FLYER LAYOUT AND DESIGN *Project Over*

[ClayEvoy]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 5900050)

Hello all!!

$100.00 prize. I am hoping we can get this done quickly I am putting a deadline of three days... May 19, 2004.

What I am looking for is a general layout (nothing too complicated) that I can use for a series of flyers I have.

The flyers are used to advertise my services and prices. In the past I have had simple ones that were mostly text. What I am looking for is to make it look more professional and crisp.

The winner of this contest will need to incorporate the information for each of the 4 flyers into the winning design and provide me with 4 seperate files. I am going to create a temporary website so that you can see the text, I would like used.

I don't have a way of zipping the logos that I would like used... if I put them on the website too would that work?

Color scheme - please use a similar red to my company logo. - Complementing colors I will leave up to you. I have budgeted printing of full color.

Size I want to keep printing costs down as low as possible, so I am not interested in bleeds. I like the size of my previous flyers, approximately 5.25" X 8.0" (sorry don't know what the metric equivalent is) They were printed on standard 8.5 x11 paper on a laser printer and trimmed down.

Format should be in illustrator

As I do not want bleeds I would like the image to have a border of somekind.

If you have pictures that you feel would increase the professionalism of the flyer feel free to try them out, but it is not necessary to include images other that the logos I have on the temporary website.

As well I am in the process of redoing my entire website so please don't use any information from it.

The temporary website is www.cityscapesecurity.com/temporary.htm

If you have any questions feel free to ask... I will be checking in regularly and should be able to aswer any questions fairly quickly.


Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Before anyone gets started on this can you let me know if you are working on something. As soon as I see one that what I am looking for I will choose a winner. But I want to make sure that if anyone is working on something they have time to submit it. So if I see a submission that I like and nobody else mentions that they are entering the contest I will declare a winner. Does that sound fair? If not please let me know... don't want to be an #@% ;)

Again I am not looking at anything too complicated so don't plan on putting to much time into this contest.

Cheers
Clayton :D

[MOZ]

Hello
Here's a couple of ideas from MOZ

The 1st one show what each layout could be - open space for product picture
The 2nd one combines all!

please let me know

[Carl]

Clayton,

I would like to enter, but can't do it until Tuesday evening.

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Moz,

Thank you for your entry, hadn't really thought of laying it out in this way... I had in my mind a vertical layout rather than a horizontal one... let me consider this a bit more

I get almost half of my business from people that visit my website so I have been making it a habit that on everything that print up, I try and make the website address promenant. Is there anyway you can get the website address to stand out more.

A couple things in the text should be changed too... Where it says " For more information or questions call" can you change this to just "For more information, call:"

On the first one can you change the top part where it says Commercial Alarm System to the same as you have on the second one... and it shoud read Alarm Monitoring not Alarm System though.

I keep thinking that I would like to see this same design flipped to the vertical... Not sure how much work that would be, but I would be interested in seeing what it looks like. I have a problem trying to find good images of the product... even the ones from the manufaturer don't seem that great. I will keep looking...

BTW all three of them use the same product, it is just how it is installed that makes the difference.

I'm sorry I can't give you more feedback than this... overall it works just trying to figure out how I can get it to work the best.

Thanks again for your entry.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl

Sure I will wait for you.. no problem

Thanks for letting me know you are interested in submitting something. :)

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Is anyone else besides Cadii and Moz going to enter? I was hoping to get a few people working on this...

[Pawel]

I didnt know if you want 2 colors or more, sorry
Here's the black/red version.

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Deplex Thank you for your entry.

I like the way that you displayed the product information. Not sure if I like the curve at the top... It looks a lot like my previous flyer... I think this is why I am a little hesitant about it, because I do like the overall look.

I have added my previous flyer to the temporary website so you all call see what I used to use. I would like to step away from this design and have more of a professional clean looking flyer. Less artsy looking if you know what I mean.

I like the overal feel of MOZ's design.

One thing that I have notice, both Deplex and MOZ have made my company logo the most prominent item on the flyer. I would like to have my logo second to the product information. So that the first thing people see when looking at the flyer is the product then they will see my logo and contact information. As well I would really like my website address to stand out as much as possible.

I know I mentioned to use the red in the logo, but I am hoping to see some designs that use complementing colors (not just black). I don't mind black for the text but I would like to try and stay away from using just red and black. Perhaps if we add a third color.

