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Category: Graphic Design

How to design an effective presentation

How to design an effective presentation

ZoomsDesign

Great presentations inform, educate, persuade, and even inspire. perhaps it’s the fusion of live audio and supportive visual media. maybe it’s the perfect blend of audience interactivity and speaker control. whatever it is, a well-designed presentation is still one of the best ways to pitch ideas, showcase facts, or sell products.

When it comes to your presentation decks, it takes two important aspects to tango: the content and the design. many of us struggle to create sufficiently engaging and information slides. how do you strike a balance between professional and engaging? how do you avoid crossing the line from data-rich to overwhelming?

Read on to discover more the six elements of an idea presentation

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Image by Zooms Design

1. A compelling introduction

First, it’s important to let your audience know why they should care — or remind them why they already do. The beginning of your presentation is for provoking emotion, eliciting surprise, and engaging people enough so that they want to know more.

Don’t forget to introduce yourself to establish authority and familiarity. But don’t spend too much time talking about yourself unless the presentation is about you. You can set the mood by starting with a relevant story or situation. Again, imagine that your audience is asking you why this subject matters.

But it’s not time to make your final pitch yet. Prioritize authenticity over immediate hard-selling.

2. Charts and infographics

People are drawn to moving stories and organic, conversational approaches. That’s why your presentation starts with a compelling introduction. But if you aim to have your audience come to a decision by the end of your presentation, they will want to go through a more logical, data-driven thought process. It’s your job to walk them through that.

Pull facts from reliable sources such as peer-reviewed articles or books. As much as possible, avoid making statements you can’t prove.

Use charts, graphs, and infographics to illustrate facts more effectively. For example, a pie chart may be a better visual aid than simple percentage numbers. A line graph is the best way to show numerical information that changes over time.

Use the simplest possible chart or graph design. Remember that your presentation is usually a visual aid on a large screen. Tiny text or complex details might be lost on the audience, so use large shapes and high-contrast blocks of color for maximum clarity.

3. Large text

Your presentation’s slideshow is not a set of pages from a textbook. Slides support your presentation. It’s not something for you to read out loud, nor should it compel audiences to take too much time reading instead of focusing on you.

Set a minimum text size. A 30- to 40-point font generally works for headers, while “smaller” text can be around a 20-point font, but there are no strict guidelines.

You can adjust text sizes depending on the setting of your presentation. For example, err on the side of too-large text when you have senior audience members. If it’s a webinar and people will be on their screens, slightly smaller text may be acceptable. Limit your ideas to one major concept per slide. Use simple sentences or phrases. Remember, the audience shouldn’t spend too much time reading the slide behind you. With that in mind, you can set your own maximum number of words per slide.

Bullet points are going out of fashion. If you absolutely need bullets, you may have too much text on the slide. The goal is to showcase keywords that reinforce — not dictate — your delivery.

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4. overall simplicity

No matter how complex your subject is, the presentation should be kept as simple as possible. Limit the number of slides and the time you spend presenting each slide. Practicing your delivery will also help you prevent digressions or going overtime during the actual presentation.

Begin with an outline — or if it’s difficult for you to brainstorm with a purely textual outline, a concept map. Don’t be afraid to start out messy and simplify as you go.

Is your topic truly complex? That’s still no reason to overload your slides with hard-to-read details. Instead, you can create accompanying printouts to distribute to your audience so they have an in-depth resource to refer to during or after your presentation.

5. Consistent design

Your presentation’s design must be consistent across all slides. Colors, fonts, and brand elements should appear to follow the same rules from beginning to end.

If you have a branding guide, use it as a starting point for designing presentations. In the absence of one, let your topic and audience demographic be the basis of your design decisions. (Need help creating a branding guide? Download a free step-by-step guide!)

Just because you can do something in a presentation doesn’t mean you should. There’s no need to use all the free clipart or showcase your wide variety of fonts. Resist the temptation to add too many animations, transitions, and sound effects.

A professional-looking design gives you authority. Things like careful alignment, thoughtfully selected graphics, and highly readable elements make your presentation much more believable.

6. You

Lastly, you are the most important part of a good presentation. Be confident and prepared — this takes practice and research. Internalize your subject and polish your public speaking skills. You don’t need to commit to an absolutely perfect delivery.

There will be technical difficulties and little bloopers now and then. But poise can be practiced. Learn to chuckle at your own mistakes because the show must go on!

Learn to connect with your audience. Even if you’re the one standing front and center, the presentation is about them, not you. Show them that you’re sensitive to their time and concerns. One way to do this is to let them know, during the introduction, when you’ll be taking questions (the best time is at the end of your presentation).

Final thoughts

Ready to craft your next presentation?

Fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias in the world. So for some people, being expected to present, write, and design a good presentation can feel like way too much.

Zooms Design Presentation Design service can help you create professional, visually compelling slideshows. You’ll take care of the content and delivery — We’ll handle creating presentations that are on-brand, compelling, and credible.

Presentation Design gives you access to unlimited custom decks, same-day design concepts, real-time Slack communication, editable slide formats, PowerPoint or Google Slides, animations, and so much more. check out our design to find out more.

UX/UI design trends 2021

UX/UI design trends 2021

ZoomsDesign

Design is no longer about the wow factor. It is about personalization, simplicity, convenience, minimalism, accessibility. Current and upcoming UI/UX design trends follow these principles. We have already written about why design is a worthy tool for your business as well as how to turn it into a powerful selling tool. Also, we have pointed out how to break a business message through overproduced content in a split-second with motion graphics, and have highlighted massive animation design trends.

Versatility and adaptability

Source: Dribbble

Creating an application for only one platform is a lost cause. Choosing device-neutral and cross-platform options for seamless app performance on a laptop, PC, smartphone, or tablet is a win-win option that allows ensuring a much better UI and UX,  and reaching a wider audience coverage.

Mobile phone flexible screen expansion can compete with devices people are used to. Foldable phones with flexible displays will bring a brand new user experience. An advanced multifunctional screen is about multitasking. It allows running a few apps alongside each other simultaneously as well as seamlessly switching between them. It can be used as both a phone and a tablet. A flexible display can make the back of the phone an additional interactive space.

