The group buy phenomenon is hard to miss. As the economy continues to challenge consumers, shoppers are feeling recession fatigue. Consumers still want to spend and still want quality, just not at a high cost. Value – not to be confused with cheap product or low prices – has become exceedingly important.  Value-driven group buys have changed the way we purchase. There’s no going back, so embrace or surrender. While a group deal may not be fit for every business, the value-driven economy is unavoidable. Here is a quick list of things to consider before jumping on board the group buy bandwagon:

• Does your brand fall under any of the categories below that dominate groupon-type deals?
• Do you have the manpower to fufill an increase in demand for your product and/or service?
• Are you willing to educate your employees on how to properly execute the deal all the way through for an exceptional in-store or online experience?

In the end, a successful group buying experience does not end once it’s published online. Smart marketers who leverage the power of group deals, use the promotion as an opportunity to create new customers, gain loyal fans and ultimately bring people back to the store or online in the future to hopefully, spend more money – maybe even at full price.

To further articulate this idea, we give you a pretty rad infographic brought to you by our very own Sus Bandish. Enjoy…

2010 brought a lot of changes in the world of digital marketing and as we dive into 2011, you’ll want to be up on all the latest information. To help you out, we’ve compiled an Infographic of the top digital stats and trends of 2010. To see the entire image, click on the preview below:

Sources: Mobithinking, Fierce Mobile Content, Digital Buzz Blog, ClickZ, Marketing Vox, Marketing Charts, Phil Bradley, The Hiring Site, Geek

2010 has often been called “the year of the infographic” due to the exploding popularity of infographics on the web. However, it seems very few people are actually quantifying this popularity, or sharing stats on infographics themselves. There is a plethora of information out there on how to design them, and thousands upon thousands of infographics on every subject from Facebook to cats. But after hours of research, we found that very few people are putting numbers or charts against this infographic growth.

As marketers, we’ve always recognized the value of portraying content in a visual manner and, as a result, we thought we’d take our first step into the infographic world. Below we have a few of the stats on the growth of this phenomnon, and some reasoning behind why they are so popular. Check it out and feel free to share any infographic stats you may have in the comments.

An infographic on infographics:

*Sources: Learning Solutions Mag, Flowing Data

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. This system was developed in the early 1960s and is internationally recognized and used in print, graphic, fashion and interior design. PMS colors are assigned numbers and formulas for ink mixing. A palette of 14 basic colors are used to mix inks according to the formulas. The color PMS 285 printed in two parts of the world on the same paper will match due to the consistency of the formulas. Printers can order the colors by numbers or use the formula to mix the ink color themselves. The bright neons and metallics are unique to Pantone colors and cannot be achieved with standard CMYK printing. PMS colors are also known as spot colors because they print without dots or screens. For print jobs using three or less colors, the Pantone System is the way to go.

On the other hand, CMYK color is cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Each color prints from a separate plate as dots and screens in layers to create colors. CMYK is also known as process color or four color printing.

Some PMS colors cannot be converted to CMYK color because the inks used are different. If you are designing graphics that will be printed in both PMS and CMYK colors, it is a great idea to use the Pantone Color Bridge to confirm that a PMS color will convert as close as possible to CMYK.

CMYK will always be the standard in most color printing, however PMS offers an expanded horizon of choices. Speaking of neons and metallics, Pantone has developed and released the new Plus Series with 566 new color options. Here is a video from Pantone illustrating how new colors are developed.

What’s your favorite PMS color?

For the Graphic Designer, prepress means the procedure to prepare digital graphic design files for printers and vendors. These steps of preparation can include proofreading, revisions, checking size, fonts and color, and output of the file in correct format. Prepress at a printer can include making separations, platemaking, creating blue lines and color proofs. The steps stay basically the same on each job and when you do them professionally for several years you may notice signs of how they affect your life. Below are the top ten signs you may be a prepress pro:

1. Double spacing after periods in body copy REALLY bothers you.

2. While driving home after a long day using Illustrator – you imagine creating bezier curves with your car on the highway.

3. You get called nicknames like Genius, Design Darlin’, Design Dumplin’, Graphics Guru or Speedy Spice (from way back – Spice Girls).

4. You really wish you could do a “Command Z” on some actions in life.

5. You are fatigued explaining “Bleed” has nothing to do with losing precious bodily fluids.

6. Continuous tone is not about the car alarm that went on for hours in the neighborhood last night.

7. You feel nausea when you see the font Comic Sans or any True Type font or encounter a Microsoft Word file or Illustrator file used as desktop publishing software.

8. Dummy means an example of design work. You have a lot of other words for stupid people and dingbat is not one of them either.

9. Acid free paper is not about being completely bummed at a Rave.

10.Eating a meal is a major distraction. When you do get out to a restaurant and look at the menu, you recognize the fonts, typos and double spaces after periods instead of the food. Besides, fonts are considered a food group.

What signs have you noticed?

One of Bailey Gardiner’s company values is creativity. We even have the word in our logo treatment. Clients rely on us to be creative, but sometimes our ideas don’t come as easily or are blocked. What do we do when our creativity seems to dry up? How do we fill our creative wells?

Although human beings are naturally creative, American culture does not nurture the creative process. We are born with the ability to learn, experiment and cope with life, yet by the time we are 10 to 12 years old – parents, peers, and certain education systems have had a negative impact on our creativity.