I think that maybe I am rushing this contest... I am in a rush to get the flyers printed but I think that I might extend the deadline so as not to scare potential designers away.

If anyone is interested in this contest, but can't get anything in before thursday can you let me know I will look at extending the deadline if there are people interested.

[AlexKogan]

me, I'm interested :)

[ClayEvoy]

Ok... I am going to extend the deadline to Sunday Night ... Unfortunatly I cannot extend it past that because I need the flyers printed next week.

Hope that gives everyone some breething room :D

Clayton

[Pawel]

Thank you for your feedback, I didnt even know how your old one looked like :)
What a coincidence. If I knew how the previous one looked I woudnt have chosen to execute my design in this particular way.
I'll be submitting another one soon.
Thank you

[ClayEvoy]

Ok I finally found a couple pictures that can be used with the flyers advertising the alarm systems (ie Commercial Alarm Systems, Prewired Residential Alarm system, and Residential Alarm System) Could be used for the Monitoring flyer as well I guess.

They are all on the temporary website... www.cityscapesecurity.com/temporary.htm

Let me know if anyone has any questions.:rolleyes:

Thanks

Clayton

[MOZ]

Hi Clayton
Up to my eyes in car ads at the momement will get back on yours in the AM
Do you like it with all items on one card or just perfect the single item layout>
Verticle only? Will play up your earlier ideas too

[ClayEvoy]

MOZ,

I like how you put all on one... but I don't see myself using it right now... gives me ideas for a newspaper add though (future contest or possibly private deal with the winner)

So just perfect the single adds. Doesn't have to be vertical... you kind of broadened my view with the horizontal layout.

I am not sure if you noticed or not but I got the impression I was rushing this contest so I have extended the deadline until sunday night. So no rush, I am going to be out of the office most of the day tomorrow, as well. Probably from 10am to 4pm Pacific time.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Deplex

Sorry I didn't see your last post.

I am actually feeling kinda bad that I neglected to post that flyer. Sorry that you did that work for nothing.

It was quite a coincidence though wasn't it

Sorry about that.

Clayton

[Carl]

Clayton,

I am taking full advantage of the full-color process with my design.

I didn't do all four because I want to make sure that I am heading down the right path with the first design.

If you like the way it looks, I can do all four in the same way.

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

That looks really good! :tup:

Can't even offer any constructive critisism right now. I will sleep on it tonight, but the over all layout is great.

You are definetely going down the right path.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

Ok I slept on it. The only things that I can see about it is that the company logo seems out of place being the only thing that is red, I think it would look better being the same burgandy color as your outline. The other thing is that I wouldn't mind seing the "Are you paying" and "+GST/Month" in black.

You don't have to make these changes if you are busy, I think I have a good feel for how it would look with them done. I may even be able to make the color changes to the logo on my end.

I really like the overall layout... good work

I am going to be out of the office most of the day, so I will not be able to get back to anyone until this afternoon.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Where did everyone go :unsure: I thought I would have an entry or two when I got back in this evening. No posts at all today :(

I know there was a couple people working on things, can you let me know when you expect to put entries in.

Thanks
Clayton

[Carl]

Clayton,

I will update my entry for you soon. I am working on some other things that I have to get finished.

I haven't forgotten about you!

*Edit* Revision below:

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Carl,

Thanks for making those changes... looks better, I have had a bit of free time to look at it better, and would like to see some other revisions if you don't mind ;)

They are:

I don't seem to be that extatic about the pink color in the center box... not sure what would look better but I am not really a fan of the pink... .perhaps white might even work (not sure though) Can you try a couple colors in here.

I would like to see the price be similar in size to the font at the top, whether this means shrinking the font at the top and meeting half way, or increasing the price's font I am not sure, probably either would work. I will leave that up to you.

Is there any way we can add "For more information" above the website address, and increase the size a bit of the tel #'s.

Other than these things I really like the overall layout, definetly the top contender so far. Not to say that I don't still like MOZ's design though, it is a total different layout and looks nice and clean.

Hopefully some others will enter in the next few days. I always find that the more I see the more I know what I do and don't want.

Thanks
Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Carl,

Sorry I was just looking at your entry again, I don't know what I was thinking the price would look out of place if it was comparable in size to the "are you paying too much" , I would however like to see it a little larger (not much though) and the +GST/MONTH could be reduced to allow for the increase in size.

Clayton

[Carl]

Clayton,

I will work on your revisions tonight.

I will also see if I have another idea in my head and put it down for comparison sake.

