Textures and backgrounds have real use for anyone involved in graphic design. Here is a range of free downloads – grungey patterns, concrete, stone, brick and plaster. Please feel free to use them in your own projects, carve them up, crop them for use as patterns, recolour them as textures.
Every life, even the most small and ordinary has the capacity to use imagination, sight and thought coupled with a little invention. Out of this we all often soothe and salve the boredoms, pains, distress and irritation from that life. Here, in graphic art, illustration, text and poetry we take a small journey through all of this.
The illustrations were taken from scenes around where I live or using odd bits of food and other objects from my own everyday life. The ordinary, the distressed, the broken, the discarded can all be made into something else. Texture added by the imagination for the mind. It is not just a tactile thing. The eyes can have it as well as the fingertips.
I am currently working on volume 2 of this project. I will be publishing a taster as soon as possible.
There is an increasing use of motion graphics by companies in their marketing and branding. It has the capacity to give very particular images of a product, service or company.
The basics of your message are the words you use – it goes without saying. If content is king then one of the content royal family is the message directly put in words. It may be a one liner, a tagline, slogan, motto, or it may be something of greater depth – an article, a written walk-though, helpful information your clients and customers can use, or perhaps general and chatty ideas surrounding your products, services and the corner of the market they inhabit.
You brand is made of so many things. Increasingly it is becoming more and more visual, even for the small business. The visual aspect may be a photo, a graphic design, a video presentation or promo. It is even the case that motion graphics are being used more by larger organizations for their promotions. They bring an artier sensibility to the whole marketing process. I will admit it is something I like, but it is not right for everyone and would make the marketing scene dull if everyone was employing just such.
Marketing for any small business can be difficult. It is generally a question of gaining a balance between cost, time, content and channels. There is very little sense in looking at any series of marketing options which are not going to be value for money and give suitable return on investment. The channels and content you choose need to fit the purpose at hand, particularly reaching the right targets in the right way. some businesses benefit well from a high incidence of graphic content while others do not. Marketing via a series of channels densely populated by youth is not a good choice for those with an older target market.
Given recent changes to Google algorhythms there has been far more emphasis put on video content. Indeed, there has been a greater weight given to content of all sorts, in particular the quality of that content.
Video comes in two major forms – basic message promo and information laden video. Promo videos give the basics of a message about a product, service or brand. They are short, punchy and often stylized. Information laden videos are generally longer, spoken word, text and graphics based.
There are two major schools of thought, it seems, concerning the best length of business video. The measurement of engagement span in video viewing talks of both 45 seconds and also over 2 minutes in terms of length of engagement, interest holding. The point that is all too often missed in comparing these glaringly different assessments is that there is more than one reason for video viewing online. Where someone is channel hopping or seeking entertainment, looking for a certain need to be met, then a shorter engagement tends to be the case. Interest is held only for seconds. Particular sorts of video work well given this sort of motivation, this sort of online activity. At other times the very same person may be looking for real information, something of depth. This purposive behaviour tends to lead to a longer potential engagement with a video. If someone is seeking out bodies of information laden content then they will extend their engagement with video content that fulfills that need, but only if that content answers a question posed or delivers something held to be of value.
Choose your channels to suit your business needs, your targets. Create, or have created for you, the sort of content that delivers what is required by your targets.
Everything above provides an introduction to a couple of ideas concerning small business marketing – integrated responsive marketing, a content marketing approach.
and here is a novel set of ideas to add to the marketing arsenal – as they say the theatre has a real history in marketing itself – why not make it entertaining
one of our taglines is – who put the art into marketing
there is too much marketing that is tired and hackneyed
Textures and backgrounds have real use for anyone involved in graphic design. Here is a range of free downloads – grungey patterns, concrete, stone, brick and plaster. Please feel free to use them in your own projects, carve them up, crop them for use as patterns, recolour them as textures.
