Why do you go to a fancy restaurant when you can cook at home? Because you want the best services provided by professionals. Plus, with us, the professional service is super affordable!

Clearly, there is a difference between drawing some images on a sheet and creating professional design for business. As a graphic designer, one doesn’t simply create artwork but makes use of several important elements of designing which they have studied for long.

As professional visual communicators, designers help you with your goals by leveraging the design elements and use concepts such as color, typography, space, balance, form and, lines to create their visual message. Graphic designers are also able to understand the more technical aspects of the design required to create digital assets for a company.

Now, not every small business needs to stand out. If you’re a locksmith in a small community, for example, it may be enough to just show up in internet searches and be in the phone book. But if you’re in a market with a dozen other locksmiths, you want to stand out. You don’t do that with a clip art logo or canned flier that looks the same as 10 of those 12 competitors. Using marketing materials that are unique and stand out are a way for people to remember you. And if they think they’ve seen you before, they are more likely to choose to contact you for your products or services.

All your marketing materials and your 'brand' as a whole should be the best they can be for your business, or you’ll have some hesitation in presenting them to new customers. Get a professional designer to help you take more pride in your business and marketing materials.

The first concepts are sent to you within 2 to 4 business days, depending on our internal revisions of concepts. The overall time it can take to finalize a design depends on the accuracy of the brief, how quick you give feedback and how focused the feedback is.

We generally take between 3 and 7 business days to reach final sign off. Giving us a more comprehensive design brief will allow us to complete your project faster.

We follow a general branding process. This consists of the following:

• Design brief - interviewing the client and making sure you get all the information you need.

• Research - learning more about the industry/niche, as well as the client's history and competition.

• Reference - checking out design inspiration related to what the client needs, as well as looking at the current design trends.

• Conceptualization - sketching and developing the logo around the given brief and the research you've made.

• Reflection - letting the idea mature following a quick design break.

• Presentation - choosing a couple of design options to show the client, as well as getting feedback and doing some edits until the design is complete.

• Alterations - depending on your feedback, we will make the needed changes to the concepts to produce the final design.

Sometimes customers require our services at very short notice. We can usually accommodate rush jobs depending on the size of the project and how full our production schedule is. These jobs are usually subjected to an additional charge on the flat hourly rate.

If you look around, at this very moment while you are reading this, you’ll see several applications of graphic designing. The web page on which you are reading this question, the coffee mug on your table, the pack of cookies you just opened, all of it is the work of creative design. Every day, we see endless examples of design applications around us.

Speaking of business applications, here are some basic areas where graphic design is used the most:

• Logo design

• Corporate identity

• Branding

• Digital marketing

• Web & Interactive design

• Outdoor & Signage

• Package design

• Printed design

• Editorial/Composition design

• Typography

• Illustration

• Album Design

• Electronic Media designs

• Clothing branding designs

• Greeting cards

Yes, four addition changes can be made to the original design options. The purpose of the revision limit is to add additional focus onto the design process. Having constraints adds to the quality of logo concepts as well as the quality of the design feedback. I do understand that you need options and that logo design is an organic process. I also need to add a limit to the amount of designs to keep the project scope feasible. If you have reached your revision limit then additional sets can be purchased.

Yes, I can take your current logo and update the colors, style and typography to freshen it up, based on your personal taste and brand positioning. I’ll give you an upgrade quotation based on the complexity of the new version that you are looking for.

Unfortunately not, our logo design process would still be the same. Your illustration would just allow me to have a more relevant initial batch of logo design concepts.

Yes, I offer a recreation service. The end product of the service would be a high resolution vector version of your current file. You can then send it to signage companies or anyone that needs to manufacture large scale printing. A quotation for the recreation would be based on the complexity of the original design. Your printer company can contact me if they have a technical requirement.

You’ll receive the original source files, a print-ready PDF in vector format for large scale printing, JPG files for general use and a PNG file with a transparent background. You can request other formats and we can see if we can export them for you. Generally you’ll only need the ones that we export by default.

A graphic designer does more than just put their creative skills to work. Though most graphic designers are intuitively creative already, they have generally spent time studying numerous design principles. It’s vital to understand how to use design elements to transmit the required messages and values as well as evoke a certain feeling in the viewer. As a visual communicator, they leverage these design elements and use concepts such as color, typography, space, balance, form and lines to create their visual message.

Some graphic designers are also able to understand the more technical aspects of design required to create digital assets for a company. For example, a web designer is often able to create wireframes, workflows, and sitemaps and understand how to develop easy navigation for the user experience.

