Category: Creativity — Tags: Creativity, Design, inspiration — dave @ 9:09 am
Get Creative!
Here at imPress I developed a concept I like to call “Food For Thought Lunches.”
Every so often, I round up any staff members interested in participating and bring in a creative, fun, or thought-provoking exercise to share with the group over our lunch break.
Some days it’s a crafty project, other days it’s coloring pages, short writing projects or list making. Regardless of the task, the lunches are a fun mid-day stress reliever, a great teambuilder, and an awesome creativity boost
So how can you implement something similar for your staff? I suggest grabbing a creative exercise book and using that as a starting point. I love “Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain.” by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Oldfield.
Here is one sample exercise from the book, “Does This Dress Make My Brain Look Fat?”
And here is what some of our staff came up with…
So grab your crew, grab some crayons and markers, (and your lunch, of course!) and GET CREATIVE!
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Category: Design, Print — Tags: Design, direct mail, mailing lists — Sarah @ 6:16 am
One day Jimbo opened his mailbox and found something spectacular.
Well, spectacular as direct mail goes.
The mailer, which advertised dog food, was printed on nice card stock, was beautifully designed with well-chosen colors and graphics, and included generous coupons that were easily removed due to handy perforation.
The only thing that Jimbo found suspect about the mailer was that he is not a dog owner.
Still, the photos of the dog food made it look so appetizing that Jimbo found himself craving it. He briefly debated purchasing some for his own dinner, but came to his senses and ultimately gave the mailer to Pierre, a puppy-owning pal.
Wrong Recipient, Right Design
So let’s analyze this situation. Clearly, the dog food marketers forgot to do their homework and use a mailing list to ensure that the mailers ended up in the right hands. Not the best move, dog food people.
On the other hand, all’s well that ends well. Thanks to the mailer’s general awesomeness, Jimbo did what the company failed to do by passing the mailer on to someone who could use it. Pierre ended up becoming a lifelong customer of this dog food company, and it wouldn’t have happened if Jimbo wasn’t so impressed by this ad.
So while it’s really important to send your direct mail to the right people, it’s really REALLY important to have wonderfully designed direct mail.
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Category: Design — Tags: Design, printed materials, psychology — Sarah @ 7:02 am
Here’s something we bet you didn’t know about us – in addition to being silly, energetic clouds of creativity, we also dabble in psychology.
Now, chill out, good buddy, we’re not going to ask you to lie on a couch and tell us about your childhood or anything like that. But we do know a bit about how people’s minds work – and we design our printed material accordingly.
See, some people seem to have the idea that design is all about making a pretty product. (And, let’s be honest, our printed materials are often quite stunning.) But what many people don’t realize is that creating a product with aesthetic appeal is only part of our job. The printed pieces we design not only have to look good, but they also have to lure their readers in from a marketing perspective. And that’s where the psychology comes into play.
We’ve actually studied how people interact with printed materials. We know, for instance, where on a page people tend to glance first. And where they tend to look last. And what thoughts and emotions will be evoked when a person sees certain colors on a page. And many more exciting tidbits like that.
Since we’ve been trained to design with this information in mind, our end product is going to be very functional in terms of getting a strong message across to your reader. If you want us to design a postcard to advertise the sale you’re having at your boutique, we know exactly where on the card to place your logo and the important information about the sale so that the card’s recipients will be hooked in.
And since bringing in customers is the whole reason you decided to send out the postcards, our psychology skills tell us that you’ll be happy with the results.
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