Using Colors in #GraphicDesign©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Using Colors in Graphic Design

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Whether you are establishing a brand or updating one, don’t overlook the importance of using colors in graphic design to represent your organization.

Color theory and psychology date back to Egyptian times. Their observations and findings were that colors could affect people’s moods. In modern society, these same principles remain true.

By using colors in graphic design, you are setting the tone and building the foundation for your entire brand. Colors are subjective. Influences such as culture, other associations with the color, personal preferences, and additional factors impact how people perceive your brand just based on color!

Don’t forget, that hues and saturations can awaken distinct responses – either negative, positive, or neutral. Ideally, you want to choose a color that resonates with your product or service offering, audience, or customer base.

An Overview of What Colors Represent

Primary colors include red, blue, and yellow. When primary colors get combined, they create secondary colors. Secondary colors include orange; a combination of red and yellow; purple, a combination of red and blue; and green, a combination of blue and yellow.

Selecting a color that embodies your product or service plays a critical role in establishing your brand identity. Here are a few thoughts to consider when choosing the colors that represent your organization.

Subtle colors are more calming than harder colors on the spectrum. These softer colors, including purple, violet, and green, tend to not be as visible to people. Pastels and faded colors are harder to focus on, giving them a calming effect. Additionally, these soft shades and hues are believed to help boost concentration.

Hard colors, including orange, red, and yellow stand out, have higher visibility and make objects look more substantial and closer. They create a sense of excitability and responsiveness from a consumer standpoint.

The most calming color is blue. Additionally, blue is a color that helps build trust and loyalty. Blue is a preferred color for brands including Facebook, Twitter, Lowe’s, Skype, and Ford. From a color psychology standpoint, blue is said to be helpful for suppressing the appetite.

Pink stimulates the appetite. Further, it evokes femininity, the female gender, sensitivity, romance, and sweetness. Favorite brands that use the color pink include Barbie, Pink, Taco Bell, and Cosmopolitan.

Red, when used in restaurants, encourages patrons to eat more, eat quicker, and leave promptly. For these reasons, it should come as no surprise that the color red commonly gets used by fast food chains and other eateries as core parts of their branding elements. Further, when the color red gets used in casinos and bars, patrons tend to lose track of time.

Other common associations with the color red include sultriness, heat, confidence, and ambition.

Top brands that use the color red in their graphic design and branding elements include Walgreens, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, KFC, Del Taco, Baja Fresh, Virgin Brands, and more.

The color yellow is cheerful. Not surprisingly, it is also the most visible and recognizable color. (Think about traffic signs!) Yellow is ideal for grabbing attention, projecting urgency, as well as spreading optimism and hope. Leading companies and brands that use yellow in their graphic design and branding elements include BestBuy, Subway, Sonic, IKEA, and Snapchat.

Orange is a color that conveys feelings of warmth, freedom, and optimism. Brands that use the color orange in their graphic design and branding campaigns include Blogger, Mastercard, The Home Depot, Firefox, Harley-Davidson, and Amazon. In marketing, the color orange is sometimes used to make expensive items appear less expensive, so could be worth considering if you’re offering a higher-end product or service to your client base.

Green is a color that represents growth, prosperity, generosity, and clarity. Other associations include health, positivity, and balance. If your product or service caters to wealthier clients, forest or other darker shades of green help you appeal to this target audience. Companies and organizations that implement the color green into their brand include BP, John Deere, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Holiday Inn, and Monster Energy Drinks.

If you want to project an air of luxury, respectability, and individuality, consider using purple as a significant element in your branding. Brands that use the color purple include Yahoo, Cadbury, Hallmark, Curves, and Aussie Haircare Products. All of these established brands have carved out a niche in their target demographic group.

White, inevitably, plays a role in graphic design. Whether it is serving as a backdrop for your website pages, white is integral in all clean, crisp, and fresh graphic design and branding elements.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, but equally important in graphic design, is the color black. Black often gets associated with sophistication, elegance, and simplicity. Brands that use black as a core component in their logos and other aspects of their graphic design include Coach, Chanel, Gucci, and Michael Kors.

It should come as no surprise that using black on white is the clearest and most comfortable for most people to read, printed on paper, or viewed using a monitor or handheld device. Since readability issues should always get considered during the design process, never overlook how keeping it simple can help move your brand ahead, just using clarity.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Advice

If you are starting your business, the chances are good that you have a million details that need to get addressed! It’s OK to admit that you aren’t an expert in every aspect of your business model. If branding and graphic design isn’t your expertise, seeking the advice of professionals who specialize in this industry is a smart idea.

Additionally, we can assist established brands and organizations with all aspects of rebranding and enhancements to existing branded assets, including websites, graphic designs, printed materials, and other digital assets.

