Kimberley-Jane: Design Blog

Mint Directory - E-mail V's Direct Mail Marketing - The Discussion

2010-11-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

You’ve read the article in Mint magazine or at Kimberley-Jane: Design, so now you should have all the basic ingredients to create a powerful campaign. Now that's covered let's look at ways to tackle how you’re going to send it out.

E-mail

There are several online software packages that can help you with your e-mail campaign and I’m going to recommend www.mailchimp.com. MailChimp will guide you through the process with tutorial videos hints and tips. The free package allows you to email up to 500 contacts in one go and you can create a HTML version which acts as an Internet page. This allows users to ‘click through’ to your website and this can be tracked.

The tracking feature is an amazing way to understand what your customers are looking at and how many have opened the e-mail. The collected data is displayed in table format and it will provide information about what could be your most popular product.

For your campaign to be successful you have to be organised and motivated but more importantly this next step is crucial – Follow up with a phone call! From here it’s down to your sales technique but don’t be afraid. Have a look at this video from sales expert Nigel Heald. There are 3 in the series and are free to watch. I have attended his training sessions and I highly recommend watching them. He opens your mind to fantastic techniques for approaching sales calls and how to make them successful.

Direct Mail

As I mentioned earlier targeting the right audience is key and this is the same for direct mail. A blanket e-mail or flyer will not appeal to ¾ of your recipients. Consider your audience and decide which part you want to focus on. Let’s take a hairdresser who is opening a new salon, for example. We can already split 50/50 female/male say we chose female then we can drill down further to young fashionable/OAP/business women. She decides she would like to aim her marketing campaign at young fashionable women and so the products and styles she chooses for her flyer represent this. She can then target where to post her flyers – college/university, trendy shops, and residential areas would be a good place to start. During this time she will have brilliant opportunities to talk to potential customers build relationships which develops trust.

Now you have the fundamentals to start your campaign you need to focus on the design and the message you are going to put across. The design and aesthetics are vital to the success of your campaign. Ensure your design is professional and remember it represents you or your company.

Take a look at some of my examples from previous work to get some inspiration: Kimberley-Jane: Design Portfolio

Now it’s your turn to get involved. I’ve shared some ideas with you but if you have any thing you would like to add please feel free. Remember the best comment wins a £20 voucher!

Photography Fashion Shoot in Leicester

2010-09-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

Twitter/kimberleyjane86

Tamworth based photographer Kimberley Turrell from Kimberley-Jane: Designs and Leicesterhsire Ladies Beth Widowson and Lizze Leary from Kindred Sole embarked on a day of fashion, shoes, skittles and horse stables. As a result some gorgeous fashion photography was produced for Kindred Soles website. Their Autumn/Winter collection of 2010 went live this week and below are the results.

Kindred Sole handpick the finest designs from around the world from established designer brands as well as up and coming footwear designers and it was my job to photograph the new styles for A/W 2010. Lizze and Beth picked an equestrian centre in Leicester and we were given the freedom to photgraph any where.

We set up camp in one of the stables and received a few odd looks as our model Promise Armstrong (as stunning as she was) posed for the first photo in a mini dress and gorgeous shoes (well boots). Obviously neither were suitable for the environment of horse stables but the lighting was perfect! Below is the first photo of the day:

As we were photgraphing Promise the lady in the opposite barn had been carefully creating a very neat bed of saw dust. The kind with very straight edges that just beg you to mess it up a bit. But she kindly agreed to let us use it so instead of running through it like a crazed person we delicatley placed a blanket and Promise on the sawdust. After bit of photoshop magic this was the result:

Kimberley-Jane: Design

With over 250 photographs taken on the day I had my work cut out to prepare them all for the website. This fashion photography blog is a very very small collection of the photographs taken on the day. A sneaky peak of what we achieved and an idea of what else is in store...

I would like to finish off with my favourite photo of the day. This is the winning picture for me! I would love to hear your thoughts so leave a comment or share with us your favourite location.

Kimberley-Jane: Design

If your wondering how Kindred Soles home page looks,
these are the photographs they chose to illustrate their new A/W styles:

Follow me on twitter or email me if you have any questions.

If you would like me to photograph your next collection then please get in touch:

Twitter: kimberleyjane86

Email: enquiries@kimberley-janedesign.co.uk

Website: Graphic Design ¦ Website Design ¦ Printing Services

Design Winners at Fresh Business Thinking

2010-09-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Follow me on twitter @kimberleyjane86
http://www.graphicdesign-birmingham.co.uk

Maybe I I take my role as a designer a little too seriously but when I am surrounded my marketing material I cant help but analyse it. If I dont like it why dont I? What is it about their colour scheme that I like?

Let me put it into context...Yesterday I went to the 'Fresh Business Thinking' conference and thumbs up to them because it was really informative and I came home buzzing with ideas. There were several stands and whilst most were not relevant to me I enjoyed examing their marketing material. In all honesty some were very bad, some were very plain but three in particular stood out. They grabbed my attention and because I am a graphic designer I initially judge a company by their brand and design. If they're marketing material is aestically pleasing I am more likely to trust them. That's my opinion, what do you make your judgements on?

