Marketers and designers work together all the time. There’s a lot of lingo in both of those fields and sometimes, things just don’t translate. 😥

If you’ve ever heard the term hamburger menu and started to think about Burger King, then this one’s for you. 🍔  (This is me, I’ve done this.)

If you’re anything like me, you may have found yourself sitting in a design meeting, wondering what the heck is going on. I know I’m not the only one. So I created this guide to the ABCs of “marketing design.” It’s got all the terms you need to know to bridge that gap between creative and marketing—making you look like the smartest person in the room.

If you want to walk the walk, you’ve got to talk the talk.

A

Above the Fold: The top portion of a web page that is visible without scrolling.

This term has roots in the newspaper biz, where “above the fold” referred to the content that was, literally, above the fold of the paper. This content could be seen while the newspaper was folded up and lying on the stand. Today, it more commonly refers to the top part of a website that you can see before having to scroll down.

B

Bleed: Printing that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed.

There are a bunch of terms to talk about the print area of a document. Gutter, slug, bleed, crops, trims, margins… it’s enough to make anyone’s brain hurt. Here’s a handy dandy guide to what it all looks like:

C

Color  Systems: A system for creating a full range of colors from a small set of primary colors. These commonly include RGB, CMYK, HEX, PMS (Pantone), among many others.

Okay okay, but what does this actually mean? Here’s a crash course:

PMS = printing with a few spot colors

CMYK = printing with full color

RGB = general onscreen

HEX = onscreen for websites.

D

Dummy text: Dummy text is copy that shares some characteristics of the real, final copy, but is random or otherwise generated. The industry standard is lorem ipsum, a piece of latin literature dating back from the 1500s. Also called Greeking.

You can generate lorem ipsum here. Or, you can spice things up a bit and go with some hipster ipsum. Or pirate. Or, my personal favorite, cupcake ipsum. 🧁

E

Editorial Illustrations: Images in online and print publications that accompany articles, grabbing attention, bringing stories to life and expressing complex ideas. These can be hero images, spot illustrations, infographics or any art needed to help the reader engage with the content.

F

Flat design: A minimalistic design that features clean, open space, crisp edges, bright colors and two-dimensional illustrations. It helps with usability and is considered a very user-friendly design style.

A popular variation on flat design is material design, developed by Google. The idea behind material design is that users get lost when everything is flat, so this new style adds shadows and accents to some of the more subtle features of the design. Every day you’re using a Google product you’re using material design. Here’s a handy reference guide:

G

Grid: A system for organizing layouts that is made up of horizontal and vertical lines to help align and structure content.

If you chat with a graphic designer for longer than five minutes, you’re going to hear about grids. They’re the basis text and web layout, and designers can’t live without them. They can get obsessed.

Everything has a grid. Your word doc, your powerpoint, your business card, your infographic, everything! One of the easiest ways to level-up any design is to turn on your grid and make sure everything is aligned with a line. Seriously. Grids are important.

H

Hamburger Menu: The icon in web design that signifies a collapsed menu, named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger.

You know what I’m talking about, I promise:

I

Iconography: A simplified image meant to represent an object or action to be taken.

Icons are an important form of visual communication. Visuals are far more impactful for your audience than reading or listening, so leaning on visuals like icons are a great way to get your message to be heard. 📣

J

JPEG: A commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images.

JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs, oh my! I could write books about the different types of image formats. But instead, let’s check out this cheat sheet:

Want to dive a little deeper? This infographic tells you everything you need to know (and more) about image file formats!

K

Kerning - The process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a font make the lettering more visually pleasing.

Also important definitions to know:

Leading: Determines how text is spaced vertically in lines.

Tracking: Adjusting spacing throughout the entire word.

Want to test your skills? Try this game. Need a visual? Here ya go:

L

Logo: A graphic mark, emblem, or symbol to identify and recognize a brand.

But there’s more to it than that. Here are some other terms to know:

Logomark or Brandmark: The symbol or icon within a logo

Wordmark: The text/typographic treatment of the name within a logo

Logo lockup: The full logo that contains both the brandmark and wordmark

M

Mockup: A visual way of presenting a rough concept for your product or design.

When designing a landing page, the process is typically sketch (rough concept, on paper) -> wireframe (refining the concept, move to digital) -> mockup (add visual and design elements).

N

Negative Space: The space around/between the subject of an image, also commonly referred to as white space. If you’ve ever been frustrated watching a presentation where the speaker crammed as much text as possible onto every slide, you’ve wanted to see more negative space.

Think: The Google homepage.  ⚪◽❕

O

Orphans: A word or two on a line by itself at the bottom of a page or column. Orphans appear separated from the rest of the text and make the layout look less clean and crisp.

Similar to orphans, a widow is a single line from a previous paragraph that carries over onto the next page.

P

Pull Quote: A phrase or quotation pulled out from an article and used as a visual element.

Pull quotes are a great way to break up  dense text or to call attention to a specific line in an article. I mean look... 😍

Q

Quick Mask: A Photoshop mode that lets you (quickly) select objects for editing.

Quick masks can shave hours off of your Photoshopping project. Check out some super easy tips and tricks here.

R

Rule of Thirds: A photo composition technique where you divide the image frame into thirds and position your shot accordingly. When you place the focus of the image along one of these third lines, your photo will become more balanced.

Like so:

The same applies for almost all layout—from a text-based case study to display ads. And you’ll find that most Grids (remember way back when you were on “G”?) are based on multiples of 3.

S

Stock: Graphics or images that have already been created.

Stock is more than cheesy stock photography that you pull from the internet. Stock just means any assets that have already been created (are “in stock”) that you don’t have to make new to fulfill a specific need. This can be anything from icons you download from a stock site, to an archive of product shots your company has stored on an internal server.

T

Typography: The art of making printed characters legible and visually appealing.

Typography is truly an art form in and of itself, but here’s a little crash course so you can know the difference between serifs and sans serifs next time they’re debated in a meeting:

U

Universal Design: The art of making design accessible to any viewer or user.

Great design caters to all needs. That’s no small task. For example, is your website perfectly accessible for someone who is colorblind? How about someone with arthritis in their hands or fingers?  Someone who is visually impaired, hard of hearing, or speaks another language? The answer is probably not.

Fortunately, there are resources out there to audit your website and create designs that make strides towards being universal design. 🌎

V

Vector: Graphics based on points, lines, and shapes based on mathematical formulas. Conversely, a raster (or bitmap) graphic is based on filling in colored blocks called pixels.

Vectors can be filled with different colors, blends, or gradients but ultimately display a single color each. Rasters can be blend since information is stored in the pixel rather than independent shapes. You’ll probably recall a designer asking you for a “vector” version of your logo–and the reason she’s asking for a vector is that they can be printed at extremely high resolution. A raster image is limited in size, and will start to look blurry when scaled up or printed.

Here’s what the same image may look like in raster and vector:

W

Web safe fonts: Fonts that are pre-installed on most operating systems.

Wait, aren’t all fonts web safe? No! There are a ton of fonts out there, and more are created every day. When you use a font in a  design, you need to install it on your machine. Then, the viewer of the design will likely also need the font installed on their machine. If you’re using something like PowerPoint, which does not manage fonts, it can become a huge mess, fast.

A web safe font is basically just a “safe bet” that it will be compatible with wherever you send it. How do you know what those fonts are, you ask? Check this list.

In the last five years, Web Fonts have become commonplace. Google Fonts are free and widely available. They’re not quite as available as system fonts, but close–and let you be much more expressive with your typography.

X

Xd, Ps, Ai, Lr, etc. The Adobe Creative Cloud: A suite of applications and services from Adobe Systems for graphic design, video editing, web development and photography.

The Adobe Suite is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to design. Learning how to use  these tools is a powerful way to bridge the gap between marketing and creative. 🏅

Y

Yellow, Red, and Blue: The three primary colors. These colors make up all other colors and are the core of color theory.

Color is a powerful part of design with subtle effects. Studies have shown that different colors can make people feel differently about a brand. Here’s a little guide to jump start some of your thinking:

Z

CMD/CTRL + Z: The keyboard shortcut for undo.

