If You're Still Digitizing ... Why? - Get A Free Logo!

Still digitizing, huh? Why? If you’re still digitizing I’m guessing you either enjoy it or feel as if you have no other choice available to you. I realize there are certain individuals who get satisfaction from creating or reproducing an image by hand. The very process of plotting or punching points (also known as nodes) can be very time consuming and become a tedious job. Once you’ve completed a complex or intricate piece of artwork, it’s only natural to feel a sense of pride for a job well done!

I can remember as far back as 1982, when personal computers were just beginning to be introduced into the Awards & Engraving industry. Digitizing was painful! This was long before the development of computer aided design (CAD) software. All drawings had to be created from beginning to end with no mistakes or you had to start all over from the very beginning. You sure didn’t want the phone to ring or have a customer come through your door while in the middle of any drawing!!

A few years later we were blessed with CAD programs that enabled you to digitize logos and images much faster. Using software commands to create vectors, curves, ovals, arcs and numerous other short cut keys, allowing you to improve your work and in many cases enhancing the original artwork. Certainly one of the coolest things was being able to stop, save your work and pick up where you left off at another time. Whether it was later that day, the next day or sometime the following week. It was nice to not feel “married” to the system and be able to take a break if needed.

As computers became more and more popular, hardware and software progressed quite rapidly. It wasn’t long before people were talking about scanning and converting their raster files into vector formats. Many individuals retired their digitizing pads and began the “on screen” clean up process, believing this was their salvation from the point to point digitizing, we all thought was so nice in the beginning! Well, I must say for me it lacked the luster some were boasting of over the phone. Most all tradeshow demonstrations were what I would refer to as, “smoke and mirrors”!

Honestly I thought it was more challenging to scan and clean up my artwork as opposed to simply digitizing it from scratch. To me it was much easier and faster to continue to use CAD software and turn out a drawing that was much cleaner, with fewer points and maintained a much smaller file size. Most digitizers were (and are) concerned about the overall byte size of the finished logo. This was greatly due to the limitations of numerous proprietary systems. Forcing the digitizer to be mindful of their final output and keeping points to a minimum.

Through the years of now more than two decades, computers and software as we once knew it, has come a long, long way. We’ve all seen dozens of “state of the art” programs and hardware improvements to fill a small garage! Yet many of us still find ourselves looking for that “perfect” solution that would allow us to stop fretting over artwork.

Well, my friend … I have a solution for you. Let me give you an analogy or rather a comparison of digitizing (or scanning, it’s really all very much the same involved process), versus mowing your yard. Yep, you read it correctly … Digitizing vs. Mowing!

Think about it … just because you can mow your yard, does that mean you should? (Again, I realize some people get satisfaction and pleasure from mowing, my wife loves to mow our yard). Much like I stated at the beginning of this article. You may do it for pleasure or feel as if you’re stuck with it! You may choose to push mow with your standard hand mower or step up to a riding mower and sit comfortably within the leather seat. Either way, you’re still “married” to the task at hand.

Digitizing = Hand Mower (push from point to point)
Scanning = Riding Mower (scan across the land)

You’ve heard it and read it many times, “your time is money”. Most of us at some time or another have chosen to hire someone to do our yard work. Whether it be mowing or simply raking leaves, we’ve shuffled the chore to another individual or company. So I pose the question to you, “Why don’t you hire someone else to do your digitizing?” Choose a respectable service and send your artwork to the professionals for digitization.

With technology as advanced as it is today, you can email (or fax) your logo to the pros and have it back within 24 hours (two business days for some). This creates a win-win situation for all parties involved in the process. You win by saving time and money (remember, your time is money), not to mention the mental challenges that may arise should you continue to do everything “in house”. Your customer wins as well! They receive a top quality reproduction of their artwork in a digital format. This could and should open up more avenues for you to “lock in” their business for life. Giving you the slight edge over your competitors and versatility to create more quality products and services for your clients.

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

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How To Kill Your Competitors Product

I’ll never forget the day one of my competitors began copying and imitating our products and services! At first it was “flattering” or at least I told myself that, in order to not get flaming mad. I kept telling myself, “it’s competition that makes the world go-round”.

