It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of reference for OnDemand Graphic Design and Web Studio. Collaboration started working with them nearly 9 years ago, firstly with the printing of our letterheads and business cards and then collaborating with them on the design of our year-end function invites and Christmas cards and calendars. It has always been a pleasure working with Nicci and her team as they seem to grasp client requirements immediately and show innovation and design integrity. It is without hesitation that I recommend them to anyone wanting efficient and creative services.

Jacqui Wessels, Collaboration | www.collaboration.co.za

The Importance Of Corporate Identity

If you haven’t worked on building a corporate identity for your company, your company logo is the first thing that a consumer will remember. Brand awareness is extremely important to create and enhance your company’s market presence and to maximize brand recognition. A strong and recognisable corporate identity is the key element to reaching your target audience. If people don’t know you exist, how can they buy from you or utilise your skill?

Two of the most successful and cost effective brand awareness strategies used to give a distinct identity are:

• Professional Logo Design

• Corporate Identity Packages

OnDemand Design and Web Studio can help you create these effective brand awareness strategies, known as the creating of a corporate identity.

How Corporate Identity Helps Small Businesses Establish Their Brand

A distinctive corporate identity will help to establish your company image among suppliers, distributors, and all your potential customers. Many small business owners unfortunately think that creating a strong corporate identity is for big businesses only and this is where they go wrong.

A good working corporate identity package should include a business logo, a motto or company slogan, and other promotional materials such as a letterhead, business cards, envelopes and compliment slips. When you have your corporate identity package designed by a professional company such as OnDemand Design and Web Studio, we will take care of important details such as the font to be used, icons, graphics, color and spacing of the text. Your corporate identity package will give your business the professional image it needs to win the trust of your customers.

Have your Professionally Designed Logo – NOW!

A professionally designed logo has several advantages:

• A professionally designed business logo will help you to build a strong, professional image for your business.

• Increase sales

• Establishes credibility

• Brand recognition

It is very important for your company to establish it’s corporate identity and brand image because people make decisions to buy based on emotions. Marketing works because many people become emotionally attached to brands.

Magazine Adverts

Magazine adverts are print ads that run in local or national magazines

When it comes to magazine adverts, most people think of the large, glossy, national publications full of big brand advertisers but that’s just not the case.
Advertising in magazines with national distribution is going to be expensive and it’s not the way to go for most small or midsized businesses.

Relying on magazines and the direct response ads that we see in magazines as part of a system process for direct marketing happen to be an extremely subtle, yet tremendously successful direct marketing technique. Those seemingly insignificant magazine adverts with blurbs and cutout coupons and bold headlines are a fantastic tool for your direct marketing needs. Prospects respond to this direct marketing technique by dialing in to the toll free number or by filling out small coupons.

But how does that enhance your direct marketing effort?

Direct response magazine adverts integrate two purposes. Firstly they tell about your product or service, and secondly, they provide a toll free number where the target market can call you up or a coupon is included for interested readers to fill out and submit back to you. This gives you the tools to build a database of potential clients who are interested in your product and would like to get more information, or would immediately consider buying your product. That’s great news for any direct marketer!

Another valuable feature of utilizing magazines as a direct marketing approach is that you are able to reach your niche market. You can research the demographics of their subscriber base, and discern whether or not they fit your audience profile.

Your magazine advert will need to be strong and eye-catching no matter what magazine you choose to advertise in. You only have a few seconds to grab the readers’ attention and pull them in to read the rest of the ad. A bold graphic and an interesting headline will help you make a connection with readers. The graphic and the headline must come together to pinpoint a problem and offer a solution to the reader.

Slimbetti is a great example of a magazine advert as a direct marketing approach that will enable you to reach your niche market. OnDemand Graphic Design and Web Studio was approached by Slimetti and asked to help in the quest to carry over their message about their product and the great benefits of it.OnDemand Graphic Design and Web Studio came up with a perfect layout and design for the magazine advert to make it eye catching and to catch the attention of the target market.

“This serves to confirm that OnDemand Print and Design (the whole team) with whom I have been dealing with the past 8 years have been nothing but professional and an absolute pleasure to deal with. They respond extremely quickly to my last minute advertising requests. They have been an integral part in establishing the Indodurn brand. They have a good broad based knowledge of what is required in order to make a business work. This they transform into their advertising and marketing ideas. They are energetic and pro-active in their approach to doing business and I wish them success in all that they do. I shall certainly continue to use their services.”

- John Slijpen, Indofurn | www.indofurn.co.za

“OnDemand delivers fast, reliable and cost effective solutions 100% of the time. At all times I am made to feel like a valued customer and the team is extremely adept at delivering on a variety of briefs big or small. I outsource all of Total Media’s design and SEO work to OnDemand as there’s no point shopping around once you’ve found the best.”

