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How to Maintain Brand Consistency?

Your marketing efforts could include multiple and diverse initiatives that usually help expand your reach and stay top of mind. In order to ensure consistency, you should consider creating a set of guidelines that connect together the look and feel of all of your marketing materials. Also known as your brand standards, such guidelines will help you expand by creating awareness while developing the key differentiators your company has when compared to the competition.

Consider focusing your efforts on the following:

  • Your Colors – considering that you integrate colors in everything you do when it comes to marketing, advertising, communication and more, it is crucial to remember that this specific element plays a major role in leaving a lasting impression on your target marketing. As you commit to a palette, remember that every color has a different meaning and level of influence.
  • Your Logo – the design of your logo should be consistent but also is the case with its placement and sizing. Every communication is an opportunity to leave an impression on the recipient; from letterheads to postcards, from emails to brochures…
  • Your Graphics – The symbols and shapes you use for branding purposes should be consistent as well in order to help your audience to remember you as you work your way to stay top of mind.

Always remember that your brand is your promise to your customers and prospects about what they can expect, how you deliver and what makes you different in the marketplace.  Consistency should lead to strong equity increasing your customers’ levels of loyalty and commitment. Are you being consistent with your branding efforts?

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Trade Show Booth Design – The Lighting Effect

Tradeshow_3The setting, design and effect of your booth constitute the first impression that you will leave on the attendees of a trade show.  All of these elements can be turned into more effective resources if your lighting in your booth is set in a way to catch attention and entice people to learn more about what you do.

–          Dim lights are mainly useful in settings with a tone of romance such as a bar or restaurant.

–          Bright lights work best in a retail environment in order to keep shoppers alert and engage them in a fun experience.

The lighting of your booth creates the experience for your audience and adds a factor of engagement. As you design your booth and trade show setting, keep in mind the role of light so that you tailor a satisfying and appealing experience for your visitors as you introduce your company and services. With the right choice of light, you can bring focus to specific products/services or simply highlight your booth details.

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Effective Design for Trade Show Booth

Tradeshow_2Getting ready for a trade show could be an exhausting task that requires a lot of planning in addition to the actual set up of your space or display booth. Here are a few tips to help make your job easier:

–          Reach out to the management of the event and learn all the details including size, wall space availability, access to electrical outlets, and more.

Your products/services need to be the center of attention. As you plan your display, make sure that you do not overdo and clutter your space.

Keep your message simple and to the point. Stay focused on your core message that will leave a lasting impression and try to avoid bombarding the attendees with tons of messages that will go unnoticed.

Consider including a video on a widescreen projection/TV screen that can capture people’s attention.

Think about the reasons of why the attendees will stop at your booth – is it the product/service? Is it the design? Is it your welcoming message and nice attitude?

Keep it simple but be creative – Focus on building your brand and creating awareness for your product/service.

Consider opening up your booth by eliminating the table across the front and eliminating any barriers that will prevent the attendees from “walking in”.

You may want to implement the use of large, clean and attractive images. Keep it simple but consider bold for lasting impressions.

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The Right Font for Your Business Signs

SignMaking the wrong choice might simply hinder such a process.

Keep your audience in mind and think carefully about them when you start your design process.  Can you get their attention to read a lot of text?  Where will your sign be located? Is it going to be at a busy street where drivers are rushing to get to work or next to a cash register where your clients will have time to read it?

With the thousands of available fonts, try to keep the following in mind as you are making decisions:

  • Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, are usually perfect for brochures, newsletters and business plans.
  • Sans Serif fonts are easy to read with large size text.
  • Script and Cursive fonts are perceived to be stylish and used for invitations and place cards.
  • Text fonts are the most difficult to read.
  • Novelty fonts can work either way depending on how you use them.

Another element to think about is the use of capital or lowercase letters. The use of all capitals might project yelling. A combination of capital and lowercase letters should be the easiest to read.

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Why Does Color Matter?

interior_design5Every design element involves shapes and shadows but most importantly it also includes color. The human eye can see a combination of seven million colors. While some colors have a soothing and lasting effect on the viewer, others can irritate the human vision. Using color in an appropriate manner can maximize the effectiveness of your design. Take the color into consideration as you plan the design of a new wall mural, wall paper or signage for your property, home, building or business.

