Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Choosing the Right Company Logo Design Firm

There are literally thousands of company logo designers out there competing for consumer attention, as evidenced by an immense saturation of marketing and advertising materials on the internet, television and other promotional mediums.

The good news is that this offers consumers a wide selection of company logo design firms to choose from.

The not-so-good news is that due to the sheer inundation of advertising to consider, it can be nearly impossible to determine which design firm will be the perfect fit for your own company logo design.

We’re here to help narrow down the decision, by offering up some critical criteria that must be considered when entrusting any service with your company logo design.

7 Assets to Look for in a Company Logo Design Firm

Every company logo design firm has good and bad qualities, and one can hardly rely solely on promotional materials to decide which possesses the best overall benefits. The most important way to start for your business is to make a checklist of certain non-negotiable factors, then determine which of these potential candidates checks the most boxes.

Here’s a handy list of the top 7 criteria that MUST be accommodated in order to ensure that your company logo design produces the most powerful results for your investment.

Experience – has the prospective company logo design firm been ‘around the block’? The more time they have under their belt, the greater chance they’ll have been there and done that, so they can more readily apply a wealth knowledge to your individual company project.
An impressive portfolio – company logo designs speak for themselves. One of the most reliable means of determining whether a design firm will produce a high-quality end product is to have a look at what they’ve already done for other companies. If you are largely unimpressed with a designer’s portfolio examples, (or if you cannot locate a portfolio at all), then you likely won’t end up any more satisfied with designs they would create for you.
A comprehensive design process – if a company logo design firm can promise you a 24-hour turnaround on your logo design, consider this a huge red flag; we heartily recommend that you look elsewhere for your design needs. A unique and impactful logo design simply cannot be ‘whipped up’ in conveyor belt fashion, or without the benefit of creative reflection.
Inquisitive – a company logo design company who takes only your name and number, then gives you a price and sprints away to conjure up your ‘original’ logo design in 24 hours or less, is not exactly looking out for your interests. In order to provide a quality logo for YOUR company, a designer must first know more about your product or services. If they’re not asking questions, they’re clearly not designing with your specific business in mind.
Thorough – any logo design firm worth its salt will perform a comprehensive examination of your target market, your company’s competition, current trends and other pertinent factors prior to beginning your project. Without these critical pieces of information, a designer cannot possibly focus on attracting the right customers for your business, and in the most compelling ways possible.
Solid Reputation – customer recommendations remain one of the best ways to learn more about a company logo design firm. Take time to read through any testimonials posted on a designer’s website, or you could even take it a step further by directly contacting any past customers to get feedback on their own experience with the company.
Professionalism and superb customer service – your company logo design experience should not be stressful or unpleasant. You should never have to ‘chase down’ your designer to get answers to your questions or be acknowledged; if your initial encounter with a prospective design firm leaves you with unanswered questions or makes you feel mostly disregarded, seek out other prospects who will be happy to demonstrate appreciation for your business.

Expert Company Logo Design Firm

If you're serious about your business, you should be serious about your company logo design. PearTree Design has been designing logos for more than 15 years, and we believe your logo should not be left to chance by a random contest or created from stock artwork.

At PearTree, we take a sensible approach to company logo design. Before ever beginning a project, we first take time to understand your business market and logo objectives. We then research market trends and create designs specifically for your company - no "cookie cutter" or pre-fab designs here. Unlike other companies, which may limit designs and use pre-made graphics, every design we create is unique.

We invite you to request a fast, free quote online, to help you determine how easy and cost-effective it can be to work with a company logo design firm who puts the checkmarks in all the right boxes... and much more.

Simply click the button below to tell us about your project needs, and we'll email you a custom quote for company logo design services within 24 hours:

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Graphic Design Firms – A Closer Look

In a recent PearTree Design blog article, we took a look at the differences between large and small graphic design firms, and the benefits versus caveats between these two options.

