A project that’s been long in the making, the Faces of Revolution exhibit is a series of 25 portraits painted by Suellen McCrary. Featuring subjects with both current and historic ties to Revolution Mill, this exhibit is now part of the permanent historical collection at the mill. 

Started almost 3 years ago, this project was initiated to both document the history of the mill and to democratize portraiture. The subjects include employees and family from the mill’s heyday as the world’s largest maker of flannel to current day tenants of the new multi-use development. The portrait subjects also received free prints of their likenesses, making it possible to obtain an otherwise costly keepsake. The price of an original oil portrait can range from $3,000 to six figures. 

Historic subjects included descendants of the mill co-founders, mill villagers, and dye house employees. In addition to the subjects with historical ties to the mill, the exhibit also features a number of people who keep the Mill running today. Tenants, janitorial staff, and the lead architect of the renovation are among the subjects who were chosen to be included. 

As the portraits neared completion, we became involved with helping design the plaques, signage, print material, and website. After taking measurements and having an initial exploratory meeting, we completed a first mockup of how the exhibit might look:

After some back and forth on the color of the wall and the size of then plaques, a final look for the exhibit was determined. Minimal colors were chosen for all elements of the physical installation and the website, allowing the portraits to take center stage. 

To provide context for each person’s role in the Mill a quote from the participant is featured below each portrait. We designed these plaques at 16x3” for readability. 

These subjects sat for their portraits in Suellen’s Revolution Mill studio, sharing their stories as they were painted. In addition to the experts from their stories that are featured on the plaques, you can read longer comments from everyone on the website at www.facesofrevolution.com.  

Gate City Signs fabricated the exhibit signage from black PVC. The dimensional lettering was chosen over a simple vinyl to provide a more permanent and elevated look. 

You can view the installation in the Hall of Fame at Revolution Mill – located at 1050 Revolution Mill Drive. Learn more about the subjects + exhibit here. 

Want to see what inspiration we found a little closer to home? Check out these moodboards from around Greensboro! 

Late last year we did a series of moodboards featuring vignettes and color inspiration from around Greensboro. It wasn’t hard to find inspiration in our surroundings then, but this time we looked a little further from home for our latest color series… and we think you’ll quickly see why. This set of swatches was inspired by photos we took on a week long-trip to Los Angeles in late June. 

While in LA, we visited art museums, parks, lakes, and lots of great restaurants. These color schemes are just a glimpse of the diverse scenery we experienced, and we know we’ll be reflecting back on this trip for inspiration for months to come.

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Getty Greys

A work of art in itself, the cool greys and whites of The Getty contrast a saturated and cloudless sky.

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PCT Palette

This glimpse of the Pacific Crest Trail is rich with subdued greens and yellow. This palette fuses the hues of the desert sky with those from scrubby foliage.

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Mismatched and Multicolored

A study in contradiction, we take inspiration from marrying the colors of this Barbie dream house with the more subdued tones that surround it.

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Santa Monica Sunset

As the sun set over Santa Monica, the sky was cast with vivid yellows and light oranges.

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Plant life panorama

The greenery of The Getty’s cactus garden intermixes with the warm greys of downtown LA and the soothing tone of the travertine tile.

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Curated Color

Spotted at LACMA, this work by Do Ho Suh is a 1:1 scale apartment sculpture is made of polyester fabric and stainless steel tubes. Soft colors create a ghostly and ethereal work of art.

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Hollyhock Hues

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is adorned by stylized hollyhocks on roof finials, furniture, art glass windows, and the ornamental bands of cast-concrete on the structure’s exterior. The real life flower lends a pop of bright pink to this otherwise tranquil scene from Barnsdall Art Park.

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HUE & TONE CREATIVE: Let’s find what inspires you

Whether you’re based in Greensboro or beyond, we’ll help breathe new inspiration into your brand. Let us help you refresh your visual branding, website, and print collateral today. Schedule a meeting to get your next project started.

Lauren Stubbs, Owner of Stubbs Mobile PT

For our first client spotlight of the year, we’re excited to share a fresh branding project for a brand-new business. We partnered up with Stubbs Mobile Physical Therapy in late 2020 to develop a custom logo and corresponding visual brand elements. Owner, Lauren Stubbs, recently started this mobile concierge physical therapy practice as a response to COVID-19 pandemic. Many outpatient physical therapy practices pivoted to include telehealth and some started offering PT at home, but Lauren jumped at the opportunity to make a fully mobile and telehealth practitioner available to the Triad for years to come.

Stubbs Mobile PT brings physical therapy to your home or private workspace to save you time and unnecessary hassle – all while keeping you safer than a traditional office setting. Being outside of insurance, Stubbs Mobile PT also offers preventative physical therapy services including an Annual Wellness Visit, Health Coaching, or Evaluation and Treatment before you have an injury (i.e. if something "just doesn't feel quite right"). Their goal is to provide top-quality service with longer appointment times and one-on-one individualized care so that you are feeling, moving, and living your best as soon as possible. 

We connected with Lauren while teaching Launch Greensboro’s Marketing 101 class. After discussing the importance of marketing and branding, she wanted to start things off strong with a bold and eye-catching brand. Knowing that a standout look would be crucial to marketing her business, we wanted a logo that would translate flawlessly to polo shirts, sprinter vans, and client swag. 

In the initial branding stages, it was clear Lauren was looking for a pictorial mark to accent her logo type and wanted to emphasize a feeling of movement and energy. Friendly, attentive, trustworthy and proactive are just a few of the words that were used to describe the desired look and feel of Stubbs Mobile PT’s future branding. 

One of our favorite stages of the branding process, a mood board helps ensure we’re on the same page as our client. By assigning visuals to the words we’ve been using, we can begin to home in on a feel for the future brand. 

After presenting three mood board options, we refined Lauren’s favorite to have an even more high-energy and vibrant feel. Lauren had mentioned aquas and blues during our initial branding kick-off, and we ended up tailoring her favorite option to include two shades of blue. The final product? A look that hinged on vibrant colors and energetic scenes. Healthy eating, movement, and the outdoors are central to Lauren’s business and we wanted to reflect that from the very early stages of the process.  

After narrowing down Lauren’s favorite mood board concept, it was time to move on to the logo design phase. Ultimately, we went through 4 rounds of initial concepts, and four rounds of color options to narrow down the exact look and feel. 

Many of the initial concepts incorporated kettle bell imagery, hearts, play or motion. After some brainstorming, we landed on the wording concept of “pressing play.” Used with various action phrases, this tagline could be targeted to a wide range of clients. You’ll see the main logo incorporates the phrase “Press play on being pain free.” 

The final logo uses pops of bright oranges, aqua, and yellow – all anchored by a deep blue. These colors pop on any timeline, and the graphic mark adds an element of action. The graphic mark is a take on a press play symbol – which ties into the tagline and lends itself well to use on social media. When working in tandem, all these elements create an action-packed look that’s sure to be eye catching and memorable. 

We’re thrilled with how this rebrand went, and we’re not the only ones. Hear firsthand from business owner, Lauren Stubbs, about the process: 

“I really enjoyed the entire process of working with Hannah at Hue & Tone Creative. Being a first-time entrepreneur, I knew little about the branding process. Hannah guided me through it with confidence and understanding... even when decision-making was tough because she had created multiple amazing logo options. If I could have two logos I would, because that's how great both of the final options were. Despite the Hue & Tone office and my home office being less than 1 mile apart, we went through the entire process virtually (due to COVID-19). The virtual experience didn't detract from the branding process, but I loved knowing we were both members of the same community. Knowing our proximity, ties to Launch Greensboro, and both being women business owners, gave me a sense of connection even though we never met in-person. Supporting small and local businesses, whether walking distance in downtown Greensboro or in the greater Triad area is a central tenet of Stubbs Mobile PT. Being able to work with someone locally yielded excellent results and I'm extremely excited about launching my new look. In fact, in the few weeks since we've unveiled our new logo we've already received positive comments on social media!”

