Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Office Stationery Design

Resourcing quality office stationery is an essential duty of any office manager - the right office stationery can enable your colleagues to do the best job possible and give them the tools they need to be organised and methodical in their approach to their work and when arranging their workstations.

The term "office stationery design" covers a massive range of items, from pens and pencils to adhesives, diaries and planning boards. There are many different manufacturers working in the office stationery industry and the choice can be overwhelming, but careful research, and the use of a quality retailer you can trust, will help you make the right decision when it comes to ordering and updating your office stationery supplies.

When looking to resource new supplies of office stationery, office managers and business owners may be surprised to learn the range of products that the category covers. The term "office stationery" can be said to encompass all of the items below, and many more:

adhesives; tapes; art supplies; graphic supplies; books; pads; craft supplies; desktop accessories; envelopes; files; pockets; binders; labels; legal supplies; personnel supplies; office planning; paper; pens; pencils; writing supplies; personal planning and office accessories

Adhesive and tape products for the office are available in a wide variety of forms and can prove useful for many tasks around the workplace. Adhesive and tape products include latex adhesives, photomount, PVA, spraymount and all-purpose adhesives, clear tape, double-sided tape, drafting tape, invisible tape, masking tape, packing tape, printed tape and other specialist tape. Tapes are available in a choice of different thicknesses. Glue sticks, rollers and tacks can also be made use of for a number of office tasks.

Art supplies and graphic supplies also come under the umbrella of office stationery and quality art and graphic materials are very important when it comes to making the right impression of your business with your customers. Art and graphic supplies include crayons, chalk, charcoal, cutting mats, drawing aids, fine art pencils, guillotines, trimmers, cutters, knives, technical pens and other general graphics supplies.

There are many different books and pads that can be of use to all sizes of business when it comes to keeping and maintaining records and general administration. Some of the books and pads that may be of use to your business include accounts books, address books, analysis pads, business card books, drawing pads, duplicate books, electronic books, manuscript books, memo pads, refill pads, repositional notes, signature books, spiral notebooks, visitor's books, specialist books and other general books and pads.

One of the most important uses of office stationery is to help you and your team create and maintain a tidy and organised office environment to enable greater efficiency and create a good impression among customers. There are hundreds of different office and desk accessories on the market and it is a good idea to think through the different requirements of your team and workplace before you begin to place an order.

Some of the different office accessories available on the market include blotters, book racks, magazine files, clipboards, desk mats, desk tidies, drawer sets, letter trays, perforators, pins, clips, fasteners, rubber stamps, scissors, letter openers, stamp pads, ink, staplers, stapler removers, staples, tape dispensers, telephone arms, telephone indexes and a variety of other desktop accessories that include thimbles and organisers.

Envelopes and other mailing materials are an essential item for any business. Using the right envelopes can create an excellent impression of your business to customers and they are also important for the purpose of sending mail internally within your business. The different types of envelope available on the market include standard envelopes in a variety of different sizes, machine envelopes, padded envelopes, padded bags, pre-printed envelopes, protective envelopes, internal envelopes and wage envelopes.

Envelopes come in a variety of finishes, as well as being available in different designs and formats. Different finishes of envelope include gusset plain and window envelopes, manilla plain and window envelopes, plain white envelopes, plain window envelopes and specialist character envelopes.

When mail needs to be sent with extra protection and packaging, there are many different options available on the market. Larger and fragile mail can be sent by padded envelope, parcel pack, box and padded bag and these items of office stationery are all available to order from quality retailers.

It is essential for any business to organise and file documents and other administration using an effective and logical approach. Office stationery is a highly useful tool when it comes to organising the many files and other administrative paperwork that your business generates. Some of the filing and organisational stationery solutions that are available on the market include archive filing stationery, box files, card holders, card indexes, card index supplies, computer binders, display books, dividers, indexes, tabs, easel binders, expanding files, home filing accessories, lateral filing accessories, lever arch files, manilla folders, manilla files, manilla wallets, plastic folders, plastic pockets, plastic wallets, portfolios, presentation folders, presentation ring binders, ring binders, slide binders, suspension files, document boxes and filing units.