Larger design firms are a preferable choice due to more expansive resources, advanced working systems and the greater diversity of capabilities offered with multiple designers on hand. The value in smaller design firms is most often found in lower pricing, a higher level of flexibility and a more personalized customer service experience.

Ultimately it was determined that the best choice between the large and small graphic design firms is to go with a larger firm who can handle large and varied projects… but who also brings to the table the same customer service excellence, personal interaction and agreeable pricing that a small graphic design firm typically affords.

Graphic Design Firms – Bigger is Better

Both small and large graphic design firms have been found to possess pluses and minuses. But what exactly do these considerations mean for the customer? For the purposes of this article, we’ll explore the larger firms in particular, and how the benefits of bigger operations translate to greater consumer satisfaction and results.

LOWER COSTS

Yes, you read that right. And at first, it may seem like a contradiction, since larger graphic design firms tend to carry a higher price point than that of small operations. But in business, we’re always looking at the overall bottom line, are we not? So when considering all factors, you’d be surprised to learn just how much more affordable the larger firms really are. Here are just a few of the main reasons this is true:

Fewer re-touches and re-dos equates to less time and money spent
Quality graphic designs means getting your money’s worth
More diverse, original graphic designs means YOUR brand stands out in a big way
Greater impact and visibility for your materials to attract more customers

EXTENSIVE RESOURCES

When your company needs graphic design for your website, printed mailers and other branded materials, a larger design firm will have the resources handy to accommodate whatever the size of your order. Maintaining a vast stock of readily-available inventory ensures that a large design firm is capable of launching your project more immediately than would a smaller firm, who must first order out for special items to complete the order. This means your company experiences a shorter turnaround time, (and likely pays fewer dollars), for your projects to be finished.

MULTIPLE DESIGNERS AVAILABLE

Having more graphic design experts working together with your projects benefits the customer in several ways:

A larger pool of creative ideas
A more diverse range of graphic design skill sets
A collaborative effort for a more impressive end product
Expanded availability of team support
Advanced systems for accuracy and consistency

GREATER RELIABILITY

Let’s first say that regardless of the size of a graphic design firm, the team members involved may be equally skilled, experienced, dependable and reputable. But it is also true that there are quite a few fly-by-night graphic design operations out there; firms comprised of untrained and self-taught designers who may have some nifty skills under their belts, but haven’t been trained to reach full potential for their customers’ designs and outcomes.

While there’s nothing wrong with learning and growing as a business, most customers prefer to hire experts who have been fully trained, and who are committed to project excellence above all else. A larger design firm will typically invest more into their craft, and demonstrates a commitment to their business that lends itself to a higher level of trust and comfort in the eye of the consumer.

The Large Graphic Design Firm with Small Business Perks

At PearTree Designs, we are large enough to handle any project on any deadline, yet small enough to offer outstanding, one-on-one customer service in a convenient and personalized environment. In many cases, we can accommodate same-day turnaround, with professional and courteous attention to your individual needs.

Our diverse team of highly-qualified, talented printing and design experts offer a wide range of ideas and selection to meet your company requirements, regardless of the size of your business, providing every option imaginable in the realm of printing and graphic design.

PearTree offers up an intimate customer experience while producing the highest quality results, at the lowest available prices.

If you want to see how responsive and helpful our services can be for your business, simply click the button below to tell us about your project needs, and we'll email you a custom quote for printing and graphic design services within 24 hours:

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Graphic Design Firms – Does Size Matter?

The answer to this question is yes… and no.

A printing and graphic design firm may be comprised of a single designer or hundreds of employees; what customers really want to know is what kind of service and results they will receive, regardless of company size.

Today’s consumers have grown quite familiar with the pros & cons of working with both large and small companies, and these factors are being taken into serious consideration when choosing a printing and design firm for their business needs. Quality, price, speed and customer service are all part of the equation, as customers seek to find a company who demonstrates the most favorable of these combined criteria.

