EC Creative Solutions Blog

OK, admittedly that was a trick question … the correct answer is NEITHER

However, it’s not so obvious HOW to find that middle ground. You want to be memorable, and to provide unique perspectives, but you don’t want people to have seizures by looking at your designs.

First thing you need to do is identify who the design is going to be viewed by and then you have an idea of the style. If it’s going out to a young market, you have more leeway to present fun, vibrant visuals and maybe not as much content. For a corporate audience, you want to be conservative, clean and straight.

Regardless of the audience, there are some general guidelines to follow. Make it easy to find your main point within the first couple seconds of looking at the design. If your goal action statement doesn’t jump off the page or screen right away, then you will likely lose your viewer. Make sure to hook them right away.

Images are a great way to hook someone. Stock photography sites like iStock.com and Dreamstime.com are good to find high-quality images, but beware of oversaturation of images. Having reviewed the stock photography libraries, I see certain images over and over again in ads and billboards, and they jump out at me as “iStock images.” So find something striking but unique. And when you find it, don’t overdo it … don’t turn off people by having too much glare. It’s better to err on the side of conservative caution as opposed to the glare of overdesign.

Strong, concise action statements are especially good ways to hook your readers. Craft your statements and get rid of any unnecessary words. Too often, the message is lost among the clutter. So sweep up your sentences … as I say to my little ones, “clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere …” - the same goes for your content!!

So remember … identify your audience. Don’t overdo it. Use unique, strong images. And craft your action statement carefully.

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When is the last time you clicked on a banner ad? I know it’s been a while for me … honestly, I hate clicking on them. As a designer, I make a lot of them, and whenever I do, I usually try to be as inviting and non-offensive as possible. No dancing babies, no neon flashing, no “whack-a-mole” …

But even with the best designed banner ad in the world (I’ve yet to win that ribbon, but I’m still trying), to many people, it’s still just noise.

That’s why you can’t rely only on banner ads and e-mail broadcasts. These things, while necessary and potentially effective with the right design and placement, need to be just a part of your overall marketing campaign. Talking with Mark Madsen from WannaNetwork.com, I really felt like I’ve been missing the boat on some of these new media opportunities. Not just social networking, but blogging. This is one of the reasons why I am now starting this blog … it will serve many purposes.

• First of all, I hope it will add a little value to the readers (all four of you - hi grandma!)
• It’s an opportunity to publicly answer questions that some of you may have
• It can be a great tool to network and link up with other sites, enhancing search engine standings
• As far as marketing, it’s a great way to get out my messages. Chances are, if you’ve read this far, you’ll finish the post.
• And finally, it fulfills my narcissistic desire to be heard.

There is still a lot that I will need to learn about how to maximize my blogging efforts … and one of those things will be staying on topic.

So … back to banner ads. Sure, they can work, but don’t rely on them to do the job all alone. Keep on looking for the new opportunities to reach out and connect with your potential clients. With change comes opportunity (jeez, I sound like Barack Obama over here) and through trial and error, I hope to jump on this chance to reach out and connect. Without dancing babies.

My 2-year-old daughter doesn’t like fruit salad. Peaches in particular. She refuses to even try them. I don’t know if it is because she already knows that she likes strawberries, but she doesn’t know what she’s missing out on because she isn’t trying them.

I bring this up because right now, I am taking my first bite of a peach. And even though it tastes a little different, and I’m just learning the ways to do it, this blog is my first foray into a technology that was previously in the shadows for me. And though I knew it was available and that it is a great tool for connecting with people and providing a service, I always found excuses to delay it. Too much work to do (well, lots, but not “too much”). Setting up a database is too tough (not true). Not enough to write about (that’s silly - I’ve always been a writer). So … no more excuses … here I am!

SO … I want to take this as an opportunity to introduce myself and to share a little about what I bring to the table (like peaches!)

I own a small marketing company in San Antonio, TX, and focus on graphic design, web design, marketing and copywriting. Many of my clients are in the financial and credit services industry, but I’m definitely not limited to those fields. I worked for about 10 years in corporate marketing as the senior creative marketing manager for GreenPoint Mortgage. Then when the mortgage crisis hit, Capital One (the parent company) closed GreenPoint. I took this as an opportunity to start my own company - something that I had been thinking of doing for a long time. It’s a little intimidating to do something this drastic, since I have a family to support.

But I heeded the old axiom that “if you leap, the net will appear.” I chose to ignore “don’t let go of one vine until you are holding the next one.”

So here I am, eight months later, and I am happy to report that the net DID appear. EC Creative Solutions has been servicing a wide variety of clients, developing Web sites, logos, banner ads and providing many other services. But no, I don’t do windows, or mow lawns (unless my wife asks me to).

Since this is my first post, I can’t promise a set schedule, but I will do my best to provide a service, blogging about graphic design, Web design, marketing, copywriting, and anything else that comes to mind. Like fruit salad.