You’ve spend days poring through templates and agonizing about font colors for your business cards. Finally they’ve come in and you happily show them off to your friends exclaiming, “Look what I just got! What do you think?”

If you think you’re going to get a useful answer, you’re wrong.

Your friends want you to be happy

Let’s face it… you don’t really want feedback. You’re proud of yourself and you want affirmation that you did a good job. Your friends know this. So they’ll things like, “It looks great” if it looks fine to them or, “It looks great! I would just have made this (noun) more (adjective)” if they’re being delicate. It’s not like you’re about to take their feedback and reprint your cards, so why not just make you happy?

Your friends are not designers

No, not even your “artistic” friends. What looks good to you and your friends could make a designer’s skin crawl. (Not saying that it always does, just that it could.) Aesthetics is only a part of it. Good design is about communication. It doesn’t matter if it looks pretty or if it’s your personal taste as long as it gets the right message across.

Your friends don’t know how to communicate

… at least not in a way that’s useful for giving feedback. It’s very possible your friend will see something that’s not quite right, but they won’t know why. So instead, they’ll offer up a solution without knowing the problem. For example, some of your text is hard to read. So your friend will say, “I think this font needs to be bigger.” But that may not actually help. The problem could be the font itself, the color, the letter spacing, or any number of things other than the size.

Your friends don’t know your business

“Looks good, is good” does not apply. Even if you have a visually stunning design, it could still be all wrong for your particular business. But only you know that. A bridal bouquet may be appealing to a wedding couple, but it will turn off competitive dancers. Again, it’s about sending the right message.

What to do instead

If you have designer friends, bring them in to help you at the start of the process. This way you can actually implement their feedback. Don’t wait until it’s too expensive to make changes.

If you don’t have designer friends and are just stuck with regular folk, still bring them in to help you at the start of the process. But not the very start. Have a few designs ready and ask them to choose which they prefer and explain why. Ask specific questions like:

• Which option grabs your attention more?
• Which option looks more fun (or professional or whatever you’re going for)?
• Which option is easier to read?

Then actually implement the feedback, make a new design and ask again before calling it done. The extra perk of this process is when you’re all excited to show off your final piece, your friends can feel proud, too!

You may have heard that “Content is King.” That means that your message is more important than the design or presentation. I agree. Except when it’s not true. When the design or presentation gets in the way of communicating your message, it’s checkmate for your content.

Three Types of Design

I place designs in 3 general categories:

• Bad. Overwhelming or poor layout that makes the content inaccessible
• Good. Follows good design principles and makes the content easily accessible
• Awesome. Enhances the content in a visually striking way.

Why Aim Lower Than Awesome

Contrary to what you might be thinking, I’m going ask you to avoid Awesome and instead aim for Good. It’s not because I don’t believe in you. It’s because as novice and non-designers strive for Awesome, they end up creating Bad. This is normal. It’s only with experience that you can succeed at Awesome.

Remember… Content is King. But if your quest for Awesome results in people being frustrated by reading your newsletter or browsing your website, it’s time for a different strategy. It’s time to forget enhancing content and focus on delivering it. You can do it by aiming for Good—and keeping it simple.

Is this necessary?

One of my favorite design quotes goes like so: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Use that as your mantra and you will get to Good much quicker. Here are some practical questions you can ask yourself as you design:

• Does this sentence need to be both bold and underlined?
• Do these clip art images help communicate the message or are they just clutter?
• If I make everything bold, how will the reader know what’s really important?
• Does this polka dot background enhance the message?
• Does having all the text centered make it easy to read?
• What’s the most important thing I want to communicate? What elements can I remove to make sure the message is not obscured?

Good isn’t 2nd Place

Achieving Good is the most important design skill you can learn. Without it, you are doomed to a lifetime of Bad, no matter how Awesome you think you may be. Mastering Good means that you’ll succeed as you move toward Awesome. It means that your content will stay King.

New Year, New You? You probably have resolutions for yourself, but what about your business? Now is a good time to look ahead to your 2011 marketing strategy and see what  can be done differently. You may decide it’s time for a change. Your marketing materials aren’t doing the job and you need a new style.

Bad Reasons to Revamp

Redesigning your marketing materials takes time and money (printing new business cards, brochures, etc). Before you decide to take the plunge, make sure you know why you are doing it. These reasons just don’t cut it:

• Change for the sake of change
• Your mom (friend, neighbor, etc) told you to do it
• You’re bored and think it would be fun
• It will magically bring in more customers

If you fall into any of the above, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t revamp. It just means you need to think a bit harder about why you need a change.

Good Reasons to Revamp

These are legitimate reasons to update your look:

• The current look is outdated or unpolished (not “professional-looking”)
• The current look is not clearly defined or is lacking a style and direction
• The current look no longer reflects what you want to communicate to your customers (or never did!)
• You are about to take your business in a new direction and want to highlight that changes are on the way

What do you want to say?

Specific fonts and colors are not as important as what you want to convey. Pick the style, emotion or mood first. The details will fall into place from there. Below are 3 styles for inspiration.

Look #1: Elegant, Romantic, Classic

This style plays off the dreamy ideal many people have of ballroom dancing, best suited for wedding dance clients. Use a script font for headlines. Choose a palette of soft colors such white, cream, gold and bronze. For text, instead of black, use grey or dark brown. Photography should have a soft focus. Graphic elements can include flowers, flourishes and damask patterns.

Look #2: Bold, Dramatic, Sultry

This is a great style for Argentine Tango and Latin. Use black and red as your main colors, with white and gold for accents. A messy, handwritten font for headlines will add to the effect. Photos should have sharp contrast and deep shadows. Graphic elements can include roses and flames/fire.