Printing and Graphic Design Firms Compared

So how does a consumer choose? Let’s have a look at a few benefits and caveats between large and small printing and graphic design firms:

Large Printing and Graphic Design Firm

The Up Sides:

· Capability to take on an extensive range of tasks

· Resources to tackle bulk production

· Varied team perspectives for greater range of ideas

· Familiarity with requirements and processes of larger companies

The Down Sides:

· Typically a more costly option

· Sometimes marked by confusion, (aka, “too many cooks in the kitchen”)

· Often less-than-satisfactory customer service

· Occasionally limited by company policies

Small Printing and Graphic Design Firm

The Up Sides:

· More personalized, one-on-one customer service interaction

· Generally lower in pricing

· Creative freedom and more flexible policies

· Greater familiarity with individual client needs

The Down Sides:

· Limited ability to produce in bulk

· Fewer designers, with longer turnaround times

· Learning curve in adjustment to large company operations

· Frequently has a smaller supply of on hand stock

Weighing out the pros and cons can be useful in making a final determination when choosing a large or small printing and graphic design firm. But if all this comparative analysis produces nothing more than a headache, you might appreciate this one valuable hint: don’t choose one or the other; get the best of BOTH worlds instead.

The most favorable combination of benefits can be found by hiring a large company who can produce in bulk, yet offers the same favorable perks that a small company affords. A bigger company does not have to mean impersonal customer service or sky-high prices. You can have it all.

A Large AND Small Printing and Design Firm, All Rolled Into One.

At PearTree Designs, our greatest value comes from being large enough to handle any project on any deadline, yet small enough to offer outstanding, one-on-one customer service in a convenient and personalized environment. In many cases, we can accommodate same-day turnaround, with professional and courteous attention to your individual needs.

PearTree offers up an intimate customer experience while producing the highest quality results, at the lowest available prices.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Graphic Design – Don’t Cut Corners with Your Branding

If you’re in the process of considering graphic designs for your business logo, brochure, website, direct mail and other printed items, a well thought-out and effectively developed marketing strategy will go far to ensure that your promotional materials produce the most significant return on your investment.

Budget is certainly a concern as well – but savvy consumers understand that saving a few dollars now will invariably cost them far more down the road, in terms of poor results and subsequent reinvestment. Those online websites who offer a $99 graphic design for instant download may seem enticing, but the results are all too often generic, unoriginal and low quality renderings.

If you are going to invest in your business, don’t scrimp on the materials that will represent YOUR company. This doesn’t mean ‘break the bank’; only that a little more investment now will mean a far better return going forward.

Graphic Designs for Cohesive Marketing

As part of your overall marketing plan, you’ll need more than just a logo or website; your branding should include a cohesive presentation made up of varied media elements, in order to connect all of your materials and solidify your message.

These materials could include:

Your company may not specifically have need for all of these graphic design components, but bear in mind that any of these options you do decide to implement MUST have a consistent, branded theme in order to reinforce recognition of your business.

Once you’ve decided on which graphic design components should be included in your marketing approach, the important next step is to ensure that those materials will ‘pack a punch’ in grabbing the attention of consumers. If the graphic designs are lackluster, cheap-looking and flat-out boring, your branding investment has been mostly wasted.

Here are a few tips to ensure that your graphic design branding exudes quality and expertise, and makes the most of your business marketing budget:

First and foremost: you MUST know your target audience. You wouldn’t sell tuxedos using the same graphic designs as a company selling skateboards, would you? If your audience is elegant, so must be your graphic designs. Understand exactly who is your primary customer, and sell to them, in their own visual ‘language’.

Don’t use graphic designs based on current trends or fashions, (unless you want to change your materials with every changing fad!) Materials should be branded with timeless, enduring graphic designs, that uphold their relevance and beauty regardless of current trends, for longstanding presentation value.

Stand out. Don’t recycle old motifs and copy elements of other graphic designs to suit your own. Instead, BE your own design – be original, be recognizable, and strike a bold statement with whatever your message. Make certain that your ‘point’ is made in an instant, without graphics that clutter or confuse long before they inform. Don’t be afraid to use ‘white space’ to make your message stand out even more.

