Course Reflection

I had kind of mixed feelings about this class before the semester started. I had heard from students in previous semesters that this class was a lot of work, and most of the work was to be done outside of class. The things that I'd heard about this class before taking it made me a little nervous for the class, but I was also questioning how hard it was really going to be since it was basically just using some of the social media sites that I use on a regular basis.

Quite honestly, I wasn't expecting to learn all that much in this class. I've been on social media sites since middle school so I felt like I was pretty familiar with a majority of them. I didn't think that using Facebook or Twitter for a business would be all that much different than using them for personal accounts. I figured we would learn some social media sites that I wasn't super familiar with, the "correct way" to use social media sites for businesses, what to do and what not to do on each site, and some examples of good and bad posts.

Although we covered basically everything I figured we would, we also learned quite a bit more. We talked about the good and bad times to post, how to run campaigns on each site, how to track the success of your posts, and which social media sites are better to use for your industry/business. Although I really valued everything I learned in this class, my biggest takeaway was how big of a tool social media can be for business. Especially in this day in age, social media can really make or break a business, so it was really beneficial to see all that needs to go into it to be as asset to your business.

If there is one thing that I wish we could've had more time to do it would be Pinterest/Instagram. Personally I love with Pinterest, but I think I could've really done wonders with it for my business/industry and could've made something really cool out of it.

My favorite thing this semester was probably Blogger, followed very closely by HootSuite. Although I enjoyed Twitter and Facebook, I felt like Blogger really let me get my creative juices flowing. If I was doing this job for a real business, I think that having a blog would be a really good way to cement yourself as an industry expert. The other social media sites are good for posts about promotions or what the business is doing, where blogs you can use to give information about topics in your industry and really show your fans that you are an expert in your industry. Finally, I liked learning HootSuite because it allows you to schedule all your posts for the week/month at the times that will most benefit your business (like when your audience is most likely to be active on social media) without you having to physically log on every time you want to post something.

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No Shave November

No Shave November
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Put that razor down because it's No Shave November! No Shave November is a month long event where people forgo shaving and grooming to raise awareness about cancer. The rules are simple: put down the razor and donate your monthly hair-maintenance costs to the non-profit cause. If you're unable to skip shaving, you can support someone who is or just make a donation.

Mustache Business Cards
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This November, our employees have raised money to give to the cause by not shaving and/or collecting donations from friends and family. As you may or may not have noticed, we have an option available to you as well on the checkout page of our website. After adding all the merchandise you want, you can choose to add a donation in the checkout.

As as 'Thank You' we are giving coupons to those who donate. If you donate:

• $5 - get a coupon for 5% off one item
• $10 - get a coupon for 10% off one item
• $25 - get a coupon for 25% off one item
• $50+ - get a coupon for 50% off one item

To learn more about No Shave November, visit the nonprofit website here.

On a completely different note, lately we've been playing around with Behance, a social media website made specifically for lovers of graphic design. We thought you guys might enjoy it so we made a short little video showing you around the website a little. Make sure to check it out and give us a follow if you sign up!

Trendy New Items to Market Your Business

When you think of ways to market your business, what do you think of first? Probably something along the lines of posters, signs, business card, or maybe a pen. While these are all timeless and fantastic ways to market (maybe not the pen), there are some new trendy options that will help make you stand apart from other businesses.

Promotional USB's
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Some of the newest trends include:

• Drinkware (sport bottles, mugs, tumblers)
• USB Drives
• External phone battery packs
• Silicone card holders
• Sticky notes/memo cubes

The best part about this is that you're putting your logo on an item that someone will use almost everyday. Besides marketers and designer, how many people do you know that use a poster in their daily business operations? Probably not very many. Now, how many people do you know that use a USB drive daily? Probably quite a few. So why not put your logo on that item that someone will use everyday, because the more they see and use it, the more they will be reminded of your business.

Find products that people in your industry would actually use, and use those items to promote your business. If you're in the finance and business industry, put your logo on letter openers, rulers, calculators, etc. If you're in the beauty and spa industry, try putting your logo on nail files, gym towels, mirrors, or manicure sets.

Visit our website for all of these and many more marketing products for your business. Also, check out our newest commercial. Find it here

Surprise Sale

Sale
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With the current year winding down and the new year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to start preparing for next years marketing. You might be looking to update the look of your marketing materials from older versions, or just looking to add some new items to your stock, and Shades of Design would love to help you make that transition easy and painless. Starting Monday, November 7, 2016, we will be having a Fall Sale on some featured items that you may be looking to update or add to your stock. The sales will be as follows:

• Monday (11/7): 40% off all business cards
• Tuesday (11/8): 30% off all postcards/mailers
• Wednesday (11/9): Buy any one sign or poster and get a second one (of equal or lesser value) for 50% off
• Thursday (11/10): A free five-page sticker book of your logo for each set of letterhead and envelopes ordered
• Friday (11/11): 20% off all bi- and tri-fold brochures
• Saturday (11/12): 20% off all promotional products featuring your logo

All discounts will be automatically applied once the qualifying product(s) are added to your cart. Make sure to stop buy our website each day to receive your discounts and to get all of the awesome marketing materials you need!