Personalization

Source: Dribbble

The mass production trends have long passed into history. There are no solutions that would fit all cases. Users demand a personalized approach from you, niche services that are relevant to their interests as well as can solve personal needs. To retain users, design an app accurately by focusing on personal, cultural, situational requirements ensuring a unique and authentic user experience.

Spotify offers a personalized playlist based on a listener’s particular tastes. The Netflix app offers flexible recommendations and customizes film artworks to suit users’ viewing habits.

Voice interaction

Source: Dribbble

Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant Siri, Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa, Samsung’s smart assistant Bixby, Google’s AI-powered virtual voice assistant Google Assistant dictate their terms to UX design trends for this year. Voice-enabled apps are continually integrating into our lives as they are more convenient, deliver quick and accurate query results, ensure personalized user experience.

AV/AR

Source: Dribbble

Implementing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology allows integrating the fictional digital elements into the real-world image by offering users an entirely fresh look at the daily routine.

Education, real estate, mHealth, science, entertainment, eCommerce, traveling, media. Here’s a partial list of niches where VR & AR trends can be adopted with own UI/UX.

Ikea, Disney, Zara, Toyota have already applied AR to their products. With the Gucci App AR feature, users can digitally try on sneakers, sunglasses, or decorate their spaces with new decor objects. The Ikea app offers customers to try on the chosen interior before purchasing it.

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Material Design

UX/Ui Design

Source: Dribbble

Flat UI design, two-dimensional elements, simple shapes with no added effects have been replaced by user-centered design process, motion graphics, 3D icons, animated logos, custom color palettes, responsive interaction animation, shadows, and depth illusions, grid-based approach, ML- and AR-powered features, sound design. Material design will bring a much more engaging user experience via intricate patterns, textures, customization, advanced interactivity.

Design for content

UX/Ui Design

Source: Dribbble

The content-first approach helps to design meaningful and functional interfaces, ensure comfortable and convenient user experience rather than complex and artistic solutions.

When it comes to current UI/UX design trends, general readability reigns supreme. It is not only about slogans, taglines, brand names, or CTAs. It is about the style of content as a whole – a simple content menu, highly readable fonts, font combinations for various screen sizes to ensure effective responsive design.

Animation & micro interaction

UX/Ui Design

Source: Dribbble

Interface animation has not lost its position this year. Animation will remain trendy as it can easily grab and hold viewers’ attention, and is more memorable than just static elements. Adding life and motion to buttons, icons, tabs, charts, preloaders, menu bars, scroll animations, visual clues, onboarding screens, splash screens, activity indicators, pull-down-to-refresh animation makes user experience informative and engaging. Smooth microinteractions make user interface intuitive and natural.

Chatbot UI and UX design

Chatbot

Source: Dribbble

Chatbot interaction design should not only convey information to end-users. To process each specific query, chatbots should be easy to use, handle all kinds of natural language variations – various emotions, language semantics, text structures, phrases, slangs.

to enchance the user experience, you should consider a specific set of options such as avatars, a voice that matches your brand personality, welcome/failure message design, animation, response buttons, typing indicators. you should provide your app users with multiple interaction ways-free-text typing with autocomplete function or ready-made conversation flow.

Keep things simple

As you see, new trends in UI/UX design trends are about user-centered and effective problem-solving solutions. Keep things simple, and your users will rely on your app and follow your brand.

We at Zooms Design know how to personalize your brand to convert your business message into simple and functional visual solutions that are relevant to your users’ interests and can solve their personal needs. Have an idea? Feel free to contact us. We will be happy to help you find the perfect match.

Graphic Design: Why motion graphic is matter?

Graphic Design: Why motion graphic is matter?

ZoomsDesign

With the data explosion, getting your business message out is much harder. While lots of great animations published on social media, there is far less cool motion in apps or web-based platforms. You as a stakeholder should consider introducing great motion design in the first place. Animations can be used for whatever point you want to make and break through overproduced content in a split-second.

In this article, Zooms Design has shared ideas on why animations matter for apps and web platforms. You will read about what cool motion graphics is, and how to use it effectively so that your business can gain benefits from it.

What is motion graphic

Source by Luka Primorac

In simple words, motion graphics as a great source of storytelling combines animation and graphic design. As animation design uses not only simple visual elements such as text, shapes, or images but also engages auditory receptors to communicate ideas, it is more memorable for viewers than just static pictures.

The magic of cool motion graphics animation for brand apps and web platforms is that it showcases complex pictures, ideas, concepts, and a great deal of data in a short, simple, visually appealing video. As a result, it helps convey a message in the fastest way, easily grab and hold the viewer’s attention. Great animation design can be used in whatever areas you want—business, marketing, IT solutions, motion picture industry, education, healthcare, social networks, or entertainment.

Benefits of applying animation design

Applying animation design helps you raise brand awareness, increase people curiosity in what you’re doing and why, cause the urge to buy apps, products, or services, prompt to take actions. Videos can be used on any platforms at your fingertips—promo items, online ads, tutorials, titles trailers, news teasers, web, and mobile devices, business presentations, or any other creative ideas. Let’s go step by step.

Benefits of cool motion graphics:

  • It is cost and time effective. With great animation design, you need far less time, money, and efforts to create eye-catching motion pictures.
  • It raises brand recognition. Viewers easily comprehend complex pictures, ideas, and stats if they are presented in simple terms and engaging way. People retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video in comparison with 10% when reading it in a text.
  • It makes brand content shareable across social networks. People share social video 1200% more than simple text and static pictures combined. Facebook videos, in turn, have approximately 8 billion views daily.
  • It drives people to comment and discuss content. 85% of consumers are eager to see more branded video. Real-time feedback as a great communication channel allows figuring out ideas of what should be improved and updated in your app, product or services.
  • It allows an app or a web-based platform to come up high in Google search. A website is 53 times more likely to be shown on Google’s first page if it includes motion.
  • It increases sales via a better return on investment (ROI). Animated content drives 300% more traffic generating more leads.
  • It helps your brand stand out among competitors as well as set cool trends. People spend approximately 2.6x more time browsing pages with videos than without. As forecasted, videos are expected to reach 82% of internet traffic by 2021.

How to use animation design effectively?

