RAMON GIL

Don't Hire Your Friends

Okay, let me qualify that headline. Don't hire your friends for tasks they don't do professionally or as a business. Regularly, I'm a big advocate of hiring your friends, but not if they're not qualified. 

I know this seems like common sense, but when people start a business, they often try to cut costs by hiring people who will do it for less or as a favor instead of paying higher fees for a professional. But what often happens is that you end up with bad results and have to hire a real professional to fix things. And then you've paid twice. Here are some examples from real life...sort of. 

The Edible Logo Logos are an interesting thing. Everyone thinks it's easy to create one. But the truth is, it's not. At least not if you want a good one. There are a lot of things you need to consider. Case in point: A client of ours wanted us to create some stationery using a logo created by his 11 year old daughter. 'Said it would break her heart if we didn't use it. Anyway, the pre-teen designer used crayons and macaroni shells which made it almost impossible to scan. But scan it we did, but because it was multicolored, it looked really bad printed in black and white for his invoices, and was practically unreadable when printed on his business cards. It didn't look too bad on the side of his delivery truck but the macaroni shells kept getting soggy in the rain. In the end, we had to dump the logo and create a new one because Prego was threatening trademark infringement. Thank God. Since then, we've instituted a policy that only WE get to design the logos on branding projects. 

The Website That Almost Never Was Building a website is one of the more complicated thing you can contract for. A client came to us after they went to a guy someone knew who could do it for cheap because he had a full-time job and just did this on the side. But because the guy only designed websites and never actually "planned" or "managed" a website project, the whole thing took several months and endless revisions. When the designer realized he was putting in more hours than he had budgeted for and was now practically working for free, he became really resentful causing him to eventually lose his insecure girlfriend. What she had to do with any of this, I don't know. But the point is, he wasn't happy, the client wasn't happy and by the time we got involved, the designer was in therapy and in debt, the client was suing the designer and had realized that the product he wanted to sell on his website was now obsolete (Leather accessories for Palm TREOs, remember those?), and the girlfriend was dating Eliot Spitzer. I admit this is an extreme case. 

The Unprintable Publication One client, a disgraced former NY governor who shall remain nameless, wanted to save money by having us design the cover for his tell-all book and simply use the MircoSoft Word document he had laid out himself for the inside pages. Well, let me tell you something we learned about MSW files that week. Traditional offset printers don't know what the hell to do with them!  They can take QuarkXpress files, inDesign files, PDFs even Illustrator EPS'. But give them an MSW file and all hell breaks looks! Fonts don't translate well from PC to Mac or vice versa, text shifts, page numbers go all out of wack and the pictures wouldn't stay on the centerfold.  So remember, don't use MicroSoft Word to do pre-press page design. Okay, maybe I've embellished a little on the facts, but the lesson is true. Use professionals (like us) for your communications materials, graphic design and marketing needs. It's usually easier (and cheaper) to do it right the first time, than to have to explain to your wife why the FBI is asking her for receipts. Well, you get the picture.

Don't Use Make My Logo Bigger Cream

One of my designers sent me this link the other day (http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/). It's a brilliant spoof of all those infomercials that claim to have a break-through product. Except in this case, it's a cream that makes your logo BIGGER, among other things!

Now if you watch the video on the website, you may realize that this was created with advertising designers in mind as a way of making fun of clients who always want to make their logos bigger, use more of the white space or add a starburst to jazz up the ad. I forwarded the link to all my designer friends but held off on sending it to clients because it may hit a little too close to home for some of them.

But then I thought, why not address the legitimate issues raised by this mock infomercial. It's a chance to help educate business people on why designers do what we do. So here goes a product-by-product rebuttal to some common client/design issues: 

1. Make My Logo Bigger Cream - There's actually a scientifically proven ratio of what percentages of elements on an ad works best. It's 75% primary image, 15% text and 10% branding. You have to have a primary image to grab people's attention so that they will even look at your ad. Then the text informs them, then the logo reminds them of who you are. If you were to equally distribute the 3 elements, then nothing will stand out and no one will stop to read your ad. And if you make your logo the biggest thing on the page....well, no one really stops just to look at a logo. Would you? 