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Look forward to seeing it Carl,

Clayton

[Anne]

Hi Clayton.

Here is an entry from me.

Looking forward to your feedback
Anne

[DesignGeneral]

I'll have something tomorrow morning :)

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne,

Thank you for your submission.

First things first I LOVE the way you used my rooftops along the bottom. Unfotunately the rest of it seems a little too simple. To much white, perhaps if you moved things around a little bit and increased the size.

Something like this: if you raised the rooftops a little and took out the tel#'s and replaced it with my website address, so that it spanned 3/4 of the width in white font) Increase the Center section where you have the Alarm Monitoring info (have this almost take up the whole width but allowing for some white space around it.(increase the font in this sectioon too) Move the "For a free quote, call: ..." to just under the alarm info section but have For a free quote then under it the numbers (increased in size). Not sure what to do with " Are you paying to much?" I don't really like the increased "?" can you keep this the same as the fonts, maybe play around with sizes and positioning. I like how Cadii (CARL) used different sizes for this... I am sure you don't want to copy him though. and lastly can you have my logo floating by itself at the top middle rather than of to the left with a continuation of the line.

Sorry if that sounds like I am changing everything.. .truth is that I can see some nice potential and that is why I tried to describe my vision of it. Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Look forward to seeing your entry DesignGeneral!

[Anne]

I've worked on another one before I read you feedback.

[Anne]

Here is another one

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne, so you can see what I have in mind for revisions to yours I quickly made the changes on my cheep (stress cheep) graphics program

Don't laugh at the roughness to it ok.:lol:

I thought it might be easier to show you then try and explain myself... sometimes I have trouble doing that :rolleyes:

I am not sure about the black text on the dark red background, it doesn't seem to stand out very well, at least not on my monitor. As well you had put "Includes: 24/7" I removed the 24/7 but can you put it back in front of the "Service Plan"

Hope this helps

For some reason it will not let me upload the jpeg back onto here.... strange considering it was a jpeg you posted... oh well I will attach it to my temporary website ok.

Clayton

[Anne]

I am not laughing :D :D :D

Thank you for the feedback

Here are the changes. I also chenged the black text to white so you can see if that works better.

Anne

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne,

That looks better with the white text. The only thing is that you put the picture of the motion detector rather than the keypad. The keypad is the other one with the blue around it (rectangular item)

Lets hold on this, if you have any other ideas and the time feel free to try them out.

We'll wait and see what others will come up with.

Thanks
Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne,

Just wondering one thing, would it be hard to increase my company logo size so that it was the same width as the box with the information in it?

I am hoping that the information for the other three flyers will fit into the box. I am thinking it might need to be increased a bit for them. Maybe you could decrease the "Are you paying too much?" to allow room.

My idea was to have the same layout for all four and only have to adjust the text...

I really love how you worked the roof tops into this... Excellent work!


Oh one change to the text of the "Commercial Flyer" I have decided to reduce the price from $249.00 to $199.00

[Carl]

Clayton,

Here is a revision with the pink removed , text sizes changed slightly for price.

Carl...

[Carl]

And my new idea.

Very bold.

Carl...

[Pawel]

My new entry is coming later today
Nice job on the last one Carl

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

Thanks for the revision, looks good.

For your new submission, can you try the red section with the logo on the top and shift the rest down...

The bottom section with the website can you make that burgandy....

So it would go:

red w white logo
yellow "are you..."
red product info
yellow - contact info
red - website address

Looks like this contest is going to be a hard one to choose... Nice work!

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Deplex

Look forward to seeing our entry. :)

[ClayEvoy]

Something for everyone to keep in mind... The monitoring flyer is directed to people that already have alarm systems and are monitored by another company. The other 3 flyers are directed to people looking to purchase a new alarm system. I don't think that the quote " are you paying too much?" will be relevant in this situation as they haven't paid anything yet" Maybe I can come up with another quote to take it's place... **** now my brain has to work :lol: wasn't prepared for that :D

I will get you all something by the morning... I always think myself to sleep anyway :blink:

[ClayEvoy]

OK think I got something already... for the other three flyers (Commercial,Prewired, & Residential) instead of "are you paying too much?" we will use " No long-term contract!"

FYI...My industry is flooded with people offering a free alarm system if you sign a 3-5 year contract at inflated monitoring rates... I promote my business to offer extremely low prices for people to purchase the alarm system outright and then offer monitoring at a reduced rate and on a month to month bases. I am going against what the industry is offering and I seem to be finding quite a nitch. Plus I am of the belief that a business is built by exceptional customer service.

