So You Wanna Be A Rock 'N Roll Star!

Professional Graphics At Any Budget
a crucial part of effective promotion!
by Carolyn Ballen (www.IndieMusicForum.com) and Anne Ballen Ladenson, Disc Makers, VP of Graphic Services (aballen@discmakers.com)

Graphics are a crucial part of effective promotion! Very often you will be judged based on what your materials look like as much as the content that is within them. Like it or not, your graphics can be the difference between getting you're your materials read or your CD played.

It's important to realize that virtually any type of promotion you do will require graphics, and you can create effective professional design no matter how much (or how little) you've got to spend. They key is to be consistent and make your $$$ work!

Don't forget: Make sure that all of your materials include contact/booking and Web site information!

The very first step to graphical consistency is your logo. It should be an image that is recognizable, distinctive and most importantly easy to read. Your logo and band name should be able to stand out from a distance. This is an element that you will use on all of the materials that you create. Consider hiring a professional designer to do your logo, even if this is the only thing you use a designer for. You'll then have a great graphical element that you can use for everything else you do even if you don't bring in a designer.

Remember that materials don't have to be “slick” to get the job done, but they do have to be consistent and distinctive in a way that say's: Your Band. You're goal should be that people say, “Look, it's Band X. Let's see what they're up to.” This feeling can be based either on the logo, layout, color scheme, type of artwork, or all of these combined.

Don't forget: Ideas can come from anywhere at any time. Keep your eyes open to graphical elements that surround you everywhere you go. Get inspiration and ideas from what you see.

Without a designer, you will be using text/fonts to create a consistent image. This can be done with text treatments alone. Most computers come standard with a font that consists of graphical images as apposed to letters. The most common would be “wingdings” or something of that nature. If you use any of these symbols make sure you don't make your materials too busy. I'd suggest picking only one symbol if you decide to use any at all. They can be used at the beginnings of your paragraphs, or around your heading. Again, don't let your materials start to look too busy.

You can create your own logo (even if it's only temorary) by picking a font that you like and printing it at the top of all your materials. You can also apply effects to the logo text such as making it Italic, Bold, All Caps or a host of other treatments. Many very prominent logos are just text. (Sony, MicroSoft, Xerox, Compaq, FileMaker, Saks Fifth Avenue)

Below your logo, you can then use the same font or pick something complimentary for the rest of the text. I would recommend only using one font size (two at the most) for your text; again this is part of the consistency of your materials.

Another idea to consider is getting letterhead and business cards made. Without a designer, you can create something with the help of some online printing companies that have graphical templates set up for you to use. (www.iprint.com) You can also visit your neighborhood Kinko's and they will help you get something set up and printed very cheaply!

Don't forget: Always proofread your materials and if you can get someone else to look them over. When your working closely on a project, you may overlook a mistake that fresh eyes would catch.

As soon as you possibly can, it's well worth your while to get a professional designer to establish your base “identity” for you. Depending on your budget, this might just be a logo and some suggestions.

Consider getting letterhead & business cards designed. This would combine your logo and your contact information as well as any other graphic elements that you choose to include. Just make sure that there are no graphic elements that will interfere with printing and readability.

Once you have letterhead created with your logo and contact information. You can then use it for all the materials in your press kit by easily printing from your home printer. Again, this creates a strong consistency for your materials as well as providing a fail-safe way to make sure that all your contact information is included with everything you send out.

Don't forget: Double check dates against a calendar to make sure that the day and date match up. Double check phone numbers by calling them. Double check spelling by laying out your text in a word processing program that has spell check.

Take my word for it – you need a real designer. Do not just “learn Pagemaker” and assume that your materials will be ok. They won't. Here are a few options to consider.

Medium-cost option: free-lance designer specializing in music industry (there are lots of these folks floating around, particularly in larger cities.

Don't forget: Regardless of which cost option you choose, make sure you look at lots of samples of their work – pick someone you're completely comfortable with. Start with one small project and see how it goes before committing to a long-term relationship.

For materials that won't work on letterhead, such as gig posters, club cards, flyers or postcards, you could have a designer creates templates of an eye catching layout. With these in place for your standard materials and a little instruction by the designer, someone in the band can easily update the templates.

This can be done on the cheap using your distinctive fonts and simple layout options. It all depends on your budget. Simple layout options could be simply having the text left justified instead of right, or centering the text. Consider putting a bullet in front of each gig, or bolding something that you want to stand out.

Once you have a layout, you'd be surprised how cheaply you can make your materials.

The trick to saving money on printing is to find the right printer for every job. For example, you can get 500 4/1 postcards for $95 if you go to Modern Postcard. Most other printers will charge over $500 for the same service. The reason that Modern Postcard is the right printer for the job is that they specialize in postcards. They have postcard jobs coming in every day, and they can put 18 postcards together on one sheet of paper to get good use out of their big presses. Every printer specializes in something; find the one in your area who specializes in what you need.

You'll need to decide how to print based on your quality requirements, turnaround time, and quantity. Usually, when people talk about “printing”, they mean offset printing on large printing presses. But today, printing can be just a few copies on a color inkjet, or a couple hundred on a high quality digital press. For short runs (less than 300-500), you'll almost certainly want to do some type of laser printing or digital printing. At this quantity, unless you really need the best quality, offset printing may be prohibitively expensive, because of the amount of work involved in setting up each job for this type of technology.

If you plan to do a lot of flyers and posters in small quantities, it might be a good idea to invest in a low cost home printer and buy paper. Hammermill fluorescents stand out really well and the inkjet printers from Epson offer excellent value and reasonable quality. Prices start below $300! The more expensive models will print much more quickly, but you may not need that.

For slightly longer, but still short print runs (50-200), shop around at Kinko's, Staples, and other “Quick Print” shops in your area. Get prices for blank-and-white and color copying, as well as for black-and-white and color laser printing. Savings can add up by using the cheapest one for each task.

For professional offset printing, I can personally recommend the following printers:

Posters:
Disc Makers offers 300 full color posters for $99 when you make CDs. This is one of the best offers around! Otherwise, count on spending at least $500 for 500 posters.

CD inserts, j-cards, and other music packaging:
Disc Makers (www.discmakers.com/audio)
Ross Ellis (www.rossellisprinting.com)
Golden Rule (www.GoldRule.com)

Stickers:
Many local quick copy shops will sell you stickers that they buy through a wholesaler called Short Run Labels/Label Art who does an enormous volute. This is a great company, but they won't work with you directly; find a reseller near you.

Stickers are great. They're versatile and cheap and they can turn standard office supplies into your customized stationery. Plus, they are a cheap giveaway! Prices start around $50 for a thousand.

By using four standard colors – cyan (blue), magenta, yellow and black and varying the percentages of each, you can simulate most colors. This is how magazines and most other color pieces are printed. Because of the amount of set-up involved, you would only use this printing method for 300, 500, or 1000+ print runs.

This used to be considerable more affordable as a color option, but as press (and particularly pre-press) technology has improved, full color is frequently more cost-effective, particularly since many jobs can be ganged together in one run. 2/C can be a striking look, through, in a world where everything is in blazing color. You can print something that looks 2/C in 4/C process.

This means the printing will be in black ink only, but don't forget that also means all shades of gray. You can make b&w printing more lively by printing on any color paper you like. This is a great way to get bang for your buck.

You don't need to follow the rigid guidelines of your “image” for your CD. After all, then every one of your albums would look the same. You may want your CDs to share some core elements, but make sure each album project has a unique graphic touch to bring out its distinctive musical flavor.