(1) Keep the design simple but interesting. It is not necessarily true that people do not read ads. People love creative ads. You only have a few seconds to impress a potential customer through your banner, so don’t lose them right from the start by having an over the top, complicated advertising banner.

(2) Keep your wording short and simple. You only have few seconds to grab attention of the viewer, so those short and simple words must be able to make them understand about your service or product.

(3) Give people a reason to click: Mainly viewers will only respond to a compelling proposition, they react favorably to banners that provide them a chance to win something. A banner where they can get something for free or a special discount also gets high click rates.

(4) Provide a call to action. You have to make sure, you are asking your potential customer to “Click Here” or “Submit” for more information.

(5) Target your ads : If you are looking for graphic designers for a site catering fonts, a SEO professional who clicks on your banner is less relevant to you. A campaign targeted to a specific audience is likely to return better results. A targeted campaign is geared to a specific audience, be it a certain demographic group or people working in a specific industry.

(6) Use enticing words with eye catching font. Everyone likes to get something for free, so if you are offering it, throw in the words “Free” or “Special Offer” to increase the CTR on your banner ad design. If you use fewer words, you can use a bolder, larger font. If you must use more than one font, use two at the most.

(7) Choose images creatively; use only bright/rich images: Using bright images will help attract attention, however, be careful not to use irrelevant images to your service or business.

(8) Test your banner ads before going to full blast campaign: No rush, before shooting the banner ad campaign, upload the banner in a page with other contents and images, and share the link through twitter or facebook, and see the reaction.

(9) Do not be misleading, wrong message won’t help you to get business: In order to make advertisement tempting, some people show something that has nothing to do with what they are selling just to grab a viewers’ attention. Don’t do that. Make sure your banner ad design portrays the truth.

(10) Don’t just send them to your home page: If the banner ad doesn’t carry the viewer (clicker) through to the product landing page, it’s pointless. Always use a cleverly designed killer landing page so that none of your potential customer get chance to escape.

Well, if you think these points make sense or should I have to add some more points? Just leave a comment below, I value your comments.

And, If you need any assistance or help to create effective PPC banner ads, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Enjoy the video.

You can download the original video here, as imagonewmedia.com explains “This is our one minute advertisement for the launch of Turkish Edition of The New York Times.
We constructed typographic versions of the most recognizable landmarks in Manhattan and Istanbul, and created a compact tour taking the audience from the New York Harbor all the way to the Bosphorus. Actual pages from the first issue of the newspaper were used to create the textures used in the scenes. The financial news page became NYSE and Wall Street, entertainment news turned into Times Square, and so on.”

I’m sure there is no undo option for Apple or Microsoft tattoos, what if someone have a tattoo of Lehman Brothers or General Motors LOGO kidding.

Since two years, I’m surfing through a variety of corporate tattoos like Nike swoosh tattoo and Adidas. Do you think people who exhibit these tattoos are paid to do so?? I explored into the subject deeper and came to a conclusion that none of those corporate tattoo exhibitors are paid. Those people are just loyal to those brands. Mostly designers are fascinated with Apple tattoo & sports person with sports brand tattoos.
I think a successful branding is what, which can leave a footprint of their existence in the viewers sub conscious state of mind. But corporate tattoo proves there is another pro successful branding process, which can motivate peoples to make tattoo for the brand.

While digging the topic I passed through a similar post which is wired here in brief.

There are all kinds of people with Apple tattoos, from graphic designers to leading academicians. Most have Apple’s famous logo tattooed on an arm, leg or their backside.
But it’s not really about advertising for Apple.”I’m a Mac freak,” said Mark Tappert, a graphics designer in Denmark who has a black Apple logo tattooed on his left biceps.
“I identify strongly with Apple and Mac computers,” he said. “I work on Macs every day, and a lot of nights. I got it done to convince myself I would always be true to Apple, not for religious or political reasons, but to convince myself that Macs are the way ahead.”
There are, of course, other corporate brands that inspire tattoos: Coca-Cola, Nike and Lacoste are some examples.