[MOZ]

How about
HOW MUCH IS YOUR SECURITY WORTH?

I'm still in this ....just been swamped with car ads this week!

[Carl]

Clayton,

Thanks for the feedback.

I am happy to make the revisions for you.

I do want to tell you my reasoning designing them the way that I did.

Generally speaking I have found it less effective, especially in a small space, to use a logo as the opening line of an ad or flyer, unless your company name is McDonald's or Nike. :)

Your logo is important as an identity for your company, but it will not give people a reason to read forward. The most prominent area of an ad or flyer has to grab attention. There is nothing wrong with your logo, but people may not feel compelled to read further.

Imagine this scenario - someone has an alarm company already, you send them a flyer - they read it - starting at the top - "Cityscape Securit....we already have an alarm company" - toss it in the trash.

Now, a bold headline, (and your's is great, by the way!) - customer picks up flyer - they read it - "Are you paying too much?" - Response - "Darn right I am paying too much! - You've hooked them and they don't even know what you are providing - Effective marketing!

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

Thank you for the explanation, makes sense to me now. I never thought of it that way.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

MOZ

Sorry I didn't see your post... I was trying to come up with a condensed tag line so it was more of a chance someone would read the whole thing...

That works as well.... does anyone else have any ideas for a tag line for the purchase of the various alarm systems?

Carl made a lot of sense in his last post, and has me thinking that I should have a good tag line for the other three flyers as well... :unsure:

The "No long term contracts " would work for someone considering signing up with one of these other companies, but for someone that is on the fence and hasn't looked into purchasing one yet, it wouldn't make much sense to.

Now I have to think again... :angry: :)

How about something like..." Security just got affordable!" :unsure:

Anyone watching this contest... please feel free to add your opinion. Sometimes it is hard to think as a the customer, outside opinions always help put things in perspective.

Thanks
Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

I have been giving the tag line a bit more thought, and I personally feel that a question makes people think more... what is everyone else's opinion.

MOZ's suggestion is sounding good... "How much is your security worth?" or perhaps " What is your security worth?"

I was just reflecting... when I posted this contest I was thinking that I would get something really simple, but ever since the first entry it has been obvious that my expectations are going to be shattered.

As usual I am extremly impressed by the abundance of talent here, not to mention the friendly atmosphere. :tup: This is going to be a hard one to pick a favorite.

[Anne]

I moved the text etc. around a little bit to get more room for more text so here is an entry for flyer 2 to see how it will look. Also added a little blue.

Ohh I just noticed that I forgot some of the text. I think that the way it is no that the logo take up to much space ....

Anne

[Anne]

Here is another idea.

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne,

Just got in... hmmm... I will have to think about the changes you made. I think the last one is kind of going in the wrong direction. I agree that the logo looked better smaller.

I will get back to you a little later tonight with a bit better of a response to your latest entries... it has been a long day and I am starving.

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Anne

I have had a chance to look at you last two submissions and I like the one right before them the best. You are right the logo looks better smaller. If I choose yours I think the only difference is that for the other three flyers they will use the size of information box you had in your second to last entry.

To everyone else, you have two days left to get entries and submission in, Sunday afternoon I will decide a winner. My hope is that it will give me time to get the final files from the winner for tuesday/wednesday. I need to get these back from the printer for next weekend.

I will be in and out tomorrow, so if you can get me your entries tonight or first thing tomorrow it will give me time to give feedback and in turn time for revisions.

Thank you,

Clayton

[Carl]

Clayton,

I wanted you to see what my second flyer would look like with new information and a new tagline.

Carl...

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

Looks good, not sure about the tag line though... trying to come up with one seems to be hard. If I go with yours there will be minor changes to the words used but that is it. The overall layout if great.

Can you try it with this tag line " What is your security worth?" or "Security just got Affordable!"

Thanks
Clayton

[Carl]

Tag One:

[Carl]

Tag Two:

[ClayEvoy]

Hi Carl,

I like the one with "What is your Security Worth?"

I will not ask for anymore revisions :) If I choose yours however I will just need to finalize the wording for each of the flyers, it will be minor stuff.

I hope that the others that said they are working on things end up submitting them so we are waiting to sunday for nothing.