Other items of office stationery that are highly useful in the workplace include filing cabinets, labels, legal and personnel forms, seals, markers and deed straps, last will and testament forms, legal ledgers, calendars, diaries, planners, wall planners, paper, pens, pencils, markers, ink, correction supplies and briefcases.

http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/office-stationery-281694.html

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Email Stationery Design

Email Stationery is a new concept meant only for electronic mailing. The letters that are sent by email are generally written on plain canvas. To make them more effective and fun to read, stationery for emails is being used nowadays. Once installed, this Email Stationery becomes part of your virtual letter. It is used both for personal and business emails.

Using Email Stationery renders a personal touch to the message. For business emails, using stationery gives it a professional impact, especially if it contains the logo, address, signature and such details. Even business cards are being designed for electronic use to be sent via computer. Whatever Email Stationery a business is using, it should match with its printed one so as to not to confuse the recipients. When sending personal emails, there are lots of colorful designs available for different occasions. You could send a different one each time, but try to keep a signature, symbol, background or clipart constant in each email so that the recipient knows immediately it is from you.

Email Stationery design is more flexible than paper stationery. One could even have animation. When designing the Email Stationery, select the background first. It can be in any color and design. It could even be one of your favorite pictures. But carefully select the background, so it does not hamper in reading the text clearly. Around the text area, you could add some clipart and borders to give it even better visual impact. Finally, you should select the typefaces and font colors that go best with the designed email layout.

If you find it difficult to design your own Email Stationery, there are free ready-made downloads also available on the Internet. They are generally supported on Outlook, Outlook Express and Incredimail emailing software. Other email packages like Yahoo and Hotmail propagate the use of their own stationery. Most of the email stationeries can be viewed in the IE browser and not in Netscape. These Email Stationery files are stored as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language Files) within the computer. For professional-looking Email Stationery, it is advisable to seek help from a designer.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Email-Stationery&id=144925

Monday, October 19, 2009

Personalized Stationery Defined

If you're like me, you adore stationery and readily utilize the many different types of stationery products, including greeting cards, note cards, note pads, etc. But have you heard of personalized stationery?

Personalized stationery design is simply stationery that includes your name or special message and has become a hot new trend of the present and future.

What makes personalized stationery so special? Well the answer is quite simple. Personalized stationery is great to give and to receive. It makes you feel important and special to be able to send a personal note card with your own name printed neatly on the front. Your family and friends will love receiving personalized stationery as gifts as well!

You can find many companies and designers that offer personalized stationery products. Many of these designers will allow you to choose font styles and personalize your stationery message with the click of a mouse. The end result is printed and mailed to your address.

Many types of personalized stationery include, but are not limited to:

*greeting cards

*note cards

*note pads

*list pads

*calling cards

*custom birth announcements

Personalized greeting cards are great for the holidays! Most companies that offer personalized greeting card designs will allow you to choose a design and customize your very own greeting on the inside of the card!

Personalized note cards are terrific for sending a quick, informal note. There are many note cards that are designed to reflect your individual personality and style. Choose your design and have your name or special message printed on the front of the note card itself.

Personalized note pads are great for keeping around the house or office when you need to jot an idea down or slip a quick note into the pocket of a co-worker or family member. Choose your design, include your name and viola... you have stationery that is fun to use every day.

Personalized list pads are a great way to keep track of the things you need to do around the office or home. Personalized list pads are another fun way to stay organized and keep track of what's important to you.

Personalized calling cards (often called mommy cards too, but are for women and men) are so posh! Let your new friends know just how cool you are with a business-sized card that has your name and phone number neatly printed on it. They are sure not to lose your number now.

Gone are the days of boring birth announcements. Personalized or custom birth announcements are the perfect way of celebrating and expressing the perfect moment of your little one's birth. Choose a design that fits your style and personalize your announcement. Send it to friends and family for an unforgettable and tangible keepsake.

There many companies and that offer personalized stationery with every style and design imaginable. Simple do a Google search with "personalized stationery" and you won't be disappointed with the results.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Personalized-Stationery-Defined&id=993168&opt=print

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Having Your Very Own Stationery Design

Personal stationery printing is more than just about vanity. A custom print stationery tells something about your character, and projects your personal image to your colleagues, friends and most importantly to your business

contacts.

Hence, you must go about doing stationery printing in a good and concerted manner so that you can produce well-designed and purposeful stationery that you can call your own. To do this, you should be aware of four important things.