All you need to do is bring your concepts and let the team turn your vision into a reality. It’s that easy! Start the conversation by contacting the experts at Colleen Eakins Design today!

gdpr compliant©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

5 Steps to Make Your Website GDPR Compliant

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Colleen EakinsColleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it […]

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privacy and security©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

User Privacy and Security Concerns Shake Up the Internet

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If you’ve been paying attention to recent news, the chances are good that you heard about all the controversy surrounding the ways that major platforms, such as Facebook, collect and share data with publishers, users, and advertisers.

In the wake of these disclosures to the public, and testimony before Congress, Facebook, Instagram, and many other high-traffic websites and mobile apps have had to update and make changes to their terms of service and operating agreements recently.

All you need to do to is check the email address registered with these sites, to find all the notices alerting you to these amendments to their operating agreements.

How Do These Changes Affect Businesses and Marketers?

On Facebook, changes to the terms of service could potentially affect how brands and marketers connect with possible customers and clients. Changes to API access could limit the information provided when making a query.

Additionally, all applications that use the events, pages, and groups API must go through an app review process to assure that they are compliant with the new terms and conditions of the platform.

New restrictions on the Facebook login could also affect third-party providers who log in to their services using a Facebook account. Recently, covert trackers were found to be collecting data transmitted through the login and measures were taken to prevent third-parties from accessing user data including relationship status, education, interests, work history and more. On the Instagram side, the old Instagram API platform is getting deprecated and phased out as part of their current changes to their systems.

Protecting Privacy and Security Online

Privacy and security are two severe pain points for platforms like Facebook. Brands and vendors who built custom Facebook apps or utilized Facebook’s login to manage profiles or provide client services could experience issues with core functionality and usability.

It’s worth noting that while you may not have built your own custom app that integrates with these API calls, many third-party tools used to help with social media profile management rely on API calls to do tasks such as content sharing, replying to comments or messages, and other everyday online communications.

With more oversights, audits, and inquiries into how user data gets collected, shared, and disseminated, companies and individuals who work with clients to help them maintain their digital assets and brands could face more challenges as they implement changes to safeguard user information and protect privacy.

How These Changes Affect Facebook Advertisers

Advertisers who use social media platforms to market to existing and potential new customers could experience some changes in targeting capabilities, and other ad controls that specifically target their preferred client or customer.

When combined with other shifts the company has made in how news and updates get displayed to users, advertisers are well-served to create a strategic content marketing campaign to boost virality and the share-ability of content on these platforms.

What Events Lead to These Changes?

In the last few years, the Internet has empowered people and organizations to share their values, beliefs, and opinions with anyone who is willing to listen. For that reason, more people than ever before began chiming in to try and influence others, especially during a particularly tense political climate.

Twitter revealed concerns over ‘bot activity’ surrounding US election meddling and responded by changing their API to limit or restrict API access.

These election bots were said to have been used to help mold and form the political opinions of users, as well as engage with others using the social networking application and website.

Additional scandal at Twitter includes employees getting caught on video making negative ‘off the record’ remarks about users and the internal policies. (Their comments were not representative of Twitter management.) As a result of these ‘off the record’ remarks, the platform has faced scrutiny from users who claim that they are being censored by the platform for their views.

Twitter politics aside, these API changes most likely won’t affect the average platform user, changes to the API could throttle usage for businesses and agencies who use tools not aligned with the updated terms and conditions of the platform.

Most of the mainstream social media management tools, such as HootSuite and others, are whitelisted so as long as you are following all the rules there should be very few issues with using them to manage clients’ social media pages.

Klout is No More

In the wake of the upcoming updates to the Data Protection Directive regulations, Klout, a site that tallied the score of the influence and importance in their social media circles announced they were shuttering the site on May 25, 2018.

As part of their scoring algorithm, users had to grant third-party access to all their social sites including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and others. Using all of this collated information, Klout issued the user a score from 1 – 100, with 100 being the highest score possible.

Now, all those scores are being set to zero as the site that was sold for $200M a few short years ago, is put into sunset mode forever.

Keep an Eye out for Terms of Service Updates

Changes to the General Data Protection Regulation, in effect since April 2016, will begin superseding the Data Protection Directive on May 25, 2018. Changes will be made to website’s Terms Of Service to abide by the updated specifications.

For companies who are updating their Terms of Service, this offers them the opportunity to ask users to agree to their terms, as well as verify their membership at their site.

As you can imagine, this verification process is helpful for platforms to identify inactive, fake, robotic, or unclaimed accounts. Active users who confirm their account will be counted accurately by management. Inactive, unverified, or robotic accounts will be scheduled for review or deletion, saving liability, space, and resources for the company.

