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Design help please peeps :) by Nathan on 07-22-2009 at 08:40 PM

Heya,

Starting a lil business and i'm making flyers and business cards. It's a car cleaning business, that comes to the house and cleans - with all my own equipment.

Name sucks but ima going to keep it because it took me so long to do those number plates :P.

Design is flasy and black and will be on glossy paper - it will be an eye catcher!

Basically I would like someone to help me intergrate text into what I have done so far. I can't seem to do it in a proffesional manor.
[Image: attachment.php?pid=970909]


RE: Design help please peeps :) by blessedguy on 07-22-2009 at 08:50 PM

Use a nice white or light grey font, simple =)


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Nathan on 07-22-2009 at 08:51 PM

It's not as simple as that, I tried that and it look shit :(


RE: Design help please peeps :) by M73A on 07-22-2009 at 09:00 PM

I would have said white too... post up some mock ups :P


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Th3rmal on 07-22-2009 at 09:07 PM

imo, the number plate colours dont look good. i would suggest experimenting with other colour combinations.


RE: Design help please peeps :) by blessedguy on 07-22-2009 at 09:07 PM

Used the Meiryo font with white 3px 100% / black 6px 100% / white 12px 70% (color / gaussian blur ray / opacity) layers =)
[Image: attachment.php?pid=970914]


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Th3rmal on 07-22-2009 at 09:19 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nimicitor
quote:
Originally posted by Th3rmal
imo, the number plate colours dont look good. i would suggest experimenting with other colour combinations.

Thats the colour of UK back number plates....
oh right i see. In that case disregard my comment :P
RE: Design help please peeps :) by ShawnZ on 07-22-2009 at 09:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blessedguy
Used the Meiryo font with white 3px 100% / black 6px 100% / white 12px 70% (color / gaussian blur ray / opacity) layers =)

why is there a glow behind the text? :<

anyway, use black text. put a white box behind the page contents.
RE: Design help please peeps :) by vaccination on 07-22-2009 at 09:33 PM

@blessedguy: that's a terrible font(and glow). You need a small thin, plain font.

Also, why are you only going 10mph on your speedo, that hardly says fast service


RE: Design help please peeps :) by blessedguy on 07-22-2009 at 09:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
You need a small thin, plain font.
That was an example :chrongue:
Too lazy to look for a font =P
If you have any suggestions...

quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Also, why are you only going 10mph on your speedo, that hardly says fast service
[2]

RE: Design help please peeps :) by vaccination on 07-22-2009 at 09:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blessedguy
quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
You need a small thin, plain font.
That was an example :chrongue:

Your font is definitely not small or thin, nor plain with that glow around it

----

Anyway, I meant something like this:

[Image: penisffs.png]


That's not the exact font I'd use but you get the idea, blank space used for images, space in middle used for price/contact or something. Also, no u can not has cheezeburger this, be a man and come up with your own.
RE: Design help please peeps :) by Eljay on 07-22-2009 at 09:48 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Also, why are you only going 10mph on your speedo, that hardly says fast service

Because he just searched Google Images for "speedometer".
RE: Design help please peeps :) by vaccination on 07-22-2009 at 09:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Eljay
quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Also, why are you only going 10mph on your speedo, that hardly says fast service

Because he just searched Google Images for "speedometer".
figures, still, at least edit it : <
RE: Design help please peeps :) by CookieRevised on 07-22-2009 at 10:13 PM

If I may give a few pointers, speaking from experience (we need to make promotion every couple of months do reach a couple of thousand of people to promote theater plays and other activities regarding theater in a professional way):

You now already how the eye candy (with the logo and stuff), what you need now is nothing too fancy at all, a simple plain white-ish font. eg: Arial or the likes is more than good enough... Don't use black text on a white boxed background! Not with that design of a dark flyer and on glossy paper. It would be harder to read than white text on the already existing black background,

A flyer mostly needs to be readable and to-the-point. Nobody is going to read a flyer with a lot of text or a hard to read font. A flyer can of course be a piece of art, but the most important thing is the actual information on it.

---

Dunno what your business-plan is, but do actually have the money to make let's say 500 of such high quality flyers in full-color on thick glossy paper?

It may be far more sensible to make a flyer with less colors (eg: 3 colors; you could mix colors -the actual dots- if you make raster images instead) and less quality of paper (thinner, not glossy), but in a bigger quantity so you can actually reach more people for the same amount of money.

I dunno where you are going to distribute your flyers, but I can imagine it is in local stores, on the street, gas stations, on the counter, etc... For that you need hundreds of flyers as it makes little sense to simply put 5 flyers on the counter each time. You need a nice pile, like at least 20/25 per counter. So, if you want to distribute them in a couple of stores and then also on the street you'll need a lot of flyers. Meaning it will cost a lot if you have them all in such a high quality.