For effective use of animation design, figure out what business objectives you want to achieve, and for how long. Before adopting animation ideas, ask yourself some simple questions:

  • Who is my target audience? What are my clients’ values and pain points? How can my product solve customers’ problems?
  • What business message or concept do I want to convey? How can I do it?
  • What are the main ideas the audience should remember?
  • What business objectives do I want to achieve?
  • What benefits will I gain from applying animation design?

After you have answered all the questions, choose the relevant type of video that will showcase your main concept in the best way. Let’s dig deeper into the main ones. 

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Animated storytelling gives you an opportunity to tell people about your brand vision highlighting the most vital factors, points, ideas.

A promotional video, if it is done thoughtfully and attention-grabbing, compares favorably to typical business ads. It lasts from 30 to 60 seconds. You need to strictly follow the length requirements to attract the viewers immediately to showcase your app or web platform strengths and benefits.

With educational videos, your brand shows customers how to solve their problems either with your product or other tools. Each animated video contains a complete step-by-step guide. An educational video is longer than a promo. The point is that it drives an entirely different volume for viewers.

An explainer video, in turn, is the best choice if you want to reveal the insights on your product or services simply and engagingly from one perspective. Such animated short film creates eye-catching in-app or website content thus earning viewers’ loyalty and trust.

A testimonial video helps you build trustful relationships with your customers before deciding why to purchase your product. The more natural and simple your customer’s review on positive experience in cooperation with your company is, the more credible it will be.

If you have a complex product or service, then it is difficult to explain it in simple terms. This is exactly where a live action video comes in. It will demonstrate rather than explain how your product or service works, its features as well as what benefits your customers can gain by using it.

Cool animation design proved to be the golden mean between overproduced videos, trends, and simple static content. If done correctly with the accurate use of visual and audio effects, it conveys your message effectively. It’s simple —the more people watch, read, engage with your content, the more they trust your firm, your product, or services. As a result, you become an advisor people want to rely on and follow, not just a company that tries only to sell them some brand stuff.

We at Zooms design know how to translate complex data into a simple language with animation design best solutions—from research, script development to storyboard design and motion release.

So why does your business need great motion design?

Cool animation design proved to be the golden mean between overproduced videos, trends, and simple static content. if done correctly with the accurate use of visual and audio effects, it conveys your message effectively. it’s simple_ the more people watch, read, engage with your content, the more they trust your firm, your product, or service. As a result, you become an advisor people want to rely on and follow, not just a company that tries only to sell them some brand stuff. 

We at Zooms Design know how to translate complex data into a simple language with animation design best solution.

Branding design: What to know before hiring an agency

Branding design: What to know before hiring an agency

ZoomsDesign

Brand development is one of the most important and deciding steps that can help a young business succeed in the market. And choosing a branding agency is crucial, as it can really make all the difference. But how do you choose the right one?

Here’s the deal: branding design is one of the definitive aspects of a business that can make or break its success, both in terms of sales and awareness. You can have the best product, stick to your values, be extremely hardworking and good in what you do, but your business might still suffer because of a badly designed or inconsistent brand. Don’t believe me? Apparently, up to 94% of first impressions are design-related,

according to this research. 

So, picking the right agency is important, as it can cost you a lot of money, both for the design process itself and for what it can make you or lose you in the future as a result of what you end up with.

If it’s your first time branding your business, here is some helpful advice on what to concentrate on when deciding which agency fits you best.

Beware that good agencies always have their own brand strategies

You can find the best designer, but you shouldn’t expect them to be a researcher, analyst and strategist, as well as an artist. A good creative or marketing agency will have a strategist that will take over the branding process, do proper research for you and take care of the design team’s workflow too.

Business owners sometimes don’t understand the single steps of a branding process, which is why good creative agencies are capable of taking over the whole workflow and simply producing deliverables that the client can pick out and then finalize the preferred concept.

If an agency promises that one person can do it all, take it as a red flag. And know that graphic design and branding design can sometimes be costly for the sake of quality. If you have budget constraints, there are always options such as our graphic design service.

Make sure they research your industry and competition

New Product Development Marketing Concept

Sure, having plenty of ideas about your own brand is the main requirement a branding agency should do for you. That and making them come true.

But another essential step of the process is research. Not just them meeting your requirements and transforming your image and values into a brand identity, but also knowing who your competitors are, what their brand designs look like and what is the general industry standard. 

In their research, they should be looking into:

  • Industry standards
  • Design trends
  • Website design best practices
  • Social media graphic design
  • Platforms and channels used
  • Tastes and expectations the ideal buyers have

At the same time, look to it that agency doesn’t have ideas only within the realm of the industry standard. You want to be different from the competition, not just another unrecognizable brand on the market.

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Get them acquainted with your products and services well

For the branding agency to completely encapsulate your company. its products and services, as well as the mission and vision, you need to to give them a thorough understanding of what you do.

make sure you give them more than an elevator pitch. the branding design reflects many things: Style, beliefs, ideal buyer personas, vision, the brand image and finally, industry. be sure that they understand what you do, as well as what your wishes and expectations are.

respect their style but check if they are flexible enough to fit your vision

You might be drawn to an agency or designer mainly because of their style. They might check all boxes you require, and that is great. however, it is also important to know that if they stick strictly to their own style, they might miss the mark on how our business should look like and what will make it different from the rest of their clients. 

a good agency will know how to infuse their style into your business and product, but still make it about you, not them.

Check if they value pretty or functional more

Things that look good are always attractive and well-remembered. however, in terms of branding design, they should also serve a purpose. 

Shapes, color psychology, heraldic, font usage and its characteristics, are only some of the many things that are used in branding design not only to look good but also to serve a purpose and speak about the brand’s identity. another reason why functional is worth more than pretty is the intuitiveness and ease of use in design. this is especially important in web design and app design if your branding agency is also taking care of that portion of the project.

Too much to worry about?

In case there are too many variables in your search, or your budget can’t handle a pricey agency, check out Zooms Design. We have worked on branding design for tons of clients, all for a flat monthly rate and all sorts of on-demand design services. Check out our work.

How can merchandise help you with brand recognition?

How can merchandise help you with brand recognition?

ZoomsDesign

From creating emotional bonds with potential clients to generating new leads, here are a few examples of how branded merchandise helps with brand recognition.

