Tag: Professional Graphic Designer

Categories
Branding Services

7 Things every graphic designer wishes they knew when they were starting out

professional graphic designers

The human brain is hardwired for visual content. We can process visual data 60000 times faster than text or audio. From shapes, colours, lines, to textures every element leaves an impact. Visual storytellers or simply put graphic designers play a very important role in a brand’s journey, making a splash (pun intended, sure sure) with their creativity and art.

We asked the creative minds at one of the best digital marketing companies in Ahmedabad, about the 10 things they wish they knew when they started their journey as professional graphic designers in Ahmedabad.

Master the “tools”

When it comes to designing, it’s not just about thinking creatively. It is very important to have in-depth knowledge about the software and tools required to edit, design and create.

Budding designers can learn the ropes of designing from Adobe’s design tutorials, and online courses on SkillShare polish their skills on tools of the trade like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

Sketching skills come in handy

A graphic designer needs to think creatively, and nothing stimulates creative thinking like sketching does. Even the National Center of Biotechnology Information agrees. Sketching brings forth clarity to ideas and thoughts.

These rough drawings allow the designers to play around with their ideas, usage of elements, the flow of colours and placement of content. These sketches also aid in showcase an idea to the clients for approval before digital designing begins. This way it can help save time.

ALWAYS have a backup

One of the most important things to be mindful of as a designer and content creator. While this point may be a subject of many jokes, it is painful when you’re not able to retrieve something beautiful, created with much passion and hard work, just because you forgot to take a backup of the file.

Always keep a copy of your work, downloaded fonts, elements, and other content on a hard drive or any form of detachable digital storage device. Even storing it on cloud is a great option and increases accessibility, but also brings along with it the risk of lack of data privacy.

Creative block is a thing!

There will be days when you wake up and just can’t find the same mojo and inspiration with which you create designs every day. It is completely OKAY to feel this way, and it is called a creative block.

Getting out of this phase may look difficult, but it’s not the end of the road. Go back to your previous work, look at what you have created and to reignite that lost spark.

Sometimes, even looking at the work of other fellow designers, can inspire you to break the block.

Build a portfolio

As a digital marketing company in Ahmedabad, we always ask for a portfolio of work from candidates who wish to work with us.

Every designer must have a well-presented and updated portfolio consisting of their best works, adding any testimonials they’ve received from their clients. A portfolio is a sneak peek into a designer’s brain and an overview of his/her design style and language. A beautiful and thought-out portfolio makes you stand out and increases your chance of getting the job or project.

Be open to criticism

You cannot make everyone happy. No matter how much thought, hard work and creativity you’ve poured into a project, there will be naysayers.

But not all feedback is negative. In Fact we believe that all feedback has at least 1% truth in it. Some of this can be constructive and help you grow as a designer. Instead of blanket rejecting all feedback, accept, listen, and take in the bits that can help you improve. It also helps one show their intent to grow, ego-lessnes regarding their own work and a willingness to try new things in their profession.

Always seek an advance while freelancing

Graphic designing is one of the many jobs which has the benefit of working from home. But with remote jobs, there comes along with it challenges of not being paid in full for the job done.

Clients may offer you tasks, assignments or even seek samples of your work before green lighting the project.

But it is important to be assertive and inform the other party about your terms and conditions. One of which should be to get paid at least 50% of the total project cost in advance. Genuine clients who appreciate your work will agree, and it ensures both the parties fulfil their part of the contract, now that a monetary transaction has taken place.

ALWAYS Stay curious!

Never shy away from asking questions, trying to find new things, and learning new skills. Because curiosity may have killed the cat but it definitely helped the designer become better one day.

Before working on the design, the designer should always go back to the client to clarify any doubts he/she has in their mind. It’s true sometimes it feels like only a NASA scientist can decipher what the client wants, but asking as many questions will always help.

BONUS TIP : Don’t be afraid to push yourself outside of your comfort zone! Keep learning!