After several months of seeing similar ads, same size, same publications, same frequency and then showing up at the same tradeshows, I decided to do something about it. I did so in an up front, aggressive, in your face, humiliating, embarrassing, and however legit way, that ended my competitions tradeshow appearances once and forever!!

I knew our product was far more superior and much more stable than that of our competitors. It was irritating to see them capitalize on our advertising efforts and “piggy back” on our success by having a “me too” product. Reading and hearing their claims of how our product was trash and nothing but garbage caused me to take action. My company used their negative comments and turned them into an advertising campaign, that led to the demise of their product and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Due to such similarity in our product and our competition, we often received bitter phone calls about their product. So many calls came in each month that we got smart and started offering a discount on our product if they wanted to “switch”! All they had to do was send us their non-working competing product and we discounted our product (usually 30%, sometimes more if needed) and shipped it to them with a full warranty guarantee and support.

By offering the “switch” it was doing several things for us.

1 – It made us look good, better than our competition. Customers couldn’t believe we would actually take a “dead” trade-in for our superior working product! Knowing that we didn’t manufacture the inferior product astounded them.

2 – It increased our sales. By fielding the “unhappy camper” calls that were coming into our office by mistake, we turned them into positive “happy campers”.

3 – Our reputation as “the good guys” became even more pronounced. Customers throughout our industry were singing praises about our customer service and our product popularity.

4 – Customers began to advertise our product for us. Many of our customers supplied us with personal written testimonies that were then used in trade magazine publications and displayed at industry tradeshows.

As if this wasn’t enough, we then began to publicize our offer while attending national and international tradeshows. This was by far the most effective and best “kill your competition” move; we’ve ever done in our entire 21 years of business.

Remember, they were claiming our product was trash, nothing but garbage. If you listen closely enough to your competitions rhetoric, you can glean some pretty nifty ideas. Especially if you’re inclined to fire back with some “in your face” type claims and back them up with sound action and documentation. It’s been reported that “documentation” beats “conversation” and we had hard-core proof that our competitions product was, well … TRASH!

The best “in your face” action … we hung an acrylic (see through) trash can from the top of our booth at all tradeshow appearances that said, “CAN THE LINK”! (The Link was the name of their product). Stuffed inside the trashcan were gobs of their product!! Jammed in the can, hanging over the edges and dangling 10 feet in the air for all to see. It was so effective that customers were taking pictures of it and giving us “high fives” as a way of support and encouragement. At one particular show it was becoming such an attraction that the Executive Director of the tradeshow asked me to take it down. I asked him if we were violating any tradeshow policies, he said no. So, I politely refused and informed him of the nasty tactics of the competition and let the director know it was our intention to increase the pressure at upcoming shows. We would do this by hanging more trashcans and get larger ones if needed.

To add to the humility some customers had decided (all on their own doing) to wear bright pink t-shirts to the tradeshow that said negative things about the Link. Even worse than just walking around displaying the shirts, they stood outside their booth until the owner of the competing company wrote them a refund check!

That my friends, is the way to kill your competitors product and get a great big laugh while doing it!

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

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How To Use Tradeshow Gimmicks ...

How To Use Tradeshow Gimmicks To Build Your Business Big!

People attend industry tradeshows for numerous reasons. Whether you go and set up as an exhibitor or sign up to visit the vendors, everyone has their own motives for checking out the show. Interestingly enough, some individuals just want to get away from the office for a while and make it a “working” vacation! This is true for exhibitors as well as buyers, either way it becomes a business write off!!

I’ve attended industry shows as a buyer and as an exhibitor off and on over the last twenty years. In the beginning most of my focus was towards the Awards & Engraving arena. Through the years it became quite obvious that this was a rather small industry, as compared to some “sister” type industries such as; screen printing, apparel or sign business type shows. A great deal of my time over the last decade has been spent exhibiting in the larger arenas.

As an exhibitor, I’ve had several different outcomes in mind while at the show; including building from those experiences once back at the home office. Seems as if I’ve done it all at one time or another. Heck, one year I even dressed up as “Logo Man” (a take off of Batman), wore the cape and the whole nine yards! All this to stir up interest in our newest software release titled, LogoBahn. It was the hottest thing around and won first place that year for best technology development!