Remember that from the 20 flyers you distribute, only maybe 1 is actually read and 'used'. On the street this ratio is even far more lower.

So, making a big quantity of low quality flyers makes more sense. And with the money you safe from that (compared to high quality flyers), you could make some high quality posters to hang in stores and maybe a billboard or five to put in your own garden and in the garden of family and friends. Those will reach a lot more people and will get the attention of a lot more people, also from people who simply pass by...

And last but not least, I dunno how it is in the uk, but here in Belgium you can't flyer on the street just like that (it is seen as polluting in some cities). Of course it is done all over the place, but you need to be careful that the people you give a flyer to don't just throw it away on the streets. Also flyering on festivals and other events may not always be legal without having the permission of the organizers of those activities.

And it is in some countries mandatory to have the address and name of the responsible publisher on the flyer (small print), thus in this case, you.

---

quote:
Originally posted by blessedguy
quote:
Originally posted by vaccination
Also, why are you only going 10mph on your speedo, that hardly says fast service
[2]
[3]
This is indeed a very good point. There are lots of things you need to take into account when designing a logo.Just 'looking' shiny isn't enough. What does the logo actually say? Does it show what the service/company is about? Are there things which actually go against its service-plan (like the low speed - but do not overdo it either like showing max speed on the meter, be realistic. Make it like 70 or 80 for example. Also because the 70/80 is in the right upper corner, which is unconscientsly better than having an arrow pointing downwards)....

---

good luck though ;)

if there was some service like that here, carwash at your doorstep, I would surely use it as I'm a very lazy car-washer (like most people?)... actually I almost never wash my car at all, maybe once a year :D
Damn, this post is maybe one or two words longer than I anticipated :p

RE: Design help please peeps :) by Nathan on 07-22-2009 at 10:34 PM

Rofl cookie, I come back to see your back with your uber long posts :D.

I've read it all and taken it in, however:
I won't be handing out randomly I will be talking to the people first, and getting their attention. I will be using them to put into local chippys and shops etc. I'll also place inbetween wipers in cars. So the ratio of waste I presume will be a lot lower.

I did however not think about the colour thingy. I have found a few websites charging £70 for 500 flyers at a standard rate, so I didn't think I needed to take this into account.

Thirdly Yeah I didn't notice that, as eljay found out using his amazing google skills that it's just edited :P I couldn't make one that stylish. I'll change that :).

Vax, you are amazing. That style is sick, i love what you did down the center, so simple yet sleek!

Thank you <3

EDIT: Actually, Vax, how does it look with alot bigger text? because that's too small and I want people to read it :)

And yeah, I hopefully found a niche in the local market where i take into consideration the lazy people, and how it's more convienent :)


RE: Design help please peeps :) by CookieRevised on 07-22-2009 at 10:55 PM

:p

Yeah, paper thickness, paper finish (glossy, etc), colors, format, recto-verso, ... it all counts in price. So be carefull with comparing prices and always ask what is included or not.

You can also use the backside of the flyer to have the 'small print' on it, or put some long legal text or whatever (costs of course also more). The front should be like just a few catch phreases...

Putting a nice picture on it of yourself (and your team?) washing a car always works too (as long as it is a nice professional looking photo of course), it makes it more personal and people can then put a face on the business. This is always a good thing... (unless you look like a hobo :p)

Oh, and actually be carefull with 'glossy' paper. It often is too shiny to read something on, especially in well lit areas. It might be better if you choose semi-glossy or just non-glossy. (I forgot the name of the type we always use on our flyers and booklets, it is not glossy, but also isn't plain normal but something in between; it doesn't reflect but still looks extremely well and colors still come alive).

PS: that speedo meter picture seems to be licensed as "attribution work" (you must give credits) and "non-commercial use only" ... so be carefull as you business is obviously commercial...


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Nathan on 07-22-2009 at 10:59 PM

Yeah I know about gsm and glossy etc, but they never mentioned the colours. Yeah it costs double for the backside, regardless of what's on the back, so I'll forget that :D.

No pictures :), and it's only me to begin with. more profits then :D


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Nagamasa on 07-23-2009 at 01:26 AM

quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
a simple plain white-ish font. eg: Arial or the likes is more than good enough
I would say to not use Arial, but a font LIKE Arial. People recognize fonts, and if they see a font they use everyday, it doesn't seem as professional.

I tend to use Frutiger or Myriad for stuff like this.