2. White Space Eliminator - Sometimes, clients feel like they are paying for space on an ad or for space on pages in a printed piece and therefore feel the need to fill it up with content. But here's why that might not be a good idea. One of the most effective tools designer's use to grab people's eyes is "contrast." If you're going to have a big thing on the page, then you should have a little thing to contrast it. If you're going to have a bright thing, then you need a dark thing. And if you're going to have positive space, then you should have some negative space. If everything was the same (size, brightness, spacing) Nothing would stand out and nothing would grab people. So white space is usually a good thing to have. Also, white space evokes class and elegance. If you compare the store windows of a 99cent store and that of Saks Fifth Avenue, one has a ton of items on display, and one has 1 or 2 items. So which one looks classier to you?

3. Starburst Dust - Starbursts are great when you're having a bargain bin sale, but the fact is, if you don't want your company or brand associated with any kind of bargain bin, don't use it. 

4. Flouresencizer - Sure florescent colors or a lot of bright colors draw attention, but is it appropriate? And more importantly, does it reinforce your brand? When you see Red & White what cola drink do you think of? When you see Red & Gold, what burger chain? When you see Brown, what shipping company? Get the picture? Pick your official colors and stick to it and eventually those colors will be synonymous with your company. Did you know that Mattel officially patented a Barbie Pink? 

5. Emotionator - This was probably the only product advertised that was spot on. But the trick is to make sure you're evoking the correct emotions. In advertising, you don't want to sell the "features" that a product has but the "benefits" those features can give to your customers. And sometimes, that benefit is the fulfillment of an "emotional need." Volvos fill people's need to feel "safe." LL Bean fills people's desire to appear "rugged." Nike fills people who prefer to look "athletic." But like I said, you need to tap into the correct emotional need. So don't show a cute puppy if you're trying to sell computers. 

Though I must say, I'm amazed at how much auto racing equipment is sold by using images of bikini-clad women.

Tips on Getting a Logo Designed for your Business

This piece was originally published in the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce's publication Business Matters Spring 08 issue. 

How much does it cost to get a logo designed? In 1971, Carolyn Davidson designed the Nike "swoosh" for $35. Nowadays, you can find websites that will design your logo for as little as $50. Then there are the big branding firms that charge thousands of and believe it or not, the money is usually worth it. But that's because you're paying for things like legal research to see if a similar logo already exists; focus groups to see what people think of your logo or company; styleguides which serve as bibles on how to "apply" your new logo; trademarking, and of course there are the hundreds of billable hours for design time by "seasoned" and "award-winning" designers. 

But if you're a small business, you probably don't need all that because 1) you'll probably be doing business locally which means it wont matter if your logo looks a little like another company's 5 states away. 2) your not going mass market, so you don't have to worry about what focus groups 3) you won't need a styleguide since your logo isn't going to be used by thousands of employees in hundreds of offices worldwide, which means you can pretty much keep it consistent all by yourself. 

So should you just pay some design student to do it for a hundred bucks or so? You could, but you're taking the chance of getting a logo that may look good to you, but is actually poorly designed and not just for esthetic reasons, but for practical ones. There are a few rules to logo design that you probably want to follow if you're planning to use it a lot or grow your business over several years: 

1. A logo must look good in BLACK & WHITE before it looks good in color. Why? Because there may be times when all you can afford to print in is Black and White. A logo with 23 colors is going to look pretty bad on photocopies. Doesn't mean you can't have color; just make sure the Black & White version looks as good as the color version. And it's probably a good idea to limit it to two colors. three at the most. No, just two. Unless your company name has the word "rainbow" in it or your business involves children. 

