Flyer for my design stuff

This is a flyer that I pulled together. It was very well thought out (including the dog icon). Incidentally, the dog is artwork from Pixabay. But the original was in yellow, which I changed to go with the color scheme. The rules I set for myself were simple: The goal was to keep it simple, no fancy stuff here. Make sure that the artwork pulled on emotions instead of intellect. Give it some nice proximity with strong alignment. The phone number (which isn't shown here because I didn't want anyone to complain that I was advertising on TG forum.) has more modern periods (dots) instead of dashes to keep it fresh. The jury is still out on whether or not I should have left out the dots (really just periods raised) between the body copy, not sure if I like it. Accent color (green here) was used to encourage a stronger call to action.

I printed it on cardstock and laminated it so it could be hung up outdoors. The campaign piece will be displayed at a couple of local restaurants (with their permission of course) where I have had good response pull in the past.

Attachment 117780

What does the dog do for the design? I mean, really look at it from a possible client's or passerby's POV, not from some psychological rationale.

Does it tie into a common concept/message of a "design studio"? How does it relate to the bullet points, or even the title or sub-title?

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Originally Posted by mwenz

What does the dog do for the design? I mean, really look at it from a possible client's or passerby's POV, not from some psychological rationale.

Does it tie into a common concept/message of a "design studio"? How does it relate to the bullet points, or even the title or sub-title?

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I didn't want to be too "cutesy" so I avoided common clichés. The dog was put there ONLY because it has an emotional appeal to specifically young mothers who are looking for flyers for their children's soccer team, band, football and society clubs of all kinds. It is not intended to call on commercial accounts for businesses, but they are certainly welcome just the same.

I didn't want a "serious" design message as such because it would have been a "turn-off" for the clients I was seeking. Simple. Elegant. Effective (from the target market's POV). I've had success in the past with this type of campaign so I thought I'd try it again. However, you DID give me an idea. I could use a silhouetted dog as the bullet points instead of periods. You are a genius, Mike! Thanks! :)

Mark

I do have a "cutesy" version now though:

Attachment 117782

I printed it out to compare and I forgot to put my phone number back in! LOL! :)

I was not happy with the color scheme. And I tweaked the layout a little:

Attachment 117783

Oh No!!!!! I left my phone number in. Can someone delete this last post for me. Thank you.

Yes I prefer the latest one. The paw prints really work. The top right one looks like the sun, very clever. Another paw print on the heading, slightly bleaching the words might work (or it might be too much?)
Have you not got a website? Easier to remember than phone numbers.

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Originally Posted by sculptex

Yes I prefer the latest one. The paw prints really work. The top right one looks like the sun, very clever. Another paw print on the heading, slightly bleaching the words might work (or it might be too much?)
Have you not got a website? Easier to remember than phone numbers.

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Sculptex,

I did put one paw print on the heading (on top of the text) but I thought someone would object to doing that but I still think the design needs one more print. Odd numbers are more visually appealing than even numbers. And, believe it or not, I don't know the first thing about designing websites. So, I don't design websites. I just do print designs. However, I did design one for myself (Wix.com) but I haven't published it yet. I am not a full time pro yet, only part time; I don't have enough clients to go full time yet but I am steadily growing. I will be full time in a year (I hope) because I love designing stuff! :)

Mark

I'm no designer! I was just giving my opinion as a member of the public.
I tend to be more technical because of my programming background. If my wife didn't stop me there would be a bevel edge or 3d extrusion on everything!
Well XDP has loads of templates and free hosting included, so why not give it a try!
I know a good forum where you can get help if you are stuck :)

Mark,

Two things.

First, if you are using the dog in your design to hit a sepcific market then you should only be listing what that market is going to be using your services for. It sounds like you are trying to do posters, banners, and flyers mostly for this market. How many of these people are going to be needing a book cover or CD cover?

Second, use Xara to create a web site design and when you get something you like then go out and get your hosting and upload. You will like what you created in the long run more than what you would with Wix. If you can do it on Wix, you can easily do it in Xara. By doing this in Xara you will be expanding your abilities with the software and it will help in your design business.

Just my opinion.

Ray.

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Originally Posted by RKissane

Mark,

Two things.

First, if you are using the dog in your design to hit a sepcific market then you should only be listing what that market is going to be using your services for. It sounds like you are trying to do posters, banners, and flyers mostly for this market. How many of these people are going to be needing a book cover or CD cover?