It is a good idea to have a proper logo designed if:

• You have no logo. A logo is an important visual pointer to what you offer.

• You made your logo yourself through an online logo making website. These logos are not unique and sold to multiple companies across the world. Copyright infringement and the lack of trademarking could have a significant impact on your marketing campaigns. Going cheap is almost guaranteed to work out expensive later. Give your company its own look, its own voice.

• Your logo has been created in MS Word, Powerpoint, MS Paint for your company when it was starting off. The logo would likely be low resolution and not usable for large size printing. You need a vector version of your logo with proper color management.

• Your logo does not properly depict what you do or it may give a wrong impression of what you are doing. Do not pigeon hole yourself or be vague.

• You had your logo for a long time and you need a fresh design. You can keep the current character of your logo, but add a bit of fresh flair into it.

You will find graphic design in company logos, printed materials like brochures, posters, signs, greeting cards, postcards, business cards, billboards and advertisement.

Advances in technology have brought us the digital environment complete with websites, social media, online adverts, virtual brochures and presentations, and so very much more.

You need to be prepared to communicate clearly and often about what you want from a graphic designer. The more specific you can be when you fill out your request the more likely the final product will reflect your vision. Communicating clearly and minimizing revisions will hold down your expenses. Our graphic designs include one or two rounds of changes in your project price.

Ask lots of questions so you can understand exactly how much your design will cost and how your money is being spent.

• How long do you estimate this design will take?

• What will the review schedule look like?

• How many revisions do I get?

• What is included with the project rate?

Your branding and marketing materials are often the first point of contact with potential customers. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and therefore your communication materials need to convey the right image. A design agency will produce marketing materials that will help to impress upon potential customers the professionalism of your company and the service you offer. By producing your own marketing materials you run the risk of appearing amateurish, meaning the loss of potential customers.

Copyright for all work carried out by CO Design Studio transfers to the client as soon as the balance has been settled in full. We do, however, reserve the right to use any work for promotional purposes.

Do you have a great idea for a product or service? These are a few things we would recommend to any start-up business to get off the ground:

Numerous articles expound on what things you need before seeking angel investors (put together a board of advisors, analyze your market, write a business plan). But you also are going to need some marketing materials that show you are a professional and explain what you do.

Yes, you don’t have much to spend on marketing, but a little bit spent the right way will put you in good position to influence potential customers.

Here are four things you need to have for your initial marketing:

1. A logo.

Start-up companies usually take one of two approaches to getting a logo:

One of the principals comes up with something “that will work for now” using Microsoft Paint or Photoshop Elements, a trendy font and some clip art. The problem is – it looks like someone did it in 5 minutes on the computer and doesn’t show a professional approach to your company.

The company goes to the “get a logo designed by someone for R50” websites and gets a generic logo that looks like thousands of other companies out there (and may have been stolen from one). Also, by the time you get the logo in the digital formats you need, you’ll probably spend a lot more than the minimum.

What’s the right way to get a logo? Hire a professional graphic designer. To minimize the time you spend using the designer’s services (and keep it cost-effective), first put together a page with logos you like the look of. If you have some basic branding ideas, make sure you list them out – but your designer may advise against a particular color scheme or approach based on his or her expertise, so keep an open mind and work together on creating this most important corner stone of your business identity.

Use a cheesy, quick logo and you’ll pay for that, both in perception and in getting everything you’ve put that logo on (cards, brochure, clothing, sign, vehicles) reprinted or recreated once you realize that it is badly done.

2. Business cards.

These can be simple – the logo and your contact information. They should be printed on good quality card stock, not on the flimsy paper you put in your printer and run off yourself.

Having the designer who made your logo put these together shouldn’t cost too much more and can pay off in looking professional.

3. Basic website.

This is another thing you can probably put together yourself, but like the logo, you’re probably going to either come up with something that looks like a high school student did it for a class project and/or end up spending more for a web service than you would if you hired a professional local designer to work directly with you and come up with a site that reflects your branding.

Your site doesn’t need to be elaborate. At this point, you’re not looking for great search engine optimization – you need a site that can be expanded, that doesn’t do anything to get it banned from Google and other search engines, and that looks good for investors.

Start with a few pages: Home, About Us, About our Product or Service, Resources, Contact Us.

4. Good photos.

It’s true that “a photo is worth a thousand words.” Make sure you have great product or service photos. These can be used on your website, in your printed materials and in presentations. Grainy, dark and low-quality images will not help you present your company in a professional manner.

Need help with any of these materials for your start-up? Contact CO Design Studio today for a quote so you can start budgeting for these essential marketing components.