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Want to learn more about Lauren’s business? Head over to her website to learn more! Or, follow her on Instagram here for regular PT, fitness, and movement tips!

In 2021, we anticipate companies messaging will be all about authenticity and simplicity. As brands become more and more social media savvy, the competition is becoming even fiercer. In addition to looking for eye-catching graphics, consumers are more conscious than ever of trying to support ethical brands that align with their values. 

What makes a brand stand out has become about more than just a company’s products and marketing – it’s also about the cause a brand represents and the lifestyle they support. 

After a long year of trying to fight for attention and having to pivot business models, we anticipate that many brands are in for another intense year. Many scrappy businesses were able to distinguish themselves in 2020, and we think pulling to the forefront in 2021 will hinge on strong and distinctive marketing. 

1. Authentic Representation + Socially Conscious Design

Graphics featuring “Stop the spread” and “Black Lives Matter” messaging took center stage in 2020, and we foresee this trend continuing well into 2021 (and, hopefully, beyond). Whether it’s putting an activist message front and center or paying closer attention to representation, brands are being held more accountable for their role in our culture. In addition to socially conscious messaging, marketers are paying closer attention to the representation in their work and featuring a wider array of races, sizes, and ages in their advertising. 

As brands rally around a cause, we suggest making sure the cause makes sense for your brand – and feels authentic. The only thing worse than tone-deaf messaging is the overwrought and inauthentic messaging that comes from a brand trying to co-opt a cause to turn a profit. 

Zappos Goods for Good campaign.

Image source + some food for thought on corporate responsibility.

2. Gold, Terrazzo, and Texture 

The trending textures we anticipate in 2021 are similar to what we saw in 2020. When it comes to home décor, gold and an all-white aesthetic have been reigning for years – in 2021 we anticipate gold will continue to trend… but with hints of soft pinks, dark navy, and other pops of color. We also think terrazzo will continue to appeal in millennial-targeted product photography. 

Purchase this background here

Source

3. Muted Color Palettes

Bright colors and intense duotones have been reigning since early 2017. That’s why we anticipate a shift toward more muted color palettes this year. 

Muted colors are soothing – they can also evoke feelings of nostalgia, safety, comfort, and nature. We saw many health brands using a more muted scheme in 2020, but we think the trend will reach a wider array of industries this year. 

4. Data & Text Heavy Video

Working remotely has ushered in a new phase of more text heavy video design. In addition to clearly communicating a message, these videos work well for people using smaller teams, working remote, or those on a limited budget. 

We see this shift toward text heavy video also working well with current data trends. Gone are the days of complicated infographics – these days big, bold, simple statistics reign. They’re easily shareable and grab people’s attention on the ever-more-crowded internet. 

5. Black and white branding

Black and white branding allows product photography to really stand out. This isn’t a new trend, but it’s certainly something we’re seeing an uptick in. Clean, minimal branding is a great way to stand out from the noise and colorful landscape of social media. As products try to distinguish themselves from the crowd, we think we’ll see more and more colorless branding in 2021. 

6. Dark Mode

This trend relates back to designing for accessibility and ease of use – something we covered in more detail in 2020. 

Dark mode has been gaining reach in online product advertising this year – and we think this shift is going to impact brand design trends in 2021. Apps and operating systems are all offering dark mode options and these dark mode user interfaces help highlight design elements. It’s worth considering how the dark mode experience impacts your users and then tweaking your designs accordingly. 

For example, white fonts on a dark background tend to appear bolder –  does that impact the way people interact with your app? Do your design elements work well at all screen brightness’s?

7. Authentic Photography

Genuine messaging isn’t the only authentic content audiences are looking for – they’ve also got an eye for spotting posed or ersatz stock photography. 

We’ve been a long-time proponent of investing in a branded stock photography shoot. Take a few hours to collect shots that will represent your business for the year to come – you’ll invest a bit more than you will for a stock photo subscription, but the result will be authentic photos that you can use across all of your digital and print advertising.

A few examples of more authentic stock photography from Twenty20.

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Hue & Tone: Your partner in design for 2021

Realizing your brand needs to get with the times? Let’s use more impactful marketing to make 2021 your highest grossing year yet. Reach out to set up an initial consultation now.

This is our last blog post of 2020! After recharging out of the office we’ll be back on January 13, 2021 with fresh blog content. Have a topic request for 2021? We’d love to address any subject you need help with on our blog! Contact us here to share a topic suggestion or leave a comment on this blog post!

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For our last blog of the year, we’ve got an impactful and moving holiday campaign from Crisis Assistance Ministries to share with you.

The mission of Crisis Assistance Ministry (CAM) is to provide assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency. They serve as a one-stop shop for Mecklenburg families facing poverty.  Whether providing a coat to a woman who is homeless, a utility payment for a single father who is trying to keep his home warm, or rental assistance for a veteran who has fallen on hard times, they preserves the dignity of customers while preventing homelessness and eviction. 

This was our second year working with CAM on their annual holiday campaign, and we were thrilled to get the opportunity to support this important cause. The work we did for this holiday giving campaign included designing a campaign logo, letter, card, and envelopes. 

This year’s campaign focused on a theme of “giving the gift of HOME.” Home stands for Help, Opportunity, Motivation, and Empathy. Early designs of the logo spelled out this acronym, but in the end, we opted for a simple logo design and the cozy imagery of a home decorated for the holidays. 

The campaign logo depicts the silhouette of a home, a heart, a key, and a light to draw a key connection between CAM’s services and the campaign. 

The card design features a caretaker and child looking out into the snowy night from the warmth of their home. Simple, yet classic, this scene evokes a wide range of emotions in the viewer – hopefully inspiring them to provide the gift of HOME to a deserving family. 

This campaign launched in November and is still going on today! If you’d like to learn mor or make a donation, head over to crisisassistance.org/holiday.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Design for non-profits 

Is your non-profit looking to launch a campaign of its own? Hue & Tone offers flexible and creative design solutions for nonprofits of all sizes. Let’s build a purposeful partnership today – reach out to learn more about cost-effective options for 501(c)3 nonprofits. 

If you have a great product, your customers will help do the marketing for you – but often you have to provide them with an incentive program to help compensate for their time. A referral program is a deliberate, systematic way of getting people to make referrals to your business. Having a clearly outlined program will help consistency and tact take center stage – and ensure no current customers are turned off by your ask for their help. 

Referrals can come from just about anywhere – existing customers, friends and family, or even a social media testimonial. Having an established system to help you harness the power of these referrals is key to building word of mouth and customer loyalty. 

Decide how much a customer is worth 

Not sure what kind of metric you should be looking for from a referral program? Start by aiming for a 10% conversion rate.

Before you start developing the specifics of your referral program, it’s important to identify what you hope to get out of it. First, figure out what a typical customer is worth. Your referral program should help you build a continual pipeline of new customers – each of which you’ll be obtaining at a lower cost than a traditional customer acquisition.  

Having a concrete figure for customer acquisition costs allows you to determine how much money to sink into building a referral program – as well as how much to spend marketing it. 

Establish your incentive structure

Now that you’ve identified the cost of acquiring a typical customer, it’s time to do a little math on incentives. Don’t limit yourself to just cash incentives – studies actually show that non-cash incentives are 24% more effective at boosting effectiveness (source).

In addition to a typical cash incentive system, consider offering coupons, service upgrades, free swag, gift cards, donations to charities, or access to exclusive products. 

Pinpoint what you’ll be offering to both the referrer and referral – this should be a mutually beneficial ask to ensure everyone walks away with an even more positive view of your brand.  

Develop quality collateral 

Putting time into developing quality referral materials and messaging around your new program is a must. Your messaging should: 

• Feel Personal 

• Cleary explain the benefit to the customer and their friend

• Have easy to understand directions

• Offer a clear explanation of the steps

The easier you make it to refer people the better. Give your customer multiple options for how to share – Facebook, Twitter, email, or a direct link. Offer a pre-filled message to them so they don’t have to do anything but click a button.  

