Preparing for the grand launch of Dee’s Shoe Repair in Dagenham Essex, Mr Dee needed to market the grand opening fast & furiously.  Fusing all graphic design with the pre-existing shopfront we created a selection of printed materials from flyers to business cards in time for teh launch.

Followed up by a second round of flyers during a street carnival Mr Dee’s shoe repair has set its place firmly in Dagenham.

Congratulations on the new shop Mr Dee.

A lot of the work a graphic designer produces is never seen. From logos and flyers to letterheads and websites, only one concept will make it through to be seen by the world.

Even when that final concept is chosen, most people don’t realise the hard work that has gone into a single image which may just be a small part of the final design. This can actually be seen as a good thing at times, for example with photo editing. If you can’t tell that the photo has been edited then the work done must have been pretty good but of course no one knows it.

Photo editing can come down to three sections and more often then not they are all used together:

Manipulating: Altering the original photo but not necessarily adding in anything new; adjusting what’s already there.
Eg. Using digital tools to carry out colour correction and special effects

Painting: Painting in new or removing certain sections of a photo.
Eg. Airbrushing a magazine cover, creating a background scene, refining details

Composition: Possibly creating a new image from the original one (layout).
Eg. Cutting sections out, adding in new elements and overlaying text.

What it involves:
A piece of graphic design can utilise all of these skills to create one document so as an example I’m going to show you what a graphic designer does when it comes to photo editing.

Brief: Seeing as this is an example I can do pretty much whatever I want but this can lead to design doom! I’ll give myself a brief to clarify the goal.

A banner for a HTML email, targeting VC’s. Must reach out and relate to them, be professional but also creative.

1. The idea - As mentioned in the previous episode, the idea is the hardest part. Luckily, after finding some stock photos I have inspiration.

2. Images - The image I have chose is one of Canary Wharf’s city scape. It’s a hi-res photo, not in proportion to the size of the banner (it won’t fit into the banner space) so I’ll have to re-size it and loose half of the original photo whilst also creating a new part.
photo editing 2

3. The image Is not the right size so I’m going to be clever and recreate it myself. With a selection of tools I’ll precisely cut out the city scape and the then the sea ( by tracing around them) to create two duplicate but separate elements.
photo editing 3

I’ll flip the sea horizontally to give it some natural consistency and then paint over the part where it joins give it natural look.

Lastly I’m going to trim off the edge of the city to make it look a little more natural (although it differs in reality).

At this point I’ll also do a little colour correction to make the image more vibrant ( more often then not, ill do this part at the end).

Now we have half an image that fits. (kind of:))

4. We’re missing a sky and the easiest way to solve that problem would be to add in a sky from another photo but finding a matching sky can be a pain because they change constantly in tone, texture and content.

I’m not going to do that. I’m going to be clever again and paint it in an alternative sky by matching the colours to the original photo to create one seamless skyline.

5. The image looks good but not finished. Now for a little creativity.
photo editing 6

6. With the use of some 3d text created in another piece of software, I’ve created a pound sign which matches the perspective of the scene.

7. With a little more creativity I’m going to give it a classy designers touch, (creating the pound sign needs a tutorial of its own).
8. After doing so I’ll add in some more detail on the lighting and shade to make it look more real and then give it an extra kick with some water splashes and a reflection to set it into the scene more effectively.

9. Looks good but what does it mean. It needs some text to make it clear. I choose a classy black serif font to counteract the creative splash of the pound sign and lay it over a white transparent block.

10. There we have it, a HTML emailshot header. Saved and optimised for web.

It sounds quicker then it actually was and the idea can take up most of your time. Each step will then provide a problem which may take multiple attempts to solve. (eg. The perspective of the pound sign) and in general its about exploration and judgement.

If this was for a client I’d probably have created a couple more concepts (taking just as long) in which only one would have been chosen and the rest would have gone to the design dump yard.

What does a graphic designer do? – Turns a good photo into an effective message.

Subliminal marketing is a technique which uses graphic design elements to communicate a message subconsciously. It uses deep connotations and stereotypes that exist in society to tap into the audiences mind and ultimately reinforce a sale.

Subliminal marketing is a common technique appearing in almost every piece of marketing we see and you’ve probably utilised it yourself (without knowing.)

- When you visit a business based website and see groups of people dressed in suits, smiling, that’s subliminal marketing.

- When you buy a magazine with a pretty airbrushed woman on the cover, that’s subliminal marketing.

- When you see a tv advert for a new car driving through countless empty roads, that’s subliminal marketing.

It comes in every form of media from print to web, packaging, logos and magazines to movies. You could say that it’s graphic design at its best.

