All hail the great and powerful business card. What’s now considered to be a crucial part of any business’ branding actually has a surprising history that spans across the centuries and we’d like to take this time to indulge you in it. So sit back, relax, and get ready to be educated on the evolution of the trusty ole business card we all know and love today. The origin of the business card takes us way back in time and across to world to 15th century China. Cards in this time were considered more for visiting purposes and were technically known as “meishi”. They had the original purpose of informing the public of an upcoming royal visit, however they soon found usage within the upper class of individuals to schedule meetings with each other. At the time, these visiting cards were simply printed on handmade paper with the only details being […]
The Power of Perfect Packaging
For most businesses, package design is the cherry on top of any branding venture. As one of the most direct forms of interaction your audience will have with your brand, packaging design should not only be practical but also a good representation of who you are as a business. It should help to enforce your company message and ideals and be representative of your audience and what they appreciate in terms of lifestyle and aesthetics. Discovering Your Brand Identity Identity is different than being just a brand or a logo, in fact it extends far beyond that, and understanding the brand identity will make any design undertaking that much easier to define. In most cases, it’s comprised of many visual aspects, including the logo but also web design, marketing collateral, the shop itself and of course, packaging. All of these things that represent the brand from a visual standpoint typically […]
Combining Fonts 101
It’s an age-old battle: combining typefaces has been the bane of designers’ existence for more years than we care to admit, where success can be complicated and failure lurks around every corner and kern. Adding to the challenge is the fact that there’s usually no right or wrong answer; but when you do succeed, not only do you win bragging rights for beating a design equivalent Boss Level, your font pairing will be the gift that keeps giving and undoubtedly will help bring your design together as a whole whether you’re creating a kick ass website design, a stand out logo or just some cool graphic design items for fun. Like with most undertakings, you first have to understand the rules. While design has a tendency to bend, break or completely ignore rules, when it comes to mixing fonts there are a few important factors to keep in mind. The […]
How to be a Hero at the Infographic
As people and technology have evolved, so has our means of communication, both verbally and visually. The average person is exposed to the equivalent of 174 newspapers full of text each day, but with more than half the population (65% to be exact) being visual learners, obviously this leaves something wanting. Enter infographics! From the first cave paintings to the first use of bar graphs and pie charts in the 1800’s to our the modern day hybrid of graphic art and data; for centuries infographics have been used as a means to educate, persuade and inspire curiosity. In terms of using an infographic as a marketing tool, studies show that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text and that most people only remember 20% of what they read. Not only that, publishers who use infographics found a 12% increase in traffic as compared to those who […]
Trending Logo Designs
When it comes to branding, logos make the world go round. After the foundation of a business has been laid and the wheels of practice start turning, the cardinal aspect of any business is a logo that can help elevate stance. Naturally, logo design has evolved over the years to cater to our growing artistic sensibilities and also for a little healthy competition when vying for attention. With everything so readily available online and being surrounded by a plethora of options on a daily basis, a good impression is key and since we’re always on the lookout for the next new thing in design, here are some logo designs that are having their moment now. Low Polygonal Design Something about polygons just gets us excited and maybe it’s because in our high-def world it’s nice to have something that retains a little abstraction. By reducing graphics into their geometric counterparts, […]
Designing for an Audience
While we’ve tackled the tangible aspects of branding in the form of logo and web design, we haven’t yet touched on the meat and potatoes of any business and their subsequent brand: the target audience. Knowing your audience will affect every executive decision you make for your company. Not only will these people dictate how you run your business but also how you choose to portray it. It’s obvious that a webpage that’s geared towards the construction world won’t have the same effect on teenage girls and vice versa. So how do you determine what kind of design will appeal to your target audience? Like in any relationship, you have to get to know them better. Who is Your Audience? First thing is first, who are even are these people? Hopefully if you’ve started up a business you at least have some inkling, specifically in terms of age, gender and […]
Happy Holidays from talonX
The talonX team here wishing you the very best over the holidays with one of our oh-so-fun infogaphics about the season. Take a browse and enjoy!