graphic design
In case you didn’t know, Pantone announced its color of the year for 2015 in early December. And, I must say, it is a beautiful wine color called, Marsala.
The color has hit the fashion, interiors, and beauty industries big time, but what about graphic design?
Marsala for Graphic Design
A rich contrasting color, Marsala is ideal for use in graphic design and packaging. Eye-catching, but not overwhelming or bright, consumers are immediately drawn to the hue, making it an alluring shade at point-of-purchase. As packaging becomes increasingly more artistic, Marsala will be a natural fit for both high- and low-tech materials, including on-shelf periodicals as well as printed assets, like calendars and stationery.”
Pantone 18-1438 is “an earthy shade with a bit of sophistication, texture is the story in print and packaging. A matte finish highlights Marsala’s organic nature while adding a sheen conveys a completely different message of glamour and luxury.”
Excellent marketing lingo for a color, right?
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Societies have been using icons and symbols for centuries. Where would we be without male and female bathroom icons or road sign symbols?
Many of us use these designs in our external marketing communications, internal communications, and signage. They’re also valuable for creating infographics, graphs, and charts.
So, I thought I’d share some cool websites where you can download icons and symbols for FREE!
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Small and medium businesses and nonprofit organizations don’t always have the financial resources to pay for costly design tools. So, I compiled a list of seven of my favorite tools that are totally free.
And… I’m going to share them with you!
1. COLOR COP
I use this tool all the time. Anytime I want to match a color, I launch Color Cop, drag the eye dropper to any color in an image, and the tool gives me the RGB and Hex codes for replication. This free multi-purpose color picker for Windows comes in different languages.
If you’re not familiar with RGB and Hex colors, they are used primarily for electronic media. Check Wikipedia for explanations. And, please note that the Color Cop developer accepts donations on the download page.
For print purposes, you’ll need to convert these colors to CMYK for 4-color print (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Visit RGB-to-CMYK Color Conversion and Hex-to-CMYK Conversion.
Here are six more… Continue reading