It’s also important to ensure that your referral program is being consistently marketed among your different platforms. Use consistent language across your CTAs, blogs, emails, newsletters, and product updates. 

Track what’s working

Once you’ve got your messaging and incentive structure in place, it’s time to integrate analytics and tracking to monitor its effectiveness. If you’re shopping around for referral program software, this is definitely something you’ll want to dive into before purchasing. At a minimum, you’ll want to track: 

• Who referred who

• When they were referred 

• Whether they were converted or not

• How many links get shared 

• How many links get clicked 

• A/B testing effectiveness

• Where customers tend to drop off in the referral program 

Make sure your whole team is up to date 

Now that you’ve put time into developing a quality referral program, it’s time to make sure everyone is on the same page. Sit down with sales, marketing, and support staff and make sure the whole team is aligned around the goals and vision for your referral program. 

Can they clearly explain incentives? Have they been well trained on any new software? Do they have leeway to offer additional benefits to top referrers? Get everyone up to speed so they can answer questions in real time. 

Don’t forget to say “thank you!” 

Once your program has launched, be sure to take the time to thank your referrers for helping you out! Even though you’re providing them with an incentive already, it never hurts to personally thank them for their support. 

Avoid stagnation 

Once your regular customer incentive program is up and running, consider future ways to keep things fresh or to expand your program. Here’s a few special promotions to consider or incorporate in the months and years to come: 

• Customer Tiers: Now that you have a strong plan in place for one-time referrals, it’s time to start thinking about how to harness the power of regular or high-value customers. Creating tiers is a way to offer continual incentives as customers continue to offer you valuable leads. Each tier can have its own unique benefits so that customers stay motivated. 

• Seasonal Campaigns: Holiday discounts and annual sales can provide a special way to draw in new consumers. 

• Contests: Host a giveaway where customers are entered only after providing a certain number of referrals. To ensure you maintain a high quality of leads, we suggest leads have to signup instead of just provide an email. This means your success will based on conversions rather than just random referrals. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Digital Marketing for the Triad and beyond

Want to take the guesswork out of developing your referral program? We’ll help you develop a program with a clear structure, sound business goals, and beautiful graphics. Ready to get started? Let’s set up a free 20 minute consultation to get to know each other. Make an appointment here.

We’ve been partnering with Smart Beginnings, a regional school readiness coalition (based in Danville, VA), since early 2017. Last week, the team reached out about designing a series of print appreciation ads aimed at childcare providers who have remained open during COVID.

Looking for more general COVID-19 signage? Don’t miss out on our free poster downloads here.

These childcare providers play an important role by ensuring first responders and other essential workers have the childcare they need. With COVID still causing unprecedented disruptions, this ad was the latest in a long line of COVID appreciation posts, ads, and campaigns that we’ve designed.

For the design of this text-centric ad, we pulled elements and colors from a past campaign aimed at Early Childhood Educators and Professionals. The bright red and orange will pop off the page, and the high contrast between the deep grey and white should translate well to newsprint.

Here’s a sneak preview of one of the ads:

If you’re in the Danville area, you can spot this ad + additional designs in the Danville Register & Bee and the Star Tribune!

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The mission of Smart Beginnings DP is to strengthen the system of individuals and organizations caring for and educating children ages birth to five. Their goal is ensure that young children ages are emotionally, intellectually and physically ready to succeed in school. Learn more at www.SmartBeginningsDP.org. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Let us help you with communication in the time of COVID

Looking to successfully communicate your latest COVID message with clients? Don’t let the pandemic cause your branding and messaging to fall apart. Whether you’re looking for digital, print, or storefront materials, we can ensure you’re creating on brand (and beautiful) messaging.

This week, we’re taking time out from talking marketing to celebrate a few vignettes from our city. From muted downtown streets to the Bicentennial Gardens, we’re finding color inspiration in some of our favorite Greensboro spots.

We’re big believers that every city offers inspiration – sometimes you just have to stop and notice it. With a bustling downtown and expansive trails, Greensboro offers the best of both city and nature views. No matter where you are in Greensboro, we guarantee that there’s a dynamic color scheme somewhere in your view.

Dappled Depot

Soft blues, purples and pinks are diffused by the fog drifting in over the J. Douglas Galyon Depot in Downtown Greensboro. We love the soft hues of this nighttime scene.

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 Botanical Brights 

Great for a short walk, quiet reflection, or reading on a comfy park bench, the Tanger Bicentennial Garden is one of our favorite spots in Greensboro. Rich colors line the pathways, and a variety compelling sculptures can be found tucked among the foliage. For more secluded scenery, pop right across the road to the Bog Garden. 

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Clear Skies over Kress

Crisp blue skies highlight the pristine facades of the Kress and Meyers Buildings’ on South Elm Street. Changing leaves provide small touches of green and yellow to this palette.

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Retro Revolution

Tucked in a quiet corner of Revolution Mill’s courtyard, this retro mural installation is a bright pop of color among a sea of brick. These colors are bright and muted all at once!

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Lite Brite LeBauer 

The sky is illuminated over LeBauer Park by Janet Echelman’s Where We Met installation. Our two downtown parks provide a great place to gather, celebrate, and play while immersing yourself in all the city has to offer. Bright colors are especially present in these fun and family-friendly spaces!

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South Elm Snow

On an all white day, the Green Bean’s bright facade offers a pop of color among an otherwise muted look at South Elm Street.

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Guilford Grey 

On a rainy and grey day, the heart of downtown has mostly subdued tones to offer up. But this mood board is a favorite because you can see the Guilford Building in the upper right portion of the photo… can you spot us waving from our office windows in the top right corner? Just kidding…

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Hue & Tone Creative: Inspiration and Color in Greensboro, NC

Whether you’re based in Greensboro or beyond, we’ll help breathe new inspiration into your brand. Let us help you refresh your visual branding, website, and print collateral today. Schedule a meeting to get your next project started.

In the fall of 2019, we partnered up with local lover Luck Davidson to brand her new blog. Named “SoLocal Life,” her new platform focuses on highlighting local people, places, and indie businesses. With a home-base of Greensboro, Luck builds community while eating, drinking, shopping, dog walking, and asking lots of questions.

We set out to help her build her community with a brand she could be proud of. Before we could start designing logos, we needed to narrow down the feel of Luck’s brand.

The best way to do this? Setting forth a series of five mood boards that all demonstrate a different feel and energy.

The winner? The below mood board… but with one request — we incorporate even brighter colors! Less earth tones and livelier hues.

Once we got to the logo development stage, we kept Luck’s preference for brighter colors in mind. But first, we had to narrow down a concept. We toyed around with a variety of fun fonts, organic elements, and playful ideas. Here’s a sampling of some of the black & white concepts we considered:

Ultimately, we ended up with a seal logo that incorporated the tagline “All Things Local.” Our final logo incorporated a bright pop of pink, a saturated green, and a vibrant blue. Deep grey and a soothing tan ground this color scheme.

Four variations of the logo ensure that there’s a mark to fit every space!

SoLocal Life launched earlier this year into — and while COVID has thrown many local businesses into flux, Luck’s support and online presence haven’t wavered. With local businesses working to make it through the pandemic, there’s no better person to follow for updates on all your favorite Boro businesses.

Follow Luck + SoLocal Life on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And, stay up to date with her website here!

Cultivating an email list is an important element of any cohesive digital marketing plan. It’s fast, flexible, and cost effective. It allows you to directly connect with past, current, and future customers in a tailored and carefully targeted way. 

Like all digital marketing, email marketing has undergone changes in past years – but it’s as relevant in 2020 as it’s ever been. Reasonably priced and highly flexible, email marketing shows a great return on investment:

• Emails are 6x more likely than tweets to get higher click-through rates (source)

• Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter (source)

• 81% of online shoppers who receive emails based on previous shopping habits were at least somewhat likely to make a purchase as a result of targeted email (source)

• 72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media (source)

• Email marketing has an ROI of 3800% (source)

Who should be on your list 

Avoid spamming people – don’t send emails to people who haven’t actively signed up for your email communications. 

