Stamp Prices Rise - How to Still Reach Your Audience Despite the Increase in Prices

The Royal Mail announcement that a First Class Stamp was due to rise to 60p, was an additional cost that businesses across the country really did not need. It will have lead to many considering avoiding using the Royal Mail where ever possible. This could be entirely possible in cases such as invoicing, but with email open and click through rates lower than ever, it would be very foolish to give up using the medium of print and direct mail to reach your customers and prospects.

Remember - mixed media campaigns have the greatest conversion rates!

It is entirely possible to still manage to contact your target audience through direct mail, without breaking the bank. Here are a few ways to do this:

1. Target your audience and keep your database up to date.
There is no point in sending a very attractive brochure advertising Golf clubs to someone who has no interest in Golf, but actually prefers chess. Make sure when you buy your database or gather your client data, you are getting people who have a genuine interest in what you are offering. 1000 hot leads, with a genuine interest rather than 5000 with a vague, or no interest is going to yield a much greater return, not to mention the saving on postage.


2. Look at other options on postage rather than stamps.
A stamp or even franked mail from the office can cost a lot. If you are sending out a large number of letters, there are a number of options available from the Royal Mail that are actually cheaper. One of the new products that has been launched is Advertising Mail, where you get a cheaper rate of postage for using that particular service. Another is Walksort. If you are covering a localised area - this could work for you. There are, of course, other options including TNT mail and other private carriers which are always worth consideration.


3. Plan what you are sending out prior to printing it.
Rather than print what you always produce, it could save you money by playing to the new Royal Mail rule book a little bit more. Look at different sizes, weights of finished item etc. It could be that you can get the same message and conversion rate, just by printing slightly differently or using a different technique.

4. Joint venture with other businesses
If the cost of mailing is still too high, look to work with other complimentary businesses and do a joint mailing with them, you can share the cost, and your databases. 


What ever you do, do not stop speaking to your customers. If you stop talking to them, you can be sure someone else will be!


If you are thinking of a new direct mail campaign and need some ideas on how to plan the printing, a creative idea to engage a new customer base, or plan the mailing and distribution, please give me a call. +44 1455 557766 or visit www.tridentdesign.co.uk


Thanks for reading.


Adam Burrage

11 Amazing FREE Fonts to download!

Fonts are extremely important to the success of a brand or design.Its so important to stay in touch with current trends as one day a font might have a positive or creative persona and the next it doesn’t. Part of being a designer is to follow trends and that’s what we do here at Trident, sometimes we don’t adhere to them as most creative’s don’t its just important to keep your finger on the button. Due to this power, the font creators can now charge a lot of money for the fonts because over the years that have built a brand just like Nike or Coca Cola. Think about their fonts and how iconic they are, you might just need to see the type and it doesn’t need to say Coca Cola for you to think it. So this is where our latest blog stems from, free fonts are very easy to find but, finding high-quality, attractive and elegant fonts is a very hard task to do. Many fonts are being released from several past years and we believe some of these are outstanding.

All are free and ready to work hard on Your project to make it look impressive and sell your product, service or design. Leave comment and say which font You like most!

ASAP 

BEAVER  

VHIA 

POLY 

ORIGRAM

OSTRICH SANS

Wisdom Script

Museo Slab

Mosaic Leaf

Onick 

RBNo2

Visit our website www.tridentdesign.co.uk or call us on 01455 557766.

Lomography

Lomography is taking a photographic revival. Everyone getting back to the film camera of yesteryear, compared with today’s technological advances with cameras producing quick and easy pictures at high-resolution, with there automatic settings, high-speed shutter settings, etc. And also with the editing process thanks to computers and such programmes as Photoshop.

While most of us growing up waiting for our holiday pictures to be developed. You can see your pictures immediately, with the option of delete or save, an option not available with earlier film cameras. For a long time it seemed as if the old days of film photography were over, until a blast from the past came to the rescue...

Some facts about Lomography...

In 1991, two students in Vienna, Austria stumbled upon a compact-sized Russian camera called the Lomo Kompakt Automat.
They began taking pictures just for fun without thinking. After they came back to Austria, they were amazed to find that the photos they took had extremely rich colours, uncomposed, spontaneous snapshots, especially in the street and in low light. Since then the history of lomography has begun.

The characteristics of Lomography are saturated colours, depth of field, edge darkening, light distortion. The best subjects are images which contain high colour, stone rock or gravel textures, as well as shiny objects like metal. Another add-on to the camera is a wideangle lens which produces Fisheye.

However, if you don't own a LOMO camera, then you can achieve the same effect using a lomography photoshop action that can be downloaded.

If you want to visit our website for information and helpful tips please visit www.tridentdesign.co.uk

Computer Arts Collection magazine - A thing of sheer beauty!

The new Computer Arts Collection Graphic Design magazine is now out using a mixture of 6 Pantone’s, Spot UV, texturised paper and striking design its enough to make any designer’s mouth water.

Its the very first of its kind, and is part of a new annual series of six in-depth guides from the makers of Computer Arts. These glorious sets focus on typography, illustration, branding, photography, advertising and of course the all essential GRAPHIC DESIGN. These guides are the perfect edition to any studios bookshelf.


