Have you ever been out running errands and noticed one of these?

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Two of them have become familiar because we see these cars zipping around everywhere, all over North America! The others, while parked at the grocery store, movie theater, school parking lot or anywhere else, make us think of familiar products and services, and let’s face it, now we’re all thinking about a delicious drink of root beer.

“Branding” is what these vehicles have helped their businesses do (pretty successfully, too!)  When we see the car or the logo, we know exactly who and what they are and what they do.

That is what car wraps can do for your company.  Car wraps on your personal or business vehicles help you brand your business and make your drive an immediate eye-catching advertising extravaganza!  Your daily errands or commutes to and from different meetings, jobs, or other worksites aren’t sucking up your valuable time because they have become an easy and essential way to get your brand out there and noticed by everyone you drive by!

Just look at how these car wraps stand out in a crowd!

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Make your business a household name with car wraps from Graphic Systems Installers. Let us make your drive work for you as hard as you work for your business.

But how do you get people to STOP and not just walk on past your booth? An eye-catching tradeshow display will do just the trick!

Here are a few dos and don’ts of the trade-show savvy to help keep you and your tradeshow displays working with ease and efficiency to boost your business.

For more information or help designing your perfect tradeshow displays, give us a call. As professional graphic designers, we are exceptional at knowing what is and isn’t aesthetically pleasing and can help you design the perfect signage and tradeshow displays to ensure your booth is impossible to miss!

Read what one blogger has to say about this growing DIY-graphic design trend in the small-business world, and why it’s not such a great idea: 5thcolor.wordpress.com

If your company’s graphic design looks like the DIY jobs featured at designcertification.org, it’s probably time to hire a professional to help out with your graphic design needs. Give us a call, and see what we can offer you in graphic design to help your business look as professional as your work actually is. You won’t regret it.

One of the keys of good advertising is having your business familiar to people, so when they’re looking for the thing that you’re offering them, yours is the business they think of!

We call it “branding.”

So, what if we told you that every time you drive the kids to school or soccer practice, go to the grocery store, or out for dinner, you can be getting the word out? Without verbally saying a thing to anyone, you can get your business name out there and make it a brand that people recognize and come to associate with . . . whatever it is that you do.

It’s easy! Wrap your vehicle! And not necessarily just your ‘work’ car.  A vehicle wrap on any of your family’s cars will get the word out to people anywhere and everywhere you go!  Your car will stand out in the parking lot between all the regular grey sedans, blue compacts, red sports cars . . . a great design wrapped on your vehicle will draw the eye like a rose in a bed of daisies.

It’s great on your operating budget, too – a one-time vehicle wrap gets you basically unlimited advertising everywhere you take your car.

So if you’re a business owner and you drive a car, give us a call and let us tell you what we can do to help you maximize your advertising budget with a vehicle wrap. Help us help you build your brand!

However, there persists the more conventional means of advertising like television, radio and billboard signs. These have persisted because their respective media have.  And, that is why it can be argued that signs are still the best way to call attention to something.  Signs are everywhere.  Signs advertise products, as well as tell us where and when something is.  They are the most basic tool to identify something in physical space.  And, whether you are the head of advertising for a shoe company or a restaurant owner, signs will make people aware of the good(s) or service(s) you offer.  One of the benefits of using a sign to promote something is that, so long as your sign remains in place, it will be seen.  If you want proof, you need only think about the Marlboro Man and his longtime residence overlooking Times Square in New York City.  Even if a sign is seen only briefly, people will be aware of it. The more often your signs are seen, the more familiar what you offer becomes to others.  It is simple repetitive exposure that will familiarize people with your brand or service.  And, since signs are ubiquitous, it makes a great deal of sense to find a way to make your signs stand out if you are a business owner.  One of the best ways to do that is to consult someone such as a graphic designer to ensure any signs you post will grab the attention of others.

It is quite exciting to see how graphic design is influenced by emerging technology.  Take for instance, designers who use CAD (Computer Assisted Design) programs to create technical drawings for things like architecture or technical schematics.  They can now use technology to “grow” their design from wax resin, so that they can have a scaled down physical copy of the design.  Pretty impressive.

