where I wanted it. I duplicated my chart image and hid the original in the layers pallette so I have a spare just in case I made a mistake with it. I then took the eraser and selected the brush that looks a little like grass and with a tiny brush size just erased a little around the bottom of the chart randomly trying to make it as natural as possible.

I then used the extraction tool to extract myself. I used the extraction tool because it is easier to do long flowing wavy hair such as mine than it is using the pen tool. Once extracted and edges cleaned up I resized and placed it on the top layer of the background image. As you can see if I had left it in this state it would look unrealistic and unfortunately this is the point where some designers would leave an image like this. This is where the amateurs quit and the professionals push on. Dont give up now the work has just begun.

First up lets get rid of that right hand which is not supposed to be there. Had I had my chance again I would have planned better and put my hand in a better place to make for easy erasing but no hassles, I zoom in and erase the hand carefully. Next we need to again take a look at our light source and predict where the shadows of the chart and my body would lie on the ground. I duplicate the background image and use the burn tool set to midtones with a 40% exposure and a brush size just smaller than the size of my foot. I use the burn tool to literally burn in a shadow to the top landscape layer. This is a case of trial and error so I use singular strokes starting short and get longer as I extend the shadow outwards this gives the effect of a darker shadow closer to the subject and a lighter shadow further away from the subject just as a shadow would be in real life.

I then select myself and use the burn tool again to burn in a shadow on my clothing predicting where the shadow from the chart would fall in this case all the way up my right leg and diagonally across my abdomen. Dont forget the shadow on the back of the shoes (very important) I then need to emphasise the light source on my body and particularly my face so I take the dodge tool and set the exposure to about 25% and select the highlights range. I then paint on some highlights to the front of my face, forearm and use it to highlight the clothing on the left leg as well as the front of the fingers to give them more of an angle.

Now Im… I mean its looking good!

I had been tempted with leaving it at this stage as I was happy with it but not ecstatic with. How many artists have you seen step back and say “It just needs something else!”. It needed more emotion, it needed to look more experienced. I think the colours were a little bright and although very pretty they werent creating enough drama in the story. I saved a layered version then flattened the whole image, duplicated the layer and played a little with the adjustments finally settling for the sepia look that it has. I  made a clipping mask in the top layer to show through to the brighter blue to emphasise the productive part of the chart and to add that bold colour. Step back take another look, walk away and leave it for a day and come back with a fresh mind to judge your own work. Will it pass??

Who is winning?

You could probably answer this question yourself by looking at the pyramid image to the left and ask yourself which ball would I choose. Of course the gold ball is winning. The business which positions themselves here is the winning ball. You see that ball has not only made itself the obvious choice by being at the top of the pyramid and making it difficult for the consumer to even consider chosing another ball but it has also given itself a unique image which will be programmed into the consumers mindset. In fact I doubt that the consumer will even remember any of the other balls (other than referring to them as the other balls). By researching their competitors, defining their target market, developing a plan to differentiate themselves from their competitors and creating a Corporate image that appeals to that target market the Gold Ball has become the most attractive to consumers.

But this is a race!
Many of the silver balls will make the mistake of thinking “but the gold ball is at the top of the pyramid now, what chance do we have?”.
Remember its a race and its a long race. It takes positive thinking, effort and stamina to do well in any race, and most important of all anything can happen in a race. Other silver balls will be thinking “when I get to the top of the pyramid thats when I can afford to work on my image.”  The sad news is that their business is not likely to reach the top as the main reason why the gold ball got there is because of the work they have put into their image.

At this stage I know exactly what you are thinking. How are those silver balls going to get to the top of that pyramid. Well there just happens to be a couple of clever little silver balls in there. These clever balls have been working hard on their image and are no longer your average silver balls. They have been racing with a game plan so to speak. They realise that the gold ball’s image has started to tarnish because it has not been focussing on its own image as much as it should. The gold ball has forgotten that its a race, and in a race even the ball in front needs to work hard to stay ahead. The coloured balls (formerly clever silver balls) are beginning to look attractive to consumers.

What would happen if  Consumers liked what they saw in those new coloured balls??

The race is still on

After a major upset in the market place the balls frantically reshuffle to their positions just as would happen in a race. Not surprisingly we have a new leader and some other balls in a great position to to claim their share of the market and reap the rewards for the hard work they put into their image.

But its not over yet

Remember its a race, and that gold ball is a serious competitor. They know where they went wrong and they are working on their image as we speak. Will the gold ball get its position back?

Who knows anything can happen in a race…..

So now that you have come to realise you are running a race, you need to ask yourself “am I a silver ball or a coloured ball?” “am I at the top of the pyramid, at the bottom or somewhere in between?”. Either way you need to be focussed on the race, you need to develop a game plan and you need to (just as the clever balls did) make yourself more attractive to consumers.

