1. Half or Single fold: You may use half fold for greeting cards and brochures. A score is generally needed in case of a cover weight paper so that the edge is neatly and smoothly folded.

2. Two or Double Parallel fold: This is a superb alternative for larger pieces or legal size paper; generally, any legal sheet having dimensions 8.5″ x 14″ becomes 3.5″ x 8.5″ when folded in this manner. You can get 4″ x 9″ when a sheet measuring 9″ x 16″ is folded to produce a four panel brochure. Often a perforation is inserted to produce a three panel brochure that includes a detachable reply card.

3. Tri or Letter fold: This may be used when a brochure or mailing is folded like a letter, before putting it in any envelope.

This is adopted while designing a newsletter. If a sheet measuring 11″ x 17″ is folded in this fashion, it will end up having a single open side and will have no difficulty in fitting into any #10 envelope.

4. Z-fold: This design has an upper hand, as far, as multi-page letters are concerned. The pages are in sequence as they are bunched together.

This is a good flyer design concept and is generally implemented in case of a newsletter. Interestingly, when this particular fold is applied, the masthead is found on top of the front and also the mailing panel is located right side up at the back. Both the edges however, need to be tabbed to meet new mailing requirements.

5. Accordion fold: This is actually four or five panel equivalent to the well known Z fold. This looks impressive and each panel seems to be wee-bit longer than the previous panel.

6. Singe and Double Gate fold: Another significant fold is the gate fold that looks spectacular as the sequence in which messages are demonstrated, is dramatic.

7. Barrel or Roll fold: This is ideal for a multi-panel brochure, where each panel has to be slightly longer than the previous panel. This could be tricky at times as the message does not open up for the reader. Instead, it unrolls itself.

Why do we love candies so much? The colorful candies and their incredibly beautiful wrappers are food for the eyes. Candies look so beautiful that we think that they are very tasty, even before tasting them in reality. When I was a kid, I used to pick candies seeing the wrappers. Attractive wrappers meant delicious candy. The logic was pretty simple.

In recent times, the cell phone and tablet application markets have grown exponentially. Scan through any reputed app market and you will feel like it’s a candy store. Every application looks like a candy and the icon looks like the candy wrapper. If you are a graphic designer and work in a graphic design India company, then create attractive application icons to grab viewers’ attention.

There are already thousands of apps in every app store and if your app icon is not interesting, nobody will notice it in the crowd. A perfect app icon creates a desire in the viewers’ mind and compels them to click on the “buy” button. If your application is the perfect solution for your target customers, then your icon should prove it. You must use the colors and symbols in such a way that it will send a visual message to the customers.

If you visit Apple’s app store, you will find hundreds of applications offering the same solutions and surprisingly, they use almost identical icons. What if a customer is looking for a camera app and sees dozens of camera icons in the store? How will he know which app is perfect for his needs? When your business depends on the revenue generated by app selling, you can’t take any chances with the app icon design.

Most of the times people see an icon in 114×114px size and incorporating a visual message in such small place is really challenging, but you have to make it unique to set it apart from other similar apps in the app market.

Branding is very important in corporate stationery design. A graphic designer may overlook the design of a pen stand, but he never forgets to add the logo in it. Similarly, while designing an app icon, focus on branding, not the small details. Remove any additional element and think about a design that will look unique.

When you apply for a job in a graphic design company, the employer goes through your resume to examine your expertise. If your resume design and educational qualification impress the employer, he will immediately call you for an interview.

Here are some resume design guidelines for newbie graphic designers.

• Design a One Page Resume- HR professionals receive hundreds of resumes every week and they don’t have the time to read every resume minutely. Therefore, design a brief, one page resume and share only the most important information.
• Give It a Unique Touch- Give your resume a personal touch and show your graphic designing skill to impress the employer. Make it colorful and give all the important educational and professional experience details. However, you must maintain a professional look and leave enough white space to help the HR professionals scan your resume quickly.
• Give Reference of Your Designs- You should give the URL of your online portfolio and personal projects. It will help the employer check your designing skills immediately.
• Print Your Resume- Sometimes a resume look beautiful in digital format, but when you print it on paper, it loses the visual appeal. Thus, you should print your resume and make the necessary adjustments to get the best result.

Some of your potential employers may download your resume from online job portals and print it in monotone format. Hence, you should take color and black & white printouts and make sure that it looks equally beautiful in both formats.

• Check Your Resume- Before sending the resume to companies; check it carefully for spelling and grammar mistake. Spelling and grammatical errors can give a negative impression to the viewers and they may think that you are not good enough to join the company. After all, if a designer can’t design a flawless portfolio, how can he design a perfect logo or business card?

A professionally designed resume helps you stand apart from other job applicants. Remember the aforementioned suggestion while designing your resume and kick start your career in graphic design industry.

