Sustainable Graphic Design: Eco-Friendly Practices for a Greener Future
Given the current environmental climate, which is more concerned than ever before, the graphic design sector stands in a distinctive position to effect substantial change. We, as designers, possess the ability to impact sustainability via the materials we employ and...
Boost Your Social Media Engagement: Unleash the Power of Instagram and Facebook!
Struggling with dropping engagement figures on social media? Discover effective tips to re-engage your audience on Facebook and Instagram. Algorithm Changes: Both Instagram and Facebook regularly update their algorithms, which can impact the visibility and reach of...
Unleashing Creativity: Where Graphic Designers Find Inspiration
The area of graphic design involves ongoing innovation and inventive thought. To remain competitive in the market, designers must be abreast of the most recent design trends and methodologies while always seeking fresh inspiration. This article examines the numerous...
Marketing your brand on a shoestring
Effective brand marketing is vital to any company’s success and growth. However, due to the high cost of traditional marketing strategies, many small firms struggle to establish their impression on the market. The good news is that there are several ways to advertise...
How to Write Killer Marketing Copy
Writing persuasive content for marketing purposes may be a challenging endeavour, but it does not have to be. Whether you’re developing an advertising campaign, a post for social media, or a description of a product, the most important step in achieving success is to...
How do I get Influencers to Notice my Brand?
As a business owner, attracting the attention of influencers may be an effective method to reach new consumers and raise brand recognition. Influencers are people or groups with a strong following on social media or other platforms who may help market your business to...
Social Media Marketing – organic growth vs paid reach via advertising
Introduction: In the digital world of today, social media has become a vital component of every business’s marketing plan. It allows companies to engage with their audience, increase brand exposure, and increase revenue. There are two primary strategies for growing a...
Tips for designing effective social media graphics
Social media graphic design is a critical component of any successful marketing plan. These visuals can aid in capturing the attention of your audience, conveying vital information, and stimulating participation. To produce amazing social media graphics, it is...
The importance of Graphic Design in Digital Marketing
When it comes to digital marketing, design is an essential component. It enables businesses to more effectively communicate their message, differentiate their brand, and develop a powerful presence on the internet. Customers in today’s visually-driven culture are...
Consider These Nine Factors to Design a Great Logo
The reason your brain can identify a brand without seeing its name or any other identifier is because the logo attracts attention and has a favourable effect on individuals. It increases the market repute of your brand. A logo is an important component of a company...
How to Develop a Powerful Social Media Strategy
Every organisation can use social media marketing to boost brand recognition, consumer engagement, and revenue. Together, email marketing and social media make a marketing partnership that enables firms to optimise their reach in the digital era. To be effective on...
How To Find Your Signature Brand Style
Creating a remarkable brand that exemplifies your company’s values and increases consumer awareness, recognition, and trust is crucial if you want to make actual money and become a successful firm. So much goes into developing your ideal brand, but the first step is...
There are ten reasons why DIY logos are a lousy idea
You have an operational business. Now is the moment to distinguish yourself from your competition by establishing your own brand and voice among the noise of voices out there. Now is the moment for branding. Why not save money and do it yourself? Okay, quit now! Bad...
What To Do If Your Designer Doesn’t Get You
Logos, websites, digital and print advertisements, package designs, letterheads, and business cards are all examples of marketing collateral. Designers have a significant impact on the way you show yourself to the world. Regardless of the quality of your product or...
10 questions you should ask before writing your design brief
Your boss has just presented you with a fantastic concept for a new piece of collateral. What now? Where do you begin? Before starting any design job, do yourself and your designer a favour by answering the following ten questions. It will save time and money for your...
10 traits to look out for when searching for your design partner
When commissioning design, we all search for the top people in the field. Obtaining a competent graphic designer is not an exception. Everyone wants the most talented designer available to manage their design projects. However, it is not always simple to identify a...
Five questions to ask yourself before deciding on a final design
You have not taken the hiring of a professional designer lightly. Whether you’re a tiny or large firm, it’s often a considerable investment. While you engaged a professional for a reason and should trust their judgement, you want to ensure that the design you pay for...
What are the benefits of graphic design to business?
Graphic design combines photography, illustration, typography, and motion graphics to produce visually attractive pictures that catch the viewer’s attention, sell goods and services, and expand market opportunities. Graphic design, in other words, benefits your...
Tips for working with your designer.
It’s difficult to design anything from the ground up, particularly if you've never worked with a designer or design team before. Turning a concept into a brand is a time-consuming process that can’t be left entirely in the hands of designers; the customer must be...