It has an old successful history and used on a daily basis with good intentions. We don’t actually take the time to look and study every advert (like the ones above) because there so monotonous and obvious that they’ve become apart of our daily lives but subliminal marketing also has another subliminal level, one where the strategy quietly delves into a taboo subject and questions can be raised.

Subliminal marketing its also:

- A way of targeting someone you wouldn’t normally advertise to.

- A way of surpassing obvious immoral associations whilst your are actually making those associations with the brand

You may not notice the controversial implications made because they were far too subtle or they weren’t targeted at you but more often then not, they are there. In these cases it can create conspiracy theories, controversy and intrigue. The clever design and strategy can be a form of subliminal marketing itself, making viewers seek out the advert and actually ask themselves “Is the subliminal element actually there?”

Maybe the human mind works too hard, maybe it was a just a coincidence, or maybe not.
Judge for yourself with the advert below.

Example:

Captain Morgan Rum – Print Advert in the 1990’s

First Glance:

This is an advert I found pretty much at random (American music magazine) because it looked like it had room for discussion and it does have much more impact in reality, printed on a glossy A4 sheet. At first glance it seems like a great photo of your typical bar scene with great graphical design. It was placed in magazine with over 100 pages and at least 50 of them were adverts so the idea is that the reader will casually skip from page to page taking a quick glance at the advert before moving on. All the elements suggest that Captain Morgan means “Good Times”.

On a subliminal level -

Is it just me or is the whole advert just a little sinister!
If your were to specifically take out Captain Morgan and his hat, the advert would have a different (happier and casual) feel but the branded elements themselves bring in an eerie approach.

Captain Morgan – Clearly drawn and positioned to look devious:

- Smothered in Red
- Devilish goatee, moustache and eyebrows.
- Peering downwards from the top
- Hiding behind the page
- Ripping down the page
- Devilish grin
- Voyeuristic
- Entering the real world and temptingly holding the bottle in an almost pouring gesture
- Looks like Hook
- Wearing a pirate bandanna (criminal)

Red hat

- Placed on the lady not the men (Targeting ladies, or is it?)
- Not drawn in, its real but not in the original photo, it has been superficially placed there afterwards (no shadow round the
back of her head, no affect of the hat on the ladies hair)
- She wore the hat on her own accord (its her hand on top of the hat)
- Her hand has been composited in (superficially) like the hat itself

The scene

- 2 guys, one girl (usually and typically it would be even numbers)
- The photo has been saturated (not to black and white but almost)
- The only vivid colours are those of the brand

Although at first glance it’s a relaxed setting with smiles all around, on closer inspection, the girl seems to have a tensed smile whilst looking down at the drink maybe suggesting some hesitation and falsity.

The common image of a curtain with bricks in the scenery is a popular setting for nightclub/bar’s giving that retro/stylish, modern bar scene, yet the perspective of the brick wall is wrong. It has been superficially placed in and gives the idea of an outside alley with the shadowy background immerging into the curtain.

Lastly an out of focus glass appears at the bottom suggesting that you, the viewer is also there watching everything; (even Captain Morgan) which no one else sees.

Text – The Captain was here.

Written in red with a calligraphy relaxed style, it appears friendly and fun but also connotes the type of font you would use to create horror. Like wise the phrase in conjunction with the elements brings something a little creepier to the ad. “The Captain was here”, almost like its out of a horror movie. Short, simple but highly interpretable in several ways.

Conclusion
This could all mean nothing except that Captain Morgan is the bringer of good times but upon inspection you cannot deny the alternative messages and mood that’s been created.

Almost like Captain Morgan is the devil with an ulterior sinister motive, creating temptations with his two helpers.

It also asks the question who is the advert actually targeted at?

THE END

There is a long list of subliminal marketing materials which cause intrigue whether it be good or bad. Walt Disney has been famed for it (in a negative light), Apple done it and my favourite modern example is the Territorial Army adverts which is smothered with subliminal messages.

Next time you see an advert, packaging, a magazine or even a movie, look for the subliminal messages.

Colour
Type
Layout
Persona
Language
Images
Composition
Icons
Narrative
Mood

This question was raised the other day in the Free Index Business centre and I thought it was a great question.

How to make cheap marketing not look cheap.

Unless you have some great contacts with designers, printers, photographers, SEO’specialists, broadcasters, publishers and the Royal Mail who’ll give you 90% discount on everything then I don’t think you can make cheap marketing not look cheap, it is what it is but should the success of a marketing campaign revolve around a budget?

Any form of marketing success comes down to the idea and its execution. A poor attempt on either one can let down a whole campaign, whether it was cheap or expensive. Overall, having a big budget and using it right allows you to narrow down on any mistakes and produce a better finish with a better return on your investment. The bigger the budget the better chance you have of success.