Ahh command Z. The reason I still have my sanity. This is just a little tribute to the shortcut that has always had my back. You da bomb 💣

So you want to make a presentation? Welcome to the club.

When presentation design software first became the *next big thing* there was really only one player on the market worth mentioning...

Folks, we've come a long way since Office 2003. PowerPoint may be a tough king to topple, but there really are tons of options out there for your presentation needs. 👑

Maybe you’re looking for a change of pace, need a more collaborative platform, or are just plain sick of seeing the color orange on your screen. Or heck, maybe you’re a diehard PowerPoint fan (ahem, me) and just clicked on this article to see if I could convince you to use a different program.

Whether you’re a PowerPoint-power-user, a casual presenter or anything in between, you’ve got choices. I know choice can sometimes be… confusing... so I made this handy dandy guide to the most common alternatives to Michael Scott’s favorite presentation platform.

Do they beat PowerPoint? I’ll leave that up to you.

TLDR: Frequent presentation creator? PowerPoint. Die hard Apple user? Keynote. Intricate graphics or image effects? InDesign. Want to shake things up? Prezi. Heavily collaborative or looking to save some $$$? Google Slides.

Keynote

Think PowerPoint, but made by Apple.

Okay okay, so maybe there’s a little more to it. Keynote is part of the iWork productivity suite. It comes pre-installed on any Apple computer/iPad you buy, making it an accessible option if you’re already an Apple user.

According to Apple, Keynote features a “clean, intuitive interface that puts important tools front and center.” It’s helpful to have all the commonly used tools right at your fingertips. Eliminate the need to click around tabs for the align tool that you use every. darn. time.

Keynote and the Adobe suite have more compatibility than some of these alternatives. So if you’re a frequent Adobe user, Keynote may be an easy transition for you. Be warned, if you’re a frequent PowerPoint user, the Keynote interface will be tricky to navigate at first.

Pros: No additional cost to install (if you already use Apple products). Use it on iPad and iCloud storage. Offers a great selection of templates.

Cons: Less support documentation online (when compared to PowerPoint), and compatible with macOS only.

Google Slides

I must say, I’m impressed with Google Slides. Why? Because for a product that is completely and totally free it doesn’t suck.

Sure, there are a limitations to the product. It’s difficult to build graphics and tables, there’s no support for SVGs, and some features just don’t work as well compared to PowerPoint. If you’re looking for a powerful design program, you’ll have to keep searching.

If you’re okay with those pitfalls, Google Slides does have a lot to offer. The platform is based in the Google cloud, meaning there's nothing for you to download. You can also access your files from anywhere. All you need is a browser and some internet.

Where Google Slides shines is in collaboration. Multiple people can be working on the presentation at the same time, and it’s easy to leave comments and make changes to the file as you go.

Pros: No download, easily collaborate, free.

Cons: No SVG support, difficult to create graphics, not as many templates and support documents.

Prezi

Prezi is a web based presentation tool that uses a zoom in/zoom out motion style instead of individual slides. It is probably the most well-known alternative to the traditional slide format we’ve come to associate with presentations.

Think of Prezi as one blank canvas. As your presentation advances, you move around the canvas and zoom in on the content you’re talking about next. It’s a great option for people who need a change of pace from the traditional slide based presentation format.

Prezi works best when the presentation follows a story arc, or when you're delivering a more informal presentation. Think company lunch and learn, not a conference keynote. The non-traditional format is what makes Prezi unique, but not appropriate for every occasion.

Many of Prezi’s features are locked behind a pay-wall with a variety of payment tiers, however they do offer a 2 week free trial.

Pros: Web based, robust library of templates, something a little “different.”

Cons: Paid service, easily turns gimmicky, little design support.

InDesign

It’s no secret that the team here at Lightboard loves InDesign. But did you know it can be used as an extremely powerful presentation tool too?

That’s right.

InDesign is a great choice if you’re working with graphics that were built elsewhere in the Adobe Suite. It also has the power and precision needed to level up your presentation. Imagine the "oohs" and "ahs" you'll get because text overlaps perfectly with the image every time. InDesign makes it easy to get these details right.

Understandably moving your presentation design process to InDesign can be daunting. I highly recommend it if you have previous knowledge of the Adobe Suite. It’s not as user friendly of an interface as PowerPoint, and you won’t be able to open InDesign for the very first time and create something wonderful. But as with most good things in life, the practice is worth it.

Pros: Compatible with Illustrator/Photoshop, precise and powerful interface.

Cons: No design templates, difficult for a non-adobe user to go in and make tweaks.

So who's the winner here? You tell me, @lightboarding on Twitter.

In 2018, 40% of marketers said that stock photos were the most used visual in their marketing strategy.

There are a ton of stock photo sites out there, how’s a marketer supposed to choose? 🤷‍♀️

As usual, we're here to save you time. We've compiled a list of our 20 favorite stock photo sites that are free for use, visually engaging, and easy to navigate–and a little bit different from your standard stock. Did you know there were sites dedicated to food pics, nature shots, or cool vintage photos? You do now! 📸

1. Bucketlistly
2. Burst
3. Foodiesfeed
4. Free Nature Stock
5. Gratisography
6. IM Free
7. Kaboom Pics
8. Nappy
9. Negative Space
10. New Old Stock
11. Pexels
12. Picjumbo
13. Pixabay
14. Rawpixel
15. Reshot
16. Splitshire
17. Styled Stock
18. Unsplash
19. Visual Hunt
20. Bonus: Giphy
    

Bucketlistly

Why this site: Bucketlistly is a collection of travel photos from all over the world. You can search through 8,000+ photos, or you can sort the images by the country which they were taken!

Burst

Why this site: Burst is a collection of photos created by Shopify for use on e-commerce sites. This collection is awesome because it has a super diverse grouping of photos. Where else will you find photos of a pug dog sitting at an executive’s desk in the same spot as the elusive non-tacky shot of a team collaborating in an office? No where.

Foodiesfeed

Why this site:  The name speaks for itself. If you need pics of food, this is the spot for you. 🍕🍜🥖🍎🍩🧁

Free Nature Stock

Why this site: Free Nature Stock is an awesome collection of, well, free nature stock. They have tons of breathtaking photos of my (second) favorite mama, mother nature. 🌎 I mean just LOOK at this cute lil’ sunflower. 🌻

Gratisography

Why this site: Seeing the same stock photos over and over again can get boring. Gratisography prides themselves on being the “world’s quirkiest collection of high-resolution free stock images, comprised of the world’s best, most creative pictures—images you just won’t find anywhere else.”

IM Free

Why this site: IM free is a collection of stock photography curated by IM, a website building company. I like this site because they get it. They know what types of photos people look for to use on a website, and they have them broken down into the categories you actually need.

Kaboom Pics

Why this site: Kaboom pics is great because they let you browse full photo shoots of images. If you’ve ever gotten the feedback “this picture is close but the woman needs to be looking to the left,” then you’ll know why this resource is important. Kaboom lets you view photo variants from the same shoot, allowing you to find the right images to mock-up or A/B test in campaigns.

Nappy

Why this site: Nappy aims to inject a little bit more diversity into the world of stock photos. Their site “makes it easy for companies to be purposeful about representation in their designs, presentations, and advertisements.” Heck yes! Can we see more of these? 👏

Negative Space

Why this site: This site collects photos that feature negative space, which is the area which surrounds the subject of the photo. What does this mean for you? Negative space creates the perfect blank background for you to add text and a CTA, giving you an awesome starting point for your next ad campaign.

New Old Stock

Why this site: New old stock is a compilation of vintage photos from public archives. The site makes sure that old gems like this pic of the Apollo 1 crew practicing water exit procedures isn't lost to time.

Pexels

Why this site: I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I’m looking for a stock photo, pexels is always the first place I go. They have an awesome assortment of super striking stock photos, with a couple of illustrations and videos sprinkled in for good measure.

Picjumbo

Why this site: It’s easy to fall down a stock photo rabbit hole with Picjumbo. The site has a “more images like this” button that shows you a collection of images that all have similar ~vibes~ but aren’t from the exact same shoot. It solves the annoying problem of finding a photo that’s ugh, so close but not quite.