The only thing that remains the same is change. If you are receiving numerous terms of service agreement emails, this is the reason why!

©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Do You Have A Buyer Persona? If Not, You Need One!

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As a small or medium-sized business owner the more data and information that you have regarding your operations, the better. Especially if you are working to establish a cohesive branding message to appeal to a specific type of consumer.

With the widespread use of technology, companies of all sizes have developed content strategies to build loyalty, trust, and authority within their selected niche

The most significant part of this marketing strategy is fine-tuning your content, whether it is blog content, social media shares, or email messaging to meet the needs and wants of the buyer persona – or ideal customer – you are seeking to attract or retain.

What is a Buyer Persona?

What exactly is a buyer persona, you ask? Typically, a buyer persona gets constructed using interviews with real buyers. People who are interviewed give real-world answers to what prospective customers might be thinking and doing when evaluating consumer options. This data provides valuable insights into the concerns, attitudes, and other criteria potential customers use to help them make a buying decision.

As you can imagine, knowing the motivations that fuel your ideal customer is beneficial for numerous reasons.

  1. Gives you a greater understanding of the language buyers use.
  2. Aligns your messaging to improve company communications with clients.
  3. Helps you streamline your marketing campaigns to appeal to your preferred audience.

Luckily, it isn’t as hard as you might think to establish a buyer persona to define your preferred market sector more effectively.

Who Is Your Customer?

The first step in setting up a buyer persona is envisioning the person in your mind and giving them a name. This imaginary person should broadly represent the demographics of your ideal customer. Be sure to outline the habits, hobbies, interests, values, and other indicators that help drive his or her consumer decisions.

If you already have an existing customer base, you may already have a substantial amount of information available from platforms including Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, internal tracking, Facebook Insights, and Facebook Analytics to learn more about the type of people who are already engaging with your content, products, or services. These comprehensive reporting platforms contain a treasure trove of data regarding your website visitor profiles and your social media audience and reach. Some of the core demographic data provided include location, gender, age, general interests, affinity groups, relationship status, buying habits, and more.

Business owners who have a presence as a ‘brick and mortar’ operation may also use tools like transaction history, customer questionnaires, or feedback forms to gather more invaluable information about their customer base to define the buyer personas of their business better.

For this example, let’s use Sienna the Salon Owner. Whenever someone comes in for services, she gathers information to serve her clients better. The type of information she collects includes the customer’s name, contact information, age, birthdate, how frequently the client visits, what services they have purchased, if other family or friends are customers, the amount of money they spend on average, if they add-on services while at the salon, and if or how often related products get purchased.

Digital Solutions for Real World Business

Using a CRM (customer relationship manager), she saves this information for future use, as well as integrates it with her email marketing software for appointment follow-ups, special offers, promotional offers, and birthday greetings. To streamline her operations, she synchronized appointment setting software that allows customers to book or cancel appointments from the convenience of their smartphone or computer.

When each client leaves, she asks them to fill out a questionnaire or feedback form on that day’s visit. Sienna makes a note of their feedback in her CRM for reference. If a pattern of complaints arises, she is in the first line of defense to handle them.

This information can help detect issues and provide a better customer service experience. If someone had a bad experience, this issue can be resolved quickly and in a professional manner. A prompt and courteous resolution is always better than letting the client leave without saying a word to you and writing bad reviews or comments on social media platforms instead.

Keep the Conversation Going!

Asking what clients think is essential to connecting with them on a deeper level. Many of Sienna’s customers share their thoughts and concerns about beauty, offering an opportunity for her and her staff members to provide their expertise. (Or product and service recommendations!)

Let Data Be Your Guide!

On an aggregate level, Sienna can get a broader overview of her entire customer base. She can figure out, on average, what each client spends at the salon, the frequency of visits, and other data that helps improve the bottom line of the company.

These buyer habits play a critical role in her buyer persona. Knowing this, she can then aim to attract other new clients like her existing ones.

In addition to operating her physical location, she makes sure to maintain the company presence on social media platforms to engage with clients, as well as promote her salon.

She takes the time to ask her clients to leave a review of the salon on her business page, as it helps build trust and authority in the area she serves, which is good for business! By evaluating her insights and stats programs, she can learn more about her audience, so she’s able to adjust her content and share to appeal to them. Since her business has everything to do with image, she learns that pictures and videos always outperform other types of shares. By sharing more photos and videos, she is appealing to her core audience to get more shares, likes, and comments.

Her website plays a significant role in providing more useful visitor data including conversion rates, time spent on the site, the total number of page views, and ecommerce sales.

If you haven’t already established your preferred buyer persona, be sure to contact the branding experts at Colleen Eakins Design for more information today!

Killer Customer Service Phrases…and Their Alternative Solutions

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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