Identifying a Good Idea
What is a creative solution, anyway? It’s a lot easier to say what it’s not. It’s not the blank face or shrugged shoulder of confusion. It’s not the latest computer technique, the latest specialty paper or the hottest illustrator. It’s not stolen from someone else’s...
Brainstorming – Part 2
Following on from my blog ‘Brainstorming – Part 1 from last week here is Part 2. The project file: Making a project file is the next best thing to carrying a sketchbook. This file folder is a catch-all for everything you have collected regarding a project. Of course,...
Brainstorming – Part 1
Brainstorming Alone Most often we are forced to create alone. This is the most difficult way to be creative. As one person, no matter where your ideas lead, you can only pursue the patch determined by one person’s experience and knowledge. Creative thinking is not...
Image Resolution Explained
The misunderstanding of image resolution is something I come across from time to time from my clients. Some people tend to have a basic understanding of this subject but let me try and put it in clear and simple terms to help. What do we mean by image resolution?...
The Ligature
Typography is known as an invisible art: if done correctly, the reader will never notice. One of the hallmarks of a well-designed typeface is the ligature. In its simplest terms, a ligature is two or more letters crafted into a single character to improve the...
Lining and Non-Lining Figures
Something you may not have noticed when reading your favourite book, magazine, journal or any piece of correctly typeset copy is the style of the numerals used within the text. As with most elements of professional typography and typesetting, the Devil is in the...
Are you selling to the right person?
Low level, operational staff are concerned with the functionality of products and services. Bosses, on the other hand, are concerned with strategic benefits or gains that they and their company derive from the products or services they buy. So who should you call? It...
Best practice for starting your branding project
When Reform is at the beginning stages of creating a new brand or evolving an existing brand we like to get everyone involved in the business. We feel it is important for all staff, not just the board of directors or the owner, to feel involved in the branding...
A History of Branding
Look into the history of branding and you'll soon discover it's a massive subject that goes back 5,000 years and more to the time of the ancient Babylonians. Fast-forward towards our own era, and you realise there were plenty of landmarks along the way. Although...
Why Should I Bother With SEO?
It?s no secret that the internet has changed absolutely everything in our lives. From the way we communicate, consume, learn and even love, the reach of the internet?s influence can be felt in all parts of society. In particular, the internet, and specifically search...
Vector vs Raster files
As a graphic designer I get asked ?What is the difference between a Vector file and a Raster file?? so I thought I would write a short article on the subject to try and explain. Vector: A vector file is usually generated by a drawing programme such as Adobe...
If in doubt reverse it out
?If in doubt reverse it out? is a saying used in the creative sector, but what does it mean? Some designers prefer content that is on a coloured background or reversed out of an image with the text in a lighter colour or white; however, some get it wrong. Using a...
The Skill of Justified Text
At Reform we pride ourselves on producing not only great ideas, but also ideas that are executed beautifully. One of the ways to ensure this happens is through carefully considered typography. One of the things we see many people getting wrong is justified text:...
The Graphic Design Lingo
Do you find yourself needing to work with a graphic designer for the first time? Perhaps you are a new business owner and need branding, website and stationery. Don't get stuck on the lingo. Every industry has its own language, to some degree, and graphic design is no...
A Bit About Colour Theory
The theory of colour has always fascinated me. Colour is the stuff of emotion, even of religion and magic. Not only our society but every society on earth today has a very large part of its communication driven by colour. While basic literacy is on the increase, the...
What is a logo?
Logos are signs, marks of identity designed for easy recognition. They are used by every kind of organisation in every part of the world, from international corporations to charities and from political parties to community groups and schools. Logos also identify...
How does colour work?
Ever wondered why colour, when printed, is never the same as viewed on screen? This is because the two viewing processes are different and use two separate colour models. Most of us expect a colour difference from the screen or device to the finished printed article....
How to write a creative brief for website design
Writing a brief can be a minefield. Get it wrong and you will not get the results you were hoping for from your web designer. Here are some headings that may help you start the brief you have been putting off for weeks. Fear of the blank page is real. Contact Name -...
How to write a creative brief to a Graphic Designer
If you are not a seasoned marketer or have never commissioned a graphic designer before, the thought of start writing a creative brief may fill you with dread. We hope this article helps you to reduce the fear of the blank page. The creative brief is an important...
The New SEO and What You Must Not Do Anymore
How your website gets found is always changing, as search engines adapt and evolve. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is not a fixed set of ways of doing things, and tactics that might have worked once may not continue to do so. Here?s a note of caution: not only can...
Are You Failing to Make the Most of Your Content?
