Are you a rebel? Do you live to live outside the box? Push your limits? Boldly go where no man has gone before? Guess what? You’ve already got the tools you need to take your business printing out of the box it’s in right now and up to the next level.
But What Does That Mean?
Dean was the original rebel. Imagine what you could learn...
I know, I know. When you think about rebels, men and women feeding paper into a printing press probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s more of a James Dean thing, am I right?
Stop! You’re thinking inside the box again!
There’s more to taking your company out of the box and into the wide realm of success than coming up with a great business plan. It doesn’t matter how cool you are, or how great your products are, if no one ever gets to hear about it. That’s where your business printing comes in.
You know how people always say “You are what you eat”? Whether you’re handing out brochures, hanging up posters or creating a banner for your trade show booth, you are what you print. Your printed marketing materials are a sign of your ingenuity, your creativity and your company’s ability to innovate.
In other words, most people assume what they see is what they get. What do you want your customers to see?
5 Steps to Take Your Business Printing to the Next Level
1) Use Bold Colors. Humans are very visual creatures. Bright, bold colors catch our eyes much more quickly than say, grays and blacks, or even pastels, which is why I didn’t realize we’ve had a calendar hanging on the wall of the office for the past couple of months until yesterday. When you’re constantly surrounded by color (and advertisements filled with them) bright, bold colors can make the difference between the printed materials you see and the ones you tune out.
2) People love people. There’s a reason so many companies feature faces rather than abstracts in their advertising campaigns. People love people. They relate to people. When they see people in print, they picture themselves in their shoes…and that’s great for business.
3) Create using professional design software. I’m not saying you have to go out and drop a small fortune on a graphics designer, but you can definitely tell the difference between business printing that originates in Microsoft Word or Publisher and printing that starts its life in Photoshop or InDesign. Adobe has a great suite of tools you can install on your desktop or notebook, and while it’s a little pricey the end result is more than worth adding a couple of zeroes to your credit card. (You can also install their program suites in bits and pieces to isolate what you need.)
4) Say what you need to say and no more. Now, I’d like to clarify a little bit on this one. If you’re writing a technical manual or an employee handbook or a very precise how-to, feel free to elaborate. On the other hand, if you’re making a poster that needs to catch their eye as they’re walking by, pick a catchy headline and go with it. Just make sure they know where to go if they want to find out more.
5) Use your imagination! You can please. You can shock. If it’s what you’re going for, you can even appall. What your business printing can’t do is look just like the 18 other posters wrapped around the block. Think out of the box!