1. Your personality in your stationery – First off, we can talk about your personality. Custom stationeries should always be designed with your tastes and preferences in mind. Your personality should be reflected in it through the use of images, text, and font styles. So take this into account when creating your own stationery. Try to pick the symbols that best represent you. If you have a favorite animal, object or place, you may want to integrate a symbol of that in your stationery. Also, use your favorite fonts, or try to look for fonts that will make your personality shine through your name, titles and tag lines. You need to form a coherent theme that people will immediately recognize as uniquely you.

2. Proper stationery conventions in your profession - Secondly, you also need to take into account your profession when designing your own stationeries. Since your stationeries can also be used for business or work purposes, you might want to alter a few elements of your design so that it is more appropriate for work. You may want to use more professional looking stationery templates that people can respect. Aim for something simple but functional that has a more or less corporate appeal perfect for business letters, memos and project proposals. People should be impressed with the design and it should project a professional and reliable image to them so that they can trust you better.

3. Choosing the right kind of materials – Next, for your stationeries there is no substituting high quality print materials. Since people will always relate the quality of your stationeries to you as an individual, it is only prudent to impress them by using the highest quality prints and colors for your stationeries. This may cost a bit in terms of letterhead printing, but the investment in your image should really come back to you tenfold if you implement this smart enough. So try to impress people by your high quality prints for your stationeries. This should solidify your look of professionalism and attention to detail.

4. Using different variants – Lastly, you may not want to design only one kind of personal stationery. In fact, it might be best to have your own personal stationery design be considered separate from your personal business letterheads. By doing this, you can further specialize your designs, and adapt them for the specific kinds of people receiving the different types of your stationeries. You can have nice clean and formal letterheads for your business stationeries, while more personal and vibrant designs can be used for your personal stationeries. Of course, this all depends on your budget, but if you are serious about making and using your own personal stationeries, this is the best way to do it.

Well, good luck in making your personal stationeries. Hopefully the tips above have helped you immensely in designing your own stationery for personal and business use.

Know more about print stationery or stationery printing.

Logo & Stationery

For Just AU$399 we will design your business stationery as well as your logo design. You will get the logo, a business card layout for 5 different people and a compliments slip, letterhead and envelope. This is the foundation of your corporate identity.

Read More »


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Stationery Design Australia - It's Importance to Small Business Owners

How many times have you been handed a business card and immeadetly got a negative impression on the person who handed you the card and the business they represent?

All too often, small business owners tend to skip investing in getting a decent business card designed by professional corporate identity designers. They either go for the ready made solutions that most online printers offer today or use templates that come with either MS Word, MS Publisher or some other application.

For a budget comparable to a good meal for two at a decent restaurant, a small business owner get a professional logo design and matching stationery design. A little more investment in a good printing company and you would have armed yourself with the most important tools that would help you win your battles on the market field.

Even though you are an honest and trust worthy business person, a cheap looking business card will definetly create a negative impression in the first 5 seconds of handing over the card to a potential customer. It is then an uphill battle to try and win over the customer by creating the right impression.

I am sure you spend a lot of money and effort into making yourself look decent and smart when going for a business meeting. But all that effort goes to waste if you are not backed by a professional image in the form of your company logo and business card.

Let the business card do the talking for you. A strong initial impression created by a professionally designed logo design on a business card would help you make the sale faster. The customer would make the sale themselves. Of course a professional image should be backed up by a professional service. I am not saying having a decent logo design and a professional business card would do all the work. I am just saying that it would add value to your business and enhance your image.


Aussie Logo Design
Specialising in logo design and business stationery design for small to medium sized businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Our logo design starts at just AU$350. Call +61 2 8014 4900 AEST from 6pm to 10pm

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

How To Choose The Wedding Stationery For Your Budget?

Your wedding stationery is the channel of communication between you and your guests. Think of it as your "official wedding channel". The wedding stationery will tell everyone about the "when", "where", "how", and "what" about your wedding day.

Your wedding invitations are your first official announcements of your forthcoming wedding and they are the first important communication between you and your guests. As well as letting your guests know where and when the wedding is going to take place, you will also want the invitations to set the scene for what type of wedding you will be having.

For example, if your wedding is a very formal at an elegant venue, then you will want to reflect this in your invitations. It will give your guests an idea of what type of wedding it is and what to wear. Alternatively, if you are having a less formal wedding, then the invitations could reflect that in colour and design.

The wedding invitations, and indeed all of your wedding stationery, will reflect the mood, style, and colour scheme you have planned for your wedding. For example is your wedding colour scheme is pink, then one would expect that colour to be represented in your wedding stationery.