As it turns out, there is a process to being creative. For a work environment to be creative, it must allow for this process and empower employees to think, feel and contribute ideas. Here are some of the typical steps you’ll see people take to keep creativity flowing

Preparation – This is where we focus the mind on the project to explore the project’s scope and do research and development. Creative briefs and brainstorms at Bailey Gardiner are essential to get projects started.
Incubation – This is where we allow the unconscious mind to process the research and development. This can make those who are not involved in the process be nervous because it looks as though nothing is getting done. It also takes time, which is often in short supply in the marketing and advertising industry.
Insight – This is where ideas bubble up from the unconscious into conscious awareness. This is the “Ah Hah!” moment and can happen spontaneously while driving, taking a shower or even in a dream.
Verification – The idea is consciously acknowledged, developed and put into action.

On a personal level, filling the creative well is about self-care and inner and outer exploration. I need to take care of myself, eat right, get a decent amount of sleep and exercise. Inner exploration is drawing and painting, journaling, sewing, listening to music and mediation. Outer exploration is taking myself on an “Artist Date” which is all about answering the question, “If you were a child what would you want to do for fun?”

How do you keep your creativity flowing?

What the heck are raster and vector graphics and why are they different?

Computer graphics are produced in two ways. Raster graphics are created with pixels and are referred to as bitmap images. Raster files are best for photography and continuous tone images. When a raster graphic is scaled up on a computer screen the pixels can be seen as squares each with their own color and value (dark to light).  They cannot be scaled up in size without losing image quality. In a public relations campaign photographs may be sent out to print publications. It is best to know the magazines’ technical print information. An image will print blurry in the magazine if the photo is sent out with a dpi that is too low.

Vectors, on the other hand, are resolution independent. They are created with paths (points, lines, and bezier curves) which are based in mathematical equations. Use of vector graphics is much more flexible. They can be scaled up and down without losing their crispness. Line art (illustrations), type, and page layout programs all use the vector format. Logos are best when created in the vector format because the art will always be clean and not bitmapped. Vector graphics are used in both print and web design.

Have you ever gotten a call from your print rep saying there is something wrong with your output files? With deadline pressures and a budget to stick to, it can be a truly stomach-turning experience. Print publishing software such as InDesign has excellent pre-flight tools which help graphic designers to check/prep a document to print correctly. But sometimes there are problems pre-flight doesn’t catch.

For instance: a rogue color is left over in a linked Illustrator file when the project started out as PMS colors then was switched to CMYK mid-project. Pre-flight will tell you how many channels of color that are in the document but it won’t tell you where those colors are. That PMS color is probably underneath another layer and invisible. The graphic design document should only be four color, but you still see an extra PMS color listed in the colors used palette. That additional PMS color will mess with the print plate production.

If you can’t see the extra PMS color in a regular printout then try this neat trick I discovered:

Print out the project in question directly from InDesign with separations turned on. You will get black and white print outs of each channel or “plate” of color so 4 pages for the CMYK colors and additional pages for each PMS color. From the print out you can pinpoint the location of the rogue PMS color. You can then go back into your graphic design documents and eliminate that color. Simple solution for a major headache.

Press checks are an important part of any print advertising job. Press checks also require many steps to ensure that everything is printed exactly as it is supposed to look.

Before starting a graphic design project that will be printed by conventional or digital methods, establish a good relationship with your printer. Discuss the project, budget, expectations and deadlines. The printer will probably have some great input that will enhance the design and cut down on cost.
1. For the press check bring the final proofs, dummies, ink and paper swatches and any other paperwork to confirm paper and color specifications.
2. Check overall appearance of the press sheets.
3. Number the press sheets as you receive them to keep track of color changes.
4. Check the typography for shifts in copy flow, broken type, and type that may have defaulted.
5. Verify that the last proofreading edits are done.
6. Check color registration and/or color matches. Check color trapping and ink coverage.
7. Check photography and/or illustrations for placement, scaling and cropping.
8. Verify bleeds and the finishing elements; such as foilstamping, diecutting, embossing, drilling and perforations are properly indicated.
9. Mark any imperfections, hickeys or blemishes. (If you go into a press check and do this first, the pressmen know you are an amateur).
10. Finally, sign and date the approved press sheet and thank the pressmen (and presswomen) that worked on your project. It wouldn’t happen without them.

Doing a press check on a graphic design project is part of the service we provide. Using this checklist will help ensure your project turns out beautifully.

The Art Alive invitation package for The San Diego Museum of Art is printed and will drop in the mail this Thursday. The Museum and patrons loved last year’s award-winning design so much – they wanted to use the same concept. Since repeating a design is boring both for the designer and the viewers, our challenge was to improve on the idea. Last year, Kelly shot the brush parts as giant, macro pieces. This year we shot the brush parts close-up to get a different look and feel. This project was started with a sketch of a full page ad (see Image 1.) with three brushes. Once we had an idea of the three brush shapes to be produced, we then did photography of the paintbrush parts.

Here are some of the steps to producing the red brush. Images 2., 3., and 4. show the raw photographs of what were used for the paintbrush handle, brush tip and petals. In Photoshop, I made selections of the elements using paths to drop out the backgrounds. Image 5. shows the five pieces that make up the entire brush. Image 6. is the composite of all the parts with a little more work done on the handle to make it fuller through the center like a real paintbrush. All the elements are on separate layers in Photoshop and work together to create the paint stroke and the brush. This modular approach to the paintbrush production allows the art to be manipulated to fit the many different layouts (image 7.) required during the Art Alive show at The San Diego Museum of Art. What do you think of the results?