Go to any industry trade show, tech conference, or professional meetup event, and you will likely end up with bags of promotional materials. The usual business card, brochures, flyers, stationery have been replaced with more practical and polished items such as hoodies, reusable water bottle and phone gadgets. Still, their purpose remains the same: to promote a brand and reinforce  its recognition.  

Months or even years after a particular event passes, branded merchandise given to the visitors will continue to remind them about the specific brands silently. with cpi as low as $0.005 and recall rate as high as 85%, branded merchandise is by far the most efficient and cost-effective type of advertising. when an average keep rate of over a year, promotional product are the least discarded marketing materials.

Branded merchandise for advertising purpose is no longer for companies with big marketing budgets. From Coca-cola to the local gym, everyone uses different of merchandise to amplify and build brand identity.

what is brand merchandise

Products that have a company logo, slogan, or any other element that is part of the brand identity and are used to promote the brand are called branded merchandise. The sole purpose of these products is to promote the brand, raise awareness about it and improve its recognition among the target audience. 

Branded merchandise today can be considered as a business card, only more fun. The majority of these promotional products are handed out at trade shows and conferences to new or potential customers, influencers, and journalists from trade publications. 

Their primary purpose is to spread the word about the company and remind them of your business.

Still, there are a lot of brands that shifted merchandising to a whole new level. using their brand identity elements for different types of product, they created lasting personal experiences and connections with their audience. they made an additional revenue stream by offering their customers branded products. an excellent example of this is Starbuck which offers attractively designed, seasonally themed drinkware and other types of merchandise.

Why is branded merch important?

You might wonder if it is really that important to print your company logo on a tote bag or a t-shirt. you already have the company website, social media profiles, and print materials, so branded merchandise might seem like pushing your budget a little too far. Think about the last time you went to a conference, promotion, product launch, or trade show. you probably ended with more than a dozen business  cards, brochures, and pamphlets. the majority of those ended up at the bottom of your desk drawer or in the trash. 

However, you probably kept a good part of the promotional merchandise you received designed usb stick, a nice-looking bag for your laptop, or well-designed stationery likely found practical uses in your daily life.

According to asi (advertising speciality institute), the average time a consumer keeps a promotional product is about a year. this is why branded merchandise needs to be part of every marketing mix today. Promotional products have the lowest cost per impression (cpi) compared to any other advertising medium. with the cost as low as $0.005 per impression, merchandise is an excellent choice for small businesses and companies that lack large marketing budgets who want to work on increasing brand awareness.

what types of merchandise are the most important? 

The same study by asi shows that writing materials such as branded pens, pencils, notebooks, pads are at the top of this list. almost 9 in 10 americans, or 89%, own at least one such item. 88% have branded drinkware, 80% have t-shirt with a company logo or a slogan, and 73% have branded bags. next on this list are headwear, outerwear, and polo shirts which can be found in approximately 67% of american homes. 64% of americans have some branded desk accessory, 58% have at least one usb drive, and 33% have a mobile power bank that was given as a part of a promotional campaign. 

merch

Source Robot Food at Behance

Source Office Milano at Behance

And even though some studies show that millennials and younger generations prioritize experiences over stuff, the branded merchandise industry has had steady growth for the past five years. Today this industry is worth over $24 billion only in the United States.

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how branded merchandise impacts brand recognition

One of the goals of every marketing strategy is to build and improve brand recognition over time. Print materials, TV advertisements, radio jingles, website banners, and social media ads promote particular products or services and remind us of the company. That is why you can see campaigns that do not advertise anything but the brand from time to time.

Merchandise branded with company logo can be used daily and is usually kept much longer than other promotional materials. So as long as your customers use the products you gave them, they will see your company logo and brand message. But this is only just one of the reasons how promotional products improve brand recognition.

shinyoko-park

Source  tegusu Inc.at Behance

It help you introduce your business

If you are starting your business, branded merchandise can efficiently introduce it to your potential customers. products with your logo, such as tote bags, t-shirts, or anything that fits your business type and brand, will work much better than an ordinary business card. you can always print a qr code that leads to a specific landing page your website address, or other helpful information to make it easier for your potential customers to find you. 

Just make sure that the product is well designed and is visually connected to your branding. Putting your logo on a bag or a mug is not enough. You need to pay attention to the overall design of the product. You want your merchandise to stand out from your competitors and make it visually pleasing so your customers will want to keep and use the products.

It leaves an impression

According to Nielsen and OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America) data, merchandise offers the best number of impressions for every dollar spent. While TV and magazine ads can cost you up to $1.8 per impression, the average CPM on social media is on the rise from $6.64 in 2017. 

Still, the cost of impression for promotional products can go as low as $0.005. outerwear generates around 6,100 impressions for every  dollar spent. t-shirt and headwear generate 3,400 impressions each, and bags on average generate some 3,300. People under 55 prefer promotion products or any other type of advertising. they also have 25 times more favorable opinions of promotional products than digital ads.

waterdrop

Source Anna Rudak at Behance

It has a tremendous life cycle

One of the biggest prejudices about promotional materials is that most of them end up in the trash. however, data from asi shows that the majority of promotional products are being kept and used. the determining factor to keep the merchandise for many people is quality and design. this it why more and more companies are paying attention when selecting products for potential customers. the better the quality and design, the longer the life cycle the product will have. People keep outerwear the longest, which is 16 months on average. Umbrellas and T-shirts are used for 14 months on average, while mobile power banks and drinkware are utilized on average for one year.

Still, this doesn’t mean the end for these products. In many cases, they are usually given away to someone else, so their life cycle extends. 68% of polo shirts, 65% of T-shirts, and 61% of bags are given to someone else.

it helps brands be more memorable

85% People remember the companies that gave them branded merchandise which doesn’t come as a surprise. take into account the average number of impressions and average life cycle of branded merchandise. you can quickly understand why merchandise boosts brand recognition. the ad impression study from 2019 conducted by asi identity that an average household in the u.s owns approximately 30 promotional products. gen x households had on average 34 promotional items, millennial households had 30, while baby boomers had on average 28 such things. 

These numbers might not sound that impressive at first. however, once you multiple those items with 120 million households in america, you get a number of over three billion logos and promotional slogans being seen every day repeatedly.