Look #3: Contemporary, Minimal, Clean

This style is best suited for a general studio or a competitive studio. There is no fuss with dance “stereotypes”; the emphasis is content. Use white, grey and 1 bold accent color of your choice (for example: orange, teal, purple). Use a simple sans serif font for headlines. Consider black and white photos instead of color. Graphic elements should be bare minimum and can include simple horizontal lines and bordered boxes.

What style is right for you?

It all starts with what you want to communicate. And it can be as simple or imaginative as you want. For example, with Sugar Push Creative, I wanted to communicate fun, style, professionalism and approachability. Playing off the word “sugar”, I used a retro sweet shop influence for the fonts, colors and overall look. That’s the style that’s right for us. What style is right for you?

Ah, turkey time. The time when it’s acceptable (nay, expected) to overindulge to your heart’s content. But as you stuff yourself with goodies, surrounded by loved ones around the table, it’s also the time to give thanks for all the blessings in your life. And among those, don’t forget to include…

Your customers! They make your business profitable and satisfying and deserve your thanks. But it’s not enough just to be thankful in your heart and mind. You must show them! Here’s how.

Write a Handwritten Note

Many businesses send mass mailings of obligatory holiday cards with pre-printed messages. How blah! A hand-written, personalized note will mean so much more and allow you to truly express your thanks.

Don’t feel that you have to limit yourself to the traditional holiday season or birthdays. Your customer will be much more surprised and delighted with a note for a less popular holiday, like Groundhog Day or the Summer Solstice. Or even a congratulatory note for an achievement (like a good competition placing). If you want to thank a customer for a referral, include a gift card.

The key here is the personal touch. So stock up on some stationary (preferably with your company’s logo) and get to writing!

Get Known for an Unusual Gift

We all know the gift baskets and wine bottles. They are “safe” gifts that are easy to give (without much thought). But who actually looks forward to getting a gift basket?

I have a client who sends Eli’s Cheesecakes (a Chicago favorite) to his customers every year. I don’t know anyone else who sends cheesecakes. Rest assured, people remember and look forward to getting them.

What kind of gift can you become known for?

Host a Customer Appreciation Event

I’m not talking about one of those generic sale promotions where everyone can get some kind of discount, past customer or not. No, I’m talking about an invitation-only event or outing. Some examples:

• Go out for lunch and manicures with your top Pro/Am ladies
• Bring in a makeup artist and hairstylist to give a workshop with tips on competition grooming
• Simply host a party at your studio, but make it special with great food and guest performers

Do a Good Job

And, of course, one of the best ways to thank a customer is simply by continuing to do a great job. Return phone calls and emails promptly. Acknowledge and fix problems when they happen. Listen. Smile. Say thank you. Listen some more. Your customer will feel important (and appreciated) when you treat them like they are important.

And in that spirit, thank you, Tempting Tips reader. It’s my pleasure to write for you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Typeface, that is. The sad truth is that many of your favorite typefaces are just not very useful. Comic Sans may seem fun and playful, but how does it really help your design?

The Purpose of Type

When designing a business card, flyer, webpage or just about anything else, the primary purpose is to communicate something. I will say it again. The primary purpose of your design is to communicate something. Your type choices should support your message. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with fonts, but you should do it with intent. (It’s worth noting that you can’t communicate a message if your audience can’t read it. Legibility counts.)

So what is the difference between typeface and font anyway?

A typeface is the design of the letters. A font is the physical manifestation of the typeface—whether a little piece of software that displays the letters or an engraved metal plate. Think of the image of a photo versus a JPG file or individual print. You’d say “Nice photo!”, not “Nice JPG!”

Typeface Basics

While there are many ways to categorize typefaces, these 4 basic groups will give you a good starting place.

Serif: Based on hand-lettering and have serifs (“little feet”) on the ends of the letters, as if from a brushstroke. These are often easy to read and a good choice for large amounts of text.
Popular examples: Garamond, Palatino and Times

Sans Serif: More modern typefaces, without (sans) serifs. These are also often easy to read.
Popular examples: Century Gothic, Helvetica and Myriad Pro

Script: Calligraphy-style, both formal and informal. Should be used carefully as they are often difficult to read, especially for words that are not very common or large amounts to text.
Popular examples: Bickham Script Pro, French Script, and Pristina

Decorative: All those “fun” typefaces with distinct personalities. As with Scripts, these should also be used carefully and in moderation.
Popular examples: Broadway, Hobo and Papyrus

Quick and Dirty Tips for Designing with Type

• Use no more than 2 typefaces for the whole design.
• When using a 2nd typeface, always pick from another category. For example, use a Script type for a headline and a Serif for body text, but not two different Serifs.
• Stay away from the default typefaces like Times and Arial. Venture out and explore other options!
• For a calm and classic look, choose a single Serif for the whole design. Use variations like bold and italic for headlines and emphasis as needed.
• For a bold and modern look, choose a Decorative type for headlines and a Sans Serif for body text.
• Use ALL CAPS only in moderation. It is much more difficult to read than normal sentence case, especially in large blocks. Only do it by conscious choice if it helps communicate your message.
• Choose one alignment (left, right or center) for the whole design and stick to it. Left and right alignments are visually stronger than center. In fact, just don’t use center and see what happens!
• Choose simple and consistent forms of emphasis. For example, use bold only for sub-heads and italics only in body copy. Don’t ever use underline.

And finally…

If you ever again design a piece with all caps, bold, underlined and centered type, do yourself a favor and delete the file and spare the precious ink and paper to print it. Not to mention the poor eyes of your reader.