Apple is one of the few companies that inspire tattoos through pure love of the product. There are perhaps only two other companies that enjoy similar devotion: Harley Davidson and Campagnolo, an Italian bicycle parts company. Apple is certainly the only computer company with tattooed users.
The closest analogy is fans of sports teams, members of fraternities and other social groups, such as Marines, Manchester United soccer fans, gang members or fraternity brothers. And just as sports fans will often get team haircuts, Apple haircuts are another form of adornment peculiar to Mac fans.
“So many tattoos are about love, loyalty and bravado,” said Amy Krakow, author of The Total Tattoo Book. “Don’t Mac users fall into all those categories?”

Read the Wired story

Enjoy the Flickr group pool for Apple Tattoo

• Easy to reproduce- Logo should be easy to reproduce in various types of media.
• Easy to understand- Business logo should be easy to understand, customer should never look at your  logo and be confused as to what the image represents.
• Easy to relate the business- Corporate logo should be easily identifiable with the business.

Finally, Logo needs to be scalable, memorable and meaningful.

Here are 10 example of simple and memorable logos:

Marlboro
Designed by Allison Muir Severe, 1950

WWF
Designed by Sir Peter Scott, in 1961.

Nike
Designed by Carolyn Davidson, 1971

Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque (and registered trademark) of Chrysler. More

I love New York
Designed by Milton Glaser

Apple
Designed by Regis McKenna Advertising, 1977.

American Broadcasting Company
Designed by Paul Rand, 1965

Mitsubishi Motors
Designed by Yataro Iwasaki, 1870.

Lufthansa
Designed by Otto Firle, 1918

For a prospective client and upcoming graphic designer here are some pitfalls to be avoided.

1.  Its not an exhibition of your font collection. So don’t use more than two different fonts.

2.  The world is neither multicolour nor monochrome. Avoid using more than three different colours unless you want a rainbow.

3.  If you are still using clipart or photo, then it means that you still use Windows3.2 with your dotmatrix printer , or else you come from the era when air was clean and sex was considered dirty.

4.  People love symmetry. Scientific study has shown that beautiful people have a symmetrical face. So avoid creating a visually imbalanced logo.

5.  A logo has 0.1 millisecond to make its impact on the customer. So avoid making unrecognizable company logos which are either mirrored, resized or inverted.

6.  Follow the golden rule of KISS( Keep It Simple Stupid) Avoid using symbols that are irrelevant or unrelated to the business of the client.( If your client is in nuclear business no need to show trees and children)

7. Some symbols are cliché, so avoid them. Like symbols of handshake, Globe etc.

8.  A Logo without a concept is like hiring masons to build a house without any engineer or architect.You will build a house in the end, but not many guests. Always better to start the logo design process with a brainstorming session with the client and sketch out your ideas with a pencil and papers.

9.  Imagine watching two different movies in two separate screen.  So unless your target clients are Siamese twins avoid using distracting effects over logo.

10.  Imitation is not the greatest form of flattery. Besides the legal hassle its also shows your company logo in poor taste. Only imitate logos if your client is into selling counterfeit products.

I wanna call this year as GREEN year for me, because I just wrap up a logo design assignment for a news portal focusing entirely on everything renewable energy, the site is not up yet may be my client is busy with organizing contents, for his privacy reason I’ve not shown you the logo and designs for his business. I’ll post those logos and designs later, when the site will be up.

As per my client, his site will focus everything about renewable energy in the news/media.

To get the complete Green environment feelings I watched couple of documentry movies like Al Gore’s anInconvinient truth and Lionardo Dicaprio’s the 11th hour.  This is the way I start my pre design research for each assignment.

And Hey! if you have time please watch these movies, our earth is really in danger, People are busy making cash, even I’m busy with my own survival strategies. Very few people are there who think about the Global warming, Climate changes and Green earth. I think its really 11th hour, We have to think about the green.

This year I want to dedicate 33% of my time to aware people for Global warming, Climate changes and other environment challanges, but I dont know where to begainwith

What your opinion, please share…

If you are hired for a project, don’t try to complete the project at one go, the outcome will always be a mistake. It will be far better if you try to tackle the project step by step. Just analyze the project break it into steps, then start doing it. You might have experienced that a client sometimes asks for a change in your design, what do you think is the reason for that? To me that is due a lack of communication with the client. When you get the project, don’t make a hush just ask the client properly until an unless you are clear with the clients idea, because you are designing for the client. He is the main priority at that point of time.