Typical Wedding Stationery includes:

Save The Date Card

These tell your guests that you have set your wedding date and ask them to save that date until you send out your formal wedding invitations six-eight weeks before the wedding. These are a great way of giving guests sufficient time to arrange time off work or holidays, so they can fit in with your wedding date. These are sent out as soon as you decide the date.

Wedding Invitation Card

These can consist of Day and Evening invitations. The Day invitations are for the guests who you invite to the wedding ceremony, reception, and wedding meal. The Evening invitations are for the guests who are invited for the celebrations after the meal. These are sent out six-eight weeks before the wedding.

Order of Service Card

These inform your guests of what will be happening during the wedding ceremony. They are usually handed out on the day.

Place Name Card

If you are having a seating plan at the meal, then these are placed on the tables, so the guests know where to sit.

Thank You Card

These are your personal thank you to each guest for attending your wedding and for the lovely present they gave you.

The three main methods of obtaining your stationery are DIY, off-the-shelf, or bespoke.

DIY

DIY means "Do It Yourself". Obviously, this means that your will make the wedding stationery yourself. If you are artistic and creative (or short of money), this could be the method for you. When it comes to design, the key is simplicity. Keep the design simple and it will look better and will take less time. However, you do not have to have to start entirely from scratch. Many shops and on line wedding stationery supplier sell DIY kits, which you can use and adapt to your own needs.

Off-The-Shelf

Off-the-shelf means designs bought from shops. Many shops, web sites, and department stores have large selections of existing designs that you can use. The selection is vast and can range from the humorous to the beautiful and elegant. You just select the design you want and they order it for you. Because of the sheer range of designs available, you need not feel you are picking one that everyone else has used. It is a quick and efficient way of choosing and ordering your stationery.

Bespoke

Bespoke means that your design is hand-made especially for you. You can either get the company to adapt a design from their own portfolio or create an exclusive design for you. This is obviously the most expensive option, as it requires more consultations and more work for the designer. If you are ordering from a distance, then it is important that you are able to see draft designs before committing yourself to the final product.

Finally, when buying stationery you should always order five-ten extra cards to cover any last-minute guests or a slip of the pen if you are writing the names by hand.

However, you do it - have a lovely wedding!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Look Professional With Personalized Business Stationery Design

No matter what your business is, you want your business stationery to deliver the message that, first and foremost, you are a professional. Professionally printed, coordinated business stationery delivers that message directly and to the point. When everything from your business cards to your letterhead to your invoices mirrors the same design and quality, you establish your company as truly professional.

Define your Message

There are generally three types of messages to convey with professional business stationery:

  • Line of business, industry. You may be a young company or maybe you've been in business 50 years, but your company is not exactly a household name. Define your business with personalized stationery that communicates the industry you are in and what you do. If you are a home builder, you could incorporate a construction motif both in your logo and in the color of the paper and inks. Maybe you are a fashion retailer; communicate that with the use of some fashion-forward colors or an apparel-like graphic element.
  • Authority, established. You may be the authority in your business or maybe you are trying to become one. Either way, send the clear message that you are a professional, established business with tasteful personalized business stationery. There are a host of classic, minimalist, modern and corporate looks that will make an authority statement. Bottom line, you don't want to be an investment banker sending a business note on your daughter's pink and green polka dot stationery.
  • Cutting edge, technology, entrepreneurial. Maybe you are looking for an image other than the standard corporate navy blue and gray color palette. Make a statement with a cutting-edge contemporary design that evokes the 21st century. Elements that make a design more contemporary include the use of non-traditional colors or non-traditional placement of your company logo and address. For instance, instead of having your information top and center, have it placed in the lower right hand third of the page. A technology graphic theme also communicates a forward-looking business culture. If you're an entrepreneur who needs to scream energy, go for a bold design with a dark or bright color and create the illusion of movement in your graphic elements.

Design for Consistency

There is more to a coordinated appearance than just placing your logo at the top of the page or in the upper left hand corner of a label. Every design element of every piece of stationery should coordinate to present a polished image that is unmistakably your own. That means the font you choose and size, typestyle and color needs to be consistent. Don't italicize the return address on your mailing envelope when your letterhead uses bold, no italics for your business address. Choose one typeface and stick to it. The major choice is whether to use a serif or sans serif font. Some people think of serif fonts as more traditional and sans serif as more contemporary. Both are equally professional -- what matters most is using the font correctly throughout every piece of your business stationery and communications.

