In a nut shell, I can help you get your imagery working for you. This might be your company brand, your illustrated book or your website. As The Dream Loft, I produce a broad spectrum of creative projects including illustration, business stationery, concept realization and corporate branding.
I will also create bespoke Flash animation, graphics, photography and various styles of writing to satisfy your demands and I've rapidly become a one-stop-shop for website design for an eclectic clientele both domestically and internationally.
Get your business online, get your company branded, get your book illustrated, get your images animated...
No fuss, no myth, no jargon.
Just great image.
Call The Dream loft on 01275 837700 or mob 0772 5019510.
Image; the Bridge to Brand Success?
Ben Mears | The Dream Loft (Your partner for illustration, design & web)
So is image the bridge to brand success? A resounding 'yes' from me, though for some it seems to be a bit of a rickety path. It shouldn't be.
Selling Point
Believe it or not, we are buying into image almost every waking minute of every day. You buy into it when you purchase your washing up liquid, eat your breakfast or when you squeeze toothpaste from a tube.
Businesses use image and images to drive custom to their doors. But are you using this basic yet essential marketing tool properly, to build your business? Here are some thoughts from The Dream Loft.
Let's take an example; a business selling family vehicles. The product is the family vehicle. But the selling point is the benefit the vehicle brings. In this case the benefit is lifestyle, so the images used are of families having fun in the great outdoors, along with the product. The point is this; the product is being sold to you via the benefit the product provides.
It's a basic, age old message, but new businesses take note! If you haven't learned this yet, learn it now.
If you are selling logs, don't use pictures of a log pile. Use pictures of a roaring log fire with family members gathered around, warming their hands. Just thinking about it makes me want to get a fire going! We desire the cozy warmth and atmosphere an open fire brings, but that message is sadly lacking from an image of a cold pile of logs stacked against a shed. The same is true when it comes to brand. So make your brand a roaring fire and not a pile of logs. Call The Dream Loft if you need help with the development of your brand, illustration or promotional material (mob 0772 501 9510).
Smoother.me (www.smoother.me) also uses this approach. This 'personal aesthetics service' utilizes slick images of beautiful faces and bingo; I want to look like that! I designed their logo to reflect the message of smooth, wrinkle free faces by creating a fresh photographic image of clean, sea-rounded, skin-toned pebbles. This has, naturally enough, spilled over into brand territory and become more than a logo for the business.
Get Creative
I see no excuses for uninspired marketing. So get inspired! Get creative in your marketing approach. I'm an ideas man, however, there is at least one other guy like me for every street in Britain, so it's no claim to fame. The point is this; ideas should not be thin on the ground. If they are, bring someone (like The Dream Loft) in to help.
Send an animated, on-brand Christmas card next December to your client database. Heck, why wait for Christmas, Easter is on its way. Don't fancy that? Get animated with an email newsletter. Send one every week if you're not afraid of annoying people.
Keep it Relevant
Every image counts. It's much the same with search engine optimization, which I'll use as an analogy. When optimizing a site there are many things you need to tackle. Some are integral to the site (content, meta data, etc.), some are more external forces (links, etc.), but either way they all count and, in the battle for Google's front page ranking, every shot matters.
With imagery, your brand can be championed or ruined. Your choice. Don't be tempted to pad out your marketing content (be it website or print) with second rate imagery that is off target and off-brand. It's like finding a fly in your otherwise perfectly custom made cup of tea. Sometimes less is more, if you know what I mean.
Stay true to the message and seek ways to underpin what you want to say by visual means. A graphic produced for ESSA shows what I'm talking about here (sample portfolio above). You'll notice the karabiners used as bullet points, re-enforcing the notion that ESSA members are a safe choice because of these listed elements, whilst staying relevant to the rock climber imagery. Here the karabiners are relevant on two levels. Bull's eye.
Is there a troll lurking under the rickety bridge?
Most definitely. His name is Bad Image.
But The Dream Loft is here to help you across the bridge, however rickety it feels. Let your brand fly. Let your website sing. No fuss, no myth, no jargon. Just great image.
Call The Dream loft on 01275 837700 or mob 0772 5019510