• Your objective should be clear: Know what you are doing, from the very beginning. What purpose you are designing the newsletter for? Is it for your own promotion or a client’s? Research as much as you can on the content because that will help you make your newsletter interesting to read. If you do not know what you are going to discuss, how do you expect your readers to know?
• Do not hesitate to customize the design: This is the age of customization. You are a designer. Show your graphic designing skills in the email newsletter. Do not depend blindly on templates. Customize them to show your creativity.
• Brand it well: If you are working for a client, include their corporate identity design in the newsletter. Create a header and footer design. This will make the newsletter look nicer.
• Keep it simple: Your newsletter design does not need to be intricate. Use plain HTML to make it readable for everyone. Also, your design should be created in such a way that everybody can understand what it is about. Refrain from using too much clip art, graphics, CSS and complex codes.
• Pay attention to negative space: Keep some negative or white space in your newsletter. It would help soothe the reader’s eyes, which will make your readers keep reading your newsletter.
• Images should evoke curiosity: Bring in images that catch attention quickly. But they have to be in sync with the entire design and content of your newsletter. As the saying goes, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, the pictures you use, should be memorable enough so that they can be recalled later by the readers.
• Put highlight boxes: Put them where the call-to-action message is. This would grab the readers’ attention instantly and lead them to, well, take an action.
• Offer something special: Hold contests, offer special prizes and likewise to make your audience look forward to your next newsletter. Be a little generous and you may just secure new clients.
• Plan the publication schedule: Decide whether you want to publish your newsletter weekly,  bi-monthly or monthly and stick to your decision. Consistency is required here. Your readers should know when your newsletter is coming out.

Conclusion

You can find numerous newsletter templates on the internet. Show your skills in web graphic design India and who knows, you can get several new clients from it! Don’t forget to share your thoughts.

For instance, you can put event invitation cards; special discount coupons etc. inside a customized envelope and send it to your loyal customers. This small gesture costs you only a few dollars, but your customers realize that they are very important to you. If you want to design a truly unique corporate envelope for your company, then here are some corporate envelope design suggestions for you.

Break the Rules- Break monotonous designing rules and design your envelope differently. Change the size and shape of your envelope according to the content you want to put inside. For instance, if you want to send a large greetings card to your customers on their birthday, design a big envelope for that purpose. However, postal department has some strict rules for envelope size and you should not make your envelope larger than the stipulated size.

Consider Vibrant Colors- Gone are the days of white and brown envelopes. Use interesting, vibrant colors for your envelope to grab viewers’ attention. Colors also help you convey your brand message to the consumers. For instance, if you sell cosmetics items for ladies, design a pink envelope to connect with your target consumers instantly.

Change the Envelope Paper Material- You can either design 2-3 types of corporate envelope for different marketing purpose, or use different types of papers to give your envelope a unique look. This designing strategy will help you differentiate from other companies in the market. For instance, you can use a textured paper and glossy paper to print the envelope. Use the textured envelope to send official letters and glossy envelope for marketing campaign.

Add Your Branding Materials- You can always use your graphic design ideas in a corporate envelope, but don’t forget that it must make people familiar with your brand. Therefore, you should add your logo and company name in the envelope to help consumers identify your business.

Use Different Envelope Variations- Envelopes are printed and folded into different shapes. Most corporate houses use small V flap envelope, but you can try other styles as well. For instance, you can design A-series envelope, baronial envelope, catalog envelopes or booklet envelope for your company and send different marketing materials conveniently.

Following these design guidelines, you can design an attractive and unique corporate envelope effortlessly. However, if graphic designing is not your forte, you can also hire a graphic designer for the job.

A print media ad doesn’t get equal attention from the viewers, but everyone pays attention to a newsletter in their inbox. Like every other marketing material, email newsletters should also be designed carefully. If you are not aware of email newsletter design rules, here are some useful guidelines for you.

• Use Images- People don’t like to read text only newsletters. Add images in your newsletter to increase readership. Use high resolution images of your products and services to lure the customers. However, don’t use large images, because it will increase newsletter loading time.

• Use Fresh Content- Always offer some current and exclusive news to increase conversion rate. If your customers see the same content in every newsletter, they will lose interest in your business.

For instance, if you are offering any discount sale or won an award recently for your services, inform the newsletter subscribers immediately. You can also share your personal achievements with the potential customers to prove your company’s value.

• Address Personally- Talk directly with your audience and make them feel special. Instead of writing “we provide this services”, try writing “you can get these services from us” to establish a personal relation.

• Use Logo- Newsletter is a part of your corporate identity design and logo is the flag bearer of your corporate identity. Hence, use your logo in the newsletter to make people familiar with your brand. Put the logo near header area to capture viewers’ attention immediately. Even if someone does not read your entire newsletter, he will notice your brand logo.

