Courtesy of Hello Designers & Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  As promised, today starts my fantastic guest blogging series from Hello Designers!  (once a week for the next few) So Etsy sellers, boutique owners and everyone alike get ready for the seed to be planted because I think you’ll walk away with some useful information.  Today we feature the intro to the series.  Readers – meet Lisa, owner of Hello Designers!

Thanks Edyta!  I have been lucky enough to work with Edyta many times both professionally and personally on my wedding. In this series I am going to focus on what I know best: How to brand your company through beautiful and meaningful photography and memorable graphic design. With marketing departments cutting costs oftentimes graphic design and photography are the first to go.

Photos courtesy of Old Navy

Have you seen the Old Navy ads with mannequins as models? An easy way to cut costs: don’t use models. Additionally, their studio sets look like they were built at a Walmart garden sale. But you know what? It works for them, and I fell for it this summer for sure. Old Navy has an established brand that is tongue and cheek as well as affordable. The mannequins and astro turf speak to that idea.

Courtesy of Hello Designers

The first part of my series is going to be about planning and preparing for a photo shoot for a marketing piece, whether it is a catalog, brochure or even a postcard series. Although web is the easiest and sometimes the cheapest way to engage your customer, it means nothing if no one actually visits your site. And how do you get them to your site? Send them something memorable and special.

My second segment will dive into styling and propping for your photo shoot, and finally, my third segment will focus on, how to create a visual vocabulary for your brand that you, in essence, can pick and choose from to create delightfully impacting and relevant marketing pieces. My goal is to highlight what you, as a client or a creative do-it-yourself entrepreneur, can do to make your brand memorable, beautiful and consistent, which will lead to customer loyalty and success.

All about Hello Designers

Hello Designers is a full-service graphic design studio that will partner with you to craft a visual voice that positively affects your audience in a clear, memorable and beautiful way. We provide design services to individuals and businesses, both large and small, global and local. We are a woman-owned business and are available for freelance and contractual work as well.

Clear: Simple, Fresh, Distilled

Memorable: Sustainable, Smart, Sound

Beautiful: Spirited, Timeless, Human

Lisa Gainor, Hello Designer’s Creative Director, believes that communication design is at the heart of human experience. As a “jack of many trades”-branding, print, web, marketing, color, inspiration, information and blogging-her intention is to communicate clear messaging and emotion that will help inspire positive and sustainable change for her clients. Lisa serves as the Development Co-Chair for AIGA Chicago’s board of directors. Her work has been featured on macromedia.com, AIGA and The Academy of Art University. See her work at www.hellodesigners.com or visit her blog, www.hellodesigners.com/blog, for quick and colorful tidbits about design.