How you organize your email lists will vary greatly based on your goals, but we encourage you to gather every email you can (even if it’s someone you are not ready to market to just yet). Your email list should consist of email addresses from past/current customers and qualified leads. You can use email to communicate everything from company information and product updates to discounts and exclusive content. 

 In order to derive the maximum benefit from your email list, it’s important that you continue building your list over time. The more subscribers you gain, the more valuable your email list becomes – and the more potential revenue you can gain from utilizing it. 

Places to build your email list

• Call to Action (CTA) buttons/links: Every landing page and blog page on your website should have a CTA for your email list. Embed them in the text of the page and be sure to add a sign-up at the bottom of every post.

• Gather sign-ups through social media: No matter the size of your budget, Facebook is a great place to capture new leads. The advanced targeting allows you to connect with fairly qualified leads and cultivate them over time through email. 

• Cart opt-in: Someone who is already checking out on your website is clearly interested in your product – making it a perfect time to ask them to opt into emails. When a customer places an order and gives you their information, you’ll want to capitalize on the opportunity by asking them if they want to receive promotional emails. 

• Contact forms: Similar to the cart opt-in strategy, allow people who are sending a general inquiry to opt into your email list. 

• Integrate with your CRM: Do you utilize an existing customer relationship management tool like Hubspot? Using an integration with your existing CRM can be a great way to automatically add new contacts to your email database.  

• Free Content Offers: Have gated content or a freebie you could use to drive email sign-ups? Share it on social media! If you have a free printout or digital download you want to offer people, make it an exclusive for new email subscribers and deliver it directly to their inbox (which means you’ll capture their email address in the meantime). 

• Referral Programs: Someone who loves your product is the best ambassador for it – get existing customers to refer folks to your brand. Offer cash rewards, discounts, or points and build a full-on loyalty program that will keep the referrals rolling in. 

• Exit intent pop-ups: This is a pop up that appears right when you’re about to click to a new page or ex out of the tab. As visitors are about to leave, offer them something that will make them become an email subscriber. This will allow you to continue to engage with them. Just make sure to use cookies to track returning visitors so that you don’t repeatedly show them the same pop-up.
  
  

Tailor for maximum benefit 

No matter what stage of the buying process a lead is in, you can create a targeted email that appeals to them. 

Automations that are triggered by a specific action can save you time and allow you to have a more personalized interaction with a customer. Automated triggers also allow you to respond to your customers interest in real-time. Did they abandon a shopping cart full of goods? Send them an email reminding them to check out… or, enticing them with a discount for completing the purchase!

Other Benefits

• Measurable: Tracking the success of a promotion is easy with the built-in analytics that email software offers. Track delivery rates, bounce rates, click through, and open rates easily and effectively.

• A/B Testing: Testing the effectiveness of different elements of your email (like photos, copy, colors, or calls to action) will ensure your email is as effective as possible. 

• Targeted messaging: We’ve already touched on this a bit, but the ability to highly tailor and nurture a lead is a capability almost no other type of marketing can offer. 

• Everyone uses it: Almost 91% of all consumers use email, which gives email marketing widespread appeal. 

• Environmentally friendly: In addition to being cheaper, digital mailings save trees. A huge bonus if your business is sustainably minded! 

One last tip: Do you have a list of older or less interested contacts? Reinvigorate it by sending a message to re-engage these contacts. Let them know you’ll be removing anyone who doesn’t respond – and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how many people choose to opt in and stick around. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your partner in email marketing

Completely overwhelmed by all the emails you have to send out? Outsource the work to an expert and get the full return on investment that email marketing has to offer. We’re here to help you develop a strategy for your digital marketing: from identifying target demographics to crafting emails and targeting social media ads. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help.

Not designing with accessibility in mind means possibly alienating a ton of potential app or website users. Roughly 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability – which means you could be excluding over 1 billion people from using your app. 

In May, we highlighted 7 tips for successful app design. One of the tips we got the most questions about was the importance of designing for accessibility. Here’s a quick excerpt from that post: 

Designing an accessible interface means thinking about how people with vision loss, hearing loss, and other disabilities will use your app.  

For example, don’t make red and green the only indicator of a successfully filled out form. Add an “x” next to incorrect fields and a check mark by correct fields to serve as additional visual indicator so that people with red/green color blindness can still easily and successfully use your app. Similarly, consider adding transcripts to video or sound clips to aid those with hearing loss.

That quick overview left us wanting to share more about accessible design. Accessibility features should address both permanent and temporary impairments by utilizing simple and intuitive designs that address a wide range of potential impairments. Inclusive design focuses on four main areas: cognitive, visual, hearing/aural, and physical/dysmotility.

There’s a lot of in-depth research available on how best to address the challenges each type of disability may face – but there’s a handful of simple things that any designer can do to increase the usability of their app. 

Keyboard Control

Keep in mind that some users may only be interacting with your site or app through keyboard commands. You want to provide multiple ways to interact with controls. Providing keyboard shortcuts and letting users navigate your app with tab and arrow keys will allow those who are visually impaired to use your app. Once you’ve thoroughly tested the accessibility of the site or app, consider putting instructions or a video online showing people how best to navigate the site with keyboard commands only. 

intuitive navigation

Intuitive navigation will make your UI better for every user, but is also incredibly helpful for those using screen readers or keyboard controls. To increase ease and speed of use, think about what people will need to access most easily and ensure that’s front and center.

high contrast colors

When using colors, make sure you stick to a high contrast color scheme. There should be clear contrast between background and foreground, and any text should have a sharp contrast with the background color. Don’t forget to take your phone for a spin in greyscale to see how everything looks! 

Resolution Options

People with difficulty seeing may view your app at up to 200% zoom. Keep this in mind when you design and be sure to test your design out at multiple different zoom levels.

Limit needed gestures

People with limited physical mobility may have a hard time making complicated gestures. To ensure everyone can use your app, you’ll want to make sure that gestures and button sizes are configurable in your app. 

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“People that have physical motor limitations might encounter problems while navigating a mobile application. Tapping or other forms of gestures need to be configurable so that a user is not bound to a specific gesture. Also, a gesture should never be a mandatory event since physical motor limitations should not restrict the navigational behavior of an app. Both Android and iOS offer users the ability to configure shortcuts for frequently used phrases or words, as well as timing between presses on the screen. The size of buttons (or other touchable triggers in apps) are also configurable.” (Source)

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Visual indication

Don’t rely on colors as the sole indicator on any element of your app. Your content should be perceivable in a variety of ways – for example, hyperlinks should be underlined as well as different a color. Checkmarks or “X”s should indicate if a form field has been accepted. 

Alternate text or descriptions

For images or videos that don't contain information, provide alternative text that briefly describes the content. If the image contains data a user needs to know, include a brief description of the data, chart, or diagram. 

Screen readers

Content can be optimized to enhance the experience of those who use screen readers or will be experiencing a text-only version of your app. Screen readers will verbalize both visible and hidden content and read it out loud to the user. It’s important to keep in mind that screen readers rely on the top-down structure of HTML. 

Informative alt text

For more on how to properly write your alt text check out this guide. 

Screen readers will also read the alt text of your images to help translate a visual experience into a text based one. Alt text is a short label (up to 125 characters) in the code that describes an image for users who are unable to see them. As a bonus, properly tagging and describing images in your alt text can also enhance your SEO! 

Provide alternatives to sound

When it comes to critical audio elements, text alternatives should be provided. Video transcripts, video captioning or audio transcriptions should always be included with video or sound elements. In addition to supporting those with hearing loss, many prefer to view videos without sound or would prefer to quickly skim the content of the video.

Feel like your app is accessible to everyone? Don’t stop there! Be sure you do extensive user testing before hitting the market. And, even after your app is released ensure that users can easily provide feedback. Use customer feedback and analytics to continually analyze and improve your app. 

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Hue & Tone Creative

Not sure how to translate your brand into the perfect app or website? That’s what we’re here for. We’ll help you remove the guesswork from developing your brand — and everything you need to communicate it. Contact us today.

