What Color is Your Brand?
From UPS brown to Tiffany blue, many brands have strong associations with colors, and that’s no coincidence. Whether you’re managing a global brand, a regional institution or a micro start-up, color can be a powerful way to build and reinforce your own brand equity.
But in case you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to pay someone to analyze what color your brand is and/or should be, here are some free resources that offer some food for thought.
- “Your Brand’s True Colors” – Entrepreneur magazine. Selling health or wealth? According to this article, green may be for you. Have a brand that’s all about fun? Try orange—it exudes vitality. See what other colors have traditionally come to represent and if yours aligns with your brand.
- 2013 Color of the Year – The experts at Pantone decreed Tangerine Tango as last year’s must-have color, and it appeared everywhere from the red carpet to home interiors. So what’s this year’s winner? Click through to find out and see how you may be able to incorporate it into your graphics.
- Basic Color Theory – Get a solid introduction to the theory behind colors at ColorMatters.com. Find out all about the color wheel, color harmony and color context and start putting together color solutions that are visually appealing as well as emotionally evocative.
- 2012 Color in Design Awards – Peruse the 40 winning entries in last year’s Color in Design Awards, presented by HOW, the leading creativity, business and technology magazine for graphic designers. You’re sure to find something to inspire you.
Finally, just for fun try ColorMatters.com’s Global Color Survey. Submit your answers to 19 multiple choice questions – with no wrong answers! – to receive global results showing favorite colors and associations of 130,000 people around the world.
“Top Jobs” Announced
For the first time ever, Signs By Tomorrow partnered with leading trade publication Wide-Format Imaging to present its annual “Top Jobs” awards, given out at the company’s national meeting. Open to all SBT franchise members to honor and recognize the best of the best of custom signage, this year’s grand prize winner will receive a cover feature in an upcoming issue of Wide-Format Imaging while category winners will each receive coverage plus $200.
This year’s “Top Jobs” winners are:
Most Prestigious and Best in Show: Mary Lou Goehrung, SBT Rockville, MD
Winning the Most Prestigious category, SBT Rockville also captured the grand prize with their work for the World Basketball Festival, which hosted representatives from 10 different nations at the Washington, DC Armory last July. Mary Lou and her talented crew provided 45 large format fabric banners (10’ x 15’) and sprayed each one for fire retardancy. But the work didn’t stop there – SBT Rockville also delivered fabric frame systems, 3D routed letters, hundreds of feet of floor graphics and the fabrication of 12” wide, floating, hollow, self-standing letters that were – what else? – lighted!
Large Scale/High Impact: Gary Schellerer, SBT Bloomingdale, IL
Talk about stopping traffic. Gary and his staff at SBT Bloomingdale literally did just that with graphics they produced as part of the biggest public art installation in Chicago. In just two weeks, despite having to work with over 70,000 square feet of vinyl, four different types of material and an occasional downpour from Mother Nature, SBT Bloomingdale transformed a bustling city intersection into a 3-D multimedia explosion.
Design and Craftsmanship: Scotty Hager, SBT Richmond, VA
Scotty and his team at SBT Richmond set the bar high in the competition by creating a beautiful acrylic stand-off sculpture to recognize donors at James Madison University. Comprised of nine 96”-high acrylic panels of gradually narrowing width, each panel is engraved and bent to produce curves and waves, then mounted on a stainless steel track on a curved wall and suspended with braided steel cables.
Congratulations to all the winners and entrants, and let us know if you have an upcoming project you think could be one of next year’s Top Jobs!
Custom Is King
Henry Ford’s most famous quote to describe the ubiquitous Model T was “You can have it in any color you want, as long as it’s black”. Something so revolutionary to American culture, that changed our demographics, geography, our fundamental core, only came in one color. We’re used to that though aren’t we? The first iPhone? Black. Men’s slacks? You better like black, brown, or navy. Who could forget the lovely shade of IBM beige?
Today though, businesses and consumers are waking up to the colors and patterns of the world around them. You can buy an iPod in no less than 9 colors, a Ford Focus in 10 vivid hues, and for the more adventurous, slacks come in lovely shades of red, purple, and green. Why stop there though? With new advancements in technology almost any object can be customized to fit the personality and mood of the person strutting around with it.
