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Erin Ferree's Articles in General Business

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  • 9 Tips for Getting the Best Work From Your Graphic Designer
    A graphic designer's goal is to provide you with the logos, artwork and page designs that best fit your business, personality, industry, and target market and conveys your offerings and differentiators. The experience of reaching that goal can be extremely smooth and pleasant if you know what to expect upfront, and if you understand that you do need to work with your designer, as opposed to just letting them loose to create with little input.
  • A Logo Isn't A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
    As a business owner, one of the most important business decisions you'll make is choosing the design of your logo. Many business owners make the mistake of basing their logo choices on their personal preferences. But your 'likes' should have very little to do with your logo design.
  • A Logo Without Your Name... Can Be A Big Branding Pain!
    Why a small business shouldn't design a logo that's only a symbol (like Nike's swoosh).
  • All About Visual Vocabulary and how it can help your small business
    Think of your logo as the "superhero" of your brand, and the Visual Vocabulary elements as its "sidekicks"; in many design applications and finished materials, your logo won't appear by itself. It will have the help of all of these Visual Vocabulary elements to accomplish its job of communicating and connecting with your target market.
  • Color Part 1: Accuracy
    Color is one of the most difficult parts of a design to show accurately to a client. Color perception can be affected by many factors, including:
  • Connecting With Your Customers Through Your Brand Identity
    Your logo and marketing materials have many jobs, but one of the things that they can do really well for you is to introduce you to new clients and to help those potential customers feel a connection with you and your business. Alas, many small business owners overlook this valuable role for their materials when designing them, and so any connection often happens by accident alone.
  • Contact Information To Include On Your Business Card
    The logo and graphic elements that you include on your business card are quite important, but having the right text and contact information on the card is equally important. Here are my tips about the elements to include:
  • Create Your Marketing Machine to Plan for Marketing Success
    The answer to push-and-pray marketing is to plan your marketing in advance: to sit down and create a Marketing Machine so that your marketing runs smoothly and effortlessly all year long. Creating a year-round plan for marketing can really improve the number of sales that you'll be able to make, and keep a steady stream of clients and income coming in. There are several things to consider when creating your Marketing Machine:
  • Define Your Difference To Stand Out and Make Your Business Shine
    Thoughtfully defining your business—and your differentiation—will help you to understand who you are, what you do, and what makes you different. Not many small businesses take the time to answer those core questions about their business, but those answers are essential to creating a strong brand identity, focused messaging, and effective marketing materials.
  • Focus Your Definition
    You have so much important information that soon all of your marketing materials are crammed full of text and information. Most small business owners have this problem. They are so excited about their business and everything they can do for their clients. They make the mistake of putting it all into their marketing materials.
  • Four Brand Identity Myths That Will Hurt A Small Business
    Having a brand identity is extremely important to your business's success. However, many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses.
  • Good Design Doesn't Get Done In A Day: Part 1 of 2
    Lead time is one of the most often overlooked aspects of a design project. For some projects it's not a huge concern — you just need to get your designs reasonably quickly so you can start marketing. You should expect quick service from any designer.
  • Good Design Doesn't Get Done In A Day: Part 2 of 2
    With all of these considerations, it might seem that you need to start planning your design project many months in advance of your event. But the truth is that a lot of these steps can be done quickly. It still is advisable to allow as much time as possible to address each step thoroughly and without rushing the project. If you follow this method your finished design will usually be better and more effective.
  • How to Determine Whether You've Chosen a Good Niche
    Choosing a niche—a small, focused target market—for your services can be very beneficial to your business. It will help your clients to focus on and identify the services that you offer, and it will help you to develop deep expertise in a single area—and "niching" will help you to raise your rates and create a successful business.
  • Logo Files: Versions of your logo that you should own
    Your logo is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats. Having a library of logo files will enable you to send vendors the types of files they need (for example, other designers, printers, or other service providers).
  • Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's Brand
    When you first start a small business, you create your brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more often than not it's based on a guess. Then once you actually start doing business, you may find that your business isn't following the same path you set out on.
  • Splitting a Brand Design Project Between Two Design Firms
    Splitting a branding project typically results in a lack of consistency between pieces in your marketing kit. All of your brand materials should have similar design elements. When a project is split among different design firms, often those firms don't have a similar style, and you can wind up with print collateral, for example, that looks dramatically different from your website.
  • The 9 Advantages to Using a Visual Vocabulary in Brand Identity Design
    Visual elements are a major part of your business's brand identity design. The keystone of that design is the logo, but in many cases, the logo isn't enough to convey all of your brand attributes. A visual vocabulary is a way to reinforce and add to the messaging that is contained in your logo.
  • The Building Blocks of Visual Vocabulary: Consistency
    Your Visual Vocabulary consists of the secondary design elements that are used in conjunction with your logo to form your brand identity. Your Visual Vocabulary is composed of the graphics, font styles, colors, and even the type of paper you choose. Once you have determined the elements to use in your Visual Vocabulary, it is important to use those elements consistently throughout all of your marketing materials.
  • The Building Blocks of Visual Vocabulary: Flexibility
    Just like the sidekicks help out a superhero, your Visual Vocabulary together with your logo helps put the kapow into your brand identity. These Visual Vocabulary "sidekicks" are the graphics, font styles, colors, and layouts you use in your materials, and even the type of paper you print your materials on. One of the best features of a Visual Vocabulary is its flexibility.
  • The Domino Effect of Changing Your Logo
    It's a rainy afternoon and you've got a hot cup of tea and a box of dominoes. You set them up on end, one next to the other in a snaking line across your dining room table. Then you bump the first domino and watch as the rest fall down, one after the other.
  • The Great Fear of Niching... and Why You Need to Get Over It!
    Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, I recommend that you try niching your services. It will help your clients to focus on and identify the services that you offer, and it will help you to develop deep expertise in a single area... and niching will help you to raise your rates and create a profitable business.
  • The Truth About Your Competition
    There's more to identifying The Competition than just finding other businesses that offer similar services to yours.
  • Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down
    "Brand identity" is the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a Web site, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other professionally designed pieces. Many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses.
  • What Is A Brand?
    Creating a brand is one of the most important things that you'll do in the establishment of your small business. But defining what "brand" means can be a tricky task. There are so many different approaches to branding a business and so many elements of a brand. The most accurate definition I know is: A brand is the collection of perceptions that your customer has about your business.
  • What Rushing Your Design Project Really Means
    If you don't plan to allow enough time for your project to be designed, printed and delivered, then you may still be able to have your project completed in time, but the design will have to be rushed. This means that your designer will put aside other client's work and work late nights, even weekends, to get your project out - but at a price. And the price takes several forms other than just financial.
  • Why Entrepreneurs Divorce Their Logos (And Why It's A Bad Idea)
    Remember how excited you were when you first designed your logo? How beautiful you thought it was, and how you couldn't wait to get your first batch of business cards printed so you could show it off? How you excitedly described its meaning and subtleties to your mom (and your clients?) And the rush to the trademark office to get your new love "made official"—what excitement when the papers finally arrived!
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