Pixabay

Why this site: Pixabay has an awesome variety of vector art, stock photos, videos, and illustrations. It’s a great place to go if you’re looking for a one-stop shop.

Rawpixel

Why this site: Stock photos are awesome and all, but sometimes you need to take your visuals to the next level. Rawpixel also offers a library of photoshop mockups and vectors in addition to a great collection of stock photography.

Reshot

Why this site: Reshot says it best themselves—they offer, “handpicked, non-stocky images.” It’s the perfect site for when you’re looking for unique, real images.

Splitshire

Why this site: Splitshire does a great job of sorting their images. You can browse by traditional means like keywords or trending, but you can also browse by shoots or categories. However you like to search, they’ve got options for you. 🔍

Styled Stock

Why this site: Styled Stock is a very well curated collection of images that has been carefully and intentionally styled. If you’re looking for a gorgeous image of a well put together desk, this is your place.

Unsplash

Why this site: Unsplash offers great images, an easy to navigate interface, and is quite simply, a gorgeous site. It’s one of the absolute best. I mean look at this:

Visual Hunt

Why this site: First of all, talk about a beautiful interface. 😍 Second of all, visual hunt is a tool that pulls creative commons images from all over the web, giving you access to 354,191,553 photos all. in. one. place.

Giphy

Why this site: Okay, so maybe this isn’t technically a stock photo site, but it’s no secret that I’m a fan of GIFs and obviously I wanted to sneak them into this article. My go-to for all my GIF-y needs is the aptly titled Giphy. Not only do they have an extensive library of GIFs, but they also have a pretty neat tool that allows you to create your own. 11/10, would recommend.

I’m kind of a grammar nerd. 🤓

Like, the type of grammar nerd who will go to war over an Oxford comma and considers the AP Style Guide a nice, light read.

I pride myself on being able to settle any grammar debate quickly and definitively. Sadly, there’s one common debate that I can’t immediately settle: what the heck do you do with emojis?

With 92% of the online population using emojis, I see those little pictures everywhere. And their willy-nilly, free-for-all punctuation usage keeps me up at night.

I mean, do they go before or after punctuation? Or are they punctuation? Where do I put them in a paragraph? Is there a limit to how many I can use? Aaaaaaaaa.

I’ve had enough. We need rules, people. 😤

So I gathered up all of the info out there about emojis, and compiled this handy dandy style guide.

Next time you write an emoji into a blog post, tweet or email, you’ll know exactly what to do!

Let’s go 🎉

The plural of emoji is emojis

If you’re referring to more than one emoji, then the pluralized word is emojis.

I’ve seen naysayers who consider emoji to be the plural of the word, but the majority of users seem to say emojis and I believe this is the proper plural form. Allow me to explain my logic. Emoji is a borrowed word (also known as a loanword). Meaning, the word wasn’t created in the English language, rather it’s a Japanese word that means “picture character” and we just use it as our own. Typically, treat borrowed words with English rules, which means adding an “s” to make them plural (think: kindergartens, safaris, croissants, tsunamis, cartoons, etc.).

That means, EMOJIS!

Emojis come after punctuation (usually)

Emojis are a brand new concept in the English language. Which means there are *gasp* no real rules on how to punctuate them!! But, new grammar rules tend to follow common usage in its early days, so it’s a matter of finding that common usage. After combing through the web for a few days, I noticed that more often than not, people have been putting emojis after the punctuation. Like this:

It’s my birthday tomorrow! 🎁 🎈 Are you coming to my party?

This book I’m reading is pretty good. 📚 I’ll loan it to you when I’m finished.  

The above rule is great for paragraph writing when there are sentences before and after the emoji. An exception to this rule is when you’re writing a single phrase. When your writing is short and snappy, then no punctuation is needed after your emojis. They are the punctuation. Like this:

I love you 💗

Let’s go out tonight 💃🍻

Emojis can either replace or reiterate

Emojis can be addictive. When you start throwing random ones everywhere, your meaning can get lost. Plus, you can look like you don’t know what you’re doing. A good trick is to think of emojis as having two purposes: to replace a word or phrase, or to reiterate a word or phrase.

Emojis can replace words only if it is an obvious representation of your word. For example:

This: Want to go grab a ☕ with me?

Not this: Want to ➡ ☕ with 🙋?

More commonly, emojis are used to reiterate something you’ve already said. For example:

This: We won the game last night 🏈🥇🙌🔥

Not this: We won the game last night 🦶💅🥁🔆

Emojis go at the end of a sentence

Just like above, if you use emojis to reiterate something in a sentence, there are rules for that too. Don’t place a string of emojis in the middle of the sentence unless you’re replacing one word with an emoji. It throws off the flow of the sentence and just looks super weird. For example:

This: I think I’m getting sick 🤒

Not this: I think I’m getting 🤒 sick

Emojis read left-to-right

Emojis, just like every other written character in English, read left to right. For example, the phrase “I take a picture” should look like:

This: 👩🏻📸

Not this: 📸👩🏻

Or the phrase “Santa Claus is coming to town” should look like:

This: 🎅🏙

Not this: 🏙🎅

Not all emojis are alike

Be careful. 🚨 Rendering the little pictures that we all know and love is a much more complex process than most people think. Do you have weirdos—oops, friends—that use Microsoft phones? What about that one coworker who refuses to update their email from Outlook 2011? If you’ve ever sent one of these folks a "😀," it didn’t look like that once the message got to them.

Each operating system is responsible for designing the appearance of and getting the emojis to render on their system. This means that emojis are rendered different from browser to browser, operating system to operating system, and year to year. I recommend looking up any emoji on emojipedia to see what they’ll look like when you release them into the wild. Look at the differences!!

Where you can use emojis

(Almost) everywhere! Emojis are no longer a crazy new thing that the kids are doing. Emojis have crept their way into our everyday vernacular and are just as much a part of our language as symbols and letters. In your marketing, you can use them on social media, in chat bots with your customers, email subject lines, anywhere on your website, and in blog articles. My rule of thumb when using emojis is if it feels natural, go for it. If you feel like you’re forcing emojis where they don't belong just to fit them in, stay clear. You know your brand’s tone better than anyone; it’s your call to make.

Know your emoji

Emojis are constantly evolving and changing in meaning and usage. Emojis take on the meaning of how people use them, not what their names or descriptions are. You probably know that 🍆 and 🍑 have some double meanings. 🤭 But did you know that 🐐, 💅, and 💨 all mean something completely different from what they look like? Read up on the current definitions of an emoji on a site like emojipedia to avoid any surprises. Trust me, even I fall behind and I like to think I’m one of the cool kids (maybe). 😎

Go forth and emoji! 💯❗🎉🎊⭐✨🤩🥳🙌

Last weekend I went to Target for some toothpaste. By the time I left the store, I was the proud new owner of a raincoat, a dinosaur shaped flower pot, some flannel PJs, a tube of hot pink lip gloss and some gummy bears. Oh, and toothpaste.  

Why am I telling you this? Because this, my friend, is scope creep.

I only planned on buying toothpaste and ended up needing a wheelbarrow to get everything home. 🤦🏻‍♀️

But I know I’m not alone in my unexpected shopping spree. Scope creep happens all the time. If you’ve ever made anything, you’ve probably experienced it. It can be the simple dinner that became a three-course meal or the PowerPoint project that became a full company rebranding.

Scope creep is a silent killer. It can take a project from on-track to “what the heck just happened” faster than you can say “hold up, we’re waaaaay over budget and no one has the time for this.”

Scope creep can be tough to spot, and even tougher to fend off. But it shouldn’t spook you. Next time you see it coming, try one of these tried and true ways to identify and prevent scope creep.  

Don’t get spooked

First off, scope creep isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Adding, subtracting, and juggling things around is a natural part of getting the job done 💪. You want to be in a place where your team is able to shift quickly after a round of feedback. So don’t shoo away new ideas when they come up, just make sure you’re making the necessary adjustments this new idea needs for support.

Time is finite. So when scope creep does happen, something will need to give. As requirements change, resource allocation needs to change too, whether that be time, budget, or shrinking the scope of other tasks within the project.

