A brand is an essential part of your business. Branding makes your business stand out from other competitors, as well as validating your company. We’ve found a series of corporate rebrands which we think are pretty interesting.

Blogged via Andrew Keir

Around 20% of Adult Australians, or one in five people, will experience a mental illness at some stage in their lives. The subject of mental disorders is no laughing matter, and the idea of communicating this message to a large spectrum is challenging. We were completely blown away when we came across these minimal poster designs by Patrick Smith. Patrick set himself the challenge of defining each disorder in a minimal way which proved to cause a lot of controversy.

Post via: Minimalissimo

A series of inspiring typographic art that we think is pretty rad!

A Topographic Typographic.

Who would have known that Burger King could be so creative?

Note the bear just hangin’ in the letter P. Typography and collage – WOW.

If you don’t like yoghurt you probably will now.

Post Via: Pichaus, Six Revisions, The Inspiration Room, Blog Virtuemart Templates, Einshtein

1. Talk about your products and services — not yourself
   Visitors to your website are there because they are interested in what your company does. Information about who you are is important, but only as supplementary material to back up what you do. Your home page should showcase examples of your work and, if possible, hightlight the features and benefits of your core products and services

2. Make it easy for people to get in contact with you
   It seems obvious but many websites make this mistake — a customer who has to spend too much time looking for how to get in touch with you will get frustrated. Keep important contact information on everypage and provide links to your contact form that are easy to find.
3. Make sure any information you publish is useful and informative
   Writing online is most effective when it gets to the point quickly. Irrelevant copy on your site will quickly turn potential customers away as they are looking for information to help solve the problem that brought them to your site in the first place
4. Don’t use too much copy — keep sentences and paragraphs short and to the point
   This follows on from Point 3, and leads into Point 5… People have a tendancy to scan web pages, rather than read them, looking for prominent words and sentences that are of interest to them. Remember that web content should be about half of its paper equivalent.
5. Break up the page with headings and lists
   Make it easy for people to scan through your copy. Break up content on the page using headings and lists so key points of interest in your copy are easy to find.
6. Update your content regularly and make sure your content is up to date
   Content that is updated regularly will not only help your search engine rankings, it will also let visitors to your site know that your company is active and in business. This is important for building trust in the products and services you provide. Talk about the latest projects you have been working on, products and services you have in development and recent successes for other clients. Keep your content up to date — a visitor to your site who finds information that is several months/years old will not hang around for long.
7. Use descriptive names for your images and describe them properly
   An image called “our-design-studio.jpg” will provide more information to both the search engines and your site visitors than one called “image1.jpg”. Use the “alt” attribute to describe your image properly, taking into consideration the purpose of the image in context of where it is placed on the page.
8. Make sure your site is easy to navigate
   The more logical, familiar and intuitive your site is the better it will be at retaining visitors. Make your links clear and use them to guide your visitors efficiently through the site. Provide breadcrumbs to let people keep track of where they are in the context of your site. Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think! is a bit of a bible here at Red Ant Media and is highly recommended reading for more information about designing your site and making it easy to use.
9. Name your pages logically
   As with Point 7 about your images, a web page called “improve-your-website.html” will do better with the search engines and be more relevant for your visitors than one called “page1438.html”. Remember not to use spaces when naming your pages (and the same for images too!) and to call them something relevant to the content they contain.
10. Make sure your site has a logical structure and heirachy
    Plan your website to reflect the activities of your organisation — both in its design and its structure. Our site for example has both a portfolio and descriptions of our products and services. Relevant to our home page there is a folder called /portfolio/ and one called /products-and-services/. When navigating to a particular section of the site it is clear in both the url and the breadcrumb what section our visitors are in (redantmedia.com.au/portfolio/graphic-design/ or redantmedia.com.au/products-and-services/graphic-design-and-printing/).

Not-for-profit organisations often suffer when it comes to getting quality design work, due to the prohibitive expenses.

At Red Ant Media, we’re committed to supporting our local community, charities and the not-for-profit sector.

