Brochures

actually the Doc is right Anthony...even something that is a close knock off can cause problems...but as the Doc also said many companies would allow and encourage the use of their logos:rolleyes: if it was good for them too...but remember these same companies want to make sure that the quality of their products and their good name is not associated with poor quality or a fly by night operation.
Just some thoughts:D
 
Here are the guts. I put a faded picture in the background so there is a little more color to it. Actually, it looks pretty good after I print it. I printed one proper with both sides and it looke pretty nice. I just might steal it and use something like that myself. lol I can replace the company logos with just the names and that should be fine.

edit: pardon the typos. I just saw those. Already fixed. ;) Its just an example anyway...
 
Personally, I wouldn't include product logos.
I would let the quality of my work and the durability of the car's finish do the advertising.
Many people are going to think one of two things:
1. Why should I pay him(her) when I can go to Wal-Mart and buy the products he(she) uses
2. I am being overcharged because it isn't the detailers skill, but the products he(she) uses
I might be wrong but just my thoughts
 
kimwallace said:
Personally, I wouldn't include product logos.
I would let the quality of my work and the durability of the car's finish do the advertising.
Many people are going to think one of two things:
1. Why should I pay him(her) when I can go to Wal-Mart and buy the products he(she) uses
2. I am being overcharged because it isn't the detailers skill, but the products he(she) uses
I might be wrong but just my thoughts
Click to expand...

Kim i agree with you,:) but if they are small, maybe on the back page, and not really the main focus of the brochure it would be .
Yeah it would be cool to get Poorboy's at the local Wal-Mart:D

central ...just do good thorough work;)
 
The main purpose of one of these brochures, correct me if I'm wrong, is to get people to call thereby expanding business. here is my critique -- I'd ditch the "Header Questions" for those are the unwritten questions that people are looking for and the answers are the means of communicating them. Leave out the "Aspen Motors" reference and maybe have a tag-line about many satisfied customers or references available. The paragraph that starts with "Basically what sets us apart...." to me sounds like a literary nightmare based on ignorance. Keep in mind that if your target market is high end vehicles, business owners, dealerships, etc. most did not get where they are and have what they have without a Degree. They are educated folks -- grab a thesaurus and put in some big fancy words. Think about how it's said; as an example which sounds like a better thing to have "a social disease" or "a bad case of Herpes." Rather than "Detail packages starting at..." maybe reworded like "Detailing packages as low as $35" heck even to remove the price all together and replace it with "Detailing packages tailored for almost any budget" might behoove the final output.

By the way... the layout is friggin' awesome!! I love the picture in the background set at a halftone looks very professional. I think I might also add a "light flash" (like that of a star filter on a camera) to the logo kinda like a gling of sparkly light reflectance. I might also create a feathered working path around the vehicle to bring the color up on the car slightly and de-saturate the background a tad more.

I guess working with too many big budget art directors over the years with picture cars has kinda rubbed off. Jngrbrdman, please don't take this the wrong way -- cause you definitely going in a bang-up direction from where this thing began and I do not want to discourage, but immaculate have ya given any thought about opening up your phone book and looking for a professional in your area and offering up a trade for services. Sometimes things like this work two fold, you get nice marketing collateral, they get a clean vehicle, they tell friends, and the exposure in a office complex doing a car never hurt.

Either way, I look forward to seeing the final product and I see big $$'s on the horizon for ya both.
 
Thanks for the comments. I told Dave last night that I'd play around with it just to give him an idea of what it could look like. The text and everything is still a work in progress, but I agree with your suggestions. I tried to use what he had on his original mostly.

I wish I could do some kind of lens flare on the logo. The problem is that its a white background so the flare wouldn't even show up. I could give it a darker background slightly, but that would be more ink and cost more to produce most likely. Your suggestions on the graphic are a great idea. I'll have to play around with that. I'm just bored on a rainy Saturday and thought I'd play around a bit. :) Its nice to hear that it doesn't look totally amatureish. :bigups Graphic design isn't really my gig, but Photoshop makes everything look good that I have to play around with stuff. If nothing else I think it would make a much better impression to perspective clients than the trifold photo copy that Dave handed me yesterday. lol
 
Ahhhhh..... I see what you mean now. Yeah, that would be cool. I'll have to try something like that. It was lacking something and I couldn't figure out what to do. I freehanded the vette as best as I could, but didn't really know what else to put there. That is an excellent suggestion. :bigups Thanks!
 
