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No Designer? No Problem! Visual Hierarchy

No Designer? No Problem! Visual Hierarchy

So you’re working on a new design. You’ve got a grid down, right? (take a look at our grid article if you need a refresher) The next step is to get the elements in a visual hierarchy. And while those might be some fancy words, the phrase really just means making it...

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No Designer? No Problem! The Grid

No Designer? No Problem! The Grid

It’s the secret to all great designs, photos, paintings, anything that’s two-dimensional. Are you using it? And it’s actually a great way to avoid that blank screen stare down… you know, that feeling you get when you have to start a project, but the blank document on...

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No Designer? No Problem!

No Designer? No Problem!

In listening to our readers and our clients, it’s clear there’s a whole group of people who may not have a design background, but need to create quality graphics. So we’re launching a series to help those who aren’t designers learn how to design, like a DIY Design...

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Guardian Credit Union TV Ads

Advertising Design Case StudyThe Challenge Guardian Credit Union in Montgomery, Alabama wanted to standout in the typical block of television ads while staying within their existing branding style. They also wanted to emphasize the local landscape, people, and...

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5 reasons why you should rename your accounts and loans

5 reasons why you should rename your accounts and loans

Looking to see growth in your financial products? Want to build some momentum in product usage? Need ideas to promote accounts and loans? Think about what you call them, think about how your target audience perceives them and you might just breakthrough a flat or...

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The Case For Peaches

The Case For Peaches

The Challenge: Credit Union of Georgia was founded as a teachers' credit union and still maintains a strong base of educators in their membership. The demographics show this group as largely female and in their 30s and 40s. Like most financial institutions, this...

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Tame Your Marketing & Advertising Projects

Tame Your Marketing & Advertising Projects

Are you frustrated trying to keep up with all of your marketing projects? Heck just tracking the individual items in a massive multi-channel advertising campaign is tough. Need to show your management team the huge amounts of work you crank out? And then out of...

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WTH is Kerning? (and other designer jargon explained)

WTH is Kerning? (and other designer jargon explained)

After so many decades in this business, we often forget that other people may not know some of the daily terms important to advertising, marketing, and design. As mindful as we are about cutting the designer jargon during meetings, emails, and calls, the occasional...

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Progress Bank Goes For Elegant Imagery

Progress Bank Goes For Elegant Imagery

The Challenge: Progress Bank is a community bank headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. Only ten years into their charter and they are already giving more established area banks healthy competition. With a name like Progress, brand materials must be modern and with a...

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5 Graphic Design Tips to Make Your Marketing Pop!

5 Graphic Design Tips to Make Your Marketing Pop!

Hiring a designer not in the budget? Here are a few graphic design tips to help those marketing and advertising pieces get noticed! With the influx of apps such as Canva, Adobe Spark and PicMonkey that quickly create text on images for social media, it's easier than...

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Sowing Seeds: Do You Know Your Sales Cycle?

Sowing Seeds: Do You Know Your Sales Cycle?

We can get so wrapped up in our marketing and advertising campaigns, it's easy to lose sight of the larger picture and how this campaign, this design, fits into the sales process. So we gotta remember how this ad, logo, social media post, brochure, whatever it might...

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Just What Is a Style Guide Anyway?

Just What Is a Style Guide Anyway?

In a sister post to this one, we discussed many of the benefits of a style guide: brand loyalty, cost savings, employee retention to name a few. In this post, let's look at what goes in to a great style guide, using examples from national organizations as...

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