Below are some examples of our not-for-profit clients and the projects we’ve worked on for them. As well as these clients, we’ve also worked with local church groups, clubs and societies.

Tranby Aboriginal College

In addition to building Tranby’s website, we regularly design marketing materials for the college, including course brochures, certificates, promotional fliers and posters. In 2010 we designed Tranby’s posters and flyers for their Naidoc Week 2010 events.
See examples of our work for Tranby here.

The Glebe Society

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of Glebe itself, the Glebe Society commissioned Red Ant Media to design, edit, typeset and arrange printing for their commemorative book: Celebrating Conservation and Change In Glebe: 40 years of the Glebe Society.

More recently, we designed and developed Glebe Walks, a guided walking tours website integrating Google Maps and lots of historic resources from the area.
See examples of our work for The Glebe Society here.

Australian Network on Disability

Red Ant Media designed and typeset the 2nd Edition of AND’s Managers’ Guide to Disability in the Workplace. Alongside the book we designed and developed the HTML version of the Managers’ Guide, which is distributed to members for use in their organisations.
See examples of our work for Australian Network on Disability here.

Glebe Public School

In 2009, Red Ant Media designed and produced the Glebe Public School’s 150th anniversary book, Glebe Public – The Story of a School.

RAPS – Recreation and Peer Support

Red Ant Media created a new logo and letterhead for RAPS, a non-profit organisation that was initiated by people with a physical disability over fifteen years ago. RAPS aims to support its members to pursue their recreation interests and access the community.

Red Ant Media also designed their new DL brochure and website.
See examples of our work for RAPS here.

A good logo design is very important and an invaluable part of your business

A logo (or logotype) is an emblem or graphic symbol used by businesses, organisations and individuals to represent their identity. The ultimate goal of a logo is to promote instant recognition of the entity through the use of letterforms, colour and graphical elements.

Logo design is a very important part of graphic design, and one of the most difficult to get right.
A good logo is very important and an invaluable part of your business. Good logo design relies on 5 basic principles; simplicity, versatility, memorability, timelessness and appropriateness.

Simplicity

A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows for versatility and memorability. Good logos should be unique without being complicated. A simple logo will be remembered longer, helping people to them remember your business.

Versatility

A logo has be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. From promotional items, such as a USB drive, to billboards, magazine advertisements and online a logo must remain recognisable.

Memorability

A logo does not have to be an actual representation of your business (McDonalds do not use a hamburger for their logo) but it must be memorable. A memorable logo is achieved by making sure that the design is simple, versatile, distinctive and clear.

Timelessness

A logo should stand the test of time. Will it still look good in another 20 years? Because your logo is meant to represent your identity and encourage immediate customer recognition, it is counterproductive to have your logo frequently redesigned—make sure you get it right the first time.

Appropriateness

The logo you decide upon for your business must be appropriate for your intended audience. Once again it does not need to be an actual representation of what you do, but it should have an association with what you do. The logo of a pet store will differ greatly to that of a law firm, and both should be representative of their respective industries.

Developing an effective email newsletter is a matter of planning.

The three main considerations when developing an email newsletter are the content, the design and the technical structure. Get these right and you are on your way to a successful email campaign.

Content

The content of your email newsletter should consist of either a value proposition, a call to action or information of value. A mixture of these three content types is ideal.

1. Value Proposition: Provide the audience with all relevant information that will lead to a purchase decision, whether now or in the future.
   Value propositions can take the form of content (product advantages, customer testimonials, etc), incentives (limited time offers, warranty extensions, etc), coupons (purchase discounts, etc), giveaways (prizes, samples, buy-one-get-one-free) and urgent offers (where an immediate purchase decision is required).
2. Call to action: prompt the audience to take a specific action.
   Examples: visit a website, call for more information, download a file, print an offer, visit a showroom, save this email (because…), forward this email to a friend (because…), read the rest of this email (because…) or fill out an online form.
3. Information of Value: provide content based on knowledge and experience relevant to the audience to keep them interested.
   Examples: advice, facts & research, opinion, interviews, entertainment, customer FAQs and questions.

