Thursday, September 11, 2008

Graphic Designers are your friends!

bear mailer new Pictures, Images and Photos


bear mailer old Pictures, Images and Photos


If you ever make a promotional mailer, it's great to have some graphic design-savvy friends look over it. They can help you with typography, use of space, and making sure your postcard doesn't come off as I-have-a-copy-of-photoshop-but-can-you-tell-I'm-an- amateur? For this next batch I was working with square images and wanted the images and text to read comfortably but also effectively. Of course your art is the center piece, but remember that overall presentation is very important.

For instance, The above version is the improved version (but "illustration" will be gone from the final design and obviously I will spell my name correctly in the final!). Below is the old one. Some things my buds mentioned...

1) centered text makes you look very inexperienced. That's GD 101 right there. We went with the right justification with the margins.

2) The font I was using had odd spacing, especially with the "i". The new one has more cohesive use of space between the letters.

3) Like I mentioned before, we're taking out "illustration" mainly because I used it as filler.  You'd be surprised how much empty space you can have in an area and still have a good design. People who don't know how to do effective GD usually want to make type too big or stuff an area with too much info.

That's it for today! I'll show you the final along with the back sometime next week. :) 

8 comments:

  1. Great promos! Thanks for the tips, I totally fall under the "I have a copy of photoshop but don't know how to use it" category. :) Your work is amazing, I'm glad I saw this blog. It makes me want to at least check out some books or better yet give my GD SIL a hollar.

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  2. Very interesting. The tips are great and the second one is definitely better than the first, for reasons I would have never guessed on my own!
    Smiles, Karen

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  3. it IS amazing. I feel like my older ones must look so "green". Another thanks to my friends. :)

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  4. Thanks for sharing that, it is going to look great! I always think I know what I'm doing, but I fall into the other category, too.

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  5. oh my that illustration warms my heart!

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  6. i like this post. i'm a graphic designer and the second image is definitely an improvement from the first :) thank you for pointing out what graphic design can do!

    btw, i think this is my first comment on your blog but i've been lurking for the past few weeks and i'm a new fan of your work. i love your style! <3

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  7. Graphic designers are always our friend.Loved the tips and seeing how a image can change.
    I just started a blog this weekend.Everyone was telling me I needeed one.It is aimed at etsy sellers and has some marketing ideas as well.
    http://etsyland.blogspot.com

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