Second, use Xara to create a web site design and when you get something you like then go out and get your hosting and upload. You will like what you created in the long run more than what you would with Wix. If you can do it on Wix, you can easily do it in Xara. By doing this in Xara you will be expanding your abilities with the software and it will help in your design business.

Just my opinion.

Ray.

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Ray,

The extra information in the flyer (ad) makes this piece a "generic" piece, I know. I designed it that way on purpose. However, I love your idea about using XDP to make a website. I didn't know it was that easy to design on Xara. If it is then I should give it a try because, like you said, it will expand my abilities. I just thought you had to know what your doing in order to create a website. You know, like knowing computer code stuff. Shows just how little I know about the subject. But if it's similar to designing print media then I will give it a try.

Thanks for the tip, Ray!

Mark :)

Mark,

Ok if you want this as a generic piece then I would rearrange the service list and group the similar items together. I would put the poster, flyer and banners together on the first line. On the next line list photography and say what type you offer (product, wedding, head shots ect..). On the third line leave as is. The last line would be the book cover and cd covers.

Ray

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Originally Posted by RKissane

Mark,

Ok if you want this as a generic piece then I would rearrange the service list and group the similar items together. I would put the poster, flyer and banners together on the first line. On the next line list photography and say what type you offer (product, wedding, head shots ect..). On the third line leave as is. The last line would be the book cover and cd covers.

Ray

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Good idea. :)

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RKissane

Mark,

Ok if you want this as a generic piece then I would rearrange the service list and group the similar items together. I would put the poster, flyer and banners together on the first line. On the next line list photography and say what type you offer (product, wedding, head shots ect..). On the third line leave as is. The last line would be the book cover and cd covers.

Ray

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Here you go! I also expanded on the "dog" theme by including a bone icon which I later used to imply that the dog was separated from the bone but to bring them together all one had to do was make the call then the dog would be a happy puppy. Also, I used the bone as bullets in the smaller copy:

Attachment 117797

Getting busier by the minute.

But ya forgot a bone bullet.

Mike is right. KISS - "keep it simple stupid" - it's getting a bit too busy. ;)
Bob.

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Originally Posted by mwenz

Getting busier by the minute.

But ya forgot a bone bullet.

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Look closer. It's between the words.

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

Mike is right. KISS - "keep it simple stupid" - it's getting a bit too busy. ;)
Bob.

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I think so too. By the way. It's an old psychology trick. If you want someone to do something put an obstacle in front of the goal. This trick really works. In the case of the dog and bone, the dog and bone are separated by my logo. How can we bring them together? LOL! (Try it sometime. It works. Just don't make the obstacle too difficult to overcome. Try it on your kids, spouse or neighbors. Just don't tell them the trick. LOL!)

Mark

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Originally Posted by Mark321

Look closer. It's between the words.

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Look closer between photography and whatever comes after. If ya are gonna use those dog treats, might as well use them there, too.

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Originally Posted by mwenz

Look closer between photography and whatever comes after. If ya are gonna use those dog treats, might as well use them there, too.

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I didn't put it between Photography and Product and Portrait as those are subsets of photography and not "different" subjects. (hope that makes sense).

Anyways...I agreed it was getting cluttered so I de-cluttered it:

Attachment 117800

by the way...I gave this image a 1/2 inch border at the bottom and it doesn't show in the posted image. I don't know why. I just checked. my image in the working file is fine but the exported jpeg is missing a 1/2 inch more of space from the bottom. This AI program really does take time to master.

Then perhaps like the last line, it would be Product & Portrait Photography. Consistency and all that.

Okay. I can't get the portion of the layout back that's missing. There's a missing amount of whitespace. It goes around the entire layout of this document. It's not a problem with the original "working file" but it exports with the missing part of the layout.......don't know why.

Mark:eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mwenz

Then perhaps like the last line, it would be Product & Portrait Photography. Consistency and all that.

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Yup.

I figured it out. Like Xara, the page doesn't count (never knew why). You have to put a white rectangle the size of the original page behind everything. I know this and I put one earlier. I must have deleted it without knowing that I did.

Here it is again:

Attachment 117801

re flyer in post #22:

the bones that are the bullet points look silly - they are far too big relative to the font size of the text - they are off putting; and anything that is hard work to the eye is bad news if you want the thing read

the bones that sit in front of the stiing dogs are sort of like 'cardboard cut-outs' they just don't meld

although my eye is drawn first to the header section, it does not flow down through the rest smoothly, it seems a bit disjointed...

the middle dog would be better either removed entirely, or perhaps pushed out more to the right; either way this middle section should then be centralised beneath the top section; the bottom section should be centralised too

all the text should be justified left and right

the overlap of the top dog over the letter last letter of designs looks rather 'weak' - better not done at all maybe

these are observations of some one who is not a designer, but has seen more posters at the receiving end that he cares to think about

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Originally Posted by Mark321

I figured it out. Like Xara, the page doesn't count (never knew why). You have to put a white rectangle the size of the original page behind everything. ...