The sexy word currently doing the rounds among many digital marketers is leverage. This means using the right tools to get content in front of an audience. The tools must be appropriate to the task, using different media to increase brand visibility. This means having...
Do You Understand the Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Tactics?
Do you know your marketing strategy from your marketing tactics, and is it important that you do? There are marketing activities you may carry out diligently and regularly, but these do not constitute a marketing strategy in themselves, even if you?ve thought them...
Is it Important to have a Cool Brand?
Coolness. It?s a very desirable quality. It confers a certain exclusivity on someone, or something, that feels natural, unforced. But can you strive to achieve coolness, can you work at it? If you?re a consumer then you can buy certain things to attempt to accumulate...
What Lessons Does Psychology Teach Design?
How do people react to design? Knowing this is one of the key parts of successful marketing and communication. Psychology is central to ensuring design is effective because it provides the neuroscientic insights necessary to working out what sort of responses visual...
10 Seconds to Win an Audience – Why Use Video Marketing?
Video engages in ways that other online forms of communication do not. It satisfies people's entertainment and information needs with an instant hit, and all indications are that it's set to keep growing in popularity. The prediction is that video will account for...
Reasons why Your Website MUST be Mobile-friendly in 2017
How does your website appear to you? Perhaps you?re looking at it on your office PC, or your laptop and you?re perfectly happy with it. But in the wider world, the majority of people now access websites on a mobile device. The plain fact is that in 2017 your site will...
Why WordPress Works Wonders for Websites
If you're either thinking of getting your first business website, or of refreshing your existing site, then WordPress is the ideal platform. There are two key elements to web design: what your site looks like and how it functions. You cannot accomplish one at the...
What Can You Do to Market Your Business?
Marketing can sound like quite a lofty activity, involving lots of resources and expert input, which may make it seem daunting, or even unreachable, for some smaller businesses. But it really doesn?t have to be. There are lots of things you can do to market yourself...
How Effective is Your Online Presence?
What does having an online presence mean to you? Do you have a website, maybe a regular newsletter? Do you post the occasional blog? Ask yourself, does this really add up to a marketing strategy? The first challenge, for many businesses, is to actually create an...
Why is Building Your Brand Crucial to Your Success?
Is a brand important? Is it just about choosing a name you like, knocking up a quick logo then applying it to your packaging, business card and letterhead? This is what you need to know: your brand can be absolutely crucial to the success of your business. It?s about...
How Can Your Referrals Become a Serious Marketing Asset?
Referrals are a great way of generating new business. Word of mouth and third party recommendations are powerful means of attracting customers, but you shouldn?t simply be relying on them to happen, even if the quality of what you can offer is undeniable. Referrals...
How Do You Choose the Right Social Media Channels?
Freedom of choice ? does this also mean having the freedom to fail? Businesses are presented with wide choice of social media channels but this can create issues, because, to be effective, the social media channel has to be the right one. Imagine choosing a social...
Why Do-It-Yourself Design Can Damage Your Brand
Everyone likes a trier, so the theory goes, but there is such a thing as trying too hard, and then finding yourself in a real mess. With issues to do with design and your brand, taking your own, idiosyncratic approach to it may have unforeseen, and undesirable,...
Rules for a Reason: Why Your Brand Needs Guidelines
Your brand is your business?s identity, it helps define what you stand for. It should encapsulate the values of your business and shape its personality, so that your customers, clients and prospects understand exactly who you are, and what you can do for them....
How Influential is Your Design?
Design thinking is about providing a full service to our clients, beyond the ?look? of something. When we talk about influential design, it?s not simply about whether our peers, or the intended audience likes it; it?s about how design works as part of a business...
What Will Make Your Design Authentic?
For a brand to be authentic is definitely seen as a desirable quality, because it suggests that it will help it make the connection with its target audience. Authenticity suggests truthfulness, a sense of being ?real?, of existing on the customer?s level. At the same...
In Uncertain Times, Is Marketing Discretionary or Essential?
We're a creative agency and we know that we're all living in uncertain times, following the winning Leave vote in the referendum, and with Brexit on the horizon, whatever form it eventually takes. Uncertainty makes people cautious, especially with money. Customers...
Taking Care of Business: How to Hold on to Your Prospects
Most of us lead busy lives and socially staying in touch with people is hard, so how much harder is it keeping the ball rolling when it?s your business prospects you should be looking after? Much as you have to attract and engage in the first place, there is also an...
How Can Good Design Add Value to Business?
Do you think of design as something that?s nice to have but, if push comes to shove, it?s not something you?re going to devote too much time and resources to? Many businesses simply see design as another expense, with a doubtful return on investment. But in fact, good...