MOZ, Deplex, DesignGeneral can you let me know if you are still planning on putting in a new design :unsure:

Thanks
Clayton

[MOZ]

YES!!!!! By late tonight early AM sorry I've just been swamped!

MOZ

[ClayEvoy]

No problem MOZ

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't making the other designers wait for some designs that weren't coming.

Look forward to seeing yours!

Thanks for letting me know

Clayton

[MOZ]

Here you go Clayton
Sorry for dropping the ball, But I had newspaper deadlines to meet
This isn't exactly what I wanted, but it's the best I can come up with at the moment
please let me know what you think. On the original idea that I gave you with all systems, that would make a great phonebook ad for you too.

[ClayEvoy]

Hi MOZ,

Thanks for the entry,

Check out the temporary website for revisions to the latest one. As well can you shrink the price by about 1/4 and put underneath it "24Hour Monitoring available" "only $18.95 +GST / Month"

I like this add better than your first... but you are right the first add would look good in a telephone book or newspaper add... can you hold on to that one? I may contact you later to purchase it from you.

Thanks
Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

MOZ that layout looks like it would work well with the last three flyers, but do you have an idea of how to put the information for the first "Alarm Monitoring" flyer?

Clayton

[ClayEvoy]

MOZ ...Just incase you miss them the info on your last entry is at the bottom of page 4 of this thread.

[ClayEvoy]

Hello all,

Since I have not heard back from DesignGeneral or Deplex as to whether they still plan on entering or not I have decided that I am going to make a decision tonight when I get home... anyone wanting to put in a last minute entry or revisions please do so by tonight.

For MOZ, Anne, and Cadii it is a close contest between all three of you. You all have brought interesting ideas to the contest and without a doubt I am going to get a far better flyer than I expected. Thank you for all your hard work.

FYI keep an eye out, in June sometime I will be back to do a tri-fold brochure (full color and double sided with bleeds). I hope that the three of you will be interested in giving that competition a run... I am thinking of running the contest from june 15th to 30th. I have to try and find some suitable stock photos and confirm what text I want to use.

Back to this contest, I will make my decision quite late tonight, probably around 10 or 11 pm PT.

Again thank you for your hard work! :tup:

Clayton

[MOZ]

OK Clayton
Here comes your flyers!

please let me know :tup:


1 of 4

[MOZ]

#2 of 4

[MOZ]

#3 of 4

[MOZ]

#4 of 4
The fat man has sung :tup:

[ClayEvoy]

HI MOZ

I am just heading out so I have to make this brief.

A couple things I cannot use CANASA's logo if it is broken up like that. ;) My company logo looks like an after thought with the white in between the red while surrounded by black... this is why I was suggesting we made the contact area white... to try and tie it in the comopany logo in and it also would make the contact information clearer.

Other than these things everything else seems to tie in nicely. I like the layout : :D

Thanks

Clayton

[MOZ]

All can be fixed. However due to time restraints I prefer waiting to see if I win
Hope you don't mind.

MOZ

[ClayEvoy]

Hi MOZ,

No I don't mind at all. I can picture what it would look like anyways. Sorry should have said that in my last email.

Clayton

[Pawel]

I've been busy with other things, I might still submit my entry, will give you the final answer @ 9.00 pm EST. Sorry Clayton.
Thank you

[Pawel]

Sorry, I wont be able to manage.
Good luck guys/gals

[ClayEvoy]

Ok I am a litle early, but I have made a decision. The winner is Cadii (Carl) for your last design! :D

The contest was quite close, and I had a really hard time making my final decision

Anne, I really like the overal layout and uncluttered approach. And as mentioned before I loved the way you used my rooftops in my logo as a larger part of the flyers. Very creative!!

MOZ I like both of your designs, the first one I am seriously considering purchasing of you for a newspaper add, or getting you to adjust it to fit a yellowpages add. The second was very bold and I really like how you used the picture of the keypad.

What won me over was the overall impact and feel of Carl's last design, I really like how everything worked from top to bottom and how it drew my attention in the same order.

As mentioned before I am going to be doing a tri-fold brochure in the near future and I would hope that each of you could take part in this. Somewhere around Jue 15th.

Thank you all for your hard work! You are very talented and great to work with :tup: :D

Carl I will conact you tomorrow to work on a few minor changes to the words used on each of the flyers.

Clayton

[Carl]

Clayton,

Great to hear. Thanks! :rolleyes:

I look forward to hearing from you.

Carl...

[Carl]

Files posted.

Carl...