Picking the right color palette is important — whether you’re looking to refresh your logo or just design a social media graphic, selecting the right hues can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your graphic. Certain colors evoke feelings of action, while others are often identified with calm and serenity.

In a past post, we covered what color theory is and why it’s important to consider it during the design process. Today, we’re putting the rules of color theory into practice with a handful of sample color schemes.

These 8 color schemes are suitable for a wide range of businesses and can serve as a frame of reference for what colors connect with what customers. Copy these colors directly or use them as a jumping off point for designing your own scheme!

For interior design businesses

Light, neutral colors provide a versatile canvas for any room you want to showcase.

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For businesses who deal with women’s health

Make your female clientele feel cared for with soothing hues of purple. A dusty mauve grounds this scheme, keeping it from feeling too girly.

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For businesses who want to give off a corporate feel

If you’re in a corporate or service business, you can never go wrong with basic blues. A pop of orange adds contrast and elevates this scheme to feel more modern.

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For businesses whose clients are tweens

When appealing to a younger clientele, keep things fun and vibrant with lilac, an aqua blue, and a pear green.

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For businesses who deal with art

If you deal with an elevated clientele, these unexpected shades are neutral yet a bit adventurous. Earthy and understated.

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For businesses who deal with tech

If you’re looking for something bold and clean, yellow and a deep grey speaks to an action oriented and bold brand.

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For businesses whose clients are young kids

If you work with young kids, keep it fun and bright with azure blue, a grassy green and a vivid red.

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For businesses whose clients go outside

If you sell outdoor equipment or experiences, branch out from earthy browns and greens and dig into some more unexpected colors. Burgundy, a muted Prussian blue, and a papaya orange are an unexpected but organic combination.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your branding partner

Looking to develop just the right color scheme for your brand? Don’t leave the process of selecting the perfect colors up to chance. Bring in our expert team and we’ll ensure you create a brand that connects with your customers. From naming your business to creating a polished website, Hue & Tone is here to help. Book an initial consultation now to get started.

The difference between a successful app design and a failure isn’t just an app that looks sleek and well-designed. When it comes down to it what makes an effective app is user experience.  

Before we get into specific design tips, it’s worth sharing our biggest development tip of all: focus your app on doing one thing well. Overloading your app with features makes it hard to market to potential users. Home in on the one thing you want your app to do really well, and once you’ve achieved success there you can begin to add on additional features. 

Once you’ve determined the sole focus of your app, you’ll be able to determine who your audience is and design for them. But no matter what your target demographic, there’s a few design considerations you’ll want to keep in mind during the development process. 

1. Keep navigation simple 

If your app has a narrow focus, this tip will be easy to execute. You want to keep your app navigation streamlined and intuitive for users. Limit the number of options people have available and use common terms and design elements. Avoid thinking outside of the box on your navigation design – you want to stick to easily recognizable symbols.   

Most importantly, navigation should be available at ALL times, not just when you think the user might need it. 

2. Accessibility is important 

Designing an accessible interface means thinking about how people with vision loss, hearing loss, and other disabilities will use your app.  

For example, don’t make red and green the only indicator of a successfully filled out form. Add an “x” next to incorrect fields and a check mark by correct fields to serve as additional visual indicator so that people with red/green color blindness can still easily and successfully use your app. Similarly, consider adding transcripts to video or sound clips to aid those with hearing loss. 

3. Use familiar icons

Familiar icons work best when designing an app with widespread use. Use a magnifying glass to represent your search feature, a house to represent your home page, a printer to represent printing. Whatever you’re trying to communicate, your icons should have universal recognition from users – icon design is simply not the place to get creative. 

In addition to familiar visual icons, stick with simple text labels. Use intuitive terms like “Home, Search, and Back” to avoid confusing users.  

 4. Minimize user input and error

No one would willing choose to write a novel on their phone – it’s hard to see, hard to type and people typically end up misspelling a lot of words. 

If your app includes a form or survey element, be sure to keep it as short as possible. Think hard about what fields you really need to include and ask the bare minimum you can without losing effectiveness.

Make sure you use smart features (like autocomplete) to help reduce user error and ensure accuracy. You’ll also want to make sure the correct keyboard type will pop up when a user goes to fill out a form – they shouldn’t have to navigate to their number keyboard when filling out a phone number, the numeric keyboard should just automatically pop up.

5. Respect platform guidelines 

Each mobile operating system has a set of standard guidelines to help you provide a high-quality app. Your app users are already familiar with the standard operating guidelines of each system, so it’s important to keep your design in line with customary procedures. 

Keep in mind that these guidelines constantly evolve – it’s important to stay on top of the ever-changing trends and guidelines for mobile app design.  

• Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines

• Google’s Material Design Guidelines

6. Include screen titles

 Users often forget what page they’re on, or they might just not have a good sense of where they’re at in the app. Including a simple title at the top of the page is a great way for users to get a better sense of the app and helps avoid them repeatedly navigating to the same page. 

And as an added bonus, screen titles often give a page design a polished look! 

7.  Keep branding consistent 

Your mobile app should share similar characteristics with your main website. In addition to being an important extension of your branding, visual inconsistency may lead users to be suspicious of your app or cause them confusion. 

You not only want to match the look of your app to the rest of your branding, but you also want to keep elements in the app cohesive throughout your interface. For example, typefaces, buttons, and colors should be consistent on every page of the app. Every element should have both a native and branded feel to encourage user trust. 

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About Hue & Tone Creative

Hue & Tone helps businesses of all sizes build credibility and connection with intentional design. Whether you’re looking to create a mobile app or a traditional website, we’re here to help your business grow through thoughtful design. Contact us to get started. 

It’s easy to spot a bad logo once it’s been created, but what should you be on the lookout for before the design process even begins? 

We see poorly designed logos every day – sometimes as a result of shoddy design work and sometimes as a result of miscommunication between client and designer. No matter what the reason, it’s important to know what makes a good quality logo before the design process even begins. 

If you’re just beginning to consult with a designer – or, you’re a novice designer just getting into brand design – we’ve got 7 common mistakes for you to look out for. 

1. Not considering black and white

If your logo relies heavily on gradients, 3-D effects or a specific color then you’re setting yourself up for failure. No element of your logo should only be distinguishable or in context when the logo is in full color. A properly designed logo will have a strong form and be recognizable as your brand even when printed in black and white. 

You don’t want to embroider your logo on hundreds of shirts only to find that it’s no longer identifiable. If you make sure to create a black and white version of your logo in the very early stages of the branding process, you’ll save yourself from any unhappy surprises down the road.

2. Not designing for all formats 

Every good logo needs to work for something as large as a billboard, but should also be able to printed on something as small as a lapel pin. 

Your logo should be future-proofed – meaning that no matter where it needs to be printed in the future, it will still work well. If your business needs a new branded product, you shouldn’t need to engage a designer to update the logo to make sure it works well on a new product. 

 However, designing for all formats may mean that you have multiple variations of your logo. That doesn’t mean your main logo isn’t effective, it just means that your designer has thought through all the possible applications and designed something that will work for every medium. 

3. Getting too trendy 

A properly designed logo might not look exactly like everyone else’s – and that’s a good thing. Your designer should be creating an original graphic based on your business and it’s unique appeal to customers. 

While you might want an ultra-sleek mark that mirrors what you see Google or Facebook doing, that doesn’t mean it’s the right look for your business. Your logo should be distinct and unique to your business and you shouldn’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing. If you do, chances are you’ll have to update things a few years down the road when the rest of the design hivemind sets its sights on a new trend. 

4. Utilizing raster images 

A professional logo requires professional software – any logo you’re able to create using freeware or that is delivered to you in a JPEG format isn’t going to work down the road. 

When you engage a designer be sure you request your logo in a .EPS or .Ai format – these are vector file formats, meaning they can be scaled to ANY size down the road. Beware, a Photoshop file is a raster image, meaning there’s a limit to the size it can be scaled. 