We all know that an athlete may be the one running the race but behind the scenes is usually a coach or mentor who works hard to ensure the athlete has the resources and knowledge to be able to achieve their best performance. Do you have someone who can provide you with the solutions you need to run your best race? Do you have someone who can flatten the turf and lower the steep hill?  The clever little balls are usually the businesses that realise they need help to evolve into a “faster” “stronger” athlete. They need help from someone who knows how and can devote the time to do the research, the planning and then implement it all, someone who knows how to make your business look professional and get you running your best race.

The sale of Printed Greener left me with my original business Coe Design a Print Sign and Design business which I have been operating for almost ten years. It has had its ups and downs starting in a tiny dirty garage with very little capital $2000 to be exact it grew to employ in its peak 6 staff and securing some major clients such as Coca-Cola Amatil, Masterfoods Petfoods, Mary Kay Cosmetics as well as providing promotional signage and printing for local Subway’s, ChemMart and more. A big decision was made after the sale of Printed Greener to rebrand Coe Design to fit more with the products we are pushing and the clients we are targeting.

We have changed a lot since my wife and I started out in that little garage. We have so much more to offer. The equipment we required and accumulated over the years to keep up with the demands of larger businesses allows us to produce high quality signs, large format printing and displays very efficiently. We have grown as people, becoming more experienced at what we do. We have a much better understanding of what makes a good business, how to market it, manage it and build it.

It was time for us to take a step back and look at what we have achieved with both Coe Design and Printed Greener, it was time to make a decision…..

Do we continue growing Coe Design?
Do we sell out while the business is thriving?
What were our reasons for goimg into business in the first place?
What were our goals way back then when we started?
Did we acheive any of those goals?
What are our goals now?

After months of pondering these questions, late nights of throwing ideas at each other we came to some conclusions. The number 1 reason behind starting our business all those years ago was so we could be our own boss. So we could work when we say its time to work not when someone else tells us to (even though owning a business is like working 24hrs a day) n. So selling up was out of the question unless we had a new business to go to and that would mean losing a lot of our great clients and after all its our clients who matter most in our business. So instead we started to look at ways we could look after our clients better.

We did achieve a lot with Coe Design more than I expected. It became something I wasnt expecting it to become. I honestly thought as a young 24 year old that the more I grew my business the easier it would become to operate….WRONG!. For those reading who have started a business from scratch would know how difficult it is to grow and maintain a good business. I guess the most important thing we have recieved from it is education. I have learnt more from owning a business than I did from any school or course or job.

So here here is the final decision. Keep Coe Design but rebrand it. Simplify the business by offering only the products that we know we are the best at manufacturing. This of course has meant some scaling back was needed but it also means that we can concentrate more on looking after our clients as opposed to reinventing the wheel so to speak. So what used to be Coe Design a business that could look after all your needs, the do anything sign, print and design shop we have now become XL Grafix specialising in Large format printed displays take a look at our new secure website www.xlgrafix.com to see what we now offer. These are the products that we know are a step above our competitors.

Money can be easily wasted on vehicle signs. Fear of leaving something out is the biggest killer when designing your vehicle signs. The builder is always the easiest to pick on so I’ll use them as an example. The builder come’s to me and says “I want some signs on my van and this is what I want: My logo, phone number, Licence number, fax number, web address, email address, a tag line, and a bit about what I do for example *House Extensions, *Bathroom renovations, *Kitchen Installs, *Garages, *Carports, *Floor Tiling, *Roof Tiling, *Plastering……..” You get the picture. IT IS SIMPLY NOT GOING TO BE READ on a vehicle. It is too much information to be taken in by other road users. The most effective designs for vehicles are those that are geared towards Impact or brand awareness.

Bigger isn’t alway’s better but it can be more effective. Having your logo as large as possible is obviously an effective way of drawing attention especially if it is placed to compliment the shape of the vehicle. We have all heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. A large image can also have that head turning ability if used right. Smaller well placed logo’s and designs although may not have the same impact can also send a lasting message especially for businesses who have large fleets of vehicles all incorporating the same design. Something as simple as using the same stripe in the same colour with a small logo can be a powerful message on a fleet of 100 vehicles.

The emphasis I am trying to make here is to keep it simple. Use your space wisely. Dont panic if you dont have 15 different points of contact on the side of your car. Dont panic if you didn’t list every single product you have on your van door. As long as your logo is on there and maybe one point of contact eg a website OR phone number and it is well designed you will get a better result than clutter will.

1 BE PREPARED.
*Get a pen and paper and write a list of things you think you will need the designer to take into consideration, eg. If you need a logo designed, make a list of the major things you will be using your logo for. Obviously business cards, letterheads, brochures etc are the first things that come to mind but also think of things for example “I need a logo designed which also has to be engraved into a piece of steel and still look right” A good designer should know the basic process (or at least find out) and be able to supply the correct format. A good designer should also be able to guide you as to limitations for such things for example there is no point at all designing a full colour logo which will often need to be printed one colour, faxed or stamped, but that same full colour logo would look fantastic in print and web applications if that was what it was intended for. In short tell your designer what it will be used for before they design it not after.