Set the definition of “done”

In a perfect world, scope creep would never be an issue because all parties are completely in sync. Perfectly aligned goals and vision don’t have to be a fantasy. At the start of any project, take some time to define “done” and make sure all participants are aligned on what that means.

Your team should agree on everything that the final deliverable will contain. Think about size, quantity, variety, and any maintenance work that will be required in the future. Is the project done when the timeline runs out, when the budget runs out, or when the deliverable is perfect?

Once everyone agrees on what “done” means, it’s a lot easier to show that a new requirement is out of scope. When the end goal is set in stone, it becomes easier to re-evaluate priorities, budget, or timeline to get the project back on track.

"Anchor" the project to something

Great projects start with great planning (obviously). When a project doubles in size halfway into it, it’s natural to feel like you’re lost at sea. To prevent your team from drifting, you need to anchor them to something ⚓. It’s not enough to have a quick chat –  having a physical document to refer back to will be your saving grace when things get bumpy. When it comes to creative work, a solid brief is the bedrock of a project. When you’re writing down the project terms, it’s not possible to be too specific. You want it to cover all of the bases and leave no room for error. My trick? Explain the project like you’re talking to a five year old (or your boss, same difference 😉).

Be honest. You can’t make magic happen

If you’re anything like me, you’re a total people pleaser 🙋🏻. The thought of telling someone “sorry, we can’t do that” makes me want to run and hide under my desk. But when it comes to project management, resources are finite. You can’t do more things without more time, especially if you’re trying to maintain quality.

So, leave the magic at Hogwarts and be honest with yourself that something’s got to give. You just need to work together and find out what it is.

(P.S. let me keep the Harry Potter reference, please boss 🧙✨)

Be Slow to “No”

Even if your first reaction is a hard NO 🙅‍♀️, you don’t need to say that out loud (or shout it, though I know that would feel good…). Turns out people don’t like to hear the word no, and it can sour the project even if your intent is to compromise.

Here are some quick phrases you can use to curve additions a bit more tactfully:

• “We can definitely do that! I estimate those additions will take xx time, so we can do that if we move the deadline to yy. ”
• “Yes, we can make those additions! It’s a little beyond our original scope, and typically, those tasks take us about xx time to complete–so if we can add  YY to the  project budget we’re all set.”
• “Those sound like cool additions, I’d love to work on them! So we don’t push back the timeline on the current project, how about we tackle those as soon as we’re done with what we’re working on now.”
• “Absolutely! But I know we’ve got a pretty tight budget and timeline for this project, so let’s re-organize the tasks and see what takes the highest priority.”

And finally… we’ve all been there

Scope creep happens, even if you lock down a project perfectly in the beginning, there’s always a chance something will get added or changed. But now you know what to do. You got this, you rockstar. 🌟

We’ve all met *that* designer. The one who fits a stereotype so well, it’s like it was written for them. The hipster, the file-organizing junkie, the all-powerful creative director—they are unapologetic about what they love and are unabashedly themselves. And we think that’s awesome.

These type of designers tend to stick together in a 'pack'. This behavior is so instinctual, it dates back to the prehistoric era when dinosaurs roamed the earth. We thought to ourselves, what if designers and dinosaurs were one and the same? We let our imaginations run amuck and envisioned what they might look like, and Lightboard’s resident Desillustrator Hipsterus gave life to these creative creatures.

Designer + dinosaur = designosaur  🦖🦕

Desillustrator Hipsterus

The Desillustrator Hipsterus is the most *underground* of all the designosaurs. This designo thrives off finding the newest, coolest Photoshop & Procreate brushes before anyone else does. In their free time, you can find them scribbling portraits at herbivore coffee shops. At work, you can find them doing pretty much the same.

CD-Rex

The Creativus Directerous Rex, better known as the CD-Rex, is the dominant designosaur among the Jurassic Reptilia class. They are the top predator, and are the ultimate menace to any designos that may threaten the vision or brand. Although the CD-Rex is the fiercest protector and visionary of the brand, their small arms are not great for designing and they must rely on smaller designos for execution.

Specosaurus

Specosauruses can typically be found in diverse roaming herds of UI/UXosaurs, poised and ready to lend their expertise to anyone who does (and doesn’t) ask. They’re your pixel-perfect, by-the-brand-book designo.

Friendosaur

The Friendosaur isn't a formally trained designo, but tries to learn by osmosis while hiding in herds of marketosaurs and content-rexes. While their designo friends were at art school, they were getting their degree from Prehistoric University (gooooo fossils! 📣). These can-do-dinos are always willing to lend a helping hand on a project or presentation.

🦖🦕

Want to take these creative creatures home with you? Add these custom emojis to Slack to assert your dominance as the coolest designo in the office.

:cd-rex:

:friendosaur:

:desillustrator_hipsterus:

:specosaurus:

At Lightboard, we often talk about lean ways to build your brand. Your company might not be a mega-billion dollar unicorn, but there’s no reason you can’t look like one.

Sure, big brands have big budgets to make every asset perfect, but the building blocks of a core brand identity are within everyone’s reach. So you, too, can shine just like the big guys. ✨

Here’s our checklist of the core pieces you need to build (and protect) your brand–saving you time, money, and stress.

THE CHECKLIST

[ ] A Strong Logo

Well, duh… but hear me out. Do you really have a well-defined logo, or are there a bunch of old variations that people still grab from their downloads folder? We’ve seen it all– different capitalizations of your company name, a dozen different shades of the “true company color,” and confusion about whether the horizontal or vertical lockup is the “right” one? Here’s a test: if 9 out of 10 people in your company can pick the “right” logo out of a lineup you’re in good shape.

[ ] Fonts

You have fonts in every nook and cranny of your brand. Just like copy sets tone, the font it gets written in sets your visual identity. Keep that identity consistent by locking down branded fonts. You don’t need to invest big bucks into a custom brand font, but you do need to narrow in on a key font that represents your brand. Google fonts are a great place to start since they’re free and easy to access. Once you decide on a font, add it to your brand book and implement it everywhere.

[ ] Master templates

As the guardian of your brand, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing something shipped out to a customer that’s so far off brand another company could have made it. 😤 You can fix this problem with master templates. PowerPoint and Keynote have great templating tools. We all know that you can make a beautiful slide deck for your team, but there’s no guarantee it won’t go completely off brand after changing hands five+ times. That’s frustrating, so lock it down with templates. And don’t just stop at presentations, templates for emails, case studies, social media, and display ads will keep your assets looking sharp and your brand sparkling. ✨

[ ] Library of Graphic Elements

When you’re crunched for time and DIY is your only option, you’ll be grateful to have a folder of assets you can pull into your design. Not only do you avoid starting from scratch, but they make it easy peasy to stay on brand. Your library will grow over time, but there are also some pieces you can invest in right now: illustrations, textures, icons, and pre-selected stock photos are all things you can have a designer create for your use later on. Future you will be grateful. 🙌

[ ] Consistent Image Style

Stock photography is the most used visual element in marketing design. It’s cost effective and, as a little saying I coined goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. 🤫 Stock images are a great way to tell your brand’s story, but they need to be on brand just like any other asset. If you haven’t already, add a section to your brand book that touches on image style. For example, should images feature people or environments? Should images contain a certain subtle color palette? Is there a standard overlay you want to have on photos, and if so, when should it be used? Defining these terms can level up your images from generic stock to branded photography. 📸

[ ] Standardized Social Media

It’s hard enough to stand out on social media, and an inconsistent visual identity doesn’t help. When your followers are mindlessly scrolling through their feeds, they need a visual queue to know what they’re seeing belongs to your brand. Set up some social media guidelines that teach your team to create posts that are perfectly on brand, every time. You can do this by creating templates for content campaigns, using a defined color palette, staying consistent with copy styles, or setting up a filter you can use on every photo.

[ ] Cohesive Email + PDF

If you’re like a lot of our customers, you’re reaching out to leads with emails and PDFs. These early impressions are the most important, so your messaging needs to be crystal clear. Do your materials look like they came from the same company? Your audience has the memory of a goldfish, so you need to hold their hand every step of the way. Even if they’re excited when they drop their email, by the time your drip hits, they’ve likely forgotten all about you. I know, harsh… but true. A cohesive look and feel between your emails and your PDFs will give a (not so) subtle queue to your audience that this all came from the same place. Remember, cohesiveness = conversions, my friend.

