Meaning of Colours 3

Hi guys!! It's another great and 'color-full' day for learning again. How has the week been? I trust it has been a blessing?

So, we talked about colors Blue, Red and Black in the last post. Do you still remember the meaning of your colors? Well you can still check it out.

So, let's talk about the last set of colors today! Let's make the day 'color-full!'

White

Having your best color as white means you are neat and immaculate in your appearance and also in the presentation of your home, car and everything you own. You have very high standards of cleanliness and hygiene and you expect every other person to understand and adhere to your high standards. You appreciate order and simple elegance. Your taste is refined and you enjoy things that are well crafted and beautiful. You have a special interest in finding treasures in the most unexpected places. You are particular and have very high expectations for yourself and others. Wow! Maybe I should pick white as my best color.

So, in design, let's look at what the use of white means. White can depict innocence, goodness, a fresh start or safety, cleanliness, purity, sophistication, efficiency. This color has a positive connotation unlike black, it is the color of perfection. It can also represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity. In the advertisement sector, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations since angels are always imagined wearing white clothes.

White can be associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility; therefore, you can use white to suggest safety when you are promoting medical products. White can often be associated with low weight, low-fat food, and also dairy products.

Let's look at a form of White - Grey

Grey is the color of compromise. It is considered to be ‘un-emotional’ and can avoid attention. It conveys gloom, depression and is very conservative. Grey has a stabilizing effect since it is very neutral but can also evoke feelings of frustration. Grey is linked with maturity and protection, being reliable and practical. Grey would not be considered a glamorous color however, it is still elegant.

Orange 

If Orange color is your best colour, check out who you are. You are warm, optimistic, extroverted and often flamboyant. You are friendly, good-natured and easily swayed by outside opinions. You do good work, have strong loyalties and feel good will toward others. The party is wherever you are.

Wow...the up and doing people!

So, what adjectives best describe the color Orange? The combination of yellow and red makes orange convey feelings of excitement, warmth and enthusiasm. Orange is social and inviting, it exudes happiness and joy, releasing inhibitions. Orange is a motivating and encouraging color and is appealing to young people. It stimulates the appetite and is associated with healthy food. Orange can also negatively mean insincerity, exhibitionism and self-indulgence. To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, therefore it gives the sensation of heat. Orange increases the supply of oxygen to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, stimulates mental activity and is highly accepted among young people. Orange is also the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.

In design, Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Please note that Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Let's look at other forms of Orange. 

Dark orange means deceit and distrust.

Red-orange means desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.

Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold also often symbolizes high quality.

Pink

If pink is your favorite color, then you are a loving, kind and generous person. You are also a sensitive person to the needs of others. You are friendly and approachable with a warmth and softness which others are drawn to. You love to nurture and be nurtured. Oh wow!

What does the color Pink signify? It signifies romance, love, tranquility and friendship. It majorly denotes feminine qualities and passiveness. Pink is a color of sensitivity. It is a color created by the passion of red which is combined with the purity of white. Pink has an association with tenderness and nurturing while conveying a sense of safety and vulnerability as well. When you are said to be seeing the world through “rose (pink) colored glasses,” it holds a negative connotation of being unrealistic and overly optimistic.

In design, pink exudes youthfulness, fun, energy, edge, and confidence when bolded/pronounced and seductive, sophisticated, and calming when not bolded. Pink can also be seen as delicate, harmless, or even weak likewise it can represent defiance, rebellion, and innovation especially when it's for a brand that involves the male gender.

Wow!! Such a lot to learn!! It's been great learning with you. I hope you have been putting what you have learnt to use. And you are seeing great results already. Let's take a wrap here from today. Thank you always for reading. Don't forget to subscribe to get updates on every post. And also, don't forget that you can call in anytime to request for topics to be talked about. 

See ya!!

Meaning of Colors 2

Hi guys! It’s another great day today and it’s good to be back. We started meaning of colours last week and I talked about Yellow, Green and Purple. I hope we were able to learn something new about our colors. We will be looking at colors Black, Red and Blue today. So, let’s go!

Black

Black, I would say is the most common color, we see it everywhere. Do you know that wearing a black suit or a dress can make you look thinner?

Here is something I found about you who have black as your best color, you are non-emotional, conservative, independent, strong willed, determined to be in control of yourself and situations. You may be too serious and intimidating to your friends, you can be a dictator too. Is black your best color?

Okay, let’s consider those things that black represents. Black represents power, elegance, formality, death, evil, fear, negativity, strength, authority, prestige, mystery, sophistication and seriousness. In heraldry, black means grief. Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth and when used as a background, it makes other colors stand out.

Hello designers! When you consider using black for a logo, I suggest you use black for clients whose target market is youths. The use of black in logo design denotes feelings of elegance, power, substance, authority and respectability. No wonder Adidas used black for their logo. 