It’s easy to see how the use of fly-by-night, downloadable graphic designs at rock-bottom prices online could never give you the benefit of these concepts. Too many important graphic design considerations are completely left out of the process. So when the time comes to brand your business, think it through, examine your requirements, and confer with experts who understand how to put all the pieces together in a cohesive and truly powerful way.

Expert Graphic Design Services

At PearTree, every graphic design we create is unique, and acutely focused on attracting your specific target market. We can work with your current logo and branding, or create exciting new solutions for you to create a cohesive, impressive branding campaign.

We have the tools and expertise to create eye-catching, custom graphic designs for every type of business. With our talented team of design experts, developers and animators, there is no website or graphic design project we can't handle.

If you haven't yet established a solid, effective and enduring branding strategy for your company or organization, it only takes a few seconds to get an idea of how easy and affordable it can be to let us brand your business for powerful marketing results.

Just click the button below to tell us what you have in mind, and we'll email you a custom quote for graphic design services within 24 hours:

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Does Your Web Design Drive Away Potential Customers?

There’s no getting around it anymore – if you have a business, you need a business website. Even if your company has already established a solid reputation and a large number of loyal repeat customers, there are still millions of consumers out there who need your product or services, but will never know you exist if you don’t have a presence online with compelling web design and informative content.

Furthermore, those who already know about your business will often seek to establish your company’s credibility through your web presence; an opportunity to learn more about your product or services at a leisurely pace, without the pressure of connecting with a salesperson or representative. While an aesthetically pleasing web design may not specifically lead a reader to the final conclusion that your company is expert and reliable, a complete lack of web presence can easily lower your credibility factor, since many consumers believe that “any ‘legitimate’ business would have a website.”

Think restaurant with no phone… this certainly wouldn’t instill confidence in the consumer, who has come to expect that a quality establishment would by default have a phone number! As time goes on and technology grows ever more pervasive, the same now applies to a business with no website.

How Much Does Web Design Really Matter?

More than you might think. While it’s true that your web site should first and foremost be an informative tool to elaborate on your product or services, the actual web design is a critical component in instilling a positive or negative experience for your visitor. All the great information you provide will never be seen if a visitor is turned off by the web design and opts to leave your site before reading it.

You may be thinking, “But how can web design turn away visitors?”

Here are just a few of the common missteps that can drive your visitors, (aka, your valuable business prospects), away from your web site before you’ve had the chance to properly pitch your goods to them:

TOO BUSY web design

Surely you’ve encountered one or more sites of this type; you know… the web page that looks like it was created by a web design student who’s so excited about all the new ‘tricks’ they’re learning, they just toss in every bell and whistle they’ve acquired along the way. The result is a flashing, blinking, confusing and often obnoxious mess. Your web design should excite the visitor, not raise their blood pressure. Few readers will remain on a page with so much ‘noise’ going on.

Lack of consistency

An inconsistent web design will only confuse readers – and confused readers do not convert to customers. While it may be tempting (and often effective) to try something new and different with your web design, there are certain components which should remain standard, so your readers become quickly familiar with your web site content and navigation. Call it ‘edgy’ to change the site’s navigation menu from page to page, or to switch up fonts from one paragraph to another… but your readers have come to expect some common aspects they find as standard on most websites, and making them ‘work’ to discover your special variations is generally not a good idea.

SLOW loading time

This alone can wreck the visitor experience, and drive away potential customers in an instant. If your web design is overloaded with intense graphics, tons of video, flash components and unnecessary plug-ins, your pages may not display as quickly as they should. Particularly for visitors who have slow internet speeds or older computer equipment, it could mean your site never fully loads – so readers simply click away and go find a site that more rapidly delivers the information they seek. When it comes to web design, outstanding doesn’t have to mean intense; make it easy for your visitors to click through your pages with ease and velocity as needed.