The four brochures that impressed me the most are below:

The top three companies are as follows:

All about brands

I have put this company first because their brochure impressed me the most. I get drawn in by pretty pictures and so this one gets gold! Obviously this is my opinion someone else might hate it. If you do please tell me why.

This brochure contained rich imagery on every page that was unique and relevant to the title.

Graphic images were layered on top of tetxtured patterns which gave the page more depth and the composition told the veiwer a story. I think this is a very important point - pictures tell a story. This information can be read by the veiwer instantly. Once you have gained their attention they then go on to read further.

Outsourcery

This brochure caught my attention because of it's strong black and bright pink presence. Also the middle page opens out which offers readers further interaction and sets it apart from your standard A6 brochures.

Viadeo

The third brochure is very clever. The company specialise in platform integration (iphone apps to you and me) but it's choice of front cover design was already burried in my mind.

I picked this brochure up because the colours and bold graphic design caught my attention. When I got home I realised I had seen something similar the previous day whilst researching my article about graphic design inspiration.

Now whilst this is not a copy it is continuing the theme started on the Computer Arts magazine front cover which I think is very clever. People will subconsiously recognise Viadeo's style and make the connection.

I hope this article has provided you with some fantastic reference to good design. Remember if you like something ask yourself why.

Follow me on twitter @kimberleyjane86

Graphic Design Inspiration

2010-09-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

Follow me on twitter: @kimberleyjane86
Website: http://www.graphicdesign-birmingham.co.uk

The Graphic Designers featured in this list have been chosen because they fly the flag for perfection! This blog showcases 10 recent creations that will inspire you to rush off and get designing. Although the work is predominantly graphic design a few illustration pieces have made it in here too.

Whilst I have been researching these images I have been constantly asking myself "I love it, but would I hang it on my wall?". Granted most pieces created are for advertising purposes and are designed to grab your attention with beautiful, swirling patterns that draw you in but when we look at this first one ask yourself that question.

This gorgeous image was created by Radim Malinic from Brand Nu and I would have this on my wall with a black shiny frame on a white wall. Imagine the colours jumping out.

Below, also from Radim Malinic those elegant colours still going strong:

Moving onto our next inspirational drawing this is what its all about! Scott Pollard has captured a moment using light and flowing movement. The dancers energy is leaping out of my computer but whilst I love this image this trend can be very popular. I think because the movement has been captured beautifully it allows this image to stand out.

Following on from fantasy imagery this next one by Si Scott blends together flowing perfection. Exquisite detail that almost looks like chrome or ink depending which part you look at.

*Trend Alert* - Michal Miszkurka has made my day! Geometric shapes, bold colour, blending and cool typography. What more could we ask for? Oh a bit of line drawing thrown in as well. Michal Miszkurka has been featured in Computer Arts to read this article click here.

Mike Lythgoe is also some one who frequents the pages of Computer Arts and looking at his work its no wonder why. A futuristic peice with a nod to the tessellating shapes of Mathmetics artist Escher.

Would I have this next peice on my wall? - hell yea! No more needs to be said. Our next inspirational artists is Sanna Annukka. I recomend you view more of her work here.

And after the previous explosion of clour I would like to introduce Jasper Goodall with these thought provoking images. The crispness of colour and juxtoposition in the first image is very succesful and powerful.

I hope you have found these images interesting and enjoyed looking at them, I know I have! However, there is still one more person I would like to include because his work is brilliant. A special mention to Mat Maitland:

If you would like me to build an inspirational list for you contact me at Kimberley-Jane: Design.

Follow me on twitter: @kimberleyjane86

It would also be good to hear your comments about the artwork I have included - Do you agree with my points?

A chance to self induldge!

2010-08-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

For those who have read Ben Eltons' book "Blind Faith" they know what the future holds and I have just joined it, by starting a Blog that is!

My name is Kimberley Turrell and I am the creator of Kimberley-Jane: Design. I would like you to join me on my journey as a new business start up and I will share with you some truly inspirational work, I have already found some amazing stuff.

So here I am... doing what I should of done five years ago when I started at Loughborough uni. But instead I got lured in by Printed Textiles. The freedom of continuous line drawing and comfy floral imagery was a stark contrast to the tight constrained way of working during the Graphic Design intro on my Foundation course. However descision made, job done! But I spent 3 years battling with my desire (absolute neccassary need) to use Photoshop. I won't lie convincing my tutor that my work was better produced in photoshop than hand drawn is not something I would recommend it equals tears and a clash of charactures. I quote - tutor "Kim we are not graphic designers we do not work in this way!!" But as head strong or stubborn as I was I pushed through.

At Loughborough University I was one of the first students to use their digital printer for fabrics and golly gosh what a buzz (Corin BB11). Finally I could create the textures and fine detail that I struggled with whilst screen printing.

Through experimentation with various filters in Photoshop I started to develop a style... using CAD had started to pay off. I would love any feedback for these images.

If you would like to comission me to produce some artwork of a place that is special to you in this style please contact me via my website: Kimberley-Jane: Design Contact Form