- Rachel Irvine, Total Media | www.totalmedia.co.za

“It was great working with you guys. Your input was well appreciated in guiding our initial needs and the team really went out of their way to meet our requirements and deliver a great product. The service was also reasonably priced. Thanks a lot!”

- Vera Schumacher , Hazendal Wine Esate | www.hazendal.co.za

“OnDemand is fast, professional, no nonsense, up to date with the latest IT marketing issues and a pleasure working with.”

-Kevin van Jaarsveld, Croco Afrique

The Electronic Brochure

An electronic brochure is the latest in marketing tools as an electronic brochure is a self-contained high visual impact “brochure” that can be emailed, downloaded off websites and put onto disks, giving a lot more freedom to disseminate your products with high quality images. An electronic brochure is a greener alternative to the expensive printed brochure and both serve the same purpose…to promote your business or service. An electronic brochure is an impressive, state of the art document that can be accessed very quickly and easily by both your current customers / clients as well as by potential clients. An electronic brochure is also a much cheaper way of promoting your business or service as you cut down on printing costs and you will also reach a far greater amount of people with your advertising.

An electronic brochure can be updated very quickly and resent whereas as the printed brochure can be outdated very easily if information on this brochure has changed. Now you simply update the information at a fraction of the cost, and you’re all ready to go again.

An electronic brochure can also be e-mailed which makes the distribution times so much shorter and you can reach your target market in a very small amount of time. Additionally an electronic brochure can also be put onto disks or even downloaded from the internet.

Attributes of the Electronic Brochure

• auto-run on CD

• easy distribution

• easy change of content if need be as changes can be made without major print re-run costs

• cut down on costs (no printing needed)

• state of the art way of promoting your business or service

• a website hyperlink on the CD that goes back to your website

• a contact form can be included which is sent back your e-mail at work

• the file size is very small for quick downloads

• it is very easily distributed as the electronic brochure can be on disks, CD’s, e-mailed or downloaded

• you can view the electronic brochure offline and also anytime, anywhere

• should you wish, you can print the electronic brochure, either single pages, a range of pages or the whole brochure

• having an electronic brochure designed is a cost and time saver. You will save on the pre-production stage, the printing as well as the distribution costs.

On Demand has designed this electronic brochure which is a self-contained high visual impact “brochure” that can be emailed, downloaded off a website and put onto disks, giving a lot more freedom to disseminate the advertising of this wine estate using high quality images. Hazendal is a wine esate, restaurant and museum and is a true gem in Stellenbosch. On Demand Design and Printing in Cape Town captured the essence of this estate into this electronic brochure.

graphic design

this video shows why you would pay a designer to work with your design as they are truly talented, please can we ban all secretaries from using word and claiming that they just designed a brochure, logo, newsletter, business card.

A standard DVD cover design measures 184mm by 273mm. Depending on your printer and paper size, it is possible to fit an entire DVD cover onto a single sheet of paper (A4 paper is more than large enough). You may need to reduce page margins to zero.

Be creative. Include a few pictures, and some real – or even fake – comments such as: ‘”Amazing…the greatest film of the year” – John Smith from Some Magazine’. This will add some extra meaning to your DVD. You can even add fake bar codes and age ratings (like the MPAA or BBFC ratings) for added realism.

The process for printing on the surface of CDs and DVDs is called silkscreen printing – it is an effective way to print on irregular surfaces, such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, or compact discs.

In the silkscreen process, film separations are made that represent each color in the design. The film is laid on a fabric mesh that is covered with a special emulsion and exposed to light. Where the light hits the emulsion, it becomes solid; where the film covers the mesh, the emulsion remains unchanged, and then is washed off. The screen is then placed on top of the surface to be printed, and ink is pushed through the mesh using a squeegee. The ink is dried, and the next color is applied.

Fine details are easily lost in silkscreen printing because of the mesh that is used. Elements of a design that are too small may end up sitting on the mesh itself, rather than in a hole in the mesh, where ink can pass through. Unfortunately, this mesh interference is an inevitable consequence of the process.

The first hurdle in printing on a CD or DVD is the surface of the disc itself. Unlike white paper, a disc has three distinctly different surfaces, and each one has its own issues. The regular surface of the disc is silver (or reflective aluminum, technically). Depending on the lighting and angle at which you hold the disc, the surface appears to have a tonal value of about 15 percent black. That means a halftone printed directly onto the surface of the disc will lose contrast in the lighter tones.
The mirror band. This is a highly reflective ring just outside the clear center of the disc that contains information about the disc itself; track information, artist, job number, etc. The issues of printing onto the surface are multiplied within the mirror band.
The stacking ring is a lip in the clear plastic center of the disc, between the mirror band and the hole. Elements that cross the stacking ring tend to become distorted. To make things more difficult, the inks used for silkscreen printing are somewhat translucent. Because this area of the disc is clear, the translucency of the inks becomes more obvious, and they will not match the same inks printed on either of the other two surfaces.

