Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Innocent kids FREE seeds campaign


The Innocent Drinks UK Company which was founded in 1999, whose primary business is making healthy food and drinks, including smoothies, juice and veg pots, sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets nationally.. Is currantly marketing a cleaver spring campaign for kids’ which focus on children, encouraging them to grow their own vegetables, fruits, seeds and herbs thanks to packs of seeds.
 


The free seeds are available with every purchase of Innocent Kids Smoothies... Seeds available to collect include carrots, tomatoes, cress, basil, violets and sunflowers... Packs also contain instructions on how to grow their seeds in addition to cut-out plant markers.


As promotions go this is blooming good, even the most reluctant gardener, will feel inspired to start planting and harvesting fruit and veg. Anything that gets young children in to the fresh air this spring/summer away from the indoors ie. Television and computer gaming has my vote.


The free seed campaign has also see the Innocent Kids’ website
www.innocentkids.co.uk have a revamp, giving prominence to the campaign which gives children additional information about growing their seeds, gardening tips, competitions from Rocket Gardens and the Royal Horticultural Society as well as promoting gardening-related competitions and a gallery for kids to upload photos of their plant’s progress.
 

If your like me and have children, you will welcome this campaign plus I think all children like there smoothies which is good for your little one‘s health, which is a plus to... I can’t see Coca‑Cola doing this!

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

Monday, 2 April 2012

Lessons learned from design to print, crucial factors you need to know!

Although design is usually taken on face value, taking a look at the process itself can be very interesting. A designers journey is more often than not about far more than just design. Projects seem simple but they become more complex, and this is the same for most projects.

Design itself is the easy part, its what people know exactly how to do, but its the actual project topic or subject matter that you need to get to grips with. The more you learn, the more you understand, the more efficiently you can design. This can be said for an in depth brief but that’s not just it, you need to learn more, so learn who the company is and what it does, these two aren’t necessarily linked to the design process but they DEFINITELY HELP to create the end product. The design process is not always a standard technique you have to follow, its more about learning that different types of people respond differently and have different needs. Once you have learned these lessons you can truly start to design something amazingly bespoke, and what comes out is guaranteed to be more successful.

To add an extra dimension to the process, the print is another element a designer might have to pitch or think about when they design.
Below are FIVE PRO TIPS, for essential insights for print:

1. Get a selection of printers to work with. Their quotes are usually based around the size of their press, so depending on the size and amount of colour’s, they may come up trumps for one job and then be far too expensive for another.

2. Any spare time offers the perfect opportunity to catch up on what your fellow designers and what they have been working on with a printer. It’s great to get away from your computer and have a look at some of your peers work.

3. If you spot a real howler then it’s definitely best to get new plates made at this point rather than know that the projects gone wrong.

4. Listen to what your printer has to say when discussing stocks and finishes - they do this every day. But the ultimate decisions are down to you - don’t let them dictate the job!

5. Think about the combined finished effects: source as many as possible for reference so you know how they’ll turn out. But also try to take educated ricks, and be adventurous.


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

Friday, 30 March 2012

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

Post Box
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!










BEAVER  























































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

Monday, 26 March 2012

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

Monday, 12 March 2012

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