Don’t Take That Tone With Me: What is Appropriate Design?
Imagine you're driving down a country lane and you see a handwritten, wooden sign that reads: Fresh farm eggs for sale, 50 yds. The sign appears quite crudely fashioned, but it is absolutely appropriate. It feels natural, wholesome and right for the task. However,...
Image Copyright: Free to Use or Free to Choose?
It?s tempting to see the internet as a big open box of Quality Street, just waiting for you to dip in, rummage about a bit, and make your choice. This is particularly true of online images, where many people seem blissfully unaware of copyright issues. In an age of...
Free Pitching: Value, Relationships and Design Agencies
For many design agencies, free pitching is something they only reluctantly get involved with, because it taints their professional standing and has a detrimental effect on their work. What?s Wrong With the Pitching Process? It?s understandable that in times of...
Choosing a Quality Design Agency: Don’t Just Rely On Rankings
Design is all about problem-solving, in a creative way. Design adds value to business and it's a crucial part of establishing a brand. One problem businesses encounter with designers, however, is knowing how to choose one who will meet their requirements. Top of the...
Things That Can Threaten Your Brand and How You Can Counter Them
As a branding company in Manchester, we know that there are many things that companies do, (mostly unwittingly) which can put their brand at risk. Drawing on our experience, we have pulled together a list of some of the top threats to brands and ideas for how to...
How Is Virtual Reality Affecting Design?
As a creative agency in Manchester, we are very aware of the rising popularity of virtual reality design. After all, the major players such as Apple, Google, Oculus, Facebook, Microsoft and Sony, are all jumping on board. But, what is virtual reality and how is it...
Our Design Trends Prediction for This Year
As a graphic design agency in Manchester we ensure that we pay very close attention to design trends - both online and offline. So, in this post, we have completed a quick roundup of what we consider to be the emerging graphic design trends of 2016. Usability This is...
Social Media Automisation – Are We Too Automated?
As a successful Digital Marketing Company in Manchester we often find ourselves strapped for time, much like many small business owners today. Multi-tasking is the way forward. With the ever increasing use of technology, we are now able to automate so many things ?...
Social Media – Does It Really Work?
As one of the leading creative agencies in Manchester we are well aware that there has been a huge buzz around social media over the last few years, especially as a digital marketing tool for small businesses. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that every...
The Importance of Keeping Your Brand Fresh and New
To truly understand the importance of evolving your brand, you first need to understand what a brand is and how customers identify with it. A brand is created through a name, logo and slogan which represents the product or service that a company or business offers. As...
What is Responsive Branding, and Should Your Business Consider It?
As a Graphic Design Agency in Manchester, Reform Creative are well used to hearing the adage that "consistency is the hallmark of quality." Many businesses believe that consistency in web page layouts, content and lettering reinforces their brand and should be an...
How to Successfully Use Video Marketing in Manchester
2016 is set to become the Year of Video Marketing, as a Creative Agency in Manchester, we are seeing more and more businesses trying to find new and inventive ways to reach customers using the power of video. Nowadays, video is such a popular medium, as it can help to...
Emotion Is Very Important in Web Design and Marketing
Today in the online world, many marketing campaigns and website designs are heavily influenced by SEO and the evolution of technology. Therefore it can be very easy to forget that great design is actually very closely tied to emotion. As graphic designers in...
Why Is It Important for Your Business to Have an Online Presence?
It is difficult to deny the huge developments in technology over the last few years; these days we spend much of our daily lives online. So, as follows, it is really important that your business has an online presence ? but what does online presence mean?...
How to Create an Online Presence in Your Local Area
The internet has grown and grown in recent years, and it is now more important than ever for businesses to have a presence online. More and more people are using the internet for both recreational and business purposes, and they can now access it from their tablets...
How Your Creative Agency Can Help You With Content
Content is a huge part of marketing at the moment ? and it is easy for us as a graphic design agency based in Manchester to see why. In recent years we have seen a massive growth in the amount of content out there, with more and more articles, white papers and blog...
What Makes A Creative Agency in Manchester Different From The Rest?
Traditionally it has always been thought that the flow of marketing talent has headed from The North (Manchester) to the South (London) but is this really the case? As a creative agency that was born and bred in Manchester we firmly believe that we are based in one of...
Our Top Leaflet Design Tips
As a graphic design agency in Manchester, we have over ten years? experience in leaflet design. We have had great results from all the leaflets we have designed because our designer's know how to design a leaflet that stands out from the crowd and creates the impact...
How Do We Refresh Our Creative Vision?