5. Tacky symbols and excessive inclusions 

There’s no need to include copyright symbols, “LLC”, “Inc.” or registration symbols in your logo. They clutter up the final design and are often distracting from the rest of the logo. Other than on tax forms, you should leave these designators out.  

6. Not investing in a quality designer

Whether you hold a contest, ask a friend to design your logo, or utilize somewhere like Fiverr, you can expect to get what you paid for…. or didn’t pay for. 

Logos are important, which is why they typically cost thousands of dollars. If you don’t budget accordingly, you can expect to cost yourself money down the road when you run into problems with your file formats, scaling… or even issues like plagiarism. 

7. Creating a logo, but not a brand 

While your logo may be a crucial building block for your brand, it’s not your whole brand. Don’t make the mistake of stopping the design process after your logo has been created, because it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

A well thought out set of brand colors, typography, alternate marks, and brand symbols are all crucial to creating a full brand identity. Before you engage a designer, make sure they can help you with the whole branding process and don’t intend to send you on your way with just a logo.  

We suggest asking for a brand guide or brand sheet that outlines all the elements of your brand and how to use each. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your logo and branding partner 

Your logo is a major investment – so pick the right design firm to invest in. Hue & Tone Creative is a boutique design firm specializing in all things visual, and we would love to partner up with you on your next big rebrand. 

The old adage that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression holds particular relevance when applied to the world of business.

Company representatives are continually vying for the attention of prospective clients and business cards are widely regarded as a quintessential tool for both seasoned pitchers and entry-level rookies, as they strive to broker deals with new customers.

The lure of a well-designed business card shouldn’t be underestimated; a suave, stylish product can instantly grab the attention of a prospective client, while an uninspiring, drab design will be confined to the trash.

Despite digital platforms dramatically altering how businesses communicate, the popularity of business cards has shown no signs of stagnating. There are a staggering 27 million business cards printed daily, with many acknowledging their capability to successfully connect businesses with clients when designed in a compelling, engaging way.

How Can Business Card Design Instill Client Confidence?

Want your logo to convey a feeling of creativity? Color can help you do that. Find out what colors convey a what emotion here.

Trust is an indispensable element to any business relationship - if a brand doesn’t convey reliability, then this will have a detrimental impact on conversion rates.

A well-designed business card has the potential to set the tone for how you treat your customers, what your business is like, and how you professionally conduct yourself.

When considering the design of a business card, meticulously plan each detail and consider how they reflect both you and your core values. For instance, what are the connotations of the coloring and fonts used? Is the typeface reflective of your personality?

Every detail should hold relevance, communicating to your intended audience what they can expect, should they decide to join forces and collaborate with your firm. 

2020 Business Card Design Trends

While business cards of yesteryear paid homage to simplistic ideas, modern-day entrepreneurs and professionals are continually opting to embrace a variety of cutting-edge designs, using their business cards as a medium to convey their brand identity, as well as communicate their personal contact information.

Research has indicated that over 80% of business cards get thrown away in less than one week, a quandary that can be rectified by paying attention to emerging design trends.

With a whole host of designs available for your company to choose from in 2020, here are a select few that are sure to catch the eye of potential clients at networking events and meetings this year.

Interactive Business Cards 

The days whereby business people are forced to settle for a conventional business card are long gone, with many embracing an interactive alternative.

While contact details are undoubtedly the most significant part of a business card, offering an interactive product is a wonderful opportunity to convey your character, ingenuity, and flair.

From branded seed pouches for gardening companies to perforated designs for divorce lawyers, there are a variety of ways that an interactive card can represent your craft - all it takes is a sprinkle of imagination! 

QR Business Cards 

In 2019, a mind-blowing 5 billion people owned a mobile phone, with many gaining access to the QR code feature.

Given the dramatic growth of digital culture, more companies are deciding to incorporate QR codes into their designs and acknowledging the benefits a QR business card brings to the table.

QR codes enable the distribution of essential information to customers while saving space on the card itself; more information is offered in digital format, without compromising the sleek design. For example, by simply scanning the code, clients can gain access to informative videos about the services that a company offers.

A common downside associated with business cards is the difficulties associated with tracking their effectiveness or their impact on the customer journey. However, QR codes can be tracked with a series of online tools, providing valuable insight into audience behaviors, etc. This data can then be evaluated and used to influence future marketing campaigns, and so forth.

With mobile phone users on-screen time amounting to an average of 35 days per year, stats such as this bode particularly well for businesses who are bridging the gap between reality and the virtual world.

Perforated Cards

The business world is shaped by competition, so what better way to oust your rivals than offer customers an immediate business incentive upon receiving your business card?

A quirky design that’ll grab the attention of potential clientele, perforated cards are split into two parts and are a fantastic way to entice customers with introductory coupon offers that can be torn, without compromising the essential information printed on the other half of the card.

Deviate from the Norm… 

Rule of thumb dictates that business cards are traditionally rectangular, but in the world of design, rules are made to be broken.

Previous years have seen designers create cards that come in a range of shapes and sizes. These alternative designs are set to continue into 2020 and introducing subtleties within your design can introduce an elegance that’ll set your business card apart from the competition.

For instance, rounded edges give a card a sophisticated finish, while a more daring die-cut can make your card particularly striking. 

Furthermore, simple amendments to orientation can make a notable difference, presenting an opportunity to experiment with new typefaces and formats.

Minimalism 

While some may favor the innovative approach when designing their new business cards, a legion of traditionalists will argue: Why fix something that isn’t broken?

A design trend popular during the 20th Century, minimal business cards have survived the test of time and continue to prove popular amongst many businesses, so much so, that this design trend is expected to continue into 2020.

Minimalistic business cards convey key messages in a condensed, yet effective manner. This design is often used to increase visibility and readability, whilst also creating a sense of intrigue, in turn, prompting potential clients to get in touch for more information.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your Business Design Partners

Whether you're a traditionalist or an innovator in need of inspiration, Hue and Tone Creative has a wealth of creativity, ready to be unleashed. Call (336) 365-8559 or email hannah@hueandtonecreative.com and we'll be delighted to help you get your brand back on track. 

New to shoppable posts? Head over to our step-by-step guide here.

Month-over-month and year-over-year, more and more consumers are making purchases directly on social media. One digital marketing company found that in the last 12 months, there’s been a 38% increase in the number of users who placed high importance on being able to discover and purchase products directly through Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

When it comes to social shopping and visual content, here are a few stats you need to know:

• 91% of brands agree visual content creates more engaging shopping experiences

• 86% say their imagery enhances their discoverability

• 73% said visual content increases conversions

• 77% confirmed it deepened brand trust

Allowing users to buy directly on social media should be part of an integrated, multi-platform approach. When used in conjunction with good data, well-targeted ads, and great organic social content, you’re sure to have a winning strategy in place. 

One of the most important elements of that winning strategy is strong images. And, while the guidelines for each social platform are a little different, there’s one thing that’s true across every platform: high quality photography is a must. 

With that in mind, read below for details on how to tailor your images to each platform. 

Facebook

Regardless of what you’re selling, there are a couple of requirements your images must follow:

1. Each product must be supported by at least one image

2. The photo you use has to be of the product itself -- no creative interpretation allowed!

Once you’ve met those two guidelines, we also recommend you:

• Make sure your images are easy to understand and that they capture the whole of the product. That’s not to say you’ll be penalized if the corner of your wallet is cropped out of the picture, but clarity is key and consumers want to see exactly what they’ll be buying. 

• Use an image resolution of 1024px x 2024px or higher for a clear display resolution.

• If you’re worried your images don’t have a cohesive look, consider placing your photo on a white background. It’s a clean and simple approach that works well for almost every product.

• Take shots of your product in real-life scenarios. For example, someone wearing a handbag gives an idea of scale and also provides the opportunity to show off your brand aesthetic. It’s a win-win!

• Use the following image ratios to ensure your ad will display properly: 

  • Ad images on the computer: 470 x 246 pixels.

  • Images of ads for mobile: 560 x 292 pixels.