Similarly, most children in this day and age enjoy movies from companies like “Pixar,” who use computers exclusively to make their feature length films.  This was one of the outcomes of graphic design firms who were working on computer software to enable designers to harness the latest innovations in computers. These innovations would permit images to be altered without having to put eraser to paper or abandoning a drawn or painted image.  This has also led to all the amazing website content that is now available on the internet.

And, of course, graphic designers can take cues from artists who draw and paint to add novelty to their designs.  Imagine seeing a giant advertisement that draws on the brilliance of street artist Kurt Wenner, who manipulates perspective to give the illusion of depth in three dimensions.  Advertisers could hire graphic designers to use the manipulation of converging lines to give their ads the ability to deceive the visual sense and instill a sense of awe in anyone who sees the graphic design, while opening up the very ground you walk on to use as ad space.

They are everywhere.  From bumper stickers to price tags, they have many uses.

Lately, decals have found popularity with car enthusiasts, who apply them to their cars to mimic racers who apply sponsors’ decals to their race cars.

Want to show who you support for president?  A bumper sticker is a great way of doing so.  It also lets people know your other car is a bicycle…or a Millennium Falcon.

Skiers and snowboarders tend to have decals all over the top sheet of their skis or snowboards.  World travelers tend to accumulate a large number of decals on their cars.  Even musicians tend to have decals on guitars, basses, and bass drum heads.

The versatility of decals is also seen in many guerilla marketing movements.  They are a very cost effective way of creating awareness for something.  You can post them virtually anywhere the eyes wander, and there is an added element of cleverness to their placement.

Even something as important as road signs are now made from die cut decals, placed on a reflective backing.  This is a worthwhile change, as it is more cost effective.  The decals can simply be removed if a sign needs to be altered, and a new decal is applied.

The art is in making sure both the decal itself and its purpose stick.  That means using quality materials and an elegant design to convey the information on the surface of the decal well. If you want to get your business message out to many different people, getting some custom decals is a great way to do it.

Although one should never judge a book by its cover, if you are a presenter at a tradeshow or consumer fair, it is incumbent on you to make sure your booths or tradeshow displays attract lots of attention.  Typically, the venue will be teeming with merchants who are all vying to increase their orders or move products by enticing consumers to buy.  Thus, there is sufficient distraction, which means that you have a limited window to grab someone’s attention.

The primary means of getting someone’s attention is through the visual sense.  It has been estimated that roughly 60% of North Americans are visual people.  So the way to make inroads is by wowing them with tradeshow displays that feature a good use of the color palette, imagery and video.  This is where well thought out branding and marketing initiatives are given a chance to shine.  That is also why it is vital to have good caliber presentation materials like banners, graphics and fliers, so that anyone who visits will be impressed with the consistent level of quality and professionalism.  The added bonus of word of mouth that will travel around the event can increase the number of visitors to your tradeshow display also.

By generating interest through the aforementioned avenues, the process of initiation of conversation with any visitors to the display is greatly facilitated, so that an associate can provide additional information to further win over prospective clients.

The basic premise is to make the brand as visible as possible through displays like a custom banner, electronic advertising, and product giveaways and demonstrations, which are another great way of winning people over.  Having spokespeople or “brand ambassadors” to represent you gives the campaign a personal touch.  That is why it is imperative to have marketing tools like custom banners, signs and booths highly visible at any event to ensure that there is a firm connection between the experience and recognition that the brand was a large part of furnishing that enjoyable experience.  The more senses that get engaged in an experience, the more vivid it will be when it is remembered.  In essence, the custom banner, promotional items, and other advertising are a statement on behalf of a company that says that the brand has been there and has left its mark on the event, making it better through their support.

In addition to being an affordable alternative to paint, having a car wrap also protects the finish of the vehicle from the elements.  With exposure to sun, a vehicle’s paint will fade over time.  Simply by driving, little stones will chip the front of the car.  Birds and tree sap will ruin a paint finish as well.  So will a kid throwing an egg at your car.  However, if your car has a wrap applied to it, the paint job will be preserved as is.  That means that if you ever decide to sell the car, the finish will be in pristine condition. Car wraps also sweeten the deal for any prospective buyers as they will likely be able to choose the color of the wrap to stay on the car or to have the protected original finish exposed, a win-win situation for all.