There are two solutions to the problem of printing on the changing surfaces of a compact disc. The first is to print a flood coat, usually a layer of white ink that covers the printable surface. This gives the disc a more consistent printing surface, closer to printing on paper. The second option is to make sure any halftones in your design don’t cut into the mirror band or stacking ring.

Article Source: discmakers.com

So, what exactly is website design? Web design is a kind of graphic design intended for styling objects of the Internet’s information environment to provide them with high-end consumer features and aesthetic qualities. Many people often confuse website design with website development as people refer to website design as the whole entity…the front end (the website you see) and the back-end (the programming part to make it all work). But web design is seperate from web programming or development as web design is seen as a kind of graphic design.

Website design, is the process of designing a functional layout for the specific client and then these presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) is delivered to you, the end-user through the internet (World Wide Web) using a web browser such as Safari, Firefox etc.

In a traditional way, graphic designers don’t see themselves as web designers and vice versa. Graphic / print design is a whole different way of thinking and of design. Layouts differ completely but if you are a good designer and versatile, it shouldn’t be a problem to do both. It is important to remember that every page of a website contains information about a specific company, person etc and this can be compared to pages in a book. The way you browse through a website, is as if you are browsing through a book. In print design you work with CMYK colours and images have to be at a resolution of 300dpi where with web design, you use RGB colours and images have to be at a resolution of 72dpi. Web design needs programming (digital code) and display technology to distribute information in multiple formats – on a computer screen, cell phone screen etc. A web site which has been properly designed and works 100% is most definitely the best and most sophisticated way of communication today. It’s literally one click away on a computer and the world is your oyster!

OnDemand www.ondemand.co.za has added web design, web development and search engine optimisation to the things they do. Please 021 551 0751 or info@ondemand.co.za for more information on this. The prices are very competitive and the service and product is great!

More on website design:

A website typically consists of text and images. The first page of a website is known as the Home page or Index. Some websites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language or region selection, or disclaimer.

Each web page within a website is an HTML file (website design) which has its own URL. After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks. Faster browsing speeds have led to shorter attention spans and more demanding online visitors and this has resulted in less use of Splash Pages, particularly where commercial web sites are concerned.

You give your business card to prospects and customers so they have your contact information and therefor your business card is one of the most important marketing tools you’ll ever create. You drop it in letters, tuck your business card inside of presentation folders, and use it in a myriad of other ways to let people know who you are and what you do. And, if you run ads in local newspapers, your business card may even double as camera-ready copy for the publication’s “business card ad” pages.

But no matter how you use your business card, it won’t be the marketing workhorse it should be unless it looks professional, is easy to read, and helps customers and prospects remember what you sell and why they should buy it from you.

A general business card size is 90mm x 50mm which is quite a small space for so much information but it can be done. Here are several suggestions to keep in mind before you design or redesign your business card.

Use a logo
Have a professional designer create your business logo which should symbolize your product or service in some way. It should also be scalable for use on business cards, letterhead, brochures, and your website.

Develop a one-line slogan
If what you do isn’t immediately apparent from your business name, create a one-line slogan that will help people remember what you sell. Include the slogan on your business card.

Include your website address and/or email address
Customers and prospects will want to know your website address and your email address.

Make your card readable
Your goal isn’t to produce a work of art thus Use a font size that is big enough to be easily readable without using a magnifying glass. Be sure the type color stands out against the background of the card and don’t use lots of fonts. It is going to look like a circus!
A business card must clearly communicates what you do and how to reach you. If recipients can’t read the contact information you’ll lose sales.

Make your card stand out from the rest of the pack
Make it stand out from the rest by using bright colors, including your photo on the card, or using high gloss card stock. Otherwise your business card may land up stuffed in a desk drawer with a stack of other business cards.

Have your business cards printed on good card-stock
Have your business card professionally printed on good heavyweight business card stock which will give you credibility because if the card looks or feels flimsy, it will leave people with impression that they are dealing with a small company that will disappear quite soon.

To achieve the above it is best to use a professional grahic designer at all times.

When it comes to seeing a logo that makes you wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” , there is something special about that logo design for it to give that impression.

If you think about it, you sum it up into five important design elements when it comes to brand identities and making the logo stand out. Icons logos have to be:

1. Describable
2. Memorable
3. Effective without colour
4. Scalable i.e. work when just an inch in size
5. Relevant to the industry in question

If you can’t describe what a logo looks like then how will you be able to remember it, therefor points one and two go hand-in-hand.

It’s a good idea to always leave colour to the end of the design process, because if the logo and or icon don’t work in black only, it won’t be able to work in colour either. Colour is secondary to the shape and form of the design.

It is very important that the design must be relevant to the industry in question otherwise you are just waisting your own time. You will have to do indepth research into the industry involved and have a look at competitors’ logos to be able to differentiate from it. You don’t want to design something that is already out there.