  • Images in ads with a vertical column: 254 x 113.

Instagram

Next up is Instagram – and whether you’re dabbling in shoppable posts or stories here’s what you need to know to ensure your images convert:

•  Consistency is key so make sure your photos reflect your brand’s personality. Users should instantly know it’s you when they scroll by! For example, here are two feeds that have a clear and recognizable look: 

Hubspot

Starbucks

•  Brush up on different composition techniques and experiment with them in your shoots. You’ll want to establish your own style over time, but if you’re just getting started there’s a few things that are usually a hit on social: 

  • Rule of thirds: Divide your photo into thirds (horizontally and vertically) and sit your product on the intersecting lines. More on that here. 

  • Rule of odds: Put five bracelets in the frame instead of four, it’s usually more appealing. 

  • Negative space: Ensure the space surrounding the product takes up more space than the product itself. 

  • Centered composition: Place your product in the middle of the frame. This will ensure your image crops well no matter where it’s being previewed. 

• Play with your exposure until your photos find the right balance. Or, play around with under and over exposure to give your images a signature style!

Photo source

Pinterest 

Need tips on creating a branded look? We can help with that – check out this post. 

On Pinterest, image quality reigns! Like Pinterest, Instagram is a visual platform – but Pinterest offers even less context than an Instagram post. Think of your picture as the preview for your whole webpage – even though you can create a long pin, you’ll want to get key text and a few grabby images up above the fold. 

• Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio (ex: 1000 x 1500 pixels). Other ratios may cause your Pin to truncate and may negatively impact performance.

• Just like Instagram, you’ll want to bring consistency to your feed by establishing clear and consistent branding. 

• The images you pick should help people understand why your product or idea is the right fit for them. Pick images that show context and bring your topic to life. Clearly show how someone might use your product, try your project, etc.

• Text overlay can make your Pins stand out, adds context, and enhances your message. Keep text concise so it’s easy for people to read on their phones.

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Hue & Tone: Let’s Get Social Together

Need help overhauling the look of your social media? Whether it’s your creating custom images or finding the perfect photo, we’ve got the solution that fits your needs. Get in touch at (336) 365-8559 or hannah@hueandtonecreative.com to find out more.

October is one of the eeriest times of year: Halloween, colder temperatures, the time change, end of year tax prep… it’s all pretty frightening. While most people associate this time of year with black and orange, there’s a much wider color palette we think you should consider for this spooky season.

If you’re looking for a color scheme to spruce up your latest seasonal advertisement or your creepy social media graphics, consider pulling swatches from one of these boards. In addition to the traditional orange and black we’re pulling in earth tones and shades of purple, green, red, white, and yellow. We’re even playing around with a few pops of pink! 

Sinister Skies

Nothing evokes a Spooktacular feeling quite like a cloudy night sky. In this color scheme, a classic pumpkin orange pairs with goldenrod, a deep red, and an inky blue. 

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Saturated Skeletons

These bright colors aren’t something you would usually associate with Halloween – but the dayglo orange and pink speak to the vibrant lights of a late night party. 

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Haunted Hues

Warm glowing lights illuminate the windows of this haunted mansion — the charred stone and cloudy sky inspire a more muted palette of deep orange and dark blue. With it’s toned down colors, this palette will work well for all of fall.

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Macabre Mask

Pops of rich pink and teal stipple this haunting Day of the Dead face paint. The strong contrast between the deep black and accent colors creates an evocative calavera design.

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Pale Pumpkins

You don’t have to use orange and black for halloween — and pumpkins don’t even have to be orange! These washed out hues show a different take on a classic halloween symbol.

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Frightening Forest

At first this image just looks shades of blue - but peer a little closer and you’ll see deep magenta and rich greens. Who knows what else might be lurking behind these colorful trees…

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Eldritch Eyes

Black cats are synonymous with bad luck, making them the perfect emblem for All Hallows Eve. Different shades of grey pepper his fur and his haunting green eyes will stay with you for days to come.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Design work for every season

Not up for the work of creating your own holiday campaign? Whether you’re scrambling for last minute Halloween graphics or working on your winter campaign, we’re here to create the perfect imagery for you. Contact us to get started!

Whether you’re a real estate agent, hairdresser, baker, or jeweler, color plays a big part in your brand, because it affects how you attract and connect with customers. 

What’s color psychology?

It’s the relationship between colors and human behavior — for example, does a yellow logo elicit more trust? Or does grey packaging make people more likely to purchase your product? 

Color psychology explains the meaning behind why people (in and out of the business world) prefer certain hues over others. It also takes into account individual color biases when deciding on a specific color — like upbringing, gender, location, and values.

Why is it important? 

Color evokes feelings and emotions — and feelings and emotions can make or break sales. Take the time to get it right and your organization could benefit from:

1. Standing out from the competition 

2. Positioning itself the way it wants to be perceived 

3. Influencing how customers digest and interpret your information 

4. Improving credibility and trustworthiness

Colors and their meaningS

Red

Feelings: excitement, passion, danger, energy and action

In the color psychology world, red is seen as the most intense color for creating strong emotions and attracting attention -- which is why a lot of businesses use it for their ‘Buy Now’ buttons. 

Tip: Because red can be associated with danger it’s best to use it sparingly.

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Orange 

Feelings: creativity, adventure, enthusiasm, success and balance

Orange is also an impactful color but on a less overwhelming scale, so it can often be used in larger doses without becoming overbearing. Because of its eye-grabbing nature, a lot of businesses use orange for call-to-actions.

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Yellow

Feelings: happiness, positivity, optimism, summer, warnings

Centered around the sun, our emotions around yellow are largely upbeat and summery. But, on rare occasions, yellow can be construed as dangerous too (think construction zones).

Exploring some color scheme options? Check out a few of our mood boards here, here, and here.

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Pink

Feelings: femininity, playfulness, immaturity, and unconditional love

Because of its connotations, pink is mostly used by companies who predominantly target females -- big name brands that follow suit include Barbie and Victoria’s Secret. Remember it can reflect immaturity though, so it’s important to choose the tone and quantity of pink carefully.

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Green

Inspired by nature? We’ve got some inspiration here.

Feelings: growth, fertility, health, and generosity

As far as color psychology goes, green is tightly associated with nature and money, and is commonly used by health and fitness businesses. It does have its negative ties though, like envy.

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Blue

Feelings: stability, harmony, peace, calm, and trust

Linked to the sea and sky, blue has a lot of security-related emotions attached to, making it a go to choice for retailer’s guarantee icons, certificates, or shipping icons. On the other end of the spectrum, it can also be connected with depression and coldness. 

Tip: With blue, the tone you choose will make a world of difference in the vibe you give off, so take your time to make sure you pick the right one. We suggest doing a little research on the specific shades of blue to take your color psychology research a step further!

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Purple

Feelings: power, nobility, luxury, wisdom, and spirituality

Purple is packed with royal vibes and is tightly linked to connotations of wealth, extravagance, and pride. Be careful with how much you use this one, because too much can leave people with an impression of frustration or even arrogance. 

With purple it’s all about the shade, tint, and hue you use: 

• Light purple = feminine energy and delicacy

• Dark purple = feelings of gloom, sadness, and frustration

• Bright purple = riches and royalty

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White/Black 

White

Feelings: innocence, goodness, cleanliness, and humility

White can bring mental clarity, promote feelings of fresh beginnings, and encourage positive thoughts; which is why many businesses use it as the backdrop for product shoots. 

It likely goes without saying that black text on a white background is the number one readability combo, but just be mindful that too much white can leave a sterile and cold impression.

Black

Feelings: mystery, power, elegance, and sophistication

Too much black can be overwhelming and give off negative emotions -- like sadness and anger, but just the right amount can evoke strong doses of the right kind. Think strength, authority, and seriousness.

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Grey 

Feelings: neutrality, balance, and timelessness.

Balance is key if you’re dabbling with grey and less can often be more — stick to using it for things like fonts, headers, and graphics is a safe bet. Large quantities can be quite dull and bring out the connotations of depression and loss, so make sure to pick your placement wisely.

