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Showing posts from June, 2019

Perseverance: How to Know If It's Time to Quit

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Over the last two years, there has been a great buzz about 37-year-old tennis phenom Serena Williams. Williams has 23 Grand Slam titles and a dominant career, ranked number one for 319 weeks over 15 years. In 2017, Williams gave birth to her first daughter. Many wondered how motherhood would affect her career. Would she return with the same fight? Would she return at all? Williams roared back to the semi-final of the 2018 U.S. Open and quickly regained top 10 rankings. Fans worldwide were inspired by her courage and moved by her transparency about her struggles. Faced with a Crossroads In life, you will face discouragement, wondering, "Is it time to quit? Should I alter my path or press on through resistance?" On one hand, redirecting can be wise, helping you avoid harm or consider better alternatives. Conversely, quitting might weaken your character or prevent you from realizing an achievement that's closer than you think. Walter Mallory, an ass

How to Grow When Sales are Slow

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Nothing was going right at the plate for Dave Concepcion, the shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds. About a month into the 1976 season, he was suffering a hitting slump, a plague of physical and mental anguish that had frittered away his batting average to around .150. The Reds were in Chicago, where the Cubs had a large industrial gas-operated clothes dryer in the stadium. Feeling goofy, Concepcion hopped in the dryer and called to his teammates. "Hey! Maybe this will help me get hot." Going along with the gag, Pat Zachry, the pitcher, hit the side of the switch, pretending to turn on the machine. With a puff of smoke, sparks flew, the machine whirred and began to rotate with Concepcion inside. ''I'll never forget it,'' said Zachry. '' Davey started spinning , and I froze with my eyes bugging out. Oh, it was terrible. Then I banged the side of the switch again. And the machine stopped. ''Davey went out that day and got fou

A Finish that Won't Fade

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Did you use Play-doh as a child? Ever inadvertently leave your simple shapes to harden in the open air? Though your brittle pieces later crumbled, a simple finishing process would have sustained them for centuries. Ceramic firing transforms malleable clay into a rock-hard, durable substance. The additions of underglaze, luster, and around 930 degrees Fahrenheit can vitrify clay creations from goo to gorgeous, glass-like pieces that are impervious to water and time. In ceramics and in print, the finishing process is nearly as important as the design itself. Finishing refers to the services applied to your print piece after the ink hits the paper. These can be added before or after the paper comes off the press, and examples of finishing services include aqueous or UV protection coatings, binding or collating, trimming or folding, stamping, laminating, perforating, mounting, or coatings like matte or satin varnishes. Fabulous Finishing Techniques in Design and Print I

Seven Sizzling Summer Promotions

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Businesses need promotional items to help reach out to potential customers and clients - it's just a fact. Promotional products allow people to see your brand and remember you, drawing a whopping 500% more referrals from customers who are satisfied with the gift. Like a business card with a bang, clever promotional products build goodwill, name recognition, and expanded brand exposure. But, sometimes the biggest barrier to distributing great products is finding the right idea. Looking for affordable and effective items to catch the attention of your prospects? Here are seven promo products to bring heat to your marketing mix this summer: 1. Zip-Front Drawstring Bags Want your brand to travel with people as they go? High-quality, colorful, customized drawstring bags will get your message circulating! Sturdy but lightweight, these comfortable, machine washable bags are great for goodie bags, thank you gifts, and life on the go. Zipper pouches make the ba

Keep Things Real with Four Animated Design Tricks

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While you may not be able to launch a 3D billboard and party-train campaign, you can to stop traffic with 3D elements and hot design trends from 2019. Here are four animated styles with practical examples to try in your next printed piece. Three-Dimensional Designs 3D works seem to be everywhere right now: entire compositions that have so much depth, you can't help but reach out and touch them. Examples include 3D typography (that works with any kind of font rendering), metallic 3D pipes pulsing with neon electricity, or effervescent 3D poster compositions that jump off the page and make it impossible to look elsewhere. Asymmetrical Layouts While rigid designs have been standard for several years, layouts that break free from the predictable grid are now soaring in popularity. Asymmetrical balance results from using unequal visual weight on each side of your page. For example, one side might contain a dominant element, which is balanced by lesser focal p

Avoid These 3 Management Blunders (with Four Teamwork Tweaks)

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Want to liven up your next dinner party? Just ask people for their "worst boss" stories. Here are some painful (anonymous) stories from those who've lived to share: "When I was an intern at a PR firm, my manager would make me run her personal errands (pick up dry cleaning, ship things, drive her and her friends to SXSW events, etc.). She would get my attention by calling me 'Intern.' Needless to say, when they asked me to stay on full-time, I politely declined." "I once had a boss who multi-tasked in meetings by being on her phone and present in the meeting. In both 1:1's and in group settings she would shift her attention constantly from the speaker to her phone—back and forth, back and forth . . . At first, I just thought she was extremely busy, and it was the only way for her to get everything done—until one day, I caught her doing crossword puzzles on her phone while doing a check-in with me." "I once had a boss

A Beginner's Guide to Successful Coupon Campaigns

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Want to get more people to pull the trigger on a purchase? Give them a push with perfectly placed coupons! Coupons have a built-in visual appeal and an innate call to action. A coupon with a limited time offer adds a sense of urgency in a customer's mind for two reasons: 1. If they plan to buy something, they want the best possible price. 2. If they don't buy now, it might be out of stock (or full price again) later.   Why should you use coupons? Many reasons! Coupon offers can make the difference between someone who's browsing and a purchasing customer. Coupon offers are also a major incentive to drive traffic to your website. Besides stimulating sales of existing stock, coupons also generate cross sales between products and can energize your brand. Building a successful coupon campaign may take some trial and error. Here are several action steps get you started: Start Small The first step in coupon marketing is to track the performance

Find Language to Express Your Ideal Design

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Design involves a special kind of communication. First, creators must have an idea or concept in mind. Second, they need to articulate their ideas in ways graphic designers can bring to life on a page. This requires a common language, and sometimes graphic designers are known for having a vocabulary all their own. If you're working on a design concept, knowing the right terminology will help you communicate to produce the results you envision. Here are some design adjectives that can help you articulate the concepts you'd like to see in your next print project: Cool vs. Warm On the color wheel, warm colors range from yellow to red-purple. Those colors that are reminiscent of fire or the sun are called warm colors. These hues are reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks. Warm colors communicate energy, playfulness, happiness, sociability, and optimism. Cool colors include blue, greens, and purple. These colors typically stand for sky, space, water, and nat