Red

If your best colour is red, you are bold, driven, adventurous, boisterous and full of energy. Oh wow…that’s a lot of energy there. 

So, what adjectives can best describe the color Red? Let’s check it out. 

Red the color of fire and blood is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination, power, desire, love. This color red is a passionate and emotionally intense one. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and cause one’s blood pressure to rise. It causes people to have high visibility and want to make decisions. Reason why a designer should use the red color for buttons like ‘Buy Now’ and others.

Red can be used to evoke feelings and also to indicate danger. Since it is highly associated with energy, you can use it for brands that produces products of high physical activities like games, sports, cars, energy drinks etc.

As a designer, if you are branding a company that provides products or services that is all about energy, excitement and appetite,I suggest you use the color red since it creates an excitement and a want to click. No wonder YouTube and Coca-cola used red for their logo.

Check out the forms of Red below

Light red represents joy, sexuality, sensitivity, passion and love.

Dark red represents vigor, rage, anger, willpower, leadership, malice, courage, longing and wrath.

Brown represents stability. It also denotes masculinity.

Reddish brown is associated with fall and harvest.

Blue

Okay so check this. If your best color is blue, you are reliable and you love harmony, you are also sensible and you make efforts to consider others. You love keeping things clean and have the mindset that stability is the most important aspect of life. You are also fairly even-tempered and self-controlled, you can be emotional or moody, cool and indifferent. That you, oh lover of blue.

Blue can be associated with trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. Blue slows human metabolism and has a calming effect, it is often associated with tranquility.  In heraldry, blue can mean sincerity.

 

Hello designer, please avoid using blue for food brands because blue suppresses appetite. You can use blue for brands related to cleanliness like water purification filters, brands related to air and sky, and also those related to water and sea. Blue can also be used for high tech companies.

Due to its peculiarity, blue, when used with red and yellow creates vibrant designs like in a superhero design.

Let's look at the two forms of blue

Light Blue is associated with health, understanding, tranquillity and softness.

Dark Blue is associated with knowledge, power, integrity and seriousness.

I believe you have been able to learn something new about the colors Red, Black and Blue? It’s been a nice and smooth ride. Please don’t forget to ask your questions in the comment session. Also make sure to click on the subscribe button to get updates for every of my blog posts.

Next week is coming soon and I will be talking about the other colours WHITE, ORANGE and PINK.

See ya!!

Meaning of Colors

 

Hello Business owners! Do you know that the use of colors for your logo can actually highlight the strength of your business and help you to attract the right customers? Your use of colors also help your target market to perceive you in the right way. This is why you have to be careful and knowledgeable when choosing your brand color.

Dear Designer! Do you know you have to know your colors and their meanings before you can advise your client on making the right choice of their brand color? Color is a property of light which the eyes can be more attracted to since the eyes absorb light. 

Do you remember that I mentioned in my 11th post – The Design brief (you can get to read it here) that a client should have adjectives that he wants to use to portray his business? These adjectives can help a designer to decide which colour to use for the logo, so as to portray the business rightly to its target market.

So, let’s talk about meaning of these colors step by step. Please follow me.

PURPLE

Here is one of the things I found out about purple on Google. Having either purple or violet as your favourite colour means you are sensitive and compassionate, understanding and supportive, thinking of others before yourself - you are the person others come to for help - being needed motivates you but sometimes people take advantage of you. You are a gentle and free spirit. Is purple your best colour? #winks

Okay, let’s break it down. 

These are the adjectives that can be associated with the color purple. As a designer, if your client has any of these adjectives, you should consider the color purple. They include: royalty, nobility, luxury, power, ambition, extravagance, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic. 

Okay, I know you notice some adjectives that mean seemingly bad things. Well, all colours do, so you can’t because of that, not want to use a particular colour. Do you know that about 75% of pre-adolescents prefer the colour purple to other colors? So, if your business is targeting children of ages 9/10 to 13/14, I suggest you use the color purple for your brand.

GREEN

If Green is your best color, check this out. Google says you are prone to putting lots of importance on money and security. Are you?

Green is the color between blue and yellow. It means the following words. Life, renewal, nature, energy, growth, harmony, freshness, environment, fertility, safety, ambition, greed, jealousy. Dark green means money. Do you know that the color green has great healing power and is the most restful color for the eyes to see? Due to that, it improves vision. 

Okay, let’s branch into the different forms of green that we can have.

Yellow green

This can indicate sickness, jealousy, cowardice, discord. Urgh…bunch of things that are not nice, I wouldn’t use it for a logo.

Dark Green

This color can indicate money, ambition, greed and jealousy. Well, for a brand that deals with money, I can consider this color.

Aqua

This is associated with emotional healing and protection. It can be useful for a company that deals with protection and healing.