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Brown 

Feelings: comfort, security, wholesomeness, and honesty

Symbolizing earth, wood, and stone, brown is all about nature and can correspond with feelings of comfort, security, warmth, and stability.

You probably don’t tend to see brown used in large volumes, because it can be considered a bit boring. In small doses, brown can serve as a great alternative to cooler grays, and can evoke a feeling of warmth and security.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Colors are our specialty

Whether you need to rebrand, are looking to launch a social media campaign, or design a billboard, we’ll help you find the color that evokes the right emotion. Want to learn more about how we might work together? Get in touch at hannah@huetonecreative.com or (336) 365-8559.

Be honest, how many times have you sat and stared at your screen experimenting with endless color pairings only to realize three hours later you’re no further down the line? 

Frustrating, isn’t it?

Well, designers don’t hit the jackpot just by luck, they use what’s called color theory. Color theory is a term used to describe the collection of rules and guidelines regarding the use of color in art and design – and it is defined as a theory because it cannot be proven.  

Color theory is a science and art in it’s own right – but even non-artists can gain a basic understanding of color theory to better understand how to make a pleasing design. Knowing which colors play well together and the effects specific colors have on a majority of people is a valuable expertise no matter what your field.

What’s color theory?

Image via dulux.co.nz

The color wheel is a tried and tested blend of art and science that show you which hues go well together. The color wheel we use today is based off Isaac Newton’s 1666 color wheel which shows the relationship between colors. Sir Isaac Newton created the color wheel based on his experiments with prisms that led to the theory that red, yellow and blue were the primary colors from which all other colors are derived.

Now we’ll dive into a breakdown of how to use the color wheel for your own branding and design projects. By following these simple rules, you can shave hours off your next color-picking expedition and end up with a better-looking final product!

Complementary

Image via Canva.

Any two colors that sit on opposite sides of the color wheel -- like blue and yellow or pink and green, for example. Complementary colors are high in contrast and impact and work together to create bright results.

Monochromatic

Image via Canva.

Want a headstart? We’ve got lots of great color themes to choose from here.

These are shades of the same color and result in subtle and harmonious finishes. While monochromatic combinations are great for creating a consistent feel another color will need to be brought into the mix to add another layer to your work -- otherwise, everything will start blending into one another.

Analogous

Image via Canva.

Tip: to prevent that from happening pick one of the three for your dominant color and then use the other two as accents.

Any three colors that sit side-by-side on the color wheel -- like orange, yellow and green. On the plus side, these can be really versatile combinations, but on the downside, if you don’t manage them right they can soon become a bit tooin your face.

 Triadic

Image via Canva.

Make sure you get your proportions right for this one! Triadic colors sit at three evenly spaced intervals on the wheel and hit that right balance between contrast and versatility.

Tetradic

Image via Canva.

Similar to the above but this time across fourevenspaces. If you’re going with this option just remember the more colors you use the harder it’ll be to balance what’s on your palette -- and less can certainly be more sometimes. 

To avoid overwhelming people, as with analogous combinations, pick one color as your dominant and use the rest as accents. 

4 good-to-know color wheel facts

1. It’s made up of 12 colors: red, orange, yellow, chartreuse green, green, spring green, cyan, azure, blue, violet, magenta and rose.

2. It can be split into three color types:

• Primary: colors that create pure white light when blended together (red, green and blue)

• Secondary: the result of mixing two primary colors, i.e. green and blue make cyan

• Tertiary: there are six in total and they’re the byproduct of combining a primary and secondary color

3. The two halves of the wheel make up warm (purple through to yellow) and cool (blue through to green) colors. 

4. If you add black, grey or white to any base hue you can create shades, tints and tones of any color:

•  Shades darken the color and are made by adding black

• Tints lighten and are conceived by adding white

• Tones create a subtle version of the original color when white and black (or grey) are added

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your partners in color

If this blog post left you feeling more confused than clear, why not hand the hard part over? We’re design experts through and through so you can trust us to find the perfect pairings for you. Interested? Get in touch on hannah@hueandtonecreative.com or (336) 365-8559.

Think branding is just a logo? Think again — let us break it down for you here.

Behind every good-looking package or ad is a carefully investigated backstory, fastidiously selected colors, and meticulously outlined brand guidelines. While branding businesses is nothing new, businesses aren’t the only entities that need high-quality branding. Cities, townships, and entire countries have also begun branding their space in an effort to lure in tourists, new citizens, and potential business. 

Elements of place branding can include culture, visual symbols, slogans, mission, vision and values.

No matter what size your city is, branding can help put your place on the map. From America all the way over to Australia, here’s a look at some of the best: 

1. NYC

Milton Glaser’s ‘I <3 NY’ artwork is inarguably one of the most iconic city graphics around, but their branding doesn’t stop at one iconic t-shirt.

Bellweather was in charge of creating NYCgo’s official identity – and it reflects NYC’s personality with it’s bright colors, diversity and motion. Attracting more than 60 million visitors a year, the city clear doesn’t have a tourism problem – but this diverse and complex brand brings a life and continuity to the city’s visuals. 

Images via Bellweather and logoworks.com

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2. Melbourne

Developed by Landor, Melbourne’s logo is fresh, energetic, and memorable. Despite being around for a few years, this brand still feels modern and fresh — the sign of a well thought out and designed identity. Encompassing a wide variety of colors and patterns this vibrant brand is a reflection of all that Melbourne life has to offer.

Images via Landor.

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3. Paris

Paris’ most memorable brand doesn’t come from city government, but rather from their tourism organization, the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau. Grapheine’s typographic masterpiece subtly incorporates the French capital’s most famous landmark. And, in our opinion, everything about the color, spacing, and typography are expertly executed… in addition to making Paris look pretty cool!

 Images via Graphiene.

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4. I Amsterdam

Renowned for sex, drugs, and canals, this 2004 campaign helped put Amsterdam back on the map for more than just a fun weekend away. This branding effort was born out of an effort to appeal not only to tourists, but also to those already living in the area.

Despite simple graphics, Kesselskramer’s message is incredibly complex and versatile.

Images via Kesselskramer.

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5. Las Vegas

Funky, fun and full of color, Pink Kitty Creative’s city government branding depicts everything Las Vegas stands for in one: bright lights, late nights, and lots of laughter. While we find the “City of” typography a bit weak, we enjoy the color palette and playfulness of the logo. 

 Images via brandberries.com and underconsideration.

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6. London

London has a lot of rich roots and landmarks. From Big Ben and the London Eye to the monarchy and 2012 Olympics, London is known for a lot of things — but lacks a central message. Their latest rebranding, which was led by Saffron, cleverly includes a taste of the River Thames with the royal red of the union jack. It’s very simple yet incredibly commanding. 

From Saffron’s website: “So, people pick up their ideas about London from books, television, social media and a wide variety of other influences – none of which can be controlled and many of which are misleading. Rocked by the financial crisis, security threats and even street riots London needed a concerted effort to bounce back and regain its confidence as the world’s leading global city.”

Images via Saffron. 

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7. Porto

Redesigned by White Studio in 2014, Porto’s branding is bold, unique and intricate. Without even stepping foot in Portugal, you can get a feel for the vibrance and life that the city has. It gives people a real feel for what the city is about – and the creativity 

 Images from underconsideration.

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8. Colorado

Designed in-house to showcase how spectacular the state is, Colorado’s ‘C’ symbolizes their strength and friendliness while simultaneously bringing their famous and stunning backdrops into the frame. This is a recent rebrand (rolled out in July 2019) so while we’re cautiously optimistic about what the entire brand will look like, we’re holding our breath until full brand guidelines are released.

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Hue & Tone Creative: City Branding Partners

Let’s make your place stand out. Whether you’re a city, state, business, or charity, we can help. Get in touch at (336) 365-8559 or hannah@hueandtonecreative.com to start your rebranding journey today. We’ll get everything from your new logo to print collateral overhauled — on time and on budget.