Final thought

The simple placement of your logo on merchandise is not enough. You need to get creative and look out for inspiration. If you plan to give away any apparel, then there are more than a few websites that can provide you with ideas.

Be environmentally friendly. Try to pick merchandise that is made out of recycled or natural materials and that is durable and lasting. Consumers are shifting towards eco-conscious brands that not only preach but practice as well.

Merchandise can improve your brand’s recognition over time. Just make sure you picked the products that your customers will enjoy using daily. And if you have trouble or doubts about creating designs that will make your promotional products stand out, feel free to contact us. We at Zooms design are always ready to help you with any creative work imaginable.

Why you should stick to design principles for market success?

Why you should stick to design principles for market success?

ZoomsDesign

People often make way for creativity and experimentation in place of respecting principles and conventions. But this might not always be a smart strategy. Read why sticking to the basics in design can bring you greater market success. From simple social media graphics to complicated projects such as web design and experience design, clients working with design teams might have ideas and wishes that are brave, experimental and break common conventions when it comes to graphic design.

However, these guiding principles have been around for a long time, and though they may seem to constrain sometimes, they can help your design decisions, as well as assist you in getting the right actions from your target audience.  

Through using good principles in design, as well as doing market research, you will be able to design products and assets that will impress audience and as a result, have a good market and monetary success. 

Here are main reasons why sticking to principles is important. 

Ease the design process

By sticking to the ground rules, the process of designing your product or asset will go smoother and quicker. Call it simple deduction: by ruling out things that aren’t compatible with the principles and creating within what is allowed, you will be able to focus only on the variants that are most fitting.

Whether you are a team member that has no experience in design, or a project manager that needs to make the final decision, learning the design principles will also you recognize the most quality version of a design.  You’ll probably need to grasp the main design fundamentals to be able to provide helpful criticism. Rather than assessing by emotion or aesthetic taste, assess the most fundamental design principles and evaluate if a design job adheres to them.

A quicker design process or iteration will result in more effective preparation for putting your product on the market, which increase the chances of success.

Improve user experience design

UX/UI design

Good UX design is incredibly important if you want your business to succeed. This is especially true for Software-as-a-Service businesses, as they don’t have a brick-and-mortar business where customers can be impressed. UX design influences the experience customers have when trying to discover the business, get informed about its products and services, make a purchase or stay in the know about all news related to it.

So, a website or app is a one-stop station for all these things. You need to employ good design principles to make sure that the look and feel of them serve the purpose and usability too. It’s not just about looking good, it needs to be easy to understand and use. the same goes for the design of products themselves: the final user needs to have a good experience with the product, and that is the utmost goal of their design.

Create an intuitive user interface

Similar to the ux design, ui also incredibly important and it can make or break a product on the basis of its intuitiveness. While ux concerns the phycological and experiential aspects of using a product, user interface relates more to the visual part of it.

How easy can a user navigate on a website? Is it easy to spot buttons in a particular shape and color? Are the transitions between screens in an app smooth, or disruptive? Does a landing page wireframe make sense for someone seeing it for the first time with no information about the business?

Through design principles like balance, proximity and white space, for example, a UI designer can focus the eye exactly where they want it, hence achieving the wanted result.

Improve the marketing materials

There’s no market success without good market presence. Marketing (and with it advertising) are the most important disciplines that can help a product be discovered and wanted. But, in order to produce marketing materials, whether they are social media ads, packaging or even business cards, graphic designers stick to good principles that help achieve the right result. 

Color theory, lines, shapes, textures, sizes, dimensions and movement are only some of the techniques that can give a visual product a purpose. The final audiences will easily notice and learn the marketing messages through the help of these principles. 

Helps attract the right audience with color theory

Spectrum of color theory on white background

The rights colors and their correct usage according to principles, could also help you attract the right audience. 

For example, blue is believed to give audience a sense of calmness and reliability. This is why many banks and brands in the automotive and technology industries use it ( samsung, BMW, IBM, etc) Red, on the other hand, makes them hungry. That is why it is one of the most widely used colors in the fast-food industry ( burger king, pizza hut, McDonald’s, KFC, etc). 

Other colors also have different effects on human psychology and combined with design principles you’ll be able to use the them sparingly or in abundance, as the focal point of the design or perhaps to add balance to the overall look, depending on what you want to achieve.

How to improve digital marketing with graphic design

How to improve digital marketing with graphic design

ZoomsDesign

Learn why graphic design is so important for digital marketing and discover how to use visuals to improve the performance of your campaigns. 

Digital marketing means promoting your business online. It’s different from traditional marketing (e.g. television, radio or newspaper0), mostly because in digital marketing potential clients interact directly with you.

Since traditional marketing is often expensive and doesn’t offer a chance to target particular audiences, digital marketing is definitely the most important type of marketing for small business and startups. And since graphic design is an integral part of effective marketing, it’s very important to understand how can you use it in digital marketing efforts. 

Why is graphic design important for marketing?

Marketing design is the creation of branding, advertising and other visual elements used in promoting your brand.

In that definition alone you can see that design can often help to get people interested in your services or products, or help them discover your brand in the first place. Here are just a few critical reasons why you need good design in digital marketing. 

It's all start with branding design

Yes, branding design also falls under marketing design. Your brand identity consist of your mission, vision and values, but also the way your brand looks, or your brand design. an established brand guideline will help you create every marketing asset or branding asset more quickly and effectively, and raise brand awareness with you target audience. 

Creating a brand guide is an essential first step of any marketing strategy. It will make the decision-making process much quicker down the line, and save you a lot of time. A brand guide includes all the visual elements you should use regularly in designing for your brand (logo versions, colors, fonts, illustrations) as well as the tone of voice and key messages relevant to your brand. 

apple nike logo

Source by pinterest 

Design speak loud than words

Our attention span is only about 8 seconds long these days, so making a strong first impression is more important than ever. Moreover, it’s well known that people tend to remember only 20% of what they read, compared to 80% of what they see, so if you want your marketing messages to stick, you need to present them in a visual way.