While the following details some general facts about colors, keep in mind that some exceptions might apply where the use of some color combinations might generate stunning designs:

Yellow could be considered the most irritating color. More light is usually reflected by bright colors which results in excessive stimulation of the vision. That being said, lighter shades of yellow can be comforting and cheerful. Yellow catches the attention of the viewer. So keep it in mind as a color but also consider the space/area and shape of your design.

Red is another color you want to pay attention to.  This is a color that could fatigue the eye quickly.  With over 250,000 decoding cones, your eye uses 83,000 cones to decode the color red and become over stimulated causing the opposinginterior_design4 cones to kick in and shifting the way the red color is seen.

Green is a color that might evoke the sensation of nature and the smell of grass.

Pink is one color that could cause a sense of sweetness.

– As for the color grey, you may experience sensations related to smokiness.

– Using white and black to create contrast might also result in an excessive muscular activity which will fatigue the eye of the viewer.

A graphic design company or an interior designer should be able to help you figure out a solution enabling your designs to focus on the visual and aesthetics in order to create positive, productive and long-lasting impressions.

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How to Stand out at a Trade Show

Tradeshow_2Regardless of the size of your business, you have the option to consider multiple marketing approaches in order to spread the word about your services and/or products. It is true that your goal should be to stay top of mind, but you need to think about how you can do so while making sure that you are investing your marketing budget in the right place.

You might be surprised to learn that trade shows have proven to be one of the most effective venues to grow your business. Your company is participating in what has become a global marketplace. With social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, our global economy has shrunk providing new business opportunities to any and every kind of business, regardless of size.

If you have something to sell, you may want to consider attending a trade show.  Although they can be costly, trade shows offer a venue to help you stand out as you push your business to success and increase your reach to an audience of attendees who are seeking your offerings.

A trade show will allow you the opportunity to stay on top of the latest in your industry as you learn about the latest and what is trending in your world; in addition to being able to connect and start conversations with individuals whom you want to do business with, which might lead to possibilities of expanding your business.

A trade show is also a place to network with your supply chain of partners, manufacturers, prospects, sales representatives and anyone entrenched in your industry. Keep in mind that people would rather do business with individuals whom they have met… individuals who they trust and know they are credible.  By exhibiting at a trade show, you are not only growing your exposure but you also are projecting commitment to your business and industry while presenting the value of your offerings.

As you are considering specific trade shows, make sure that your focus is mainly on the quality of the show where you will be able to reach decision makers. Also think about your brand and how you are being presented. Your signage at a trade show, colors, graphics and text play a major role in the impression you leave and in how you attract attention.

Setting up your booth with colorful and appealing signage while lining up your promotional items, in addition to collateral material and handouts are some of the steps you need to put in place as you get ready for a trade show. You may also want to think about reaching out to the trade show’s management seeking assistance with the development of an appealing booth and marketing campaigns. Furthermore, consider spreading the word to your clients, suppliers, and partners months prior to the trade show. Take the timeline into consideration so that you have enough time to be prepared and be able to attend to any last minute needs.

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Outdoor Signs for Willows Fair by Focal Point Signs Costa Mesa

Custom Exterior Business Signage

The Selway family are now third generation Fair Caterers. They traverse this great country of ours proudly serving only the highest quality brats, sausages, soups, cheese cake, and other tasty offerings. They are experts in the business and highly respected. They needed some new signs this year for their booths at the upcoming Renaissance Fair in Irwindale, CA and had some very specific needs. Large outdoor signs can be made from many materials, but they needed something light weight that can be easily raised atop their booths and taken down at the end of the Fair. They also needed graphics that would “pop off” the sign and grab your attention from hundreds of feet away, and lastly they needed something really durable that could last for years. That’s where we came in! This video shows the construction of 6 signs they will be using this year. Materials included Alumalite, 3M cast vinyl with 3M UV Laminate, printed on our large format HP Digital printer. We loved doing this project and were so pleased they were pleased with the final product!