[ ] Brand Book

A solid brand book is the north star of your visual identity. Having a place where you can go to check color codes, font options, and logo spacing is a magical, magical thing. 🤩Even if you aren’t a total brand nerd like we are, there’s no denying the utility of keeping all that info in one place. Once you have a brand book, make sure it’s easy to access. Guidelines are worthless if no one can see them, so ensure they’re easy to understand and just a click away from your team. Oh, and if you don’t have a brand book, sheesh–let’s take care of that, pronto.

-

Building Blocks Scorecard __ / 8

Well friend, how’d ya do?

Feedback is the cornerstone of great design. Design is a process, not just a final deliverable. It takes collaboration from both sides to hone in on a final product.  

Nothing is more painful than seeing a project stall for lack of communication. It’s understandable: giving direct and effective feedback while staying compassionate is a tricky tightrope walk.

At some point, we’ve all delivered less than perfect feedback. But that's okay. We're here to help. We took a few tips from everyone's favorite mentor, Tim Gunn, and came up with some solutions to common ways feedback can miss the mark.

Problem #1: The stone-cold freeze 🥶  

What it sounds like: “This isn’t what I want.”  

End of story. Okay… well now what? If a design misses the mark, don’t just say it sucks. That leaves the design team without tools to move forward.  

What you can do instead: Be clear about what you do want, and give as much detail as possible. Compassionate but direct feedback is helpful. For example, instead of saying "this color makes me want to puke," say, "can we change this color? Our brand emphasizes more muted tones.” Point out the elements you like and dislike about the design. Be diligent about finding things on both sides, it gives the designer a firm place to kick off the next round of design.  

Problem #2: The sunshine and rainbows 🌈  

What it sounds like: “Mkay, this is fine. Let’s wrap it up.”  

That’s what you say, but not what you mean. You know that the design isn’t right, but don’t address it with the designer. Feedback can be tough, but pretending everything is sunshine and rainbows will leave you frustrated and asset-less.

What you can do instead: Don’t shy away from giving real feedback just because it’s awkward. If you aren't sure how to balance critique with compassion, then remember these three words: clear, firm, kind. Embrace your inner Tim Gunn and deliver honest feedback with poise and grace.

Problem #3: The silent ghost 👻

What it sounds like: *insert cricket sounds here*...  

I get it. Figuring out how to deliver feedback is hard and sometimes it can be easier to just say nothing... ever. But don’t let the fear of an awkward conversation keep you from getting what you want. Speak up! The designer wants to give you the best work they can, they just need to know what you need to see next.  

What you can do instead: If giving direct feedback makes you want to run for the hills, then try this trick: send the design team links to websites, Pinterest boards, Google search images, mood boards, or anything else to give them some inspo. Remember that what seems obvious to you, might not be obvious to your designer. Examples are an easy way to give them a peek inside your brain.

💖 That’s a wrap for this time. When it’s time to deliver feedback on your next project, I think you’ll be able to make it work.

I’m going to be honest with you, creating a presentation is hard. Figuring out what you’re going to say is hard enough–then you need to decide how you’re going to make it look nice. It takes a ton of effort to make your ideas visually engaging enough that your audience walks away actually remembering what you said.

We know that it’s hard, and that you can’t hand it over to a professional designer every time. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Here are some simple, easy-to-follow ways to take your presentations from pretty plain to perfectly profesh 💯🔥👌

Start with a killer title slide

People do judge books by their covers (sorry mom, it’s true). One of the easiest ways to make your presentation look professional is to wow your audience with a great first slide. Not only does it grab your audience’s attention, but it’s likely the slide they’re looking at the longest while waiting for the presentation to start.

A super easy way to make a professional looking cover slide is to use a high-quality stock photo that fills the whole slide. A photo that’s a good fit for a presentation needs to be large enough to remain crisp when projected onto a big screen and fit nicely in a widescreen format (16:9).

Remember, you’ll need to type the title and other info, so try and find an image with some open space (or create your own), or, for a busier photo, add a transparent overlay to create a better surface for you to type over.

For bonus points, book-end your presentation with a matching end slide.

Think about the whole presentation

Making all the slides in a deck look cohesive is no small ask. But there’s no question that the best looking presentations have a strong visual identity. Each one of your individual slides could look amazing, but if they don’t fit together then you’ve failed to deliver a complete narrative to your audience.

The first solution is to remind yourself that you’re building a deck, not making slides. That simple shift in approaching your presentation design can lead to big improvements in the final product.

When you’re finished with your deck, try zooming out so you can see all of the slides at once. PowerPoint and Keynote both have thumbnail views that are great for seeing all of your slides at once. Try it and ask yourself: are there some that don’t match? Shapes, colors, photo styles, and consistent headers/footers are all elements you can carry over from slide to slide and are an easy way to establish a cohesive look and feel.

In a week, the Lightboard team delivers as much design as most marketing teams deliver in a year. In 2018, we worked on thousands of projects for hundreds of customers–and we've seen a lot of trends come and go.

Design is always about what’s next and, to start the year off with a bang, we put our heads together and predicted a few  marketing design trends we know we’ll see in 2019.

Here we go!

Capturing attention is every marketer’s challenge, and the key for standing out online in 2019’s crowded world will be animation.

Motion graphics grab your audience’s attention and tell a story in the way a static website can’t. They give you all the power of Hollywood to showcase your product in a memorable way, help you knock those value props out of the park, and drive home brand identity.

And while a polished animation is time intensive to develop, you get a lot of bang for your buck. You can use it across platforms (social media, mobile, desktop), and pull out pieces for use on print and email. A well-designed animation can be the cornerstone of your marketing assets.

This example from Slack beautifully walks the audience through the buyer’s journey. It showcases the hassles of workplace communication, and shows the audience how their life could be improved.

New year, new presentations. People are getting just plain bored of the typical presentation deck.

Will 2019 be the year that slide decks completely kicked the bucket? Probably not. Will it be a year where we start to see new ways of presenting information? Absolutely.

If you want to take baby steps… make a shift from blah decks to visually engaging presentations. This means fewer words, and more photos and illustrations to tell a story. This means no default settings, and more custom fonts and colors.

If that sounds like a lot more work, it is. 47% of speakers said is takes 8+ hours to create a quality presentation. Make it your New Year’s resolution to put time into your slides this year, and trust us, you’ll notice a difference.

If you want to take the big plunge… kiss presentations goodbye altogether. Think videos, motion graphics, landing pages, content hubs, infographics - the possibilities are endless!

We’ve come a long way from the days of smoke signals and telegrams. Technology is making it easier for brands to connect with their customers with greater speed and volume, and on a more conversational level than ever before.

We’re seeing a rise in the use of conversational marketing tools, which means a rise in the language people like to converse in: emojis. Emojis are the fastest growing language of all time, and if brands want to interact like their audience, they need to talk like their audience. 👏👏👏

Not only should you be using emojis as you chat with customers, but also in your email campaigns, social media presence, and website. If you’re ready to kick things up a notch, create some branded emojis. Major players like Cola-Cola, Disney, and Unilever have designed branded emojis to strengthen their connection with their audience.

Don’t be the last one to the party, it’s emoji time y’all 🥳.

Each year, brands need to work harder and harder to stand out from all the clutter.

At the end of 2018, trendsetting brands like Apple unveiled some color-packed designs–a wildly different direction from the minimalistic designs they sported in years previous.  We’re definitely going to see this trend trickle down through the new year as brands try to stick out in a crowded landscape.

In 2019, we’ll also see more of these colors because the technology to bring them to life is becoming more accessible. In both the print and digital worlds, new technology allows the true vibrance of these colors to shine through high def monitors, and increasingly affordable spot printing techniques.

But which bold colors, you ask? Shutterstock predicts a year full of hues that give off an “excited energy” and pack a “digital punch,” like UFO Green and Proton Purple. Bright colors will sneak their way into everything from stock photos, ad sets, and websites this year.

2019 is the year to cool it with the awkward team high five stock photos.