If you are not able to meet the deadline (probably you have overcommitted), just contact the client and try to fix another deadline. It’s much better to contactthe client to let go the deadline without any communication. It’s ok for only once that you haven’t meet the deadline, so for your future progress take a few minutes to analyze the reason or what went wrong that you were not able to meet the deadline.

If you want to have a productive schedule you have to maintain your own time like when to work, when to sleep and when to eat. Some people whenever they feel like working late they work late and when they don’t want to work they don’t. This is not a way o maintaining your schedule. You should sleep 6 hours maximum for your good health. A healthy body has a healthy mind and if you have a healthy mind you can concentrate on your work. You should avoid junk foods and start having a real food. After working for an hour or two you must take a rest of at least 10 minutes having a glass of water. It will make your mind relax and then you can make a good pick up on your work. Even if your deadline is coming near don’t stress on it, just be calm and try to concentrate on it. In that situation you shouldn’t concentrate on useless thing while you are working on your project.

If you are a new freelancer graphic designer, when you are hired for a project just try to make two deadlines. It’s just for your convenience only, so that you wouldn’t stress. Even if your client agree to give you 2 deadlines, it’s good for you. It depends on you that you finish the job before the 1^st deadline or the 2^nd. If possible don’t go for the 2^nd deadline, better to complete the project before the 1^st deadline.

As a graphic designer you always make designs, you may take it easily. Its ok… according to your experience you can act like that. But, personally I always take my work seriously and as a challenge which has always motivated me in my work. Because of this I have never crossed my deadline; I have always been able to complete the project on time.
Thanks

In today’s world, business is on its height. Everyone is on rush and business of different types are competing each other. So, it is important to think wisely before making any designs or illustrations for any brands or companies.

We, the graphic designers are also one of the important instruments in bringing the business & marketing in the height. A Graphic designer may need assistance of persons who can help out in different way- technically or in resources. But, it is the graphic designers individually, who should have the abilities and qualities to become a good designer. A professional Graphic Designer should have years of experience, with much experience a designer will surely have a knowledge in using the designing tools.

Graphic designer should be responsive, on time and effective otherwise, it will be hard to maintain the productive schedule. Literally, Graphic Designers should have the attitude of making the customer service a priority. The Graphic Designer should have great creativity, creating graphics or designs of its own which is 100% original without using any free resources from the internet. Any common designer can create quick and cheap designs which are useless and a waste of time but an experience designer goes for a quality not for the quantity. Prospective Graphic Designer with marketing experience will surely have his/her site and portfolio well established and well designed.

Graphic Designer should know the cost and timeline of an assignment to designed and completed. And the most important is that the designer should not be a part-time worker, even if he can do a good job, will that designer be available at business hours or anytime? The answer is “NO”, so a designer should always be a full-time designer. Graphic Designer should have a good communication skill with the ability to interact with different people establishing a good working relationship.

photo: (CC) Letizia Tasselli 

When you are out on the road driving, you will surely stop when you see a red light on the traffic. OR don’t you… ha just kidding. And you will start driving when you see green light. Just think if there were no colors then how you will know when to drive or when to stop. Simply we will have a road accident now and then. You have a concept that colors are red, blue, green…..etc. but have you as a  graphic designers tried to notice the true image of “what a color is trying to notify?” As being a professional graphic designer, we all use to play with different colors, different combinations… because we are earning our living with these colors with your little creativity in mind. So, don’t you think colors are important to you?  As myself think colors are important, so I have written below, “the importance of a color” which I think will help us….. Simply before going further I would like to tell you that playing with color is like a game full of fun.

RED

Red is a strong color. It really attracts the eye and stimulates the mind. It is known for its aggression and high energy. This color indicates leadership. It is a color which can easily attract a persons mind. It draws a certain kind of attraction and it’s a kind of accent which can focus attention of other things.