If you are a budding graphic designer who’s looking to work on some elevated ideas with a bunch of cool folks and cooler clients, drop us your work portfolio and CV at hr.florafountain@gmail.com. And if you’re among the ones looking for such creative minds and professional graphic designers in Ahmedabad to work for your brand, drop us a hola on hello@flora.ffteam.in.

Categories
Digital Marketing Agency

You MUST outsource your digital marketing. Here’s why.

digital marketing

Marketing is the most crucial cog in the wheel for a business to move forward and grow. Often companies might think hiring a graphic designer and content writer is all it takes to start marketing on digital, but it is a special kind of beast which requires a team of experts with some very special skills to tame it. A graphic designer or a traditional marketing executive usually does not understand the intricate details and trends of social media presence, engagement, search engine optimization, digital campaigns, and the website design and development required to support it.

For mid-sized businesses, this is where outsourcing comes to your rescue. Instead of setting up an entire team of digital marketers — graphic designers, UI experts, content writers, social media analysts — and paying them hefty salaries, businesses can easily hire digital marketing agencies with in-depth expertise across digital platforms. Still wondering if it’s the right move? Read on to know the benefits you’ll reap by outsourcing your digital marketing activities.

Trust the experts

Outsourcing is smartsourcing, especially when it comes to digital marketing. When you hire a digital marketing agency, you get a specialist team of digital marketing experts like search engine optimization (SEO) experts, social media managers, digital content writers, UI designers, Pay-Per-Click campaign experts, web developers, and data analysts. Not only that, most agencies have platform-specific experts for Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Twitter marketing. Agencies also have specialization based on whether you are marketing directly to end consumers, B2C, or to other businesses, B2B. They help you in all aspects of social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, ecommerce, SEO, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and Data Analytics, based on your business goals.

This way, you can focus more on growing your business and your digital marketing agency can ensure brand awareness, engagement, leads, and loyalty across digital platforms.

Digital without borders

The internet has no boundaries. You could be a premium tea vendor based out of Assam, India or a staffing agency in New York, United States, but your business can be marketed globally by a digital marketing agency in Ahmedabad, India. Infact, both of these examples happen to be clients of our digital agency Flora Fountain! 🙂

Digital-without-borders

Instead of being forced to recruit digital marketing executives in their city, businesses can hire digital agencies with the best experience in their particular segment whether it is jewellery, fashion, food, or lifestyle. And since all the communication and assets used in digital marketing can freely move through digital mediums like emails, messengers, and office suites, it is a smart and reasonable choice.

Say goodbye to long commutes to even longer meetings around conference tables to discuss every next move. Times are fast and you must be too. Hello digital!

Easier access to your audience

A study by Sprout Social says that customers feel more connected to a brand, if it has a strong social media presence. And on the internet, feedback is faster. Customers can reach out to brands directly on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and leave reviews on platforms like Google Business, Facebook, Zomato, Trip Advisor, Make My Trip, etc. This gives brands an opportunity to really hear what their end-user has to say, make them feel heard with quick response and/or solutions to any challenge. In this way improving the customer experience and solidifying brand loyalty.

Easier-access-to-your-audience

This is possible only when you have a digital marketing agency build a strong presence for your business across all relevant digital platforms and actively manage and engage the audience. Whether it is websites, social media pages, business profiles or digital storefronts.

With people now working, learning, shopping, and even dating online (Thank you, Covid-19!), it is imperative for businesses to tap this goldmine of an opportunity!

What gets measured gets done

Data is very important to understand the growth trajectory of your business. And a digital marketing agency helps you measure your business’ success. How, you ask?

What-gets-measured-gets-done

Digital marketing companies have expert data analysts in their teams, whose job is to study the trends of business on various digital media platforms, measure things like bounce rates, page views, conversions through social media and web analytics. And strategize on how to optimize these metrics. These metrics are usually compiled by digital marketing agencies on a weekly, fortnightly or

monthly basis to give businesses a clear picture of what promotions are working, which products are in demand, and who are the people that are consuming your products. Along with these reports, digital marketing agencies provide tips and suggestions on places you can improve, which new trends to tap on, and choose the next plan of action.

In simple terms, measuring and analyzing data helps brands sell more of what is already selling.