Olive green

Olive green means peace.

YELLOW

Okay, let’s look at the color yellow. Your love for yellow means you are happy and have a great love for learning. Oh wow! The colour yellow is the color of sunshine. It is associated with happiness, intellect and energy. It evokes some feelings from humans which can include a warming effect, cheerfulness, stimulates mental activities and also causes muscle energy. Most times, yellow is associated with food. It is also an attention getter, which is why it is seen before other colours when placed with black. In heraldry, yellow can mean honor and loyalty. 

Let us check its applications. Since yellow is an attention getter and it is sighted first in a design, you can use it to highlight the most important point in a design. It can also be used to promote children’s products and can also be used for food brands. Despite the love of children for yellow, too much of it can be disturbing, this explains why children cry in a yellow room. Also, men perceive the color yellow to be childish, so if your target market is the male gender, I suggest you don’t use the color yellow for your brand because no man will actually wear a yellow suit, or a yellow shoe or even drive a yellow car. 

Also note, that the other form of yellow -  the dull yellow – because it has lost its cheerfulness, can be associated with caution, decay, jealousy and sickness.

I hope you learnt something new from this post about your colors yellow, purple and green? Join me next week as we look at colors BLACK, RED AND BLUE. Don’t forget to click on the subscribe button to get notifications for more posts, you don’t want to miss great content as this. Also, there is an opportunity to send in topics you would love me to teach about. Thank you for always reading dear reader, I am so blessed to have you.

See ya!!

What is Tracking, Kerning, Leading and White Space in Design?

At a time in my life, when I just started designing, I had some issues with these 4, it was either I didn’t kern where I was meant to or I put too much letter spacing. Something will always be wrong. After I got a hang of it, through a friend then, I then realised that I wasn’t the only one who had that issue as a new designer. Some don’t even know what they mean. I had even forgotten about the whole thing until recently that I noticed it in a friend/student’s designs. This has made me come back to it again. So, why not let’s talk about it.

What is Tracking and kerning?

Tracking also known as letter spacing means loosening or tightening a selected block of text while kerning is the process of adding or subtracting space between specific pairs of characters. Notice that they are both a two-way thing. Loosening or tightening for tracking and adding or subtracting for kerning. I know this definition might still seem ambiguous, so let’s try and break it down.

Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between two individual letters, so as to achieve a visually pleasing result. The space might be too big or too small, which is why you need to kern. Let’s look at examples before we simplify tracking. Let’s look at the letters below, kerning which is available in most fonts has happened here.

Do you notice that with these two letters above: A and V, there is a spacing proportional to each other because of their shape? They both have diagonals which are opposite each other. Now that is kerning. Look at C and D too, they are the same font with A and V but have different spaces between them because of their peculiarity which is different from that of A and V. I hope we get it.

Tracking (letter-spacing) on the other hand, adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters. In a well-kerned font, the two-dimensional blank spaces between each pair of characters all have a visually similar area. Tracking and kerning just have a slight difference. While kerning is all about the relationship between one letter with another, tracking is the relationship between all the letters in a word. Kerning deals with two letters while tracking deals with a word. When you apply tracking in words, especially with some fonts, you eliminate the presence of stray lines as in the example below.

What is leading?

Can you see the image? That is leading. The space between the baselines of a text. This is important because if one is not careful, you tend to have too much space between your text lines, that makes the design weird. We will look at leading in relation to presence of white space in design. Let’s check this example first.

A lot of designers don’t appreciate white space in their work, I really don’t know why. A lot of business owners too, when they see white space, they  are just always against it. Why!? Well, only God knows. But really, let’s talk about this. White space in your design does not mean it’s too scanty, neither does it mean the design is rubbish. It’s just a means of keeping your design simple and able to breathe. Not too choked up. Designs are meant to be simple, you know?

So, what did I mean by the relationship between leading and white spacing? Some designers may think that to reduce the general white space in a design, they should increase the leading of the text, this makes the design totally look weird and non-professional.

How do you kern in Photoshop

Click on Windows which is on the menu bar and click on Character which opens up the character palette. To kern, it’s column is located under the typeface size column. You can adjust the kerning of the letters by moving the arrow to the right or left. Don’t forget to highlight your text before carrying out this process.

How do you adjust leading in Photoshop

Open the character palette again as we did earlier for kerning, to adjust leading. The column for leading adjustment is right beside the column for your typeface size. Don’t forget to highlight your text before adjusting the leading of the text.

How to adjust tracking in Photoshop

All you need is to go to the character section again and just change the value in the column beside the kerning column. Also, like in kerning, you can use the shortcut. Just select the text and hold on to the left key on your mouse and then by pressing the left and right arrow adjust the tracking space.