The color RED:

• Increases enthusiasm
• Stimulates energy
• Encourages action and confidence
• A sense of protection from fears and anxiety

BLUE

Blue is my favorite color. Blue is the color of higher thoughts. This color seems dependable, committed and trustworthy. It shows patience and devotion. Blue signify creativity and artistic. It is a “gender specific” color, having equal appeal to both men and women.

The color blue:

• Calming and sedate
• Cooling

GREEN

Green is the color of nature and is refreshing. The color green is always considered a good sign and is capable of healing. Green is a strong energy and attracts a lot of positive power, it is the shade of peace and harmony. It is the color of honesty and truth. Green is the main color in natural world and we are used to seeing it everywhere. Green is considered the color of peace and ecology.

The color green:

• Soothing
• Relaxing mentally as well as physically
• Helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety
• Offers a sense of renewal, self-control and harmony

YELLOW

Yellow is friendly and cheerful. It shows action and warmth, and is also the color of intelligence. It shade social energy. Yellow is not the color of a leader, yellow prefers to follow. The color yellow also represents curiosity and the desire to make things better. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future.

The color yellow:

• Mentally stimulating
• Stimulates the nervous system
• Activates memory
• Encourages communication

PURPLE

Purple represents the energy of the quest. It is the color of things dedicated to seeking and finding the answers of life’s mysteries. Purple is also the color of royalty, self confidence and ego. Purple is luxury and carries the power of big profits.  Purple is a color often well liked by very creative or eccentric types and is the favorite color of adolescent girls.

The color purple:

• Uplifting
• Calming to mind and nerves
• Offers a sense of spirituality
• Encourages creativity

ORANGE

Orange is a sun color and is full of energy. It shows things that move fast and that have great strength of purpose. Orange is a wealth of the mind and knowledge. Orange represents the energy that enjoys giving to others. It can indicate all growing things and new beginnings. Orange color has a shade of broad appeal.

The color orange:

• Stimulates activity
• Stimulates appetite
• Encourages socialization

BROWN

Brown is the color of the earth and shows a firm and definite vibration. It represents the practical side of things. Success comes by steady work. It does not show energy that soars, but rather a secure and slower force. Brown indicates things that work hard. It is the color of endurance. Brown color represents all the all things natural or organic.

The color brown:

• Feeling of wholesomeness
• Stability
• Connection with the earth
• Offers a sense orderliness

BLACK

Black shows a great feeling for form and for social events. It represents a formal and rather reserved energy that also shows an uncanny insight into human affairs. Black is the color of strong drive and purpose. Black is authoritative and powerful; because black can evoke strong emotions too much can be overwhelming. A classic color for clothing possibly because it makes the wearer appear thinner and more sophisticated.

The color black:

• Feeling inconspicuous
• A restful emptiness
• Mysterious evoking a sense of potential and possibility.

WHITE

White is the strongest and most pure, clean and neutral of all the color. It is the color of perfection and pure light energy. It represents good and fair judgment and shows the path of the spirit and surrounds a safe and happy home.

The color white effects:

• Adds mental clarity
• Encourages us to clear clutter or obstacles
• Evokes purification of thoughts or actions
• Enables fresh beginnings

Gray

Gray is timeless, practical, and solid. A longstanding favorite suit color, gray can mix well with any color. Although well like and often worn, people rarely name gray as a favorite color possibly because Gray also is associated with loss or depression.

The color gray effects:

• Unsettling
• Expectant

Thanks, enjoy the true colors.

Due to over-work, I became mentally and physically restless so I thought of taking rest for a week or two. During those days, I was having a cup of coffee with a cigarette sitting on my lawn. Suddenly, my eyes revealed the simplicity of the logo of Marlboro on the cigarette packed. At that moment, I thought, “Who designed this logo?” so I turned on my system started looking for it. In that procedure I came through the “Millward Brown’s top 100 most powerful brands” in which I found the top 10 brands. So, I started looking for the history of logos of the top 10 brands and below came are the result of my thoughts…

Google

The current official logo represents the name “Google” in logo type based on the Catull typeface and was created by Ruth Kedar. Every once in a while, the company uses various features of the logo which compliment and refer to birthdays of famous personalities and holidays. These modifications have become known as Google Doodles and were first created by the fondaters of the company in 1999. The doodles are currently designed by Dennis Hwang who has created over 150 doodles since the year 2000.