• Include Customer Written Content- When you say, “my company is good” nobody pays attention, but when a common man says, “x company is really good” other potential customers pay attention to his words. That is why; you should include customer testimonials in your newsletter design and earn potential customers’ trust. However, don’t add any fake testimonial, as it can damage your brand reputation.

• Incorporate Social Networking Links- Social networks are a perfect place for client interaction. These days, people talk about products and services in social media sites and take their friends’ suggestions. You should give your Facebook, Twitter and Google + profile links to increase your business.

• Give Your Website Link, Office Address and Phone Number- How can your customers buy your products/services if there is no website link in your newsletter? Never forget to add your website URL, office address and phone number in the newsletter.

• Don’t Give Too Many Ads- Some companies include third party ads in their newsletter, but it’s not an intelligent marketing move. Ads may increase your revenue, but they also distract the viewers. If you have to include ads in your newsletter, then don’t use more than 1-2 ads.

• Offer a Text Only Version- Some mail applications don’t support images. Hence, you should create a text only version of your newsletter as well. Make sure that the content is good enough to impress your target audience.

Following these newsletter designing tips, you can design an attractive and information rich newsletter. However, if you want an exclusive template for your newsletter, hire a web graphic design India company for the job.

Here are some reasons that will help you understand why you should start using email newsletters for marketing campaign.

• Email Newsletter Saves Money- Printing cost of a standard newsletter is quite high, but when you use an electronic newsletter; there is no printing or postage expenditure. Besides that, it saves time and as you know, “time is money”. A printed newsletter takes at least 2-3 days to reach your target consumers, but an email newsletter reaches customers’ inbox within a few seconds.

• High Response Rate- Survey reports by marketing experts proved that an email newsletter gets more response than a printed version. Customers throw away most direct mail marketing materials without reading them, but the exact opposite happens with online newsletters. They read the newsletter immediately and often visit the company it’s promoting.

• Helps You Retain the Existing Customers- Newsletter is an integral part of your corporate identity design and with the help of a newsletter you can establish a good relation with your existing customers. Study your customers’ behavior and provide them exclusive news about your products and services. For instance, if someone regularly buys books from your ecommerce site, send him information regarding new book release and exclusive discounts to make him feel special.

• Generate Business Leads- Generally, you have to run behind the customers to convince them, but email marketing is not like that. Customers visit your site and subscribe to your newsletter list willfully. Hence, they pay more attention to your newsletters. They can also forward your newsletter to friends and colleagues. If your newsletter is really impressive, then you may convert that lead into a sale.

• Builds Customer Loyalty- When you interact with the customers at a regular basis and provide exclusive news immediately, they become your loyal fan. For a good customer relation, try addressing each customer personally and provide instant response to their queries. Give your email address and phone number, and encourage them to contact you.

• Makes Your Brand Popular- A professional newsletter design improves your brand image and helps people identify your company immediately. You should use your brand logo and catch phrases in the newsletter to make people familiar with your company.

• Immediate Result- Nowadays, customers want instant access to products and services. In an email newsletter, you can include your website URL and allow customers visit your site instantly.

• Modify the Content Anytime- During holiday season, ecommerce sites give heavy discount on their products and services for 1-2 days. If you use a printed newsletter, then you have to design a new newsletter and it will take some time.

On the other hand, email newsletter templates can be edited easily and immediately. All you need to do is replace the old content with the new promotional content and hit the “send” button.

Email newsletter is the most cost effective marketing medium and it gives impressive return on investment. For a professional newsletter design, you should hire a web graphic design India company.

However, anything “too much” can cause trouble and the same rule applies for customization. If you customize the flyer without any proper planning, you may make mistakes and hurt your offline marketing campaign. Let’s see, the dangers of too much flyer customization.

1.      It Can Affect Coherence- The main purpose of designing a flyer is to relay your promotional message, but when you give too much importance to design customization, the marketing message may lose its impact.

For instance, if you design an unusual layout to prove your design prowess, it can affect other elements in your flyer. How will your customers feel if they see that you have broken a paragraph abruptly due to your design? You may even have to sacrifice the content for the sake of custom design.

When people receive a customized flyer, they appreciate its unique design concept, but if you don’t tell them what products/services you offer, how can you increase your business?

2.      Impact Risks- Extreme customization can reduce marketing impact and slowdown your sales. The meaning of colors and symbols are different in different parts of the world. For instance, you may want to use different shades of white in the flyer to reflect purity and honesty, but in China white is considered as the color of death.

Therefore, you should take a generalized approach and design a standard layout for global audience. Make sure that the color combination won’t give any wrong impression to your target consumers.

3.      Distribution Problems- Flyers are often sent to the target customers via snail mail. Postal department has dimension rules for the objects they deliver. Therefore, if you give your flyer an unusual shape, it can be a problem for postal delivery.