When your audience sees the same photo on your site that they’ve seen on a dozen others, you’re not going to stand out. Here's what you need to do:

Audiences are calling for more authenticity from their brands, and if you deliver in 2019, people will take note. This year, make a huge push towards real content, and watch your engagement soar.

Here are a few ways to say farewell to those boring ol’ overused stock photos:

• Take your own brand photos
• Use more authentic stock photos
• Try out user-generated content

You know how nowadays everyone now has some sort of super duper retina 4k extra high-res widescreen quality monitor™? The ubiquity of high quality displays has turned the web into a blank canvas for combinations of rich, vibrant colors to really shine.

Spotify stole the show last year with striking duotone color schemes that effortlessly cut through the noise (or the music - hehe) and caught their audience’s attention.

As more color packed designs pop up on our feeds, flat-color designs are falling, well, flat. This year, add another dimension with a duotone or gradient color scheme and breathe some new life into an otherwise flat design.

2018 was the year of video.

We saw a huge uptick of brands using it in their marketing strategies, with game-changing results like boosting open rates by 19% and increasing landing page conversion rate by up to 80%. 🤯 I know, woah.

Now that videos have become a must in the SEO landscape, what’s next? 2019 will be the year of pushing videos even farther. New programs like Vidyard and Wistia are giving brands access to a suite of metrics that allows them to unlock the full potential of their marketing strategy.

Even cooler, we’re starting to see an emergence of customized videos, where certain video elements can be personalized to the individual viewing it.

Had you received an email in this video from Insights, you wouldn't see the word "friend," you'd see your own name! Pretty cool, huh?

So as you can see, there’s a lot in store for 2019!

We had a blast doing what we love in 2018, and can’t wait to see what unfolds this year. Cheers to a beautifully designed 2019! 🍾🥳

Working in a marketing department can be incredible because it can touch so many different things–from analysis to writing to design and just straight up talking with customers. That freedom to experiment is pretty awesome… but it can lead to panicked moments where you have absolutely no idea if you’re headed the right direction. Especially when you’re sitting down to make a plan for the new year.

As the calendar year comes to a close, we wanted to poke around a bit and see what other marketers are doing to plan for next year. We were curious if they planned meticulously, casually, or even if they felt they needed to come up with a plan at all.

As a holiday gift to you, I’ve distilled our six findings down for you so you and your team can ring in the new year with a solid plan and the confidence needed to tackle anything 2019 throws your way 💪.

Marketing isn’t one size fits all. Make sure you know where you’re going before you hit the ground running in 2019. Here are some things marketers are doing to plan for 2019:

Work Backwards

The #1 thing that I heard from marketers about their 2019 planning is that they started by thinking about their new year goals. They don’t start their planning with budget, campaigns, or channels. They start planning by asking, “what are my business goals for next year?” The types of marketing tasks you’ll be doing next year should depend entirely on the results you want. Do you want incremental revenue growth, expand into a new market, introduce a new product, or raise brand awareness? These aren’t mutually exclusive. Your brand can - and probably will - have more than one on its radar for 2019.

Once you know your goals, you can work backward to make a concrete plan for the year. Write down all of your goals, and use them as “buckets” to fill with pieces of your marketing mix. You’ll see an action plan come together before your eyes.

Key tips submitted by: Henry McIntosh, Director of 2112 Marketing and Dave Poulos, Director of Marketing for Pinnacle Advisory Group

Observe the Competition

Keeping tabs on your competitors is something you should be doing year-round. But when it comes time to plan for the new year, it’s a great idea to take an extra close look at your competition. Start by making a list of your competitors, then list where they’re beating you. That sort of self criticism can be hard, but it’s where the magic really happens. Identifying what your competitors are doing better than you gives you something to focus on.

It’s one thing for Lyft to say, “Uber is beating us,” but it’s a much more powerful statement for them to observe, “Uber is a more globally recognized brand than us and has become a household name and genericized trademark for on-demand rideshare.” Then Lyft could note that they need to spend more on brand marketing this year. Maybe investing more than last year in ads, influencers, and social media.

Write down some of these areas where you want to catch up to your competitors. Even if you’ll never be able to match these companies’ marketing resources, this exercise will give you clear targets on what you want to achieve this year.

Key tip submitted by: Airto Zamorano, Founder and CEO of Numana SEO

Writing Down their Budgets

As I interviewed marketers, one of the things that surprised me is how many marketers create a formal budget for the coming year. I guessed there would be a mix of those who had a formal budgeting process and those whose budget planning was simply a rough brainstorm.

But, almost every single person said they had a formal budgeting process (with the caveat that you should always build in wiggle room to change and move things around). Whether or not you’re a fan of spreadsheets, this is an important step in assuring you can financially achieve your goals as you put pen to paper with detailed plans.

How you ask? There isn’t really a one-size fits all method (I know, I know, I hate to be the bearer of bad news). At a high-level, marketing budgets tend to be between 5-15% of the company’s gross revenue, depending on profit margin. From there you can allocate that money into different pieces of your marketing mix.

But you’ll need to experiment with what planning method works best for your team. Here’s a helpful breakdown of 4 different ways to create a marketing budget. And, in the theme of this article, here’s some awesome research about how other marketers are creating their budgets.  

P.S. it seems like most new year planning is done from October - December, takes a week or so, and involves a few different stakeholders. Make sure you’re diligent about setting aside some time on your calendar for this planning at the end of the year!

Key tips submitted by: Steve Kurniawan, Content Specialist & Growth Strategist at Nine Peaks Media

Software Forward

A lot of marketers said they centered their 2019 planning around the software and tools they’d be using, which wasn’t something I had expected to hear.

But it makes a lot of sense. Software can often be one of your largest line items in terms of budget, and there’s likely a piece of software (or more) that correlates with nearly everything in your marketing mix. Chances are you’re already using a few services, and already have eyes on others you’d like to try out. Thinking about software early on serves as a pretty straightforward way of dipping your toes into marketing planning.

No idea where to start? Here is how 54 companies at the 2018 MarTech conference illustrated their marketing stacks. And here’s a breakdown of marketing spend for startups in 2018, if smaller companies are more your jam.

Key tip submitted by: Nate Masterson, Chief Marketing Officer of Maple Holistics

Reflect

There’s no better time to reflect than when something is coming to an end. This is a short and simple tip. As 2018 closes, take some time to look back on what worked well and what needed improvement.

Host a 2018 wrap up meeting with key stakeholders towards the end of the year. Ask everyone what they thought the big wins were. Ask what they can improve on for next year. Jot down a list of everyone’s responses.

Make sure to re-invest in the things that resulted in success. For the things that didn’t take off, consider whether a different marketing approach could improve that result, or if it’s time to abandon the experiment and focus your resources on something else in the new year.

And lastly, think about what data would be helpful for this reflection exercise. If you have it, include those metrics as you decide what worked and what didn’t. If you don’t have it, set it up for next year. You’ll thank yourself in 365 days.

Key tip submitted by: Nate Masterson, Chief Marketing Officer of Maple Holistics

Ask for Help

Marketers wear many hats. You can try to do it all yourself, or you can outsource some of the work. If you value your sanity, you’ll want to bring someone else on board to help out. Social media managers, freelance designers, administrative assistants, consultants, you name it. The beginning of a new year is a perfect excuse to begin those conversations.

Think about some of items on your schedule that are a complete time drain. Or the tasks on your plate whose results don’t quite look or feel the way you want them to. You want to be efficient. What’s not efficient is spending all your time on tasks that take you 5 hours but others 1 hour. Instead, focus on tasks that take you 1 hour when it takes others 5 hours. Rock your strengths. Ask for help with weaknesses. That’s the secret to success.

It’s best to brainstorm these at the end of the year because once those new budgets are in place, it’ll be harder to get funding for these services.

Key tip submitted by Carla Williams Johnson, Media Marketing Specialist at Carli Communications

The fun doesn’t end here

I received so many great tips that I simply couldn’t squeeze them all into one article! Follow us on Twitter to learn more about how marketers are planning for 2019.

Okay folks, let’s talk budget.

You’ve probably seen this Venn diagram about design:

But I think this one is more realistic:

Faced with limited resources and tight deadlines, we all have the temptation to just roll up our sleeves and grumble, “I’ll just do it myself.”