If you think about some of the most iconic logo designs you’ll immediately see just how powerful graphic design can be. Nike’s swoosh represents movement and determination; Apple’s pictorial mark demonstrates a thirst for knowledge and superior design. The art of communicating visually means that you’re able to If you think about some of the most iconic logo designs you’ll immediately see just how powerful graphic design can be. Nike’s swoosh represents movement and determination; Apple’s pictorial mark demonstrates a thirst for knowledge and superior design. The art of communicating visually means that you’re able to relay your brand identity in a more universal way.

your virtual graphic designer

Good design help you stand out

Many people confuse marketing with advertising, which is actually just a component of marketing where of promoting specific products or services to a specific target market. 

However, both marketing and advertising should help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Hopefully, you’ve already identified your unique selling points (USPs) in your business or marketing plan, and you can use design to make that even more obvious for prospective customers.

Are you a mobile bank is youthful, modern and digital bank compare to tradition banks? Use playful, hip designs to tell that story. Perhaps you have a family-run restaurant with long tradition?  Use retro pictures and drawings to inspire a sense of nostalgia and create an emotional response with your guests.

Digital marketing vs inbound marketing

Digital marketing is a collections of tactics you use to attract potential customers online. Inbound marketing is a style of digital marketing that involves attracting customers to your business organically. by presenting solutions to their challenges or convincing them that they need you and not the other way around.

Practically speaking, inbound marketing involves regular blogging and SEO optimization, social media posts that engage users or offer informational or educational value and most importantly regular updating of your buyer persona intel, to allow you to provide value for potential as well as existing customers. 

Digital marketing strategies checklist

Every digital marketing campaign follows a set of steps, from planning and goal identification to measuring the results of your performance. However, every campaign should also correspond to your digital marketing strategy and help move your business along a course you’ve defined. Here’s a quick rundown of all the key elements of a digital marketing strategy: 

  • Create branding guidelines
  • Define and track KPIs
  • Create a calendar of marketing campaigns
  • Create an email marketing strategy
  • Review your website and SEO
  • Create a social media strategy
  • Develop a PPC ad strategy
  • Consider a PR strategy

How to use graphic design in digital marketing

So, now that you have a better understanding of what digital marketing entails, it’s time to deep-dive into one of its most important components: graphic design. We’ll guide you through examples of using graphic design to improve your marketing game and explain why and how each one works. 

Graphic help website rank better

If you know anything about SEO, you’re familiar with the importance of using the right keywords and useful content that will help your business rank better in search engines. However, now that search engine algorithms are a lot more refined, it’s no longer enough to just stuff your text with target keywords (in fact if you overdo it, your site will be penalized for it and rank poorly).

Another part of that is that search engines like Google can also crawl (or rank) images, which means an informative and useful graphic will come up in search engine results and potentially drive people to your website.

Finally, it’s well known that people need only about 50 milliseconds to make a first impression of a website. This is hardly enough time to read a significant part of the copy, but it can be more than enough for a user to make an impression about the professionalism of the company. So, better graphic design can mean lower bounce rates and more time spent on browsing your pages. Which in turn, will lead google to favor your site and rank it better.

design makes content marketing more compelling

Content marketing involves in producing content, whether textual or visual that attracts people to your business. It’s closely related to keyword research and SEO, but graphic design is also an incredibly important part as well.  

Understanding how to use visual storytelling will make your content more digestible and appealing to audiences with an ever-decreasing attention span. Designing for content marketing can mean appealing blog covers that will make your site look professional and regularly updated, or different types of data visualizations, such as infographics, graphs or charts that help break down complex processes and information into smaller chunks.

There's no social media without design

This is something you probably already know, but when it comes to social media good design is a must. Consistency will help you build a brand image, and quality, creative graphics will ensure your posts aren’t drowned out by thousands of similar ones you’ll be competing with.

Having a well-designed social media post doesn’t just mean people will stop and notice. Good graphic design can also ensure your posts get more engagement and shares. Even something simple like a product photo can be better with the help of colorful backgrounds or illustrative elements. 

Investing in design can increase profit

When you’re advertising products online, people won’t be able to experience them first-hand (e.g. hold them) before they decide to make a purchase. Instead, you can use design to help encourage purchase decisions. we already mentioned that good web design will help keep people on your website, and attractive social media images can boost engagement, and ultimately sales (90% of people buy from brands they follow on social media). 

Where to get digital marketing design for my business

So you understand why design is important, and even have some ideas on what kind of design you’d like for your marketing channels? Awesome! But that still doesn’t make you a designer. These days, there’s no shortage of DIY design platforms that allow you to create your own marketing assets, even if you have no design skills or experience. The most famous one, Canva, is a delightfully user-friendly program and there’s no doubt you’ll have fun using it. 

But should digital marketers really design their own ads? Probably not. 

First of all, as a non-designer it will be difficult for you to maintain consistency in graphic design (without sacrificing creativity or versatility that is), which will harm your brand image. Next, the results might look uninventive and similar to thousands of visual assets people see from other companies every day.

Finally, no matter how hard you try or how many times interactions you make it, the finally results usually isn’t nearly as good as you’d want to 

We’ve heard this many times from our clients who attempted to create their own graphics before turning to Zooms Design. More often than not, the effort became a waste of time (and money, since a CEO or marketing manager need offer their expertise in different areas), as well as unprofessional graphics. You can hire someone in-house, or opt for an outsourced option such as a freelancer or a design agency.

You will be able to get the professional in designing to support your digital marketing. 

The graphic design  service offer the most in terms of quality, flexibility and affordability. If you’d like to know more about it, be sure to check out the scope of work or book a personal consultant to see how we can help your business with design.

Mastercard simplifies logo and brand identity

Mastercard simplifies logo and brand identity

ZoomsDesign

Mastercard is dropping its name from its iconic brand logo of the interlocking red and yellow circles. The simplified logo will now stand on its own across cards, retail locations both online and offline, and major sponsorship properties. Mastercade sais that the symbol represents the brand “”Better than one word ever could”, and the modern design will allow it to work “seamlessly” across the digital landscape.

According to Raja Rajamnnar, chief marketing and communication officer at Mastercard, reinvention in the digital age calls for moder simplicity, adding that more than 80% of people recognise the Mastercard symbol without the word “Mastercard” having to be plasterd everywhere. We felt ready to take this next step in our brand evolution. we are proud of our rich brand heritage and are excited to see the iconic circles standing on own, he said.