Now I’m not suggesting you need to dress up in some goofy outfit in order to have a successful tradeshow but I do encourage you to think outside the box. One year our company joined forces with four other well know businesses. We called ourselves the Texas Connection, appropriately named due to our companies were all located in the state of Texas. We placed advertisements in popular industry magazines, informing of our FREE GRAND PRIZE give away, at the next Las Vegas International Tradeshow. In addition to the space ads, each company sent out two post card mailings prior to the show date. We set up a “punch card” to be handed out to each registered individual as they entered the tradeshow exhibit hall.

Each of us had a special die punch with different emblems. We utilized this punch card to indicate that an individual had physically stopped by our booth. Once a person had all five company marks punched, they would then drop it into a centrally located hopper (raffle bin). On the last day of the show just before the end of the day, we gathered around to draw out the winning attendee’s card. It was a smash hit, a true winner for all five of us as exhibiter’s in many different ways.

Our grand prize that year was a big screen TV costing around $1500. This was a small price to pay considering we shared in the purchase of the television set. We were at the forefront of peoples mind long after the show had ended and many asked what we were going to be giving away at the next event!

Here’s the real beauty of the whole deal. As I mentioned earlier there are several different outcomes each exhibitor has while attending an industry tradeshow. Too many in fact to cover in this one article but I want to share one of the better results we experienced as a company. It’s so cool and tailor made for anyone in sales to implement this concept in your business. Whether you are selling a product line or a service this gives you a great follow up plan, as well as a great lead in for your sales force.

Here it is! Remember the punch card each individual was required to have marked by the participating exhibitors? Well, once they approach your booth and ask for their card to be punched, hand them ANOTHER CARD to be filled in while they are getting their card marked by you. It’s a good idea to have another incentive to benefit the person filling out the additional card. Something small, keep it simple. We used an additional giveaway item of our own. A portable DVD player, at the time was only $40 and we shipped it to our winning visitor (or handed it to them if they were present). A mini raffle of our own!

This accomplishes two specific things:

1 – They are held “captive” in front of you to fill out their information, allowing you time to “pitch” your deal to them. Other wise, they will simply get their card punched and move on down the aisle!

2 – This “other card” will now become your personal LEAD CARD to return back to the home office. You can ask pertinent information on this lead card to enable your sales people to target the specific needs of each individual.

Example:

If your item is a software program, you may need to know certain “facts” before pitching your product. Facts such as, what type of computer is used, what version of operating system, email address, do you have a website, do you use any other type of drawing software, if so what kind, etc.

The options are truly endless and become a valuable source of knowledge for your sales team. Imagine this, now instead of waiting on the tradeshow organization to send you the show attendee’s list or print out the “standard” name, address, zip, phone, etc information. You now have specific FACT FINDING answers to your need to know questions without having to call and ask over the phone. Your sales people are truly armed with solid info that allows the to build rapport with their prospects. Making the “sales call” a much warmer, more friendly invitation to your newfound friend.

Remember, no one likes to be sold but we all like to buy. It’s been reported that people prefer to buy from a friend and NOT a stranger. These types of fact-finding questions create great lead-ins, enabling you to get from stranger to friend much faster. Let’s face it, when you call on a prospect and you all ready having working knowledge of who they are, what they are doing and how they may be doing it … it simply makes them feel more comfortable. Not your typical sales call!

We all know most people buy on emotion and later back it up with logic. Think about it, what about that last car you bought? Did you have to have the leather seats with the automatic windows and door locks? Not to mention the DVD player and the navigation system! Okay, Okay … I realize you’re the exception, that’s why I wrote … MOST PEOPLE.

I trust this article will benefit those of you who exhibit at tradeshows. The above ideas are just a few that we’ve experienced over the years and found to have successful results. I titled this article with the word “gimmicks” in it, not necessarily implying these are gimmicks but rather “nifty ideas” in order to create a more successful outcome from your next tradeshow.

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

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Why Your Artwork Is Garbage

Why Your Artwork Is Garbage!

You’ve heard the phrase “garbage in, garbage out!” It’s also true when they say “What You See Is What You Get!” The acronym is WYSIWYG!

Having been in the digitizing logo business now for some twenty plus years, I’ve seen virtually all kinds and types of artwork. We all want and hope for the “camera ready” artwork to show up on our desk or computer files. Fact is, we rarely see a “picture perfect” image and are usually expected to perform miracles on the fuzzy or pixilated design. Even with the latest software, some artwork can present a challenge to make ready for certain applications.