*Think about colours. Using colours that coincide with your industry are just as important as choosing colours that you are attracted to.

* Have all images, photo’s, illustrations, logo’s ready and labelled. Most designers charge by the hour and they will charge for searching for stock images and they will charge to redraw logo’s. If you have logo’s you need on a flyer or card etc supply them in a usable format usually a vector or high res file. High resolution photo’s are always best and even better when taken by a professional photographer who knows what they are doing. Good photo’s are often what makes good design and unfortunately graphic designers don’t have that magic button which “fixes” bad photo’s, it can be done sometimes but once again your designer will charge. www.istockphoto.com is a fantastic resource for finding professional royalty free images.

* This may scare some people but if you find a designer that you trust, tell them your budget. A good designer will want to give you the best work they can do for the money you want to spend, after all the way I’ve always operated is to make every design worth putting in your portfolio. Quite often they can come in under budget with a job your extremely happy with.

2 IDEA’S AND RESEARCH
* Look at other businesses (take photo’s if you can). Remember or write down things you like about that business. Keep flyers, business cards and brochures that have inspiring layouts. A good designer will never copy them but it helps dramatically when they can see the sort of theme you are attracted to, they can then use it to be inspired to create an original artwork tailored to you. When doing this research you should be starting to think about the theme or look you think your business would benefit from. Try not to give your designer too many TOTALLY different examples because that means your designer has to design MORE by giving you totally different mock ups.

* Keep samples of colours that interest you.

* Talk to employee’s, friends, family and your customers about idea’s. Remember what you think is “pretty” may not always be best for your business.

3 THE PROCESS
* Ask to be updated. Usually a designer will show you a progression after an agreed amount of hours of work. This eliminates the chance of a designer producing fifty hours of work only to find it is nothing like what you had in mind.

* Make sure all the key elements are well thought out before giving the designer the go ahead. If you change your mind half way through, the designer is still going to charge for the time they have spent on it already.

* When you get a proof for a design study it carefully. Make a list of all the changes you would like to see, so the designer can make them all in one go rather than a change here and a change there.

4 IN SUMMARY
* No one knows your business as well as you do. Be prepared and you will save money. Don’t be frightened to tell your designer if you don’t like what you see, just try to do it early on in the process. Lastly and most importantly be nice to your designer and they’ll give you their best work…
seeya in a couple of days

Considering many of the top designers in the country will now recommend or specify uncoated papers to their clients makes me realise just how far behind the times some business people are especially when they make calls as the guy above did. I work in the print industry and when I see a business card come through production these days which is gloss laminated it screams “old fashioned” to me. Many top designers are using UV coatings and the likes which can look great if used properly but although it has become the latest trend so too has recycled uncoated papers which is quickly overtaking the UV market which may be short lived unless it tackles its environmental issues.

It is important to remember that any printed product which is laminated, celloglazed or UV coated is not able to be recycled, so we should really be trying to avoid it. As any good designer knows a good design and good copy will always be the selling point. Adding the “printing bling” such as these coatings and laminates are simply aesthetic. Why not spend the extra money you would spend on the “bling” on something that will really make a difference to your print products and thats your designer. I wont go into it here but it amazes me every day that people will bargain to get the cheapest possible design price but are happy to fork out plenty of extra money for the “printing bling”

Remember SHINY doesnt sell…. good design does
seeya in a couple of days

Many years ago a business cards sole purpose was to give someone your contact details. These days they are used by businesses to try and tell the customer their life story, list every possible product or service they sell, a photo of their van, business phone, mobile phone, ABN number, licence number, fax number, web address, email, myspace address, building address, qualifications and dont forget to make the logo as big as possible, no bigger, bigger still. I mean really….. do you think your potential customer is going to contact you over your competitors because you have more information on your business cards than what your competitors do.

As I said above people are lazy. If they are confronted with a business card or advertising that is loaded with excessive information it is more than likely that none of the info on it is going to be read at all, its too hard, if they dont know where to look to get the most important piece of info within about 1/2 a second they will skip the lot and move on to the next ad or card.

Im quite lucky as I have access to top notch machinery to print my own high quality business cards. I conducted my own experiment by designing two sets of cards. The first was our usual card which had all of our contact details, some nice pics of our equipment on the front and a list of services on the back. The card looked quite nice as far as Im concerned (and Im pretty fussy). The second card simply had our logo very small in one corner our corporate colour as a background and our details small in the other corner which consisted of a name, phone number and email address. 250 of each card was printed and they were placed on the reception desk in our show room right next to each other in their own business card holder. As I said above both designs looked nice but not surprisingly the cards with less info were the ones which were getting taken from the desk, in fact we had to print more of them before even ten were taken from the other pile. The reason behind it was that it was easier for them to find the info they wanted at a glance.

Next time you have your designer tell you “I think there is too much copy” take their word for it and dont be frightened that you cant tell your customer on your cards everything that you do, you may be surprised that “less is more” bet you’ve heard that one before too….

seeya in a couple of days……