There are many more ways in which a visitor may be repelled by a poorly-developed website design, and we’ll be sure to return with more in a later article. In the meantime, the next time you’re browsing the web for a product or service, make note of any turn-offs you encounter on various websites, and how they ultimately affect any decision you make about the business of product. Then, you will see that web design most certainly matters!

PearTree: The Web Design Experts

At PearTreeDesign, we have the expertise and ability to create eye-catching, custom web designs for every type of business. With our talented team of web design experts, developers and animators, there is no project or web design we can't handle.

We can also provide powerful tools, such as custom review pages, YouTube videos, and social networking pages that help increase exposure and presence over the web.

If you haven't yet established a web presence for your business, or simply need to update an outdated web design, take a moment to request a quote for web design services from our team. It's free, easy and well worth your while if you're falling behind on the world wide web!

Just click the button below to tell us what you're looking for and when you need it, and we'll email you a custom quote within 24 hours:

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Brochure Design – 3 Critical Ways Quality Trumps Budget

The title of this article may be somewhat misleading… let’s keep in mind that choosing a brochure design firm does NOT have to mean sacrificing budget for quality. In fact, quality invariably equates to a reasonable budget, when one considers the ultimate savings of time & money, and the benefits of impressive results.

But the opposite is rarely true; if you’re choosing a brochure design firm based on budget alone, you will not only sacrifice quality, but you’ll likely end up shelling out far more of your precious budget dollars in the long run.

Remarkable Brochure Design

Your company brochure design is a window into your business. This all-important component of your marketing materials must reflect your business in look and feel, immediately represent your company’s level of expertise, and powerfully compel readers to venture further inside – all within a single glance of the viewer’s eye.

Not surprisingly, this is simply NOT going to happen if your brochure design is shoddy, outdated, or not in sync with the focus of your business and that of your target market.

Knowing the level of importance your brochure design carries, why would anyone consider spending valuable company funds for rinky-dink results? It will only cost them more for less… not a practical (nor profitable) decision for their business.

Here are 3 critical factors to consider when hiring a brochure design firm:

Quality First. Have you ever picked up a brochure that looks as if it was created in Word by your neighbor’s teenager, and printed at home on colored construction paper? The company in the brochure may well be reputable, great at what they do, and ultimately a terrific fit for whatever your needs, but you’ll never know it by glancing at that low-budget brochure design. Your company’s first impression is your branded marketing materials – don’t let your business be represented by a poor quality introduction.

Originality. Do you want to spotlight YOUR business, or merely join the ranks of the “bulletin board” advertisers who are satisfied to post their message with a few boring stock images tossed in for good measure? Consumers have “been around the block”; they’re growing increasing weary of the same old tired clip art graphics they see again and again. Command their attention with something new, and something that is specifically YOU, and you’ll be certain to pique their interest in a far more effective way.

Design for Results. It’s great to have a ‘pretty’ brochure design with intricate and colorful accents… but can consumers read it? Does it grab their eye and tell your story in an instant? Or is it bogged down with ornamentation and detail that only serves to confuse the viewer? Remember, this is not an art exhibit; you have but a split second to make your impression. You want your brochure design to be pleasing to the eye, but be mindful that first and foremost, your design must immediately reach out and grab your viewer’s attention.

So how do these factors apply to budget?

It’s simple. If you miss out on potential customers (or worse yet, steer them away) by representing your business with low-budget materials, you’re missing out on untold profits. And when you realize the results of such a decision, you’ll spend even more of your budget dollars having to re-create your brand all over again. Paying for quality brochure design from the start will ensure a less expensive and more profitable outcome for your efforts.

The Best Brochure Design Firm for Quality AND Budget

If your business is in dire need of a well-branded brochure design, (or your current brochure is sadly outdated), PearTree Design can help! Whether you’re ready to make your brochure design decision now, or you’re just shopping around for the moment, why not take a simple first step by getting some information about pricing, and a time frame for your brochure project? Having this info handy will save you time and effort when you’re ready to see your brochure design through to creation.