Most of our clients (and I suspect yours too) don’t realize that you may not be able to achieve the same “look”, as compared to what they see on a print out. Depending upon the application an image may need to be altered to allow for a better representation. Of course we shouldn’t expect our customers to understand this matter, after all … that’s why they come to us.

One of the most helpful tips I received early on in my career was to suggest my customer return to their “printer” (person or company who created their business cards or letterhead) for crisp, sharp artwork. Knowing that if they had a business card in hand, someone would have to have the original artwork on file somewhere within their means. By suggesting to my customer to have their printer forward me the design, it would usually eliminate us having to “clean up” the image unnecessarily.

Of course there are the times when your customer brings in a paper sack or napkin, in which they have scribbled an idea for you to emboss or engrave. These are the situations when it’s nice to have an artist on call or someone available to “redraw” the logo for production purposes. Most small shops do not have the luxury of having such talent in house but once again, early on in my venture I learned to tap into other sources.

When we first started out in the logo business, the only “artist” was myself. Telling it like it is … the best drawing I ever did was in my first dot-to-dot coloring book! When it comes to free hand drawing, I look to others with the God given talent. The solution? I paid a visit to our local college and also phoned the high schools in our area, looking for artists. There were several individuals I met through this process and I still use two of them in my existing business today! Talk about a gold mine!! These two individuals have spurred on numerous projects and helped grow our company to many different levels, developing thousands of clip art images and logos for the trade.

What I learned was, if I wanted to supply my customer with a top quality logo. I needed to start with something of value. Even if it meant having to hire an artist to recreate the drawing, it was worth the effort. Having a quality image to work from made all the difference in the world when digitizing the design.

I suggest to you, by starting with optimal quality in your artwork, you’ll avoid putting out the garbage!

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

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How To Lock In Your Customers For Life

How To Lock In Your Customer For Life!

Wouldn’t you like to keep all your customers coming back to you, for the life of your business? Of course you would! There are numerous ideas for maintaining and keeping your customer a “happy camper” but undoubtedly the top three would have to be concerning matters of price, service and delivery!

Aside from those three, once you gain a customer’s loyalty and have them returning to you for more products and services, what else might keep them “locked in” to your business. I suggest to you, offer to “personalize” their item(s). That’s right, make it unique in a way that promotes them to their audience and shows recognition.

A great way to do this is to place their logo or signature, on the items they are receiving from your company. It’s been reported that once you have a customer’s logo on file, it makes matters a lot simpler for them to return to you for their next order. As long as you a doing a good job on the top three issues, it’s common sense for them to keep coming back to you for their future purchases.

It’s been said a zillion times, “A picture paints a thousand words”! You know, most people buy a magazine and review the pictures first and then read the captions. We’ve all heard the cliché “Never judge a book by its cover” but we’ve all been guilty of it at one time or another. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the image that’s on the paper, card, television, computer screen or any other medium for showing illustrations.

So, picture this (pun intended), you are an Awards & Engraving company and you offer Laser Engraving on a walnut plaque with a nice black brass finish. Your customer wants to offer their customer, a recognition plaque. Showing appreciation for their outstanding contribution to the organizations fundraiser program. (Remember, you want to “lock in” their business and have them wanting to return to you, time and time again).

Ask them for their logo! They may already have one or you may need to facilitate creating them a special design, all their own. If you need help in this area you’ll find numerous aids online right at your fingertips. A great source to search for most any logo or design is LogoFax.com once you register as a member (which is free), you can search for any image by typing in a keyword of your choice.

Example: United Way, once you enter in the words and click search, several renditions of logos matching your keyword entry will appear on screen for your viewing. Make your selection and proceed to download the image for use with your product line.

Think about it! If you were the recipient of an award or the presenter of the award, wouldn’t you have a higher perceived value if it were “trademarked” with a certain insignia? Sure you would, even if it were subliminal your subconscious mind would tell you it’s a special item and cause you to want to show it off.

Now that you have their logo on file it’s much easier for them to email or phone you with their next order. You’ve virtually “locked in” their future business! They know you already have their digital image ready to go, making it unnecessary for them to shop around with any of your competitors. After all, if you’re supplying them with great service, good delivery at a competitive price. They have every reason to return to you and get that special touch, personalizing their items!