Oh, and do a mockup of the entire logo centered, instead of the speedometer centered.
RE: RE: Design help please peeps :) by CookieRevised on 07-23-2009 at 02:53 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Nagamasa
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
a simple plain white-ish font. eg: Arial or the likes is more than good enough
People recognize fonts, and if they see a font they use everyday, it doesn't seem as professional.
Well, I completely disagree.

Believe me that a typeface like Arial, or the likes, eg: Tahoma and other standard fonts used by Windows, is used in 99,99% of all professional promotion for the normal text. Maybe not Arial or Tahoma exactly, but fonts which are extremely similar, regular, without any fancy ding dongs.

In the real world 99% of all people will not reconize fonts by name at all, they simply see a normal easy readable font. If you ask 100 people on the street if something is in Arial or in Tahoma, almost everybody will look at you like "wtf are you saying?".

We're not talking about web stuff or other PC/IT things we, as geeks for the lack of a better word, come in contact with daily and maybe find 'old', 'already done' or 'not original' or 'hey I reconize that font'. These are not skins or fancy looking web 2.0 websites or whatever, but real world promotion which goes by a different set of rules than the online world or than the world we as geeks are used to.

There is a very good reason why most promotional text is made easy to read, simple and plain in a basic font. Such fonts are used just because they are easly reconized and people are used to it and such texts are read faster than texts in other fonts.

So, using a basic standard Windows font or not hasn't got anything todo with looking professional or not. What you can not forget is that the information is the most important thing here together with the kind of product you want to promote and above all who your target audience is.

And it is that which defines if something is done in a professional way or not, everything must fit together. You're not promoting a designers label or an art gallery or a fancy looking website or something to IT'ers, designers or geeks who reconize the differences between Arial and Tahome miles away.

I know it is very tempting to make something arty farty, being computer literate and being handy with photoshop and all, but that will only backfire if you overdo it.

got a bit caried away (again) :p
RE: Design help please peeps :) by Volv on 07-23-2009 at 08:45 AM

If it's a flyer then you'll definitely need much larger text, there's nothing wrong with a simplified flyer (i.e. no colour, short, concise text with like standard font centering etc.) if it's not a professional business. The last thing you want customers doing is driving over thinking it's some top-end car maintenance shop (or even worse: thinking that it's beyond their league) if it's not.

I'm not sure what your business strategy is, whether it's cost leadership (low prices) or product differentiation ("we show your car love which you can't get elsewhere, or do some sort of special vacuuming which other places don't") but that's what you need to show on your flyer, information about the service and your contact details. Don't make it wordy, most customers aren't going to be calling you because your flyer looks awesome but because they see a service being offered which they need/value.

I don't think there's any need to make an elaborate over-the-top flyer, all of Cookie's advice sounds good (to me anyway :P).


RE: Design help please peeps :) by vaccination on 07-23-2009 at 12:04 PM

Disagree completely, I don't trust anything that looks like it came out of my arse.

Also, please realise that I wouldn't put that huge block of text there(nobody wants to read loads - short and to the point obviously). It was an example of the right font type to use.


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Kenji on 07-23-2009 at 02:11 PM

I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but have you thought this buisness through?

Down here, pretty much every car park has a valet service. I doubt many people will hang around at your house while waiting for their car to be cleaned when they could just have it done while they are getting their shopping done..


RE: Design help please peeps :) by kotjze on 07-23-2009 at 02:32 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Kenji
I doubt many people will hang around at your house while waiting for their car to be cleaned
quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
It's a car cleaning business, that comes to the house

[Image: mininana.gif]
RE: Design help please peeps :) by Nathan on 07-23-2009 at 02:57 PM

And, round here there isn't a proper cleaning place for miles. And most car parks I know Do NOT have cleaners there :S. Must be where you live.

And what kotjze said, I go to their house!


RE: Design help please peeps :) by Kenji on 07-23-2009 at 03:18 PM

I read it wrong. :P

shoot me :<


RE: Design help please peeps :) by kotjze on 07-23-2009 at 03:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Kenji
shoot me :<

[Image: machinegun.gif] Kenji

:angel:
RE: Design help please peeps :) by M73A on 07-24-2009 at 10:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nagamasa
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
a simple plain white-ish font. eg: Arial or the likes is more than good enough
I would say to not use Arial, but a font LIKE Arial. People recognize fonts, and if they see a font they use everyday, it doesn't seem as professional.

I tend to use Frutiger or Myriad for stuff like this.

Oh, and do a mockup of the entire logo centered, instead of the speedometer centered.

HELVETICA is used everywhere. design world is sleeping with the damn font. its on EVERYTHING and anything lol.... and its just like arial or whatever :P

i didnt even realise some of these were helvetica >link<