In saying this, there are the anomalies which defy the rule. These anomalies don’t really focus on the budget at heart but more so the idea. The execution is simply a ways to a means. Here they are:

1.) Guerilla marketing – A cheap and effective way of marketing which doesn’t necessarily look cheap because the focus is drawn to the message and style of delivery in relation to the service/product.

For example (doable but illegal and unadvisable) – Buy a tin of paint and a paintbrush from the pound shop and paint your company name on the surface of every road in your area.

It’s cheap and effective, a little unprofessional and illegal but if you’re a painter & decorator you’ll probably hit gold (or end up in court).


2.) Value for money – The strength of a good deal can sometimes overpower the hint of a cheap marketing document because the deal was just so great. Where you can go over the top with guerilla marketing above you are essentially doing the opposite with this idea.

Forget the shock tactics, design and paper it was printed on, the deal is just straight forward. The success of this tactic is based around the TA. Its not just enough to know who exactly will be interested in your deal but who will really want your deal right now. If it lands in the right hands they’ll look past the cheap delivery and just buy.

As you can see, both ideas have there drawbacks but with a little more thought on the execution, (a classier guerilla campaign or intensive research into your TA) they can be executed cheaply and they can work.

The key point in the success of both tactics is YOU. The best possible way of making cheap marketing not look cheap is to play to YOUR strengths, whatever business your in. Maximise on what skillset you do have to gain the best possible result.

They take on many forms such as a signature, a monthly newsletter or even an unrequested email shot. HTML emails are as common as physical junk mail.

Are they easy to create? Well there actually not. 50% of web design knowledge goes out of the window when designing a HTML email. Unlike websites the technology of email design hasn’t really moved anywhere, in fact I find that it’s a lot more technical then building a website. It’s like having your hair cut with a knife instead of a pair of scissors. It’s doable but inefficient and limited. If you practice though, you can achieve what’s required. Essentially you’re going back to basics.

Do they work? Yes they can, if executed well but there are 100’s variables to consider which can affect the outcome of your HTML email. Each email client reacts differently to a HTML email. The final HTML email you create may not be the actual email the recipient sees. Some email clients don’t even allow HTML emails so how do you overcome this……….. With good design.

Design & development – I always say it but on this occasion it’s actually the make or break element in your campaign. “Design is the most important factor of the HTML email”. Without a professional design, the email will not even be viewable so here’s what to do.

Correct formatting -You have to go back to basics and preferably hand code the email using inline formatting and tables. Without this method your email will not appear as it should be or it may not even show up at all.

Text – Create the main text in “text format” so the content is always readable by both disabled users and the variety of email clients which don’t accept HTML emails. Do not embed the main text in an image, it lowers the chance of your email being viewed.

Place a “can’t see, click here to view link” at the top of the email to counteract any email client which does not read HTML emails. Upload your email to your server and keep it there. It acts as a backup copy as well.

Images - Images are not sent with the email like an attachment. They should be uploaded to your server and linked to via HTML. The email then pulls in the images for display. Make sure all your images contain alt tags. Just in case the image doesn’t appear, it can be replaced by text instead. It also helps disabled users to read through your content.
Use good graphic design to make it an eye-catching email.

Subscribe & Unsubscribe - Make sure you have these links so people can opt out or in of your emails. It’s a requirement!

Layout

Another variable introduced by email clients is the size of display. This variable is also affected by monitor sizes and resolution. Someone may have a 19inch screen at 1024×768 whilst another may have a 12″ laptop screen at 800×600. This means the size of the display the email has fit into can change from one user to another and ultimately your email may look different from user to user. To ensure your email is displayed and viewed correctly, it should be no wider then 600 px in width, preferably 500px to be safe.

Email shots seem to follow the same method of layout because the design capability is limited. You also have one quick chance to catch the reader’s attention and make your pitch so the typical method is probably the best method, “a one column scrolling down sales pitch.” The key is to be specific with your TA. Make it relevant and credible, not spammy in any way.

Distribution

Lists – You need someone to send the email to. You can do this in one of three ways.
1- your own subscriber list
2- buy a list from a list company
3- Buy a list from a company who will also send your email for you.

If you have your own list then you may be interested in getting your own software to send the email out on your own. There are also some free versions but have limited capabilities.

Buying a list ultimately means you are spamming. You are not allowed to send emails to anyone who has not specifically given you their email address and consent to do so. This can get you blacklisted. In saying this many still buy lists and run successful email campaigns so just be careful in your selection

Hiring a company to send your list can be helpful. They take the risk of being blacklisted but have ways and means around that. They also provide stats on how your campaign is going.

Testing - Test your email. Open an account with various email clients and Send it to your address such as hotmail, yahoo, outlook, horde, and others to see how the appearance comes out.

Some examples of good HTML emails: