creating educational infographics in photoshop

The internet is about media, and if you are an internet marketing company that doesn’t have a graphic designer on your team, you better start re-thinking strategies this year. Audio and video are the most engaging pieces of content on the internet, and businesses should be using them to push content across all forms of social media. But one of the most engaging and sharable pieces of content are infographics. Educational infographics that are of value to consumers and business are easy to share and can generate engagement from social media, and email campaigns. Understanding the importance of these infographics might entice you to make some of your own. So how do you do it, and what kind of infographics should you design for your business?

Figuring out what infographics are right for your business shouldn’t be very hard, but getting the actual piece of content made by an infographic expert or graphic designer might be the most significant barrier to entry for any business. For content, companies should be producing infographics that are related to their industry, infographics of value, that consumers or other companies can reference and get value out of.

BMW repair infographic for BMW owners

If you own an automotive repair shop, you should consider an infographic that showcases things to pay attention to if your tires are wearing down. Maybe you would want to make an infographic of all the warning lights that a vehicles dash assembly might have. Low tire pressure, bad batteries, low oil, low gas, transmission problems, and anything else that is normal for automobiles to showcase If you operate a Doctors office in Plano, Texas, you might want to share a seasonal infographic that showcases signs of allergies found in young children in the area. Some states have particular seasonal allergies that can impact a child’s health, creating a shareable diagram that highlights signs of these allergic reactions could become a very sharable piece of content.

If you don’t have an in-house graphic designer, or you have never created a graphic before, what program should you use? Well, the easy answer is PhotoShop, that is what we use here, and that is what this site is about. There are other options available, though if that learning curve is too much, or if the price of Adobes products is too high. You can also outsource your graphic design work, jump on Linkedin, and make connections with graphic designers, and it would take you no time to find a qualified graphics designer.

There is also the option to outsource your graphic design work to another marketing agency. I know of a digital marketing agency in Oklahoma that does everything from graphic design to app development. If the content is done right, it’s worth outsourcing to an agency that has experience doing this type of work. Not all infographics go viral, nor are they all shareable. So getting it done right the first time is a great way to get a jump on the new year, save money, and have others sharing your content for you.

Things to consider when outsourcing:

• What do you want this to look like
• What is your message
• Is there a call to action
• Is there contact information visible
• Is the content recent and relevant

social media infographics that go viral

Considering simple things like these few points we listed will save you time and money as you try to get a jump on getting ahead of your competition. Saving the designer time by providing them with accurate and concise information will make the job and relationship smoother. Graphics are an integral part of any internet marketing plan, they belong on websites, in videos, social media feeds, and everywhere that visual engagement is taking place. Imagery is easily shared on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and similar social networks.

Find a way to incorporate infographics and graphic design into your social media strategies today.

ad agency using iPad Sketch

Most marketing agencies that design logos understand the attention-grabbing value that a logo can bring to a business. Brand recognition may be name recollection, but it’s also a visual identification of a product. There are many marketing agencies out there that use tools like the iPad and software like Sketch for iPad to ink out designs for their clients. On the other hand, there are still designers using Photoshop (also an Adobe product) and laptop or desktop computers. If you are a designer, you have heard of Photoshop, and you know all the great reasons why investing in the adobe suite of design tools is an excellent option. However, if you are a marketing agency that is just starting to scratch the surface on graphic design and brand building, you need to understand how efficient these tools are. Not only will they save you time and money, but also so that you can get the most out of your software and design the best marketing media for your clients.

Logo Recognition

Anyone that has been alive for at least four years knows what the Nike swoosh logo is, such a simple, sleek, swoosh, and yet marketing genius. How can something so simple become such an iconic piece of sports branding? Nike has sponsored and been a part of so many fantastic sporting events, and you can’t get the infamous swoosh out of your mind. That is what we call logo recognition.

Nike marketing logo

Brand Recognition

If I asked my mom what GoDaddy was, she could tell me they are an internet company, and that’s about it. My sister, on the other hand, would say to you that GoDaddy is where you go to purchase domains. It’s a domain registrar. However, if I asked her what their logo was, she would not have a clue. The name has been marketed so much more than the logo, and the brand is recognized worldwide. They are a leading registrar and hosting solution. Godaddy has taken advantage of its position online and has become a leading marketing agency behind the scene. They also offer SEO services, web design, branding, hosting, and a slew of other marketing services.

Outsourcing Your Brand Building

There are Marketing agencies out there that specialize in web and logo design, and outsourcing your marketing design projects isn’t a bad idea. You could try an outsourcing platform like Fiverr or go with a marketing agency like Beyond Theory, which has a proven track record of building brands and making local businesses thrive. Upwork is also an option if either of those other suggestions doesn’t work.

building brand recognition for local businesses

Deciding On Software Vs. Outsourcing

If you are a marketing agency and you are still deciding on which direction to go, let us tell you that there are benefits to both. Having an in-house graphic designer will help you with web design, flyers, brochures, and any other design media you need for your marketing and advertising projects. When times are slow, though, you need to deal with the downtime, and that’s never fun, especially if your graphic designer doesn’t know any other skill sets. Finding a multi-talented graphic designer and web developer would be ideal, but if that’s not an option yet, you should consider outsourcing your projects.

Creating Marketing Flyers In Photoshop

design ideas for marketing flyers

Marketing flyers were once something that were designed and printed to hand out at events or be used as mailers. Marketing flyers have always been useful for promoting events and are still actively being used to market products and events and drive awareness in local markets. The effectiveness of these marketing flyers is dependent on the design work and how engaging the graphics and the call to action is. Creating flyers that people will take, read, and respond to is an art that has long been the work of experienced graphic designers. The call to action is often minimal, it might be a date, a phone number, or even a website address to visit. They can all be incorporated into the design of the flyer to give users multiple means of contact. Here is a step by step instructional for creating a basic flyer in Photoshop. While this version of Photoshop may be dated, it still applies to the newer versions and creative cloud. Recently we have sub contracted all of our design work for marketing to an agency in Oklahoma City called Beyond Theory. They have graphic designers on staff that specialize in the design of digital marketing flyers. These tutorials below are for the DIY marketing agency or individual that doesn’t outsource their graphic design.

 

Those steps in the video are a great foundation for building your first marketing flyer. There are going to be different menu options in this process depending on the version of Photoshop you are using. For the most part though, the deign process will remain the same from version to version. There are other opinions to the design process and the formatting of the flyer. None are wrong as long as they convert. Understanding your audience as with any other marketing channel will be important for the success of the campaign. Here is another perspective from a graphic designer for a simple flyer design in Photoshop CS6. While this version of Photoshop may be outdated, the concepts still apply and this video is still valuable to anyone wanting to learn how to create a flyer.

 

In that example we saw an example of a flyer that was designed more like a document and less like a flyer. While a flyer can be anything really, we consider them to be more of the mailer style that you would associate with a postcard. The example above is a great example from a graphic designer that has experience and insight in the marketing world. Designing marketing flyers for an agency can be a lucrative way to increase offers to existing clients looking to extend their reach to their audience.

Below we have a video from creative TV. They offer another perspective into the eye of the designer and give Photoshop artists som alternate perspectives in designing flyers for marketing. Watch the video below and leave any questions you have in the comments section so we can answer any design questions you may have. You can view more photoshop tutorials from our home page.

 

Creating A Bed bug Infestation Scene With Adobe Photoshop

picture of bed bug infestation

Many times during the post production process, still frames are edited and manipulated in Photoshop to enhance a scene. As our readers know, Photoshop is a well known image editing and creation software and not often associated with post production in film. One of our members was on a shoot for a project that took place in a run down hotel that looked similar to the Bates Motel. The production crew was able to stage most of the set to get the look and feel of the scene they were looking for. Some things were not in the budget to have live on set and had to be created using CGI and photoshopped frames. According to film producer Richard Ryan, the scene they were trying to capture was right out of a horror movie and took place in a run down motel room infested with roaches, bed bugs, and rats. Even though the motel had been abandoned for years, they had maintained the property to convert it into a tourists attraction. They didn’t have any animal handlers on staff to provide and manage any critters on set, so they turned to CGI and photoshop in post production to finish the scenes. The roaches and rats were done with CGI software and imported into the scene using Adobe Premier. Because of their size and rather immobile presence in the scene, the bed bugs were added in on a frame by frame basis using photoshop. Apparently the scene they created was so creepy that the viewers squirmed at the site of the bed bug infestation. The part in the movie had the main actor searching the room for a bag of stolen money that was hidden there. When the actor lifted up the mattress to reveal the money hidden under it he was encountered by a infestation of bed bugs swarming the stolen money. At that point he had to make the decision to either leave the money or reach into the swarm of bed bugs and retrieve the stolen cash. As any good criminal would do, the actor reaches for the money and immediately becomes covered in blood sucking bed bugs. After hearing screams inside from his partner in crime, his Jerry Curled partner rushes in to find his friend crawling with bed bugs. He runs back out to the car to retrieve a can of hair spray and a lighter, only to return and perform some bed bug infestation removal of his own. After raising the can and lighting his zippo lighter, the crazed partner turns the entire motel room into a blazing inferno, burning the cash, the bed bugs, and his criminal partner. The movie has had some laughable reviews, and should be considered a B movie at most upon it’s release. The point of this article was not to showcase the movie itself, but rather the idea that Photoshop can be used in film when editing single frames in post production. Our guess is that eventually Adobe Premier will adopt that technology and that editing process will take place right inside of the video editing application. If you do end catching the movie at a B-Movie Theatre, be carful that you aren’t attacked by bed bugs like this woman was in a Movie Theatre in Glendale, Arizona!!

 

The Over Photoshopped Health And Fitness Industry

Lately we have seen a ridiculous amount of Photoshopped fitness photos showing the before and after results of various supplements and workout programs. We have been reaching messages through our Facebook Group asking us to expose the frauds and show our users how to touch up fitness photos for their clients. Many of our users are web designers and internet marketers that use imagery to sell products and services, this means that you better be up to speed on your photoshop skills if you’re gonna be pumping out Instagram content for your fitness clients. There was a local gym that had a personal trainer that was being followed by about 10k people. The guy was a legitimate personal trainer, but the before and after pictures showcasing the results were clearly photoshopped. To the untrained eye you may not notice the details we do when examining images. The supplement industry and the health and fitness industry is saturated with unrealistic claims of natural gains and growth. If you have been around either industry long enough you know what we are talking about. Photoshop has literally made people millions of dollars from the artificial enhancements users can generate with images. There is a ton of skill involved here, this aren’t overnight Photoshop editors, these people are legit.

So how do you go about creating the perfect body in Photoshop? Here are a few video tutorials we found that you will find interesting. Take a look and try applying some of these techniques yourself.

Photoshop Fitness Photos Exposed

 

How To Create A Gritty Fitness Portrait

 

Touching Up Muscles In Photoshop

 

Here is a great example of a Photoshopped fitness picture.

photo shopped fitness modelfitness model

 

The problem we have with editors in this industry is that they are using Photoshop to create unrealistic expectations for young people. This causes people to create self-consumed complexes and can even cause depression among individuals trying to achieve the unachievable. If most people knew how heavily photoshopped the images on Instagram where they would never feel this way, but that is the world we are living in. People and brand use modified images to inflate value, inflate results and cause a sense of delusion among consumers.

While we wanted to share some Photoshop videos that showcased the artistry behind the touch up of Health and Fitness models, we are against the machine that uses them to promote products and services that are not capable of providing the implied results these images represent. Photoshop is an amazing tool, using it to fool people into buying your products so that you can maximize profits is absurd.

Next time your thumb scrubbing through your Facebook feed or Instagram account just think about these videos and the information shared here. Hopefully, it will allow you to take a deep breath and relax about your own body and circumstances. Just be healthy, exercise and diet properly! If you need help with your fitness goals you should contact a personal weight loss trainer

 

Cleaning Cars On A Digital Canvas

We had a client submit some material for us to make some flyers with. The flyers were going to advertise an upcoming classic car show. As we scrolled through the content that was submitted we quickly realized that the cars were lacking some shine. None of them had been cleaned prior to the pictures being taken, and none of them looked worthy of being plastered on the front of an advertising flyer. Now whoever took those pictures should have gotten some car detailing tips from these guys, because it was obvious that the vehicle had not been detailed prior to the pictures being taken. So that leaves us with the question, how do we fix this in post production? How do we quickly take pictures of cars that don’t sparkle and give them that Photoshop makeover so they are ready to advertise and promote the events the customer wants them too? Well, there are some very simple photos techniques that can be used to add detail to a car photo, and there are tools to mask blemishes and remove unwanted dents and background noise. Most of these processes are universal across photoshop, but with a car there are a few quick and easy things you can do and I am going to let Scott Kelby take the wheel on this one. I was browsing through youtube videos to see what the other guys were doing that had a little more Photoshop experience with cars than I do and I came across his blog that featured this great video. Take a look at the video, and leave Scott a comment if you find his video to be valuable for you and your project.

 

If you enjoyed the video and found it to be helpful, be sure to jump on over to Scotts channel to like and subscribe to his channel. There are many other great Photoshop tutorials online and here at Photoshoptutorials.us . If you need something that you can’t find on the site just message us and we will either create it for you or find some content that has already been created that you can use as a learning resource. Thank you for visiting our site.

Creating A Logo For A Barbershop

old school barber shop Denver

There has been a recent surge in barbershops opening around Denver Colorado and we have taken notice of these powerful logos making a statement online. Most of our clients come to us requesting something elaborate, however, our graphic designers would opt for a more simple design like this logo from Frank’s if they had the opportunity to create a logo for a barber shop. When I think of  a barber shop I think of clippers, razors, chairs, top hats, beards, and an old school four chair shop in the city. The new shops that are surfacing around Denver appear to be adopting the old school barber shop look and feel. Some of them are offering drinks and cigars and making the experience more of a gentlemen’s experience. So what makes a logo work for something like a gentlemen’s barbershop? In my opinion simplicity is always best, and what Frank’s Barbershop in Denver did is the perfect example. The services offered from shop to shop are pretty universal, hair cuts, beard trimmings, straight razor shavings, and other male grooming services that will differ depending on the guys behind the chairs. Franks is considered the best barber shop in Denver, and this logo that was most likely designed using Photoshop is representing them well, just check the windows on the building where it is proudly displayed.

Creating The Franks Barbershop Denver Logo

As a graphic designer, I am curious what went into the design process from the artists perspective. We have to imagine that there were design concepts that were conceptualized and submitted by the marketing team or direct from the owners. It could have been an exact match of what we see, or it could have had some additional aspects to it that we are unaware of. However this logo came to be, both the graphic artist behind the design and the ownership that approved of it should be applauded for their decision making. The logo is simple, yet elegant, and screams sophistication from an era that has long past. The days when gentlemen roamed the sidewalks of downtown Denver with top hats, pin stripe suits, and were polite to the ladies that walked by. This logo design reminds me of that era, and when I visited the website and had a look at the interior, the vision was complete. Personally, I’m not sure if they could have conceptualized a logo that could have made a statement any better than this one does. It tells a story, it’s simple, but yet very complex and compelling.

Creating designs like this using Photoshop is quite simple. There are third party plugins that allow you to take pictures and filter them into silhouettes. There is also the option to draw these types of logos out by hand using a sketch pad. If I were to design a very simple mustache that I thought would represent the demographic Franks was wanting to target, I’m not sure I would have done anything different. The execution is perfect, simple design, and a clear message. Something like this could be designed with some of the basic features in Photoshop to create it and exported it with a transparent background as a .png file. They have been using the logo in all their print and media both online and offline.

Simple Logos Big Results

Sometimes simplicity is best, both for you as a Photoshop designer, but also for the client that hired you. Often then perception of a complicated logo design is what many business owners have in mind when reaching out to a graphic designer for work. It’s always easier to make adjustments when your logo design is simple. I think simple designs also tend to get remembered more than complicated designs. The brain just processes them better. This is a good example of a very simple design that has been effective for a business. These simple logos also print very well on things like leather aprons and leather barber rolls for tools.