Besides that, flyers are often put inside an envelope before sending them to post offices. If your design a large flyer, it won’t fit in your standard envelope and you must spend extra money for customized corporate envelope design. Therefore, do not use non-standard dimensions for your flyer design. If you want to share a lot of information, design a folding flyer and insert all the information about your company.

4.      Printing Cost Increases- Customization generally increases printing cost. If you design an extra large brochure or use too many colors, the printing company will take more money for each flyer as they have to arrange custom papers and paper cutting tools just for you. Therefore, you should design a standard size flyer and use 3-4 colors to reduce printing costs.

These are some of the negative aspects of extreme customization. Besides flyer, you can also use corporate stationery items to promote your business. For professional flyer and corporate stationary design, you should hire a reputed graphic design company in India. Indian companies offer value for money flyer designing services and make your marketing campaign successful.

• Have faith in yourself: Criticism is not the end of the world. You know what you are capable of. Have a realistic idea about your skills so that you are criticized for a wrong reason, you can deal with it. Never lose faith in your own abilities.
• Keep your cool: Be nice and friendly. Sometimes when people criticize you, they start using abusive language. If it happens to you, firmly and calmly state that you are being verbally abused and the person who is criticizing you should control their tongue because it highly unprofessional to insult a professional with abusive language.
• Improve your listening skills: Good listening skills are important for success in every field. Let whoever is criticizing you talk. Do not be rude or harsh in your speech. When they finish talking, put your points across and explain why you did what you did. They may not always understand it, but substantiate your statements with proof.
• Make your point clear: When you are putting across your thoughts and opinions, be as clear as possible. If the person who is criticizing you does not understand technical jargon, talk in simple language.
• Identify the criticism: Try to understand what they are criticizing. Is there something wrong in your graphic design or has something went the other way in your stationery design? There is good criticism and bad criticism. You have to find out what you are facing. Good criticism is constructive. It motivates you whereas bad criticism only insults. If you are faced with bad criticism, stand for yourself. Firmly state the reasons why you did what you did.
• Don’t take things personally: Remember that you are not being criticized for what you are, but for what you have done. Take criticism as a feedback and move on to do what is necessary to improve the areas that need to be improved.
• Stop panicking: Sometimes clients throw unrealistic deadlines at designers. If you are in such a situation, don’t panic. Clearly state the required time for the project. You need to educate your client because clients do not understand the subtle points of designing.
• Don’t forget that you are still at liberty: I’d like to repeat what I said in the first point. Criticism is not the end of the world. Those who criticize you, may throw their ideas at you, but it doesn’t mean that you have to use those ideas. Besides, you will certainly go on to make several other designs. Understand your liberty and move on with a fresh mind.

Conclusion

Criticisms are commonplace in the design profession. Every graphic designer faces it. You cannot avoid it, but you can surely look at the positive side and move ahead to provide better graphic design services India.

• Measure Your Skill-Set: Your client does not only pay you for the materials you use for his graphic design, brochure design or corporate identity design work. He also pays you for your skills. Measure your skill-set and compare it with the kind of work you have been approached to do.
• Ask for A Price that Your Skills are Worth: Do not get carried away when you are measuring your skills in a quantitative method. Everybody thinks they are underpaid and their work deserves more. My point is: have a realistic mindset. If you are an expert graphic designer who has been in the industry for years, you know what you are worth but if you are a newbie, you cannot charge a hefty amount.
• Think about Your Lifestyle: Always take your lifestyle into account when finalizing your rate.  You have to consider your cost of living.
• Think about the Paychecks that Other Graphic Designers Draw: Talk to your graphic designer friends and find out how much they are getting for different kinds of corporate identity design or brochure design projects. Take those amounts into consideration when you calculate your fee.
• Calculate A Sound Profit: Before fixing your rates, you must compute your profit margin. Graphic designing is your business, this is what you do for a living. Your profit is the amount that you will save, so you have to earn profits.
• Do Not Forget Your Business Expenses: You must have a set up at your office, even if yours is a small business. There must be a rent for the office space, the electricity bills, the computer hardware and software expenses and most importantly, taxes.
• Calculate the Time and Pressure Associated With the Work: Calculate your billable hours, which means the hours during which you will work on the project. First calculate these hours for a week, then for 52 weeks – the number of weeks in a year. This would give you your annual billable hours.
• What Do You Want To Charge? An Hour-Based Rate or a Flat Rate? This is something you have to decide yourself. Not every professional works the same way. Some are comfortable with hour-based fees while others think a flat rate is more convenient. In my opinion, flat rate is better because it assures you a fixed income.

Conclusion

So by now, you must already have a good idea about how you can fix your remuneration for the graphic design projects that you are approached for. Communicate with your client regularly and let them know about any problems that you may have.

Hope my little information has been helpful to you!