graphic design

A logo is arguably one of the most important parts of your branding strategy. Think about it — when you see the golden arches, what’s the first thing you think of? McDonald’s. You may even get a bit hungry. That’s because the McDonald’s logo is doing its job. It’s reminding you of the brand and the products you get from it, and potentially triggering an emotional response. Granted, we can’t all sell hamburgers, but your business’s logo should elicit the same reaction from people.

Choosing to completely redesign your logo is a big step. Customers have likely grown accustomed to your current look and, as it has been proven time and again, most people don’t like change. You risk losing customers, sparking some outrage and, even worse, losing a large portion of revenue from people who either hate the new look or just don’t recognize it anymore and can’t find your company.

After 26 years of sales tax rules, the Supreme Court recently overturned a 1992 decision from the Quill Corporation v. North Dakota case. This decision will change the way many companies handle online transactions and business — including those in the promotional products industry that run online stores.

We may live in an almost completely digital world, but as we mentioned in a previous blog post, direct mail is still seeing great returns — and in some cases, it’s doing better driving sales than many other marketing channels. One of the perks of our digital existence, though, is that we can combine the latest technology with traditional methods in order to get more attention for things we want to promote. You can go beyond the standard catalog or postcard mailer and add some new-age interest to it.

Every year, ASI releases a list of the best places to work in the industry for both suppliers and distributors. Some interesting facts from this year? Washington won out as the state with the biggest concentration of winners, five in total, and small companies with 25 employees or less accounted for the majority of the list. Here’s an inside look at the top five companies winning the “best place” honor this year and why they made the grade.
 

Creating a logo is more than just throwing together an image with a fun font and bright colors. Truly successful companies, such as Starbucks and Target, know the key to logo design actually lies in the psychology behind it. Each choice, from shape to color to font, delivers a specific message to customers.

Every year, billions of customers search Shutterstock’s database of 170 million images, videos and music, often hunting for something to be used in the film, media and advertising industries. When those searches get analyzed—say by a team of data scientists, content reviewers, and creative professionals — we’re left with a wealth of data showing what designs are trending and exploring what we’ll get used to seeing in the marketing design world throughout the following year.

For years people have talked about the sweeping changes of the digital age. Information technology is seen as a force that would transform everything . . . and it has! Thanks to advances in software, the microchip, social media and cloud technology, we can be "plugged in" and communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world within seconds.

It's been said that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery". That concept has inspired some of the best works in popular music, comedy and fine arts for ages. But when it comes to crafting corporate identities and brands, copying other designs is not a good idea. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should always strive to be unique.