Save money

With a digital marketing agency on board, businesses can keep a closer tab on their marketing budgets. Multiple campaigns for the same brand can be run at the same time. An agency will manage your spending through Google Ads Manager, Facebook for Business, and various other digital tools meant for online campaigns like Google Pay-Per-Click, boosts for engagements and leads, and boosts for profile and website visits.

Save-money

Since these tools offer reports on every dollar spent and track clicks and conversions, businesses can analyze which campaigns require additional resources and which ones can be cut down a notch.

Further, when you have a digital marketing agency manage everything from websites to social media to SEO, you are saving a huge amount of money that could have been spent on hiring, training and paying people to do these jobs for you full time.

Make us your growth partner

Through our technology, design and content expertise, our Ahmedabad-based digital agency, Flora Fountain has been part of the growth stories of many national and international brands and individuals as their full service digital marketing agency. We have been able to help brands with their social media marketing, SEO, website development, content-writing, brand research, digital strategy and online branding, despite being in different geographical locations spread all over the world.

Check out our work here, and to plan out your digital strategy, drop us a line here.

Categories
Branding Services

From business to brand. It’s not just about the logo

Let’s make it bigger.

Can you make it the same but in pink / yellow / blue / green?

Dekh ke maza aana chahiye!

If you have given or received such feedback, you know what we are going to talk about today.

Yes, LOGOS! Every time there’s a conversation around brand building, the first thing that comes to mind after a brand name is the logo.

Discussions over logos notoriously take over branding meetings, leaving precious little for the other crucial aspects of business promotion and advertising. And it’s time to realize that … a brand is more than just its logo. A brand is a living entity that walks, talks, grows and influences the people around it. Wish to know what makes your business a brand? Scroll down!

Your brand must have a PURPOSE

PURPOSE

So, what does your brand deliver? What does it want to be? Who does the brand speak to? Who should sit up and notice the brand? How would your ideal customer describe your brand? If you never asked these questions about your brand, then you must NOW.

For instance, your business might be that of making artisanal chocolates; but what it actually does as a brand is provide joy to the consumer, the experience of enjoying a delicious treat. That is the actual purpose of the said chocolate business.

Similarly, every brand has its purpose, a problem it solves, and questions it provides answers to. By defining this PURPOSE, the mission and vision of your business is formed. And this should be the first step you take in the process of branding, even before you think of a logo.

Your brand has a PERSONALITY

If your brand was a person, who would it be? How would he/she dress, what would be their favourite food, in which language would they talk? These questions help you define a personality for your brand. And when your brand has a personality, it is able to connect with the kind of people it wishes to serve.

So, how do you want your brand to be?

PERSONALITY

Approachable, genuine, validating and emotional, having an impact on the customer every time he/she engages with it.

Basically, MAKE YOUR BRAND HUMAN. To come up with a personality for your brand, you must…

  • First consider the purpose and the message you want to convey.
  • Study your competition and think of what will make your brand stand out from them.
  • Come up with adjectives and phrases that describe your brand, like, Sophisticated yet Rugged, Intellectual but Street Smart, Honest and Friendly.

See what we did there? This is how you define your brand’s personality.

Use VISUALS to convey your brand’s PURPOSE and PERSONALITY

What comes into your mind when you visualize a 3-pointed star inside a circle? Mercedes, right? What comes to your mind when you imagine the colour red? Coca Cola, Ferrari, KFC…. You get the drift.

KFC
mercedes

Once your brand’s purpose and personality is defined, it’s time for strategy on how to convey it to your existing customers, and the ones who could become one in future upon engaging with the brand.

A strong visual element is important for every brand, to leave an imprint on its customer. And for this, you must pick an attractive colour palette, an identifiable font family and graphics that support the brand’s persona. These visual elements like colour are the silent ambassadors of your brand.

Your brand has its own VOICE

Now, this is where the language comes into play. And no, we aren’t just talking about linguistics here. But the conversational style of the brand, the way it speaks to its consumers.

VOICE

The purpose and personality comes into the picture here again, as they decide the style in which the brand will talk. Is your business providing facts to its end user? Then the tone of the brand is going to be informative and very formal, like Encyclopedia Britannica.