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax
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Find And Use Free Logos

How To Find And Use Free Logos

Most anyone would agree that adding graphics to your newsletter or layout greatly enhances your work. Logos and clip art images can be used to draw attention to a specific area of text and raise the interest level of the reader. It’s finding the “right” image to illustrate your work that can present a challenge. Knowing where to look and how much it may cost you is more than half the battle.

Quality versus quantity usually determines the price point for most clip art images. Usually higher quality designs not only look better but they also tend to be more user friendly. Meaning, they are more easily imported and manipulated within popular graphic software. There’s nothing more frustrating than finding a nice piece of artwork, only to find it’s only available as a jpeg file or some other lesser quality format.

Free, is the key for some creators and illustrators. You will find with most clip art company websites, you can download a certain number of free samples. This may be limited to a specific format (such as a .jpg or .gif) or may allow several different formats of the same image. If you are able to download more than one particular format, it’s good to do so and compare the quality of each. You will find that a “vectorized” image will maintain its shape and look good at larger sizes. Raster files tend to “break up” or appear to have “jaggies” around the edges and do not lend themselves to a quality reproduction at larger sizes.

You can find thousands of free clip art images by simply typing in the keywords “free clip art” or “free logo” within any search engine. There will be tons of pages for you to browse and search through while looking for that certain design for your job. However, it’s best if you can narrow your search by typing in a specific description or group of keywords that depicts your topic. One great site with over 1 MILLION images online is LogoFax and it's FREE to become a member!

For example, if you are creating a newsletter for your church or youth group and looking for a design of a cross or religious picture, narrow your search by typing the keywords “Christian clip art” or “religious clip art” within your search engine browser. This will focus in on clip art sites that offer these types of designs and shorten your search. It’s been my experience that I usually find what I’m looking for within the top 20 listings and most of the time there are numerous free samples to pick from and download.

If you find yourself needing numerous types of images to illustrate your work or have ongoing needs for designer art. You may find it beneficial to join a clip art subscription program or “logo club”. There are many different sites that offer free trial subscriptions or a “try before you buy” type program to get you familiar with their services. Some sites offer different levels of their subscription services that are tiered for users frequency of use. You will find club programs to fit most any budget, from a few dollars a month along with annual incentives that may save you even more money.

You will want to make sure you read and reread any “terms of use” or “disclaimers” that may be attached to any clip art image or subscription service. Just because a certain image may be free to download it may or may not be used freely. Public Domain files are usually free to the public, thus the title or term Public Domain. However, if you are acquiring a corporate logo or an organizations insignia, then you may be required to obtain written permission to use that image. Most images are copyrighted by the creator even if it does not represent a specific company, so don’t think just because its not a corporations logo its free to use.

Trademarked logos usually have a small circle with the letter R inside; representing it is a registered trademark. Likewise the small letters TM or SM (usually found in the lower right hand corner) will indicate this is an image trademarked by a specific entity. You will want to pay special attention to these markings and respect the owner’s rights that apply to these images.

You will also find certain clip art and logo companies that offer a digitizing or reproduction service. Allowing you to submit an image via email or fax and they will create it in a digital format, making it useable with your graphic software or layout program. This is beneficial if you have a specific logo that has to be “matched” and be reproduced adhering to specific details.

When finding a using free logos make sure “free” really means free and pay attention to any TOS (Terms Of Service) or usage.

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If you are looking for free clipart or other logo sources Free Logo is the place for you. Working with logos and clipart has been my main thrust of business since 1984. I trust you’ll find this blog full of resourceful in formation.

Having worked with worked with computer engraving machines, as well as screen-printing equipment I’ve seen a great deal of differences between the two. Vinyl sign systems and laser engravers have also captured my interest as well. I’ve looked at sand blasting and sublimation equipment and have found them to vary in the types of formats they use.

I encourage you to take a look at LogoFax, you will find a numerous images to pick from online. Registration is free and as a member you can download a Free Logo and more from the free samples area.

College Mascots - Printable Sports Team Logos - Medical Logos - Symbols - Sports Logos - Clinical Medical Graphics - Corporate Logos and many others as well.

Please check in from time to time, as I will be updating this blog and posting my personal articles.

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