The red and yellow interlocking circles have been the hallmark of the Mastercard brand for more than 50 years, symbolising the brand’s promise to connect people to “priceless possibilities”. The brand said that the recognisable circles give consumers the confidence and trust that their transactions are secure.

“We live in a time where, increasingly, we communicate not through words but through icons and symbols. Mastercard has had the great fortune of being represented by two interlocking circles, one red, one yellow, since its founding in 1966,” Michael Bierut, partner at Pentagram said.

Now, by allowing this symbol to shine ot its own, Mastercard enters an a elite cadre of brands that are represented not by name, but by symbol: an apple, a target, a swoosh. Mastercard’s two interlocking circles have always represented their commitment to connecting people. Now, that commitment to connecting people. Now, that commitment is given greater presence by Mastercard’s status as a symbol brand’ headded.

copa america

Mastercard simplifies logo and brand identity

E-commerce

Tourism

Mastercard simplifies logo and brand identity

adventure

Credits

Agency : McCann Colombia, bogota

Creative Director: Adres Salamanca soler

Art Director: Felipe Alvarez C,

Adres V, De la Hoz, Sergio Ramirez.

Why consistent graphic design makes marketing effective

Why consistent graphic design makes marketing effective

ZoomsDesign

Consistent graphic design is a keys to a successful marketing strategy. Learn how consistent graphics help you build a strong brand and market your business. 

You’ve probably guessed that good graphic design is necessary for marketing, but there’s more to it than that. When weighing their options of where to get graphic design work, many small business owners consider freelancers due to their flexibility, versatility and affordable hourly rates. However, working with several freelancers at the same time can make it quite difficult to keep the design consistent and unified. And why is it important to have consistent graphic design in marketing? Read on to find out.

Building brand image and awareness

Just in case you’re unsure about it, here’s a couple of terms you should be clear about before you start working on your marketing strategy: 

  • Brand identity: the term that encompasses the look of your brand (logo design and everything else), your mission, vision and values that you communicate to your target audience.
  • Brand image: the view other people have you, how they perceive your brand identity.
  • Brand awareness: the recall factor associated with a brand; what are the first things that come to mind when people think of your brand.

While you need to create a brand identity and a branding guide before you start, the other two are highly dependent on your marketing efforts—you need to get people to hear about your product or service in some way, right?

There are many technical aspects that can increase your brand recognition (how many people know about your brand), such as search engine optimization for your website or detailed targeting on social media. But once you get people’s attention you need visuals that will help them form an impression about your brand. 

If you Google McDonald’s ads, you’ll see plenty of different and creative designs, sometimes with very clever copy. But the basic idea is always the same: you’ll always find their iconic product in the center and the signature.

your virtual graphic designer

Creating loyalty and trust with your customers

It’s 5 times more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. That means you’re much better off nurturing existing relationship that constantly coursing new ones. 

One way to do this is through consistent marketing design. People who’ve purchased from you previously will respond well to the same design elements that may have prompted them to make the initial purchase. It shows them that what they see is indeed what they get, and if it worked once, chances are they will remain loyal customers.

Of course, don’t mistake consistency for lack of creativity. A great example is Coke’s famous, Share a Coke campaign. The iconic packaging that so many people recognize and love was given a simple twist by adding names to personalize the experience of drinking and sharing a Coke. The brand design was still intact with the red color and the signature logo design, but this little element did a lot: this campaign is credited with an impressive 11% rise in sales in the US!

share a coke

Providing a better user experience

One of the key elements of a positive user experience (UX) in product and website design is consistency. Consistency allows people to feel in control while using a  service or product and makes the outcomes of their actions easier to predict. That’s why brand consistency is especially critical in designing websites. Not only does it enforce your brand identity and help build awareness, but the importance of graphic design here lies in the actual way users interact with the website. We’re going to use example from our own experience to illustrate the point. In our content marketing efforts, we’ve created several in-depth guides on topics that are relevant to our target audiences. Previously we had a separate lead capture landing page for this, where people could download the guides in exchange for their email addresses. We wanted to improve our lead generation system so we creed guide forms placed in the blog with the specific guides relevant to the article at hand.

Naturally, we made sure that the design is in line with our brand so that the forms don’t disrupt the overall reading experience and provide a simple call to action. This is an example of bad UX. The different font and image sizes completely disrupt the readability of the blog and make it hard for the user to skim through the key information. 

bad ux good ux

source by careerfoundry

A brand guide save money and time

A brand guide or brand book is the final step in the brand creation process. This document contains all the design elements used in branding and digital marketing, such as colors, fonts, usage of logo and photos. It’s an extremely useful asset to have if you plan on outsourcing design projects to agencies or freelancers since it provides them with the guidelines on how to design for your brand. 

With this in mind, it’s clear to see how consistent graphic design can also save you time and money. Instead of a lot of back and forth with your designated graphic design service, you can just provide the guidelines and wait for the final result to be delivered. Similarly, and especially if you’re working with freelancers who charge extra for revisions, you can minimize the number of revisions needed by giving them an established framework to operate in and create the necessary marketing assets.

consistency in social media graphics

Social media is one of, if not the most important marketing channels for contemporary businesses to use. Creating graphics in this field, however, can be tricky for a number of reasons. Firstly, you usually have to adhere to a predetermined size quality and format guidelines.

Next, as social media user are experience a visual  overload, it can be a tricky to get your business to stand out.

Making your content and visuals consistent with your brand will. Create a unique look and experience that people will appreciate. It doesn’t have to be the most complex and fancy graphic. Being unique is what really matters.

Take a look at these great ads from Slack. It perfectly captures everything the brand is about. You see people in professional clothes, which suggests Slack is built for professional teams. However, it’s also modern and fun to use which the humor of the ad also captures. To top it off, the ad is created with Slack’s signature colors (purple, yellow, pink) which ensures a powerful brand image is formed in the audiences’ minds.

slack display ad
slack social media ads

Source by Cooler nation

Images communicate faster than text

Did you know that people remember only 20% of what they read and 80% of what they see? In other words, if you want people to remember your brand, you’ll need to communicate visually.

Moreover, visual communication is often a way to bridge language barriers if you’re marketing to a global audience. No matter where you come from, or what kind of local knockoff you used to drink as a kid, everyone has a similar response to a “sweating” bottle of Coke on a hot day!