Keeping Up with the Trends

Traditional business cards will always be effective, but with the times and trends changing, having something unique helps you to stand out from the rest of the crowd. As a company that loves to stay up to date with all the changing trends in print marketing, we are so excited to announce that we are adding some awesome new options for our business cards. Here's a look the two new options we have available to you!

Slim Business Cards
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Shaped Business Cards
Introducing shapes! Traditional business cards are timeless, but unique shapes will make your business card unforgettable. With new laser cut technology, we are able to make numerous different shapes, ranging from simple to unique. Some basic shapes we are able to do include:

• Square 
• Circle 
• Leaf 
• Oval 
• Half circle 
• Slim (3.5" x 1.75")

The traditional rectangle, square, and slim cards are available with either pointed or rounded corners. In addition to simple shapes, we can now make business card in shapes that are unique to your business. We can do cupcake shaped cards for a bakery, a tree shaped card for a tree trimming business, a camera shaped card for a photography business, or anything else you can imagine.

Letterpress Square Cards
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Letterpress Business Cards

Letterpress is where the words or designs are literally pressed into the card creating a unique indented feel. Basically, letterpress is the exact opposite of our raised print finish option; instead of the bump you feel with our raised print, you'll feel an indent where the words or designs are. The part of your card you choose to have letterpressed can be colored with a colored ink or metallic finish, or can be the same color of your card. Any way you decide to go with your letterpress card design, these business cards are a surefire way to make your card different from the rest. 

For more pictures of our newest options, visit our website, and stay tuned to our Facebook as we continue to add more pictures of these newest options.

 

More Than Pink

As most of you know October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we at Shades of Design want to help bring awareness to this deadly disease. This month, we've teamed up with the Susan G. Komen Foundation to do a few really cool things.

Susan G. Komen Logo
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• First, we've been hosting a fundraiser at our offices for our employees to join in and donate to the foundation. Not only were our employees able to donate to the foundation themselves, they also fundraised with their family and friends to increase the donations to the foundation.
• Secondly, we've teamed up with some local businesses to host a Think Pink Walk on October 29, 2016. (details below)
• Finally, we're excited to announce that Shades of Design is going to be donating 50% of our profits from the entire month of October to the Susan G. Komen foundation. 

Think Pink Walk
Our ultimate goal was to host a Komen Race for the Cure, but unfortunately we couldn't make one work in our area for this month. We didn't let that discourage us, and instead we improvised and made our own walk. All of the proceeds and fundraised money from the Think Pink Walk will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

People who want to participate can fundraise before the race if they want, to increase donation amounts, or can just show up and start walking. Each mile that is walked earns $10 towards the foundation.

The walk is being held on Saturday, October 29, 2016 from 9am - 4 pm and is open to anyone and everyone who wants to come. The day starts with registration at 9am and is followed by a quick breakfast provided by the Altoona Family Restaurant starting at 9:30am. Walks start at 10am and again every hour until 2pm. Then, from 3pm until 4pm, the donations are added up and prizes are given out.

If you would like to sign up for the Think Pink Walk, sign up on our website or email us at shadesofdesign@gmail.com. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or find us on Facebook and Twitter.  We hope to see you there to help support a great cause, and to help find a cure!

Event Marketing Materials

We do much more than just business cards here at Shades of Design; we can help you with many of your other marketing needs. In addition to business cards, we also specialize in logo creation, signs, posters, brochures, stickers, labels, stationary, envelopes, invitations, promotional products, and much much more.

VCloud Marketing Materials
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One of our specialities is event marketing. We can help you design all the items you need to help promote your event, from invitations and posters, to stickers and any other promotional products you hand out at the event.

You can order the marketing materials you need separately, or choose from one of our five packages to include the items you need to make your event the most successful event you host.

For the last couple of weeks we have been working on a big project for one of our clients, Knight of Games. They are hosting an event this Saturday, October 15, 2016 at their gaming center and we had the absolute pleasure of making all the marketing materials they needed. We'd love to give you a sneak peak of what we're designing, but that would spoil the surprise, so make sure to stop out on Saturday to check out their event, and take a look at all of the marketing materials we created for them! If you like what we did for them, imagine what we could do for you!