It’s tempting to take these projects on yourself to save costs, but think about the cost that has on you. I bet you already have too much on your plate, and the last thing you need is another line on your to-do list.

It’s time to stop giving yourself more things to do. You have access to more resources than you think; the trick is just using them efficiently.

Here are some tricks of the trade to make your design budget go further. Saving you time, energy, and sanity.

Invest in the “building blocks”

Sure, it’d be awesome to have custom brand fonts, new illustrations in every blog post, and a vault of custom stock photography. It’d also be awesome if I had a million dollars and was married to Ryan Gosling. But we’ve got to think realistically here.

Think about what’s actually possible for your company. You don’t have the same budget that a multi-billion dollar brand has for design, so you shouldn’t expect to have the same depth of assets to work with.

Focus your attention on a more realistic path.

Instead of sinking your money into one-off assets, stretch your budget by investing in design “building blocks.”

You want to put your budget into things that have the longest shelf life, the pieces that build up and establish your brand. For example, a PowerPoint template is something that can be used by everyone in the company, over and over again. And with a great template, you can have building blocks (layouts, shapes, charts) that can be reused as you create other collateral.

If you’re working with a limited design budget, ask yourself this before you invest in a new project: can I use this in 3 different ways? If the answer is no, maybe your budget is best spent on something else. If the answer is yes, go forth and design!

Use a simple design

It’s tempting to gravitate towards the razzle-dazzle of a design with lots of hand-drawn illustrations and patterns. And hey, they do look really cool.

But you know what else they are? Expensive.

Hand drawn illustrations require, well, someone to illustrate them. Meaning every time your team needs a new ad campaign, landing page, or presentation, you’ll need to go back to an illustrator to get new art...and that’s going to take more time and more money. 💰

And remember how, earlier, I said you can’t pretend like you’re a billion dollar brand? Well, even billion dollar brands need to cut back on their design to become more efficient. Uber– which I’m pretty sure heats their offices by burning stacks of hundred dollar bills– had efficiency in mind with their recent rebrand.

Their old branding from 2016-2018 was very pattern and illustration heavy:

To create new collateral, their marketing team needed to ask a designer for new illustrations in the same style, or have the skill set to alter the vector images themselves. It was much harder (and more expensive) to shepherd things through to publish.

But with Uber’s rebrand in 2018, the company took on a much more simple (and even more powerful) design that is easier for their partners and marketing teams to extend.

So in summary, simple = savings. That equation will always be true whether you’re a one-person startup or a zillion dollar international brand.

Don’t start from scratch

Starting from scratch is the most expensive way to start designing. And if you’re working with outside designers, time spent on a project is almost always exactly proportional to price.

When starting a project, make sure you come prepared with as much as you can upfront.

What helps speed up the process? Wireframes, templates, sketches, moodboards, you name it. Just don’t come to the table with nothing. The more you can provide upfront, the less time your project will take, and the cheaper it will be. 💸🍕

Communicate Communicate Communicate

Time is money. If you’re trying to stretch a design budget, solid communication is key. Poor communication is one of the easiest ways to drive up the cost of a project - and when you’re pinching pennies, that’s the last thing you want.

So how do you make sure those communication time wasters don’t happen? It starts with a strong brief. To keep a project from spiraling out of control, narrow your scope and be crystal clear about what you need.

Once the project is underway, you’ll need to keep the lines of communication open. Delivering direct feedback can be stressful, but it’s worth it. The worst problem we’ve seen on our own projects is when customers don’t get back to us with actionable advice; ghosting on feedback is the surest way to waste money.

Don’t forget, design is a process–and that process is driven by communication.

Be honest with your budget

Don’t be scared to share the budget you have in mind for a project. If your budget is reasonable, any agency or designer worth their salt will work with you to alter scope to fit your budget.

Think of it like this: you walk into a car dealer and a salesman asks about your budget. You say “oh I don’t really have anything in mind, let’s just see what I can find,” even though in your head you know you only have $15,000. They’re going to show you the nicest (and probably most expensive) cars on the lot, and, after a few hours, you’re both going to walk away frustrated and car-less.

Don’t let yourself do that with design. Talk honestly about your budget at the beginning. If you have a hard budget (and hey, everybody has budgets, there’s no shame in it), work with your design team to narrow the scope to land the project on time and on budget.  

Bonus Round

Sill need to squeeze a little more out of your design budget? Here are some more tips.

• Free stock resources: Adobe stock is awesome, but there are also a lot of free resources out there. Try Pexels and Unsplash for stock photos, or Icons8 and Pixabay for vectors.
• Ask around: See if another department in your company has resources you can use, or heck, maybe even a little budget to spare!
• Cut conferences: Travel is expensive. Improve your team’s skills with online learning sites like Treehouse, Lynda, and Coursera.

We’ve all been there. You’re at your computer with fresh cup of coffee and a motivational playlist all queued up. PowerPoint is open (and finally updated for the 10th time this week but jeez never mind that...). The cursor is patiently blinking on that first, blank slide, and you’re ready to kick this project in the 🍑.

And then it hits you.

You look at your screen and see that crushing, unconquerable abyss that is a. completely. blank. slide.

Ugh. It can make you want to abandon ship before you even get started.

But don’t let that pesky blank page get the best of you, I’m here to let you in on a little secret: don't freeze up.

The trick to getting over the fear of starting from nothing is to start with something. Just slap something down and go from there. Anything works! Just do it.

Now you’re probably thinking woah woah woah, how am I going to just wave my magic marketing wand and make something appear out of nowhere?

Good news: there’s no magic required. It's a psychological trick–once you have something on your page, your mind kicks over to "editing" mode instead of "creating" mode–and voila! You're awash with new ideas.  

How to take that first stab? Try picking one element to use as a jumping off point.

Here are some of my go-to starting points:

Inspiration Search

Sometimes you just need a little inspiration to get those creative juices flowing. Scrolling through polished design is a great way to kickstart your brainstorming process. It can show you what elements you like and dislike about a design, so when it’s time to start your own, you have a solid idea of how to get there.

At Lightboard, we love Dribbble – a site where designers all over the world showcase their work. Because posting to Dribbble is invitation-only, the overall quality of the work is much higher than you'll find elsewhere on the internet.  You can find designs you love and add them to “buckets” which you can use to store PowerPoint slides, whitepapers, display ads, and other designs you want to use for inspiration.

And then of course there's Pinterest. It's not just for recipes; you can create boards to store things like typography, color palettes, backgrounds, etc. as inspiration. Or, at the start of a specific project, use a Pinterest board to collect pins and curate a mood for your design.

Stock Photos

You’re probably no stranger to stock photos. Considering content with an image gets 94% more views than content without, it’s safe to say you’ve probably slapped a stock image on something at some point in your career. But have you ever thought of using stock photography as inspiration?

Flip through Pexels, Unsplash, or your own go-to stock photo site and find a photo that makes your soul sing. Drop it into that empty canvas and see what happens. Boom! Now you have a good idea of colors and textures you can incorporate. If you need some ideas, check out this guide on how make stock images content ready. Fills up the page quite nicely, huh?

Vector Graphics

When time is tight, what you need is a head start. For the right project, stock vector graphics are simple, fast, and get the job done. There are tons of places out there where you can find different components to use in your design. The Noun Project and Icons8 both have a curated collection of stock icons that you can edit directly on their platform.

Sites like Depositphotos, Pixabay and Adobe Stock offer more than just pictures, they also have vector art and illustrations you can use as pieces of your design. If you do end up pulling in one or more of these resources, they don’t even need to stick around to the final design. Sometimes they fulfill their vector destiny by just helping you move forward at the beginning of the design process.

Colors

If you’re looking for a way to conjure up a little creativity, try starting with the nuts and bolts. Picking a color palette first is a fun and approachable way to begin. Let’s give a shout out to technology for making this process interactive and simple!

There are tons of color palette generators out there, but I like Coolors because you can lock colors into your palette, adjust shades, and even directly integrate the generator into your Adobe creative products.