Design

How the email looks is important. Use the layout, your brand, focal points and the preview pane to maximum advantage

1. Layout: use and intuitive, easy-to-follow layout that matches the email newsletter to the type of information it is presenting. This communicates content before the audience even starts reading. Common formats include newsletters, promotions, invitations and announcements.
2. Branding: email newsletters should be clearly branded and include a masthead, organisation name, date, website and contact information. Keep the layout of the email newsletter consistent, even across formats, to reinforce brand recognition. Importantly keep the look of email newsletter consistent with the rest of your marketing collateral.
3. Focal Points: use design elements such as headlines, images and graphics to draw attention to key parts of the content.
4. Preview Pane: Maximise the exposure of important messages and key aspects of content by ensuring they appear in the preview pane.

Technical Structure

Make sure that your email newsletter is percieved as “trusted”, is not too long (or too short!) and is programmed to reach all of your readers, no matter what software and operating system they use.

1. Trusted: Make sure that the email newsletter is easy to unsubscribe from, includes an actual “reply-to” address, clearly identifies your business, is consistent with the frequency of delivery and utilises a subject line is not misleading.
2. Length: email newsletters are generally more effective when they are concise—however this does depend on the audience and the perceived value of the content. Make sure that content is broken up into parts which can be easily navigated to and, where possible, use images instead of lengthy passages of text.
3. Coding/Programming: Email clients are inconsistent in how HTML emails are presented to end-users. Key considerations when building an email newsletter are to use HTML tables to control the design layout, ensure that “inline CSS” (style) elements are implemented and that images are not embedded but are referenced from the net, preferably using the same URL as the “From” address. Always provide an easy to see link to an online version for people who cannot view the email newsletter in their email client.

Grow your business with graphic design!

With all the inexpensive software available on the market today for making your own presentations, documents and websites, people often ask the question “why should I hire a graphic designer?”

The answer to this question is quite simple—professional graphic designers will provide your business with invaluable experience and know-how, presenting a professional image of your company to the outside world. This will ensure your business grows.

Well-designed communications, whether in print or online, will support and enhance your business.

It is important to remember that graphic design is more than just a logo; it’s packaging for your whole business, and affects how your potential customers will perceive your organisation. Put that packaging together in an appealing, well considered manner and it will enhance the perception of your business, defining what your business is about and how your customers relate to it.

Unfortunately producing your own flyers and brochures in Word or building a quick webpage in FrontPage is not going to cut it—these programs not only fall short of industry production standards for printing and website construction, they also have a tendency to produce documents that all look the same.

A good graphic designer not only has the experience to develop an image for your business that targets your audience and communicates with them, they will also liaise with all the other suppliers involved in the process, such as printing companies and website hosting companies, ensuring that production of your “business packaging” runs smoothly.

Good graphic design improves your marketing in many ways.

You need to get the job done right the first time and ensure that your business stands out from its’ competitors. How your business looks is its single most valuable asset, make a good impression from the start with your business cards and website. Potential customers will buy your product and services based on how these look.

Having a successful website depends on how well your site is planned.

The most important things to consider when planning a website are the purpose, design, content, structure, coding, SEO and hosting.

These “seven steps” to a successful website are outlined below.

Step 1: Purpose.

What will the website do?

The most important function of any website is it’s purpose. A successful website must have a function in the day-to-day operation of your business otherwise there is little point in spending your time and resources in building and having one.

Before building your website take into consideration what it’s primary function will be. Examples of the types of purposes that a website can have are online sales, business promotion, news portals, customer retention and lead generation.

Step 2: Good Design.

How will the website look?

Once your website has a purpose, the next step is the look and feel. To ensure your website is successful you have to take into consideration things like colours, font styles, page layout and graphics.

Have a look at your competitors websites to see how they present their business. Think of websites you regularly visit – which designs do you like and which ones do you dislike. Another idea is to type something like “great website design” into Google and see what the search turns up. Remember that a law firm’s website will look different to a plumber’s – but if you are a plumber you want your site to stand out from the crowd.