Nowhere is this more evident than the sign industry. It used to be easy to describe a sign. They said things like “Open, please come in!” or “Sale 50% Off!”, were square, and frankly, kind of boring. You had a few colors to choose from, a few materials, and that was about it. Not anymore. New print technologies allow nearly anything you can imagine to be easily customized, and for a very reasonable cost. Want your new couch to match your new wallpaper? No problem, print the upholstery with a custom color. Do you want your waiting room chairs to be emblazoned with your corporate logo, complete with an accurate color match? Simple. A sign suddenly doesn’t seem so square does it? The only thing limiting the applications is the depth of your creativity.
So next time you are yawning while looking at your white walls and gray carpet, remember it doesn’t have to be this way. You live on a planet full of color. Every surface, every texture, every object in your space doesn’t have to be boring. Make it yours, make it pop.
Effective Use of Custom Feather Banners for Property Managers
Ashley Werner Marketing Manager TexVisions
You know them as feather banners, flutter flags, or teardrop banners. You’ve probably seen them everywhere—by the roadside, in front of a business, and on car lots. What makes feather banners so popular? Like one of their names, they flutter in the wind to attract attention while remaining taut so the message is readable in high winds or no wind at all.
So what is the best way to use custom feather banners on your property? Here are a few things to consider ensuring your feather banners are as effective as possible:
Who is your audience?
Before deciding the placement of your custom feather banner, consider its purpose. What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to draw in people driving by your property, or advertise a sale to people already on your property? The first step to ensuring that your feather banner is effective is to consider your audience. You can’t decide the best place to put your banner if you don’t know who your audience is.
Where do you need it?
Once you’ve decided who your audience is, you need to decide where to put your custom feather banner. Consider the best place to reach that particular audience. For example, if you want to reach people driving by your property, putting feather banners along the road would probably be the best way to reach them. If you want to reach people already on your property, however, putting feather banners in your lobby would be a better solution. Because feather banners remain taut without wind, they can be used effectively in both indoor and outdoor settings.
How often will you change it?
Will your feather banner be a permanent or temporary display? After determining your audience and banner placement, this is the next thing you need to decide. Is this a permanent display? Choose a more permanent base,
Custom Feather Banners
such as a ground stake, and take care of your print so it lasts as long as possible before it has to be replaced. For temporary displays, select a base that is easier to be removed, such as a square base, which sit flat on floors and sidewalks. You might also consider selecting a feather banner size that will fit multiple settings. If you only have to change the print, you will get multiple uses out of your feather banner, even if it is a temporary display.
These are merely a few things to get you started with your feather banner. These tips, however, can apply to any display you may be using. No matter the display, if you start by asking yourself these questions, your custom feather banner is sure to be effective!
Environmental Graphics: The Hot Product of ISA
International Sign Expo 2012
In March, members of the Signs By Tomorrow staff took a field trip to Orlando FL to attend the annual ISA (International Sign Association) International Sign Expo. While many manufacturers were showcasing production and graphics printing equipment, environmental and vehicle graphics materials stole the show.
By utilizing cleanly removable adhesives (think of a heavy duty Post-It note) nearly any surface can be used to display your brand’s message, or add a touch of artistic class to an otherwise drab surface. The beauty of this type of adhesive is that custom graphics can be displayed for a few days or even a year and then be easily removed without causing damage to the surface.
Commissioning an artist to paint a custom wall mural can not only be expensive but can take weeks or months to complete the project. Now, full color graphics can be printed on vinyl or fabric and applied directly to interior and exterior surfaces.
Wall graphics are an affordable and efficient way to transform reception areas, conference rooms, restaurants, and even homes into stimulating environments. Even if you have textured or brick walls within your facility, graphics manufacturers have created vinyl materials that allow us to apply a custom graphic directly to a brick wall giving the appearance that the image has been painted on the building.
To Say More, Say Less with Custom Vehicle Graphics
As a business owner, it’s hard to stop talking about your business. You want to tell everyone what you do, how you do it differently, and how much you enjoy it. That passion for your business is what motivated you to open it in the first place right?
Too Much Text
Sometimes though, you can say so much that no one hears a word of it! One of those times can be when you decide is use custom vehicle graphics to advertise your business. Vehicle graphics, wraps and lettering are a cost effective method of garnering plenty of advertising impressions for your business but only are effective when they are used properly.