It’s packed with plenty to inspire throughout the year, but this is much more than a glossy coffee table book - there’s also invaluable insight and analysis from our peers to help our own client briefs run more smoothly. Look at this thing of wonder, visit the 16 page digital sampler - http://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/ca-collection-sampler?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage


With a copy in hand, the sections that are a must see are FOLIO, TREND REPORT, INDUSTRY FOCUS, STUDIO PROJECT, PROCESS, GLOBAL DESIGN, and FUTURE PROOF. Make sure you flick through to the super-hot-fluoro Pantone pages- page 68 INDUSTRY FOCUS includes a great feature on how your studio can survive and thrive in the global downturn. Gain an unprecedented insight into how our peers tackle a brief in another great feature - STUDIO PROJECT. Finally FUTURE PROOF shares Four leading designers advice for developing your digital publishing and app design skills, including British GQ’s creative director Paul Solomons on Adobe DPS, Bonnier’s Sam Syed on the Mag+ platform, and ustwo’s Neil McFarland and James Lee on designing apps.


So our opinion of this truly inspiration guide has to be an absolute, AMAZING. In our busy design studio I have to admit I’ve read the sections that truly interest me like INDUSTRY FOCUS. I have read that article I’d like to provide a little insight into section. As a person with not just a job in design, more of a career, where I have spent years of my life enjoying art, photography then graphic design, I find it scary that some people cant see the value of good graphic design. However the section clearly shows whilst some markets freefall, and austerity measures bite and currencies devalue over night, the investment & funding towards creativity remains sturdy.


Design, especially printed items were widely collectable, meant to be playful high end marketing tools and things of beauty. However due to clients budgets tightening these commissions are financially unviable and commercially unnecessary. Clients see value in digital, where there overheads are low cost and can deliver accurate response data.


We as a design agency have to shift with this market and we offer many digital tools like websites and email marketing which have a proven success rate. If any of this sounds appealing visit our website www.tridentdesign.co.uk or call us on 01455 557766.

5 logos with hidden messages

As a graphic designer, it’s hard to convince my customers about the power of a logo and satisfy the customer needs. when they only what something simply for just getting there name out. when they could be having a strong logo with a hidden message ie that use negative space to create a powerful message and reflect the company’s personality. Below are 5 famous logos which will help you notice that a meaningful logo can leave an eternal impression on the customers. It’s like having two logos one within the other.

SEE if you can figure the below out with the message that the designer wants to transmit...

 

Eight Logo

This logo is very cleverly designed... If you take a closer look, you will notice that the logo consists of variations of number ‘8’. Which spell out the word Eight. SEE!!

ED Logo

I like this logo alot the ED which stands for Elettro Domestici - Home Appliances in English, you will see how the designer has amazingly used the negative space to demonstrate the letter “E” and “D” making the logo look like an electric plug.
 

Amazon Logo

This extremely clean and simple logo whilst the arrow might not look like more than a smile to you. Have another look it also represents that Amazon sell everything from a to z and it also represents the smile on the customers face when they bought a product.
 

FedEx Logo

You have probably seen the logo a thousand times and thought the FedEx logo looks like a plain text based logo but if you take a second look between the E and the x you will see an arrows which represents the speed, direction and reliability of this worldwide courier service.
 

Toblerone Logo

You probably have never noticed the brilliant logo whilst enjoying this chocolate bar. The Toblerone logo contains the image of a bear hidden in the Matterhorn mountain, Toblerone originated in Bern, Switzerland – which means “City of bears”.
 

If you want to visit our website for information and helpful tips please visit www.tridentdesign.co.uk

Pantone of the Year 2012: Tangerine Tango

 

The fashion world drives the trends every year, especially in colour. The fashion weeks across the world are the place to be and the place Pantone gain their inspiration. They have access to the designer’s pieces before they are even shown to the world. Pantone experts look at the colour selections used by the fashion houses and then show them to the world as a special colour palette which can be used in all market sectors particularly DESIGN.

Pantone is one of the most influential leaders in the design industry and every year they promote colours of the year and in 2011 PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle was the most influential colour for their company. Pantone “encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor” so this year we expected a lot from their choice of colour. This is where the 2012 Pantone Tangerine Tango comes into full force. This colour has been classed as “a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward”. Pantone goes on to delve deeper into the feelings and thoughts promoted by this colour - “Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

With that immense description we can go further to discuss the history and background of the colour and over the past several years, orange has grown in popularity and acceptance among designers and consumers alike. Due to the striking beauty of the colour major fashion houses such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nanette Lepore, Cynthia Steffe by Shaun Kearney, Elie Tahari and Adrienne Vittadini, are incorporating this attractive orange into their spring collections. With this said it’s more than likely, like most hues to trickle into the Autumn Winter seasons.

In a wider sense Tangerine Tango sways over to the cosmetics industry as a winner. Because of its versatility, as it is a bit exotic, but in a very friendly, non-threatening way. From the catwalk, high end or low-end outlets, you can add a sultry flair to lips, cheeks and nails with Tangerine Tango.

This colour is so dynamic it features in the world of men and women. You’ll see it used in a different hue for the huge technology company Orange. So going on to other sectors you’ll find that Tangerine Tango can energize interior spaces from patterned home accessories, for use in pillows bedspreads and tabletop accessories in this high-impact hue add spice to any room.

We as a design agency will look forward to producing quality artwork with this vigorous colour as its strong point. We can look forward to a future that is bold and bright.