Step 3: Content.

What will the website say?

Anyone who knows anything about about building a successful website will tell you that content is the key. Every page on your site needs to talk directly to your target audience and potential clients.

Understanding your market is the only way to be successful here – so get acquainted with your target audience is and know what it is you want to tell them. Information must be appropriate and follow through with a meaningful call to action.

Remember to include a contact form and your relevant contact details, like phone number, address and opening hours.

Step 4: Structure.

How is the website organised?

It is very important your pages and content are organised in a structured manner. Navigation through your site must be intuitive and easy for your visitors.

Similar to your website’s design, remember that the structure will differ depending on the type of business that you run and that to make sure your website is successful your content should be structured with this in mind.

Step 5: Usability & Accessibility.

Has the website been coded correctly?

HTML (& XHTML) is the coding language that allows your website to be seen on the internet and as such needs to be well written and accessible. It must be readable by different web browsers (Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc) and different versions of these browsers.

Not everyone who visits your site has the latest software or the latest plug-ins. Other considerations are slow internet connections, people with disabilities and corporate users who have their internet access limited at work. Knowing your target audience and their browsing habits and capabilities will help you here.

Use a service like The W3C Validation Service, which validates multiple versions of XHTML and HTML to ensure your website has been coded correctly and will be accessible across multiple platforms.

Step 6: Search Engine Optimisation.

Can the website be found?

Search Engine Optimisation is not difficult, it just takes experience and planning. The basics of SEO include regular updated content, search engine friendly URLs, descriptive page titles, the use of heading tags, relevant metadata, valid code, careful directory submission and being linked to by external sites. If your website has all this going for it then you are off to a good start to having website success!

Step 7: The Technical Side.

Will the website actually be online 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

Many people choose cheap hosting options as a way of saving money and while there are some good inexpensive options out there remember to do your research first.

Questions to ask are:

• Is the ISP (hosting company) reliable?
• Does the ISP have guaranteed uptimes?
• Does the ISP perform regular backups? (Remember to keep your own backups too)
• How many other websites are hosted on the server?
• Do they provide access to technologies that will allow your website to develop and grow?
• Lastly make sure that the domain name you register is related to your business and easy to remember.

For more information about planning, designing and building a successful website contact us today.

One of the key factors in having people find your website in the search engines is having great content.

Website designers and graphic designers can help make your page look good but when it comes to getting a high listing in search engines, good content will set your site apart from your competitors.

So what type of content should I put on my website?

• The benefits of your products and services
• Help and FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages
• Relevant information about your industry
• A forum for your customers
• A blog or newsletter
• Tutorials and tips pages

How do I make this content improve my rankings?

1. Have an outline
   Having an outline provides structure and discipline; it gives the content a clear purpose and makes it easier for your audience to read and understand.
2. Using appropriate language
   Your content needs to speak to your target audience. An informal and active language is usually the best way to communicate. Potential customers will appreciate friendly, informal language they can understand and because of this they are more likely to continue reading.
3. Provide valuable information
   Your readers come to your website to get information. In fact they expect it. It is important to ensure that you provide all of the necessary information that is relevant for your clients. Deliver your information in a quick and efficient manner that doesn’t bore them and doesn’t deter them from the site.
4. Use an easy to follow structure
   Your website content must not only be informative and interesting, it must also be presented properly. Keep your paragraphs brief. 1 to 4 brief sentences is often enough. Arrange your paragraphs and sentences logically and avoid confusion.
5. Ensure quality and consistency
   Your content must be quality content. It has to be correct and well presented, including the spelling and grammar. To keep your content of a high quality update it regularly, keeping it relevant and current. Regular updating also has the added bonus of a better position in the search engines.

If your website is designed well and has great content, it will inform and communicate with the people that visit it. Get it right and the number of visitors and websites linking to your pages will increase. This will improve page optimisation and ultimately your position in the search engines.