Just a suggestion about any kind of marketing:Including testimonials from customers is always very valuable. Having other people express how satisfied they are is always more compelling than what you can say about yourself.

Mike
 
Hey Dave... Considering what you had before, can you see how adding a bit of color and maybe sinking some money into a more eye catching brochure could help you? I'm not saying you have to use what I put together. I'm just saying that something like this is going to make a better impression than the other one. Sometimes making a bad impression with a business card or a flyer is worse than not having a business card or flyer at all. If you aren't confident in your person to person sales technique yet then you need all the help you can get. Something like this would make a big impact on a dealership or an individual who is considering hiring a detailer. Think about it.
 
:bigups :bigups Very nice, what did you end up doing.... making each fold 3.33 inches then trim?

My printer doesnt get nearly that close to the edge.

edit: excellent choice of color for center pic. real subtle, yet eye catching feel
 
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The file I created in it was sized at 8.5 x 11 and then turned sideways. I just did the math and divided the width by 3 and moved some guide lines over so I knew what I was working with. Then before I printed it I changed the size of the document to be 8 x 10.5 because at full size it cuts off the left side a bit. I had to trim a little bit off of the right hand side, but the rest is how it printed. I haven't figured out how to get the whole thing to center in the page. It seems to want to shift everything over to the left a little bit. Oh well...

I give the printer a lot of credit for that. Its a lexmark something or other. Its the one that is a copier/scanner/fax/printer. 5150 or something like that is the model number I think. It is the best hundred bucks I ever spent. lol Even for a lexmark it is excellent. The ink cartridges are by far the easiest I have ever had to refill. This is the third time I've refilled the color and the second time on the black. Usually when I've had printers I get really crappy results from refilled cartridges. These look just as good as new cartridges look. Considering new ones cost like 30 bucks and I can get a refill kit to fill them up 5 or 6 times for 20 bucks.... The math isn't hard to do. The printer paid for itself already just by having easy fill ink cartridges. I highly recommend it. It takes 82 and 83 cartridges I think. If you are familiar with those then you know what I'm talking about when I say that they are easy to fill.
 
yeah what i did was in photoshop/corel size to 8x10 then when printing i clicked "size to printing surface". I then trimmed excess from there.

was the easiest way for me to do it.

what type of stock you using?
 
I used pictures of cars that I detailed. Obviously that would work if it was my brochure. I don't know how I would feel about having cars I didn't detail sported on my advertising. It was my first shot with Wolfgang. Actually, I guess I didn't really do the detail. Eric did the detail and I watched. lol It was taken with my camera and the work was done with my product in my garage though. I guess that counts for something, huh? :lol

I'm glad that you like it as the center picture. I figured with all the colors in the picture that it would look good faded out in the background. The blue would stand out the most and it would be clear that its a car, but without detracting too much from the text. I think I desaturated it down to nearly 30% so its pretty thin. I didn't want it to be too thin because then it would just be random colors. I think it worked out pretty well though. :)
 
I'm using Epson double sided matte printer paper. I got it at Office Max for like $15.00 for a packet of 50 sheets. Its really nice stuff. Here's an example of it. It is heavy enough that you would really want to squash them in a book for awhile or something before handing them out. Its really nice double sided printer paper though. I'm a fan.
 
Gentlemen, I have one word for you all...:wow . Anthony, you are a god my friend. All Weekend I was excited about getting back to the school lab and checking out what changes you'd made on that brochure, I'm essentially speechless.

I really don't know what to say, that's a PERFECT brochure. I think I've learned a lesson in regards to marketing. The difference between my crap brochure and Anthony's is more than self evident.

All the other comments on here have been invaluable as well. Detail City is a beacon of light amidst a raging storm. The art in the brochure has awakened the artist within.

You've got to let me make it up to you somehow.

I really don't know what to say...thank you!!!:dcrules
 
I'm glad you like it. :) You should see it in person. Its pretty impressive. I did that on Saturday morning and wish I had your phone number so you could check it out. It looks pretty swank if I do say so myself. :) There are still a few things you could tweak on it to make it better, but that was just sort of a rough draft. You'll have to come over sometime and we can iron out the wrinkles.
 
immaculate said:

All the other comments on here have been invaluable as well. Detail City is a beacon of light amidst a raging storm. The art in the brochure has awakened the artist within.
Click to expand...

:hurl Now that was cheesy. :rofl
 
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