Every time a customer or contact sees a piece of paper from your office, they should immediately recognize that it came from your office. That is what image is all about -- creating an impression and then making certain that every time your company is seen, it fits that message. That means that all of your stationery, from business cards to monthly invoices, carries common design elements. Business stationery includes:

  • Business and correspondence cards
  • Both standard company and personalized executive letterhead
  • Thank-you notes with the company logo
  • Memo pads and internal routing slips
  • Envelopes in various sizes
  • Postcards and promotional mailers
  • Anything your customers see -- invoices, receipts, shipping labels, etc.

Leverage your Supplier

One of the best ways to ensure that your business image is consistent across your entire suite of office and business stationery is to order it all from the same source. When you source all of your custom business stationery from one supplier, you can be certain of the quality and the consistency of all your stationery products. Make sure your supplier has control of their product quality -- some sellers are really 3rd-party outsourcers who use a different manufacturer or supplier for each job, based on low price. These businesses usually produce spotty quality and inconsistent service at best. Even if they may look like they're saving you a few bucks, it will cost you more in the end. You need someone who is reliable all the time, but perhaps more importantly, able to come through on short notice for the occasional office emergency when somebody forgot to order more envelopes. Some suppliers even offer an online inventory management system that will send you reorder reminders based on your past order history.

Leverage every resource available to your business to build your professional image with personalized business stationery. Personalized stationery is probably the number one thing you can do to present a professional and competent business image to your customers and the public.

Logo Design for Logo designers

The main purpose of this article is to help non-designers understand the logo design process, general terms, requirements and things to remember when ordering a logo.

When you decided that your company needs a logo you need to think if you need a completely new logo or redesign the old one (of course, if you have it) before searching for a logo designers. Redesign of the existing logo is often cheaper than design of a new logo.

There are a huge number of companies which offer logo design services. All of them have different prices, number of concepts and revisions offered. Some of them can design business stationery for you. Let’s talk about every point in detail:

Price is important factor; it is very unusual to receive high quality at low price. But Internet is the place where designers work from all over the world and logos are going down in price. You can buy logo of satisfactory quality for $100 (yes, one hundred dollars). One of the very important factors affecting the price is whether design company uses clip-art (premade pictures or graphic elements) or creates unique logos. Be sure to find out this. Custom logos are much better because you will have exclusive logo nobody has.

Number of concepts is a number of ideas for logos which you will be offered after answering the logo design questionnaire. It is good to have more than one idea for logo because you will be able to choose. Usually, you will receive a couple of ideas in different styles. When you choose a concept for your logo you will be able to change it using revisions.

Number of revisions is a number of possible changes which you can request for a chosen logo design concept free of charge. You can change everything including color, font, graphic element, arrangement of the elements. The more revisions you have the more chances you receive a logo of your dream.

Turnaround time is an amount of time needed for work on your logo. Usually design process takes from 3 to 10 days. There are companies, which can do urgent orders but the cost of logo will be higher.

Number of designers – recently design companies started to indicate number of designers working on your project. Big number of designers should guarantee diversity of the concepts, but this factor is difficult to control and it is difficult to find out how many designers really worked on your project.

Stationery design – it is good if your logo design company will design business cards, letterhead and envelope for you. Usually, you will receive a couple of concepts of business stationery to choose from.

Things to remember during the communications with logo design company:
1. Number of colors of your logo. The more colors you have the more expensive will be cost of printing services.
2. Files optimized for print. Be sure to request files optimized for home and professional printing (tif, pdf, jpg, eps).
3. Source files of your logo (ai, cdr). Be sure to request source files of your logo; you may need them in future.
4. Use of photos in logo. It is very bad idea to use photos in your logo. Such logos are overloaded with graphic elements and have non-professional look.
5. Logotype with abbreviation or without company name. It is very difficult to advertise and promote your company with such logo. Logos with acronyms are good for very big companies which have a lot of money for marketing.

Logo is very important for each company and serves the crucial role of successful marketing. It is vitally important to have good logo from the beginning because redesign of logo will cost you a lot because of need to inform you clients about rebranding, change business stationery and logos on signs, cars, etc.

http://www.articlesbase.com/graphic-design-articles/logo-design-for-nondesigners-314062.html