Now that we have learnt about these 4 today. I hope we will be able to make good use of it. And to put it into good use. Thank you for always reading, thank you for commenting. As regard the google form, it will get to you soon. Don’t forget to subscribe by only clicking on the subscribe button, don’t forget to send in topic requests in a mail to olamipoada2@gmail.com, and don’t forget to leave your feedback and questions here or in a mail. You can still send in a mail to get your copy of the book we spoke about last week.

See ya!

 

 

 

HOW TO PRICE YOUR CLIENTS

Does seeing the topic make you feel like, ‘Yes I have the answer to the question in my heart’? Well I am glad it does. I will be trying my possible best to answer the question though I am not sure how it is framed in your mind. But mind you, I won’t be telling you how much to price your clients, I will only be opening your eyes to see what should influence your pricing. Okay, let’s go!

Let’s look at what pricing means first of all. I would say it means PLACING A VALUE ON SOMETHING – A PRODUCT OR A SERVICE. This means that my service as a graphic designer should have a value placed on it which will compel people to pay for my time and resources. I spend time in working, I use light, I use my laptop, I use my notepad, my pencil, my mouse, my brain, my strength, and I eat! All these I believe, should be compensated for in pricing.

When you get a client who is ready to do a job with you, what are the things that should influence your pricing the client? Let’s look at them. The first I will say is that pricing should be influenced by your LEVEL OF EXPERTISE. Are you an upcoming graphic designer? Or are you a pro? If you are able to sincerely place yourself in the right level, this should influence your pricing. An upcoming Creative shouldn’t put so much price on his service rendered like a pro would because it won’t attract customers. Okay, look at Close Up as a brand, if a competitor starts up today and places the same value (price) that Close Up places on their products, they are likely to fold up very soon. Why? This is because, people don’t know them, people don’t trust them, therefore people would rather go for the brand they trust, even at an expensive price. Instead, as a competitor, it’s best to bring their prices low so as to call attention.  Back to Creatives, low expertise should attract lower prices to call attention to how good you are. And as people start to know you, you start to allow your prices go up.

Do you know it’s better to not have a fixed price placed on each of your services? This is because if you do, you might short change yourself with a client. The PROJECT SPECIFICATION of what your client wants done should also influence your pricing. Naturally, a logo should cost more than an e-flyer. The logo requires more time, more thinking, more ideas, more resources etc. This means a client should not expect you to put a low price on a logo because it is just ‘a’ logo, you know… just one thing, compared to an e-flyer which is a combination of elements.

The EXPECTED TURNAROUND TIME of a design job should greatly determine the price or value placed on that job. Look at this for example, if you charge N10,000 for a job which you will deliver in 2 weeks, then if the client wants to get the job delivered in one week, he or she have to pay more than N10,000. This is because of the stress you will go through, the energy you will use, the sleepless nights, the other people’s jobs that you will leave just to finish that particular job and so on. These factors should make your price increase. Now imagine if you have a fixed price for a logo design and you did not consider delivery time, and your client is now insisting on delivery the next day. That definitely will be a great loss for you.

Your GOTV subscription costs some amount of money to buy. Installation + purchase will definitely cost more than purchase alone. This is an ADDITIONAL SERVICE OR SUPPORT which definitely causes an increase in price. This is why before you sign the contract with your client, let all options and factors be mentioned and agreed upon, the commas curved and the full stops dotted. Be on the same page!. If you will be providing an additional support or service to the original one, both services must be considered and used to price the client.

Your LEVEL OF DEMAND can also determine your pricing. If you are in high demand, then you might want to make your prices high so that you get some clients off your back. Well, that’s an increase in turnover if the clients refuse to back off. If you are in low demand, you might want to bring your prices low so that you can attract more people.

The CURRENT ECONOMY of your country can also decide what your prices will look like. This is because the economy will determine how buoyant your client is in some cases. In other cases, the economy will help you so to price your service so as not to run at a loss.

Always remember, that pricing should not only be done with the mindset that you are only placing a value on the job the client wants. Your pricing should include miscellaneous which will include your rent, if you are in a shop or working remotely, light bill, petrol cost if you have to use your generator, generator maintenance fee, laptop maintenance fee, your workers’ salary, transport fares during research making for a logo, your data subscription and so on.

With these few points on what should influence your pricing, I believe you will be able to price your services properly from now on. You can check my Instagram page @lightdesigns_olamiposi for a video on pricing. Yes! I forgot to mention the book I mentioned I read some days ago. The title is LOGO DESIGN LOVE by David Airey. You can go on to download it and you can also reach out to me via mail to get it sent to you. Mt email address is olamipoada2@gmail.com.

This is my 14^th post, and I am always looking forward to getting your feedback, therefore after the 15^th post, I will be running a survey on how much Creatives Corner have been of help to you. What we should keep doing, what we should stop doing and what I should start dong.

See ya!!