But at the same time, a brand named Diply Facts on Instagram does the same thing, but its language is polar opposite to Britannica. Why? The audience, their age groups and the purpose behind the end product is different from each other.

While the former is used by students, academicians and writers for educational purposes, the latter is used by a younger, casual audience for informal activities like sharing with friends on social media.

Now that you know that building a brand goes much beyond creating a logo, simply hiring a graphic design or logo design company to create one is not enough. You need a creative agency that specializes in branding. Wondering where to find one? Click here to get in touch and start a conversation with us at Flora Fountain!

Categories
Social Media

Why DESIGN is the hero of your digital marketing strategy

Facebook Engagement 3

Social media is no longer a child’s play. With more people having access to high speed internet connected to devices with the latest technology, a mere text post will get lost in the sea of millions of pieces of content being put out online daily. And this is where your design intelligence makes your stand out from the herd.

The idea behind a design

There is no dearth of written marketing content trying to sell you things online on websites though blogs and articles, but what sets the social media apart is its fusion of visuals and text. And in order to garner the attention of a potential consumer, one must use these elements in balance to create an impeccable design that speaks to him/her.

By picking the right colour and font for your brand and using them consistently in your designs, you convey the mood, meaning and feeling of the brand, and thus targetting a specific set of audience. And when you fit all this together with your content in the right copy space, you are effectively delivering your message to the consumers.

social media image size

Size matters (a lot!)

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make in order to save costs on design (BTW, a big NO NO!) is create one graphic image or poster for both Instagram and Facebook. But one needs to understand both platforms have different post sizes for both desktop and mobile. This is to provide the user with the best quality in visuals of the graphics.

If one doesn’t optimize their posts according to the social media platforms, the image or graphic will pixelate, thus killing the design and the entire message you wanted to convey. Given below are the sizes one should use while designing for Facebook and Instagram

Facebook Post: 940 X 788 px
Facebook cover: 820 X 312 px (desktop) & 640 X 360 px (for mobile)
Stories & IGTV: 1080 X 1920 px
Instagram Post: 1080 X 1080 px (Square), 1080 X 1350 px (Portrait) & 1080 X 608 px (landscape)

More visuals, fewer text

Visuals always have an upper hand over text when it comes to social media. It has been observed that more people respond to images and videos than written content. Hence it is advisable to involve more visuals in your social media marketing.
You will attract more eyeballs when the images are original and the videos have real people in it and not just graphics. Use text only if it is necessary to convey a specific message, like an address, phone number, website or slogan. But make sure your visuals always have space for your logo.

Where to source your visuals from?

While it is important to use original images and videos for visual posts on social media, we understand it is not possible for a small or medium business to spend on a promotional photo shoot for every campaign. And this is where free stock images and videos come to your rescue.

Given below are best sources for you to find high definition videos, images and icons for free and use them to create stunning designs.

Pixabay: With over 4 lakh stock images available for free, this is one of the most sought after sources for images of real people and products.

Unsplash: This website mostly has images from photographers who take artsy snaps and put it out for free use. It has a good source of such images that can go well with a subtle poster for stories and banners.

Pexels: This is a free content aggregator website that displays images and videos from sources where creators put out their content for free, which include Pixabay and Unsplash too.

Videvo: This is a free video source where you can get short video clips perfect for social media, consisting of places, people and products.

How to edit by yourself

While we’d always suggest that you take the services of a professional designer or agency (like us) to create your images and video posts for social media, we understand sometimes you need to pick up the mantle and do stuff by yourself. And if you are someone who does have a basic understanding of colours, fonts and design schemes, then you can use the below tools for a quick edit or post creation.

Canva: This is free photo and video graphic editing tool available for both computers and mobile phones. The best part about this application is that it has some beautiful, predesigned themes for almost all types of social media posts, from banners, posters, stories to covers.

Lightworks: This is a free video editing tool available for desktop, using which you can edit and create good quality videos using its basic tools available for no cost. If you want to use its advanced version, it does have a decent subscription plan.