Color, images, text, media – these are the vernacular of marketing.

Do any of these designs speak your language? Send your comments or some of your own work.

LM Designs – Brochure
What your client does for a living is always a good place to start with design. Industrial, retail, business-to-business. Whatever your client does should inform the style of their marketing materials. LM Designs does interior designs for residential homes. Something striking, then, that intimates their work and shows they have an eye for interior spaces. The window pane design is the window on their work in this layout. It provides glimpse into their style, along with full page images on subsequent pages, while providing plenty of negative space to deliver their message with crisp copy. So, what do you do? We should get a good idea from the materials you show us.
Shell Fleet Management – Display
Saying the same thing over and over again is good marketing. It gives people the opportunities they need to see and absorb the message. Keeping the message fresh so people will keep looking is a function of design. With a big company, their messages become very standard (partly a function of legal requirements) and can quickly become stale. Finding new graphic ways to say the same thing is the challenge. It’s one of the reasons I like the job.
The Creeks at Augusta Pines – Billboard
It doesn’t matter what the budget is. If you decide to spend money on a project, get the most out of the money you can. Sometimes marketing expenses are seen as coming straight off the bottom line, but they are actually revenue generators. A bad sign that costs less to design won’t generate the revenue to justify it, but a well designed sign that captures the eye of the traffic you are targeting increases the profile of the business and generates incremental revenue over the long term.
Falls at Imperial Oaks – Display
Balancing design with client desires is the essence of graphic design in the real world. Sometimes a client’s requirements mutate original designs beyond recognition. In most cases that means the marketing message suffers. But there is always hope for those occasions when the balance of design and dictates fall into a certain synchronicity.
Shell – Statement Inserts
Building an attractive, functional format is the easy part. Fitting the client’s varying messages into that format is the rub. The key is flexibility. The right image may interfere with the headline treatment. The information the client wants will invariably be longer or shorter than allowed for in the format. Making all those variables work and maintaining the integrity of the format is the real trick.
eZHOMEClub.com – Billboard
Outdoor signs are one of the hardest media to execute. It’s not easy to construct a succinct message and combine it with a compelling graphic. But when the balance is right, it is a very effective marketing tool.
Chesmar Homes – Minions
Still having fun here. I was right, we did go with the minions from Despicable Me. This is the first one we did with the updated graphics for Chesmar, basically a new “more realistic” sun. But it gives a good perspective on how things evolve with a client.
Chesmar Homes – Employee Cards
There’s no reason not to have some fun. These internal Thank You cards are nothing if not fun. We change them from time to time. I think we are doing something with the “minions” from Despicable Me next.
ConocoPhillips – Brochure
Keep it simple. A dashed line to represent the center line of a road, a sign to point the way and a tag line that calls to action, “Take the right road to fueling you business.” If you add anything else it diminishes the message and the design.
Sotex Fuels – Brochure
Find the right image. That’s the lesson of this piece. It is full of sound and movement and speaks to the nature of the business and the spirit of the people who work in the industry. If you find the right image, the rest is just filling in the blanks.
Vintage Round Top – Weddings
Junkyard Gypsy. Shabby Chic. Vintage. It’s all the rage, and it’s a balancing act. In many ways it’s a “It can’t be wrong” style. She says lots of layered images and graphic doodads. He says less doodads and more strong text and textured elements. Okay, so they’re both right, if they are executed properly. And therein lies the rub, capturing what the client sees in their mind’s eye. Because unitl you do, it’s always wrong.
Ryland Homes – Banners
What does that say? That’s the reaction I wanted. It’s a word jumble and it makes you stop and look. That’s what we’re always trying to do, make someone stop and take a closer look at what you’re selling.
Thank You Rewards – Poster
People used to get credit cards so they could buy things over time. Now they are just looking for what the credit card company will give them if they use their card – airline miles, cash back, rewards points. Oh, and if you can’t pay for all the things you buy, you can keep the rewards and apply for consumer credit protection.
Imperial Homes – Brochure
Closing the sale. That’s what it boils down to, and if there was one magic trick to making the deal, even I could do it. But there isn’t. I’ve always thought, though, when you’re selling a home, you have to make the buyer see themselves living there. If you can do that, they’ll find a way to make the numbers work.
Cypress Christian School – Direct Mail
One of the great things about going to a Christian school is that you don’t have to celebrate the “holidays”, you get to celebrate Christmas. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating God’s greatest gift to all of us – His Son. Cradled in a manger. Crucified on a cross. To save you, as if you were the only person in the world.
Parkstone Estate Homes – Direct Mail
You are so special, so unique. This home would never have been built if there wasn’t someone like you out there to live in it. Buy that, and you’ll buy the house.
Trendmaker Homes – Realtor Ad
New home builders have experienced sales people. They research carefully before they buy land or develop new floor plans. They spend a lot of money advertising their homes. But it’s not enough. That’s where Realtors come in. Buyers see them as a third party that’s on their side, that wouldn’t steer them wrong. So, builders spend a lot of money to get Realtors to show their homes, too. Nothing wrong with doing everything you can to keep that sales pipeline moving.