2. A logo should NOT be intricate. Sure that fancy decorative lace pattern on your logo looks good all blown up on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. But how does it hold up on a 3 x 2 business card? Can you even tell what it is? Can your printer even print that small? Simpler, bolder, better. Ixnay any small type on it too. 

3. A logo should be designed on a VECTOR-based program like Adobe Illustrator. NOT PHOTOSHOP. Vector means lines along mathematically calculated points. Photoshop deals with pixels which are what digital photographs are made of. Ever try to enlarge a digital photo? It gets blurry, right? That's called pixelation. Good luck putting your Photoshop logo on the side of your delivery truck! With Adobe Illustrator files, the image is represented by numbers, so that no matter what size, your logo looks sharp. 

4. A logo should make sense. Whether it is a type treatment or a symbol, a logo should convey something about what your business is about. Someone should be able to look at it and say "Hey, you sell clocks!" Why make it hard for potential customers to know what it is you do? If your logo is just a pretty design, then it's just taking up room and you wasted your money. 

Many of these "logo design" websites, often disregard most if not all of the above. And if you already did get your logo designed by one of these places, then at least you only spent $50 or $100 dollars. 

But how much should you pay for logo design? Do this: come up with a budget that you’re willing to spend (And don't forget, you'll still need to pay for printing) then find someone who’s previous logo designs you like and will work within your budget and who you trust and think you would enjoy working with. 

So whether you hire some kid off craigslist for $100 or go with an experienced designer who’se charging upwards of a few thousand dollars, follow these rules and you can't go wrong.

How to Avoid Killing Your Web Designer

The funny thing about web design is that it's probably one of the most complicated marketing tools you can choose to use and yet many people hire the most affordable designer they can find, which often times means, they may have the least experience in getting through a web development project. 

They may be great designers, but more than any other kind of design project, websites take a long time to complete, involve a LOT of content, and usually have more complex structures than you first think. Lots of things can and often do go wrong. I've heard (and been part of ) so many situations wherein the clients are never satisfied with the work and the designers are frustrated with the amount of revisions being asked for. One of our clients even went to court with their previous designer, which is almost unheard of in this industry. 

The key to making this process as painless as possible is to have a written contract that specifies deadlines, design fees, all deliverables, exclusions and as many contingencies as you can think of. Here are some other mandatories for your contract. 

1. Agree on the number of concepts, the number of design revision rounds, and the number of content revision rounds. As a general rule, the less rounds the better. Maybe 3-5. This forces everyone to be decisive and thus saves time and money. 

2. Think about everything else. Will the designer do the maintenance as part of the contract or is that extra? Or maybe you want to have a content management system (CMS). Who's in charge of getting the web hosting account? Buying the domain name? Choosing keywords and submitting the site to search engines? Who will promote the site, submit to other sites for cross-links, measure traffic? All this should be spelled out clearly in your agreement beforehand. 

3. Create a wireframes or "text-only" website with no graphic elements. This will give you the client the opportunity to proof and finalize the navigation before the designer actually builds the "designed" website. Everyone should test and approve this wireframe site before moving forward. It's usually easier and less frustrating for the designer to make changes to structure and navigation in a text-only site instead of a fully designed one. 

4. Test, Test, Test! You should test your wireframes site, your employees should test it, your friends and family should test it. The object is to find shortcomings in the way information is accessed. Should you have the contact info be under "About Us" or should it be on it's own page or on every page? Should the testimonials link from the products page, the about us page or both? Should you have a FAQs page? a Bios page? A News Page? Decide all these BEFORE building the final site. If you keep changing your structure as the actual site is being built, the designer will want to charge you more. 

5. Agree on a launch date and stick to it. But this also means that you need to approve and give feedback in a timely manner. If you tell the designer you need this website up on March 1 but you don't approve the design or content until February 25 when they submitted it to you 3 weeks earlier, then you're not being fair to the designer. 

Building a website, is like constructing a building. You need to know which rooms are going to go where, where the lobby will be, and where the stairs are going to go first. You wouldn't build one without a final architectural plan now would you?