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Why?

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Originally Posted by mwenz

Why?

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The .xar file (or in this case the ai file) shows everything but the jpeg image doesn't pick up the page background. It just shows the objects and text. I created a work around by using a shape (box) the size of the background. I don't know why this is necessary but I do it anyway, have for more than two years now, sort of a habbit now.

I suspect that when I saved documents in XDP that I was getting the option to save "whole page" or just "selection" and "something else" (don't remember). But as a rule I usually leave things set in the default setting until I understand it better and if I still don't understand after a while then I just leave it alone and create a "work around" for it. I definitely don't know Ai yet but I'm slowly working on it. I've got a ways to go. I suspect it could take me 4 to 6 months before I'm comfortable with it enough to use with clients on a regular basis.

It's a good thing I have my XDP to fall back on. But I swear, I keep trying to do things that come naturally to me in Xara but they don't work that way in Ai. LOL! My favorite thing I keep doing is cloning an object (cntrl k) but Ai doesn't do cloning that way, just a habit.

The thing that's driving me nuts the most about Ai is trying to use a gradient. It's feature alludes me. That and using the different kinds of transparency modes. They don't work unless you know how......and I don't know how.

Mark

It's only on export that the selection, background, etc are choices. Saving the Xara file in its native format saves everything right where it is. And when you export, if you want a white background just use True Color and whatever other options you want.

AI. You would do well to watch some YouTube videos. It's not a friendly environment. But it does what XDP does and far more.

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Originally Posted by handrawn

re flyer in post #22:

Handrawn,

the bones that are the bullet points look silly - they are far too big relative to the font size of the text - they are off putting; and anything that is hard work to the eye is bad news if you want the thing read

the bones that sit in front of the stiing dogs are sort of like 'cardboard cut-outs' they just don't meld

although my eye is drawn first to the header section, it does not flow down through the rest smoothly, it seems a bit disjointed...

the middle dog would be better either removed entirely, or perhaps pushed out more to the right; either way this middle section should then be centralised beneath the top section; the bottom section should be centralised too

all the text should be justified left and right

the overlap of the top dog over the letter last letter of designs looks rather 'weak' - better not done at all maybe

these are observations of some one who is not a designer, but has seen more posters at the receiving end that he cares to think about

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I agree. The bones as bullets are crazy big but I was afraid no one would recognize them as bones if I didn't make them a little too big.

I don't know how to use Ai well enough yet to create a good looking bone, so they will just have to look like cardboard cut-outs until I get better. I COULD always design them in XDP and then export them into Ai but that would defeat the purpose of me trying to learn to use Ai.

I don't like this composition myself. I liked the other one better but thought, "hey, why not give it a try? I'm still an Ai newbie."

I didn't like the "centered" composition much, but that's just me.

I try to avoid full justification if I can help it. It creates crazy spaces between words and although I CAN fix it, I'm lazy with Ai.

I thought the same thing about the top dog (almost). What I felt I could have done is put a white outline (stroke) around the dog then the separation between text and art would look better but now that I think about it, maybe you're right, no overlapping might be better.

Did I cover everything, handrawn?

Mark

I think so :D

fully justified text looks professional on a poster [unless you are wrapping round an object maybe], anything else does not, with the exception of centralised text in certain contexts which could be an option; and maybe that's just me....

yes you would have to look to the kerning and such of course for FJ... not being lazy is part of being professional... ;)

I rather like the way AI does gradients - I particularly like the way you can have both colour and transparency on the same gradient ramp - I really wish xara could do that, be such a time saver at times rather than using two tools for the one job when you shouldn't need to...

I prefer #4

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Originally Posted by sculptex

I prefer #4

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agreed.

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Originally Posted by Mark321

I was not happy with the color scheme. And I tweaked the layout a little:

Attachment 117783

Oh No!!!!! I left my phone number in. Can someone delete this last post for me. Thank you.

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For what it's worth, this is my favourite one. I like that it's big and bold. And it sounds like I fit your demographic target market. Most mums are doing stuff in their spare time like writing or singing or whatever, or their kids are, so leave the book covers and CD covers option in. I would be looking for all of what you offer if I didn't have Xara and wasn't already doing it myself.

I hope that helps.