Absolute vodka had one of the most successful and longest-running campaigns in history. From iconic city landmark to a nod to Andy Warhol’s art, these ads were created to sell the same product to different target audiences. Thanks to one simple trick in consistent design (using the distinct shape of the vodka bottle in different ways), this campaign had huge success and helped Absolute become the market leader in the US.

absolut vodka
absolut vodka
The important of good web design in digital marketing

The important of good web design in digital marketing

ZoomsDesign

Wondering how web design can improve your digital marketing effort? Keep reading to learn why web design is important even to improve your overall marketing plan?

Wondering how to improve your digital marketing strategy even more? you might be looking too closely and missing the forest for the trees. Very often, companies have amazing marketing campaigns that go to wastes, because they lead to a website or landing page that is poorly designed or isn’t optimized. Good website design can do a lot for your overall marketing> From increasing conversions and helping you rank in search results, all the way to helping you nurture your brand image. so, needless to say, a good web design is more than necessary. here are some of the biggest reasons why. 

It reflects your brand online

Let’s assume that you have a great digital marketing campaign that is posted on different online channels. It probably leads to your website or landing page. And if they aren’t designed well, or are completely different from what viewers have been seen on.  Say, social media, it will seem inconsistent or strange. 

You need to use the same branding guide in your web design too, to make sure that you create a virtual space that seems known and related to your brand for audiences. This website or landing page needs to certain brand elements that reflect your company well. Here are some of them: 

Logo: The logo is an integral part of a brand image and story. It is the first element of branding, and the rest is built around it. When you see a good piece of graphic design that betters the overall digital marketing strategy. There is also a logo included. Since it is a symbol that will always be tied to your company story, you should make sure that it is included in the web design. 

Branding colors: Similar to the font, your brand’s colors should be integrated into every branding material of your company. Including the website. Make sure that the design of your website carries your brand’s colors palette too. 

Branding fonts: Sure, not everyone can have custom fonts for their website, and sometimes they can be expensive. But using one group of fonts for your branding or social media, and a completely different one on your website looks sloppy and inconsistent. Make sure to infuse the same fonts. at least in headers, hero images, and similar. 

Usage of photos, images and illustrations: When you hire a web design agency or design company, it is important to include your exact brand guideline in your brief. If you use stock photos on social media, content and email marketing, it will make sense to include these elements in your website too. However, if you are more prone to using illustrations, try to unify that look all across the brand.

It betters your search engine optimization

By optimizing your website and landing pages, you will rank better on search engines as well.

There are multiple textbook tricks that will help your website rank better with good web design, some of which are easier to achieve than others. Of course, most techniques for good SEO have more to do with copywriting, content, and backlinks, but web design can make a big difference too.

Here are some things to keep in mind when working with web design companies.

Ask for a design that you can use and update on your own

Chances are, you won’t get a new website every now and then. It is expensive and bad for brand building. So, when you ask for a website design, you should make sure that it is going to be intuitive for you too.

You should be able to add content, change CTAs and add time-relevant elements to the pages on your own. This refers to the functionality of a website too, and not just the web design. Still, first and foremost the look of it needs to be taken into consideration.

Supply them with good headlines, meta titles, tags, and descriptions

Web designers are in charge of designing, not in writing the client’s headlines and copy. So, make sure you include relevant keywords about your industry and location in your headlines, and add tags and meta descriptions for images and articles. This is a common practice of what is known as on-page SEO.

Your virtual web designer & developer

Avoid large files to assure quick loading

It is common to add images and videos in the best resolution and size possible, but this can be counterproductive. The reason for that is that large files take a long time to load, which then makes the search engine think that the website isn’t optimized and ranks it lower.

And it’s not a great experience for visitors either: no one likes waiting for minutes for a hero image to load on a website. 

Optimize for mobile devices

More and more people are searching for a business or making a purchase on the phone by the day. According to a report, up to 70 percent of web traffic happens on a mobile device. Furthermore, 80 percent of shoppers use smartphones during physical shopping, 70 percent of smartphone users have bought something in a store after using their phone to discover more information and 69 percent of smartphone users would buy from stores that have mobile sites which cover their questions or concerns.

So, it is pretty clear that people are using their smartphones to learn more about a business. That means that your website should be responsive to other devices too, not just computers. 

Make sure there are no broken links in calls to action and landing pages

There is no bigger red flag to search engines than broken links: they affect the website’s ranking and are generally a very bad experience for visitors. So, when your design is done, and the website is developed, click on all the CTAs and landing pages buttons during your big quality check to ensure every link that is active.

It helps your social media marketing

A good-looking and optimized website or landing page that is the final destination for your marketing campaign will bring a better result for many reasons. 

First and foremost, it will give social media engines a reason to believe that your website should be seen by the audiences you are trying to reach, and deliver to more people.

Secondly, when people land on a bad website that isn’t intuitive and doesn’t offer them a good experience, they are more likely to bounce, i.e. leave the website. This also influences the overall success of your marketing campaign.

Lastly, when the audience of your social media campaign lands on a website and finds exactly what they need, they will be likely to visit again. If they see something completely unrelated or a website where they can’t find what they are looking for, this will leave a wrong impression.

Its improve the user experience

Always keep users in while creating your website and developing your website. Make sure it’s intuitive, easy to navigate, and simple to use. Users will lose interest and quit if your website doesn’t have a simple interface. By making sure audience can quickly discover and click all of your website’s links, and that the site loads quickly, people will have a much better user experience while visiting. This will significantly improve your marketing too. In its search results pages, Google now considers website loading times and mobile-friendliness as major ranking criteria. This will significantly improve your marketing too. In its search results pages, Google now considers website loading times and mobile-friendliness as major ranking criteria.

Optimize your website for these characteristics if you want it to rank well on Google. Users prefer to access websites on their mobile devices and want them load quickly.

It boosts your conversion rate

Because of all the previous reasons, a good web design and an intuitive, branded website or landing page will have a much better chance of higher conversion rates. 

From good navigation to using color psychology to attract people into making a certain action, and of course, using the right wording to inspire them to make a purchase, each and every elements on your website can help you balance out the overall marketing success of your business.