As a busy creative agency based in Manchester, we deal with all sorts of creative projects from logo design, to leaflet design, right up to website design. But how do we ensure that our creative vision stays fresh and fun, and that we don?t run out of ideas? Here are...
Everything You Need to Know About Googles ?Knowledge Vault?
Any good Digital Agency in Manchester will be able to tell you that up until now one of the most important factors of any website, according to Google, is the link profile. Google?s fact checker bots use the link profile of your website to assess both the quality of...
Google Algorithm Updates: What Your SEO Company Needs You To Know!
As you are probably aware, Google likes to keep digital marketers on their toes, by constantly updating their algorithms, changing the way they index their searches, and just generally refreshing everything. In the past couple of years, there have been some major...
What Should You Consider Before Briefing Your Logo Design Company?
Every single business out there has a logo, but not every business has a good logo! Obviously, a logo does not make your business successful on its own, but a good logo will contribute to your businesses success if it communicates the legitimacy of your business, by...
What’s so good about blogging for business?
As a Digital Agency in Manchester, Reform Creative knows how important blogging is for business and for SEO - but do you? Blogging can be shown to be one of the most valuable tools that businesses have, enabling them to easily engage with customers. Need more...
Corporate Identity ? What Can it do for your Business?
At the beginning of last year, it was estimated that there were over 5.2 million businesses in the UK alone. It is, therefore, essential that your business stands out from the crowd for you to achieve sales, profit and success. One of the main ways your business can...
Building successful relationships in B2B
Are you continually looking for new business from new prospects or do you secure regular repeat profitable business, referrals and testimonials from your existing clients? Do you spend more than 50% of your time in a meeting trying to sell, talking about yourself,...
Look out whilst reversing
Some designers prefer content that is on a coloured background or reversed out of an image with the text in a lighter colour or white, however, many get it wrong. Using a lighter text colour can make the page ?more interesting? or ?punchy? when done correctly but...
Eye tracking technology ? how it works and why it?s valuable
The use of eye tracking technology to analyse and improve user experience (UX) online, is something that?s always intrigued us. So we decided to do a bit of research into this subject to find out more. Eye tracking technology, put simply, measures eye activity. It...
Try a new pair of shoes
How do you know what your customers really want? Understanding the customer experience has always been the way forward but if you don?t know what that is and lack awareness of the customer journey then you are likely to lose out to your competitors. Your relationship...
You can?t expect me to read that!
Understanding of accessible print There are two million people in the UK with a sight problem. Some of your audience will be blind and partially sighted. Making information accessible Why should I make information accessible? Produce your information in a way that ALL...
lol – laugh out loud or lots of love?
Do you know your LOL from your OMG. These terms are well known but what is trending right now? Thanks to internetslang.com here are the top 10 most popular look ups today. VATO - "Dude (Mexican)" ONNA - "Oh No, Not Again" IMMD - "It Made My Day" TATA - "Goodbye" GOML...
How to be a good tweeter
Twitter, in my opinion, ?is the best social media platform when it comes to reaching like-minded individuals. It reaches over 250,000 times more people than its bigger rival, Facebook, when it comes to networking. Twitter is fast and friendly, and you can chat to...
Reform Published
Reform has ?been lucky enough to have two pieces?of ?work showcased?in this publication.?Hopefully?they will inspire others.?The published title is ?Graphic Design | 03 | Idea Generation? AVA Academia?s Basics Graphic design titles are designed to provide visual arts...
Influencing the B2B buying process
There is nothing, in my opinion, to beat that relationship between a B2B company and it?s loyal customers developed through face to face contact and nurturing; to ensure profitable, repeat business and referrals. However, b2b buyers are changing their approach to...
What is the difference between ‘a point’ and ‘a pica’?
Leading on from our blog post 'What is the difference between 'kerning' and 'leading'? We bring you the next instalment of design terms to help you bust through the jargon your designer may throw at you. Here are our next 10 terms. 1. point size = this is simply a...
What is the difference between ‘kerning’ and ‘leading’?
Graphic design has its own language and all too often you can find your commissioned designer failing to communicate clearly to you and your team. We can all be accused of using jargon from our own industry sector but when in front of clients it should be case of...
Christmas Cards – bah humbug!
Like them or loathe them, traditional or electronic most of us send a few cards to friends and family; but when did this tradition start and why? Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant in 1843, who later became the founding Director of the Victoria and Albert museum started...
What does your favourite colour say about you?
Max L?scher?s Colour Test?is merely the most famous of many colour personality tests. Its purpose is to relate colour to personality. Colour culture fact:?A Westerner would wear black to a funeral, but his Roman ancestors would have worn white. And the white of a...