GE (General Electrics)

The entire logo is used to convey the meaning intended and avoid tarnishing or misrepresenting the intended image. The logo is a size and resolution sufficient to maintain the quality intended by the company or organization, without being unnecessarily high resolution. The image is used to identify the organization General Electric, a subject of public interest. The significance of the logo is to help the reader identify the organization, assure the readers that they have reached the right article containing critical commentary about the organization, and illustrate the organization’s intended branding message in a way that words alone could not convey.

Microsoft

The Microsoft logo is the ultimate example of “style meets simplicity”. The logo perfectly indicates the company’s mission of offering high quality products to its customers. The 2nd version of the Microsoft logo was fea fanciful lettered O in it. In 1987, Scott Baker adopted the current Microsoft logo. As it was designed in Helvetica italic typeface, the new logo had a slash between the o and s and featured the slogan ” Where do you want to go today?” As in 2006 the logo changed its tagline below the main corporate name into “Your potential, our passion.” In spite of all the transformations the Microsoft logo and its main message has remained largely unaffected.

Coca Cola

Who doesn’t know “coca cola”? its one of the worlds most recognized logos, the Coca-Cola brand started from the back 1886, where initially it was very famous in Atlanta Georgia because the city was the subject of local alcohol prohibition at the time. The signature used in the logo was sketched by their Publicity Director at the time, Franc Robinson.

China Mobile

China mobile ltd. is china’s domain mobile service provider; it is the world largest telecom by subscribers count. The company was registered in1997 under the name china telecom (Hong Kong) but changed its name in 2000 to china mobile (Hong Kong). China mobile has its head office in hung Kong and is a subsidiary company of china mobile communication.

IBM

The International Business Machines (1956) trademark of Paul Rand’s was developed from an infrequently used typeface called City Medium, designed by Georg Tromp in 1930. In the 1970s, Rand updated the logo by stripping it to unify the three forms and evoke scan lines on video terminals. During the late 1950s, Wilot Noyes IBM’s consulting design director sought “to express the extremely advanced and up-to-date nature of its products. To this end we are not looking for a theme but for a consistency of design quality which will in effect become a kind of a theme, but a very flexible one”.

Apple

As the Company name is “apple”, they selected an apple as its main form of branding. The first logo of the company was a small apple shape sitting under a tree with Apple Computer Co set into the frame of the picture. The first logo was hard and complex to view, so Regis McKenna after some years later added a “bite mark” to symbolize the concept of seduction of the customers. Afterwards it was replaced with the rainbow-colored logo as in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve the apple represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The logo was considered lucky for the company as it did encourage business and customers to consider the apple brand for the first time and was successful in generating increased profits.

McDonald’s

McDonalds is the largest and best-known chain of fast-food restaurants in the world. They have more than 23,000 restaurants in over 100 countries; The Golden Arches logo was created by Jim Schindler in 1962 to look like new arch shaped signs on the sides of the restaurants. They called the logo Golden arches firstly, to input the idea that owning one McDonalds franchise is like having a gold mine. Secondly, the arches symbolize a place to hide under, to escape. McDonalds logo have been seen more broadly as a symbol of capitalism or globalization, since they are the most famous American corporation to go global on a grand scale.

Nokia

The first Nokia Company logo. What is the story about the fish? Salmon in the river near the Nokia factory? Nokia, Finnish Rubber Works Ltd. In addition to footwear and tyres, Nokia Rubber Works also manufactured rubber bands, industrial parts and raincoats.

The Nokia “arrows” logo before the Connecting People logo.

The Nokia “Connecting People” slogan was invented by Ove Strand berg.

Marlboro

Marlboro is a brand of cigarette made by Philip Morris USA and by Philip Morris international. IT is famous for its billboard advertisements and magazine of the Marlboro man. The brand is named after great Marlborough Street, the location of its original London factory.

I have referred many sites but still I can’t find who designed the logo of Marlboro. If someone knows who designed or where I could find these then please share it with us all.