Designing promotional materials for print as a small business or freelancer can be daunting; but shouldn't be. With business cards, post cards, fliers and such - your canvas is small so keep it simple, direct and most of all - attention grabbing!

Apple has taken the clean white look (which has been copied over and over), your bank has taken the look using stock photos of "happy customers", your competitor is using "cute" clipart on their fliers... so what are you going to do to stand out? When your postcard turns up in the mail, what will keep your recipients attention?

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Pop it with Pop Color.

Without getting in to too much detail of Pop Culture itself, I'm going to focus on color (of course). If you've learned anything from the color use of Pop Culture, it should be,"LOOK AT ME!!!"

Do not mistake Pop Color for simply tossing bright colors down to grab attention. Using Flourecents or Astrobrights will not cut it. Pop Color is a method that almost resists the rules of combination itself, but it works!

For example, Andy Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe piece very marvelously displays a combination of colors that almost defy how colors should be used together - but it obviously grabbed attention.

Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe

So Let's Pop Your Print!

Keep the color palette minimal, bright and lusty or muted but defiant. It doesn't always have to be screaming with color, but make smart design choices.

A small collection of some fine examples:

"30th Birthday Invitation" - popandshorty.blogspot.com

Obama Poster design by Shepard Fairey

poster design's by Helen Williams Design

postcard design by LIMESHOT DESIGN

poster design by etrix (on deviantart.com)

Design takes a bit more than a strong use of color (obviously).  An eye for catchy or decent typography and in some cases artistic elements are important too. Great, illustrative design draws in some interest as opposed to some stale stock art. All of these design styles can work for anything from a business card to flier, poster and postcard design to bring a punch to your printed marketing materials.

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Download Freebie: Pop Color Library

Because you were all so good at listening today, here's a fun Pop Color Library for your Adobe products (CS2 and up).

DOWNLOAD: Pop_COLOURlovers.ase (1KB)

How to use/install:

The .ASE file works with Adobe's Swatch Exchange, which allows you to share swatch libraries between Adobe products - InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator (CS2-CS5+ all support Swatch Exchange file extension ".ase"). You may open .ase files easily between applications:

• InDesign: Load Swatches
• Illustrator : Open Swatch Library: Other Library
• Photoshop: Load Swatches

Photoshop CS5 Example:

You can easily use colors you've created in Illustrator (or downloaded) in an InDesign project, or colors you've created in Photoshop in an Illustrator project, or vice versa.

Color Libraries Group - More COLOURlovers Library freebies!

I've just started a Color Libraries group! If you'd like an update on this library and downloads for future libraries - come on over! I'm also open to suggestions for colors and palettes to include.

Join/Visit: Color Libraries Group