Looking for a more dimensional design? Try UI Gradients, a simple and beautiful gradient generator. 😍

Templates

Don’t reinvent the wheel. In marketing, you need to churn out new content frequently and fast. Get a head start by using a template to kick off your design. Hubspot has an awesome round-up of templates for social media, infographics, ebooks and more. Or if you’re looking for a range of options, databox has a list of 3,520 links to marketing templates. Wowza.

I mean come on, how cool are those? Slide templates, display ad templates, landing page templates, infographic templates, OH MY!

Starting a new design - no matter what it is - can be daunting. But the only way you can go wrong is to give up. Don’t stare at an empty screen for hours on end, just slap something down to get yourself in a creative mindset. It doesn’t even need to be something that will make it into the final design, just start with something. You can do this, I promise. 🌟

Imagine you’re the only marketer at your company… is that thrilling or terrifying?

I sent out a request to hear people’s experiences being the only marketer at their company. Within hours, my inbox flooded with testimonials from solo marketers all over the country.

If you’re single-handedly running the marketing show at your company, and you’re feeling lost and overwhelmed, let me tell you that you are not the only one.

Here’s a word cloud created from all the responses. Look at the most frequently used word: challenging.

Clearly there are a lot of people out there struggling. Almost every company has a marketing person in some way, but not every company has an organizational infrastructure to support them. And that makes things, well, challenging.

Challenging... but not impossible. Buried in the stories of challenges were some tried and true ways to push through and shine as a solo marketer. 🌟 I learned some great ways to fight imposter syndrome, to organize your crazy workload, and to create a community for yourself. Hope isn’t lost my friends!

You Don’t Have to Do it All Alone

“Don’t try to do it all yourself, it’s impossible to be good at all these different things, you’ll just end up spinning your wheels.” - Zach Hendrix, Co-founder of GreenPal

There is so much expected of a modern marketer.  From social media to copywriting, strategy and analysis, even graphic design - well, you know where I’m going, you can’t do it all. So don’t try to!

Look for help– anywhere you can get it. Are there other internal teams you can lean on? Maybe the product designer can help create ads to go with your new campaign. Maybe the sales team can pitch in with a few customer stories to help with a blog post or two? Or maybe your CEO is surprisingly telegenic and wants to star in a vlog. I bet there are people right under your nose.

And if you can’t pull from internal resources, try to swing a budget. Your company might not be able to make another full-time hire, but could afford a few thousand a month (or quarter) – a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. If you can use that budget to make yourself more effective, it’s a win-win for the company. You could spend that budget on software to help you move faster (like Buffer or Hubspot), or you could try outsourcing some of your tasks to freelancers. By building a reliable network of freelancers, you have a flexible way to handle all the ups and downs of your business–and still keep it a one-person show.. And of course you could use an on demand service, like Lightboard, that works as an extension of your marketing team ( 👋 boss, see I added the link like you wanted).

Bottom line: don’t try to do it all. Get help from others so you can focus on the things that only you can do.

Learn How to Say No

“When a single marketer is chasing every project that comes across the desk, it’s a clear recipe for burnout.”  - Cathy Hutchison, Director of Marketing/Vice President at Idibri

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m terrible at saying no. When you’re driven by an inherent desire to please people, it’s hard to say no when someone asks for your time. Marketers are especially susceptible to this, because they often work in ambiguous environments.

It’s hard not to lose yourself wondering what IS the single most important thing right now? Is it that new email campaign or the blog post or running those numbers or…?

And since marketing fits in between so many roles... you’re usually the first person people come to with random tasks. I know you’re awesome, but you just can’t do it all. This infographic from SUCCESS Magazine will help you learn when and how to say no at work.

By now, all sorts of bells and whistles are probably going off in your head and you’re thinking “woah now, it’s not as easy as saying ‘no,’ that’s not going to help.” And you’re right. You can’t just say no, you need a reason behind why you can’t take on XYZ project. Here are some things you can have ready ahead of time to show that you have a plan that you need to stick with:

• Strategic road map
• Clear reporting structure
• Daily, weekly, and quarterly schedules
• Project prioritization list
• Established goals
  

Market Internally Too

“Most of your co-workers will have no idea what you do or why marketing is important. One solution to this is to remember to market internally too. Share with the team the value of what you’re doing and especially tell them about new clients, increased visibility, and other marketing wins.” - Beth Bridges, Former VP of Marketing with an I.T. company, Current founder of The Networking Motivator

One of my favorite things we do at Lightboard is a daily stand-up with the whole company. In a room full of designers and developers, I’m often met with blank stares and confused faces when I talk about my projects. But that’s the point.

It's important to have open conversations about the role of marketing in your company. It breaks down any barriers that may be preventing you from getting the job done, and you can show the value of your work. Plus, it puts you in control of setting realistic expectations. Win, win, win. So share with your team what you’re working on, what your goals are, and what setbacks you’ve experienced. Show them why your role is important. That’s pretty powerful.

Wondering how to start those conversations? Here’s some easy ideas:

• Host a lunch & learn
• Share major milestones on Slack (or whichever communication tool your company uses)
• Sign everyone up for your email newsletter
• Plan team building exercises (here’s how you sell it to your boss).
• Or even start hanging up everyone’s accomplishments on the office fridge to bring back those memories of coming home with an A+ paper.

Create a Network

“Without having at least one other person to bounce ideas off of, it can be tough to flesh out ideas and priorities.” - Jessica McCune, Marketing Specialist at Sellozo

One of the most difficult things things about being in a department of one is the lack of mentorship. It was one of the most common responses from my interviews, and it hit home.

Feeling alone and confused was the most difficult thing I had to overcome when I entered the professional world. There were (okay, are) so many days when I couldn’t get past that “what the **** am I supposed to be doing” mindset. But I got some really great recommendations on ways to push past this:

• Go to Meetups - If you don’t have a team at your company, make your own! Attend local meetups to build a network of peers and talk about shared experiences. None near you? Make your own. I promise you aren’t the only one looking for people to chat with, sometimes the world just needs someone willing to take the first plunge.
• LinkedIn - You probably have a LinkedIn profile for building making connections and ignoring inspirational quotes. But did you know LinkedIn also has interest based groups? You can join an existing one, or create your own. Either way, you can talk to people about your experiences, and (hopefully), they’ll talk back.
• Apps - LetsLunch, CityHour, and Shapr are just a sampling of popular apps designed to build a professional network. Just like a dating app, you swipe left or right on people you want to chat with. This  may seem odd to some, but I can promise you, it’s catching on quickly. BumbleBiz made headlines earlier this year when Kris Jenner used the app to hire a personal assistant.
• And when ALL else fails - If you’re the only marketing person in your company but need to bounce some ideas around to organize yourself, try this old software development trick... Buy yourself a rubber ducky (or perhaps this variety set) and talk to it. You heard me, talk to it. The idea behind it is simple, talking out loud allows your brain processes differently, giving you a new point of view on your problem. So next time you’re struggling to decide what the next email in your drip campaign should be, try chatting it out with your new friend. I actually think I’m going to start using this strategy, because I like to talk. A lot.

Did I cover all the challenges you’ve experienced? Of course I didn’t! Want to share your experiences? We can look for a solution for you. Or maybe you just want us to send you a motivational GIF and a message that says we feel your pain. Either way, let’s hear what you have to say. Tweet us @lightboarding!

‘Tis the season to get spooky 🎃👻

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at Lightboard. This year was a big one. We launched multiple inaugural events to celebrate the spooky season in the office.

This year kicked off Lightboard’s annual pumpkin carving night and Halloween party - complete with a costume contest, pumpkin beer tasting, and childhood costume photo competition. And candy corn. Did I mention all the candy corn?

Here I am eating candy corn straight out of my pumpkin 🙋 Because that’s just how I roll

I’d love to say I won the contest with my candy bowl, but there were some pretty awesome carvings:

The actual winner was Katy with her La Croix eating monster mouth pumpkin.

Check out the trophy she's holding, complete with a custom Halloween Lightboard seal 👁️

The other trophy went to Dave for best costume. You've gotta applaud his commitment...

But there were some other awesome costumes too. Just take a looksie

Moral of the story here is we had a blast. I already can't wait for next year's celebrations!