The Design Process: Business Cards
When you place an order for marketing materials, sometimes you don’t know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. Here at Blackwood, we partner with our sister company (and next-door neighbor) Zipp Printing to bring you the highest quality business cards and other...
Making The Most Of Your Social Media Budget
Creating budgets has never been the easiest thing to do - it requires a lot of thought, planning, and predicting. However, when you’re utilizing your budget in the correct way, you can grow your business exponentially. In today’s market, having an ample social media...
Adobe CC: Illustrator vs. Photoshop vs. InDesign
The Adobe Creative Cloud was devised specifically for designers and marketers across all different fields. The big three programs, for us at least, are Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign; but even though we have “versus” in the title, this isn’t a competition. The...
Adobe CC: InDesign
For designers, typesetters, and advertisers in every field, InDesign is the most efficient and comprehensive program for creating marketing materials. While it may not be the first Adobe Creative Cloud program that comes to mind, it’s definitely one to be aware of....
Adobe CC: Photoshop
In the editing world, Photoshop is definitely a household name. The software is known for its reputation of fixing most imperfections and issues in photos. It tends to be one of the first programs that editors learn to use, and it continues to deliver the industry...
Adobe CC: Illustrator
If you’re a designer, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Adobe Illustrator - and for good reason. The Adobe Cloud is one of the best packages for designers of any kind. The programs within the Cloud are beneficial in many ways, and each serves a specific...
Is Old-School Electronic Marketing Still Relevant?
With the rise of social media over the last several years, advertising has taken on a whole new look. When was the last time you saw a TV commercial for a product and immediately bought it? Chances are, you search Google for customer reviews or check Amazon for a...
Print is NOT Dead.
Everyone predicted it. Everyone thought it. And everyone is wrong: Print is not dead and it's not dying anytime soon. Technology is growing at an incredible speed. There is no denying that. But you can't just eliminate something as big as print from your company's...
Creating Niche Content For Your Social Media
Have you ever met someone who just understands you right off the bat?What if your business could be like that for your clients? This just in: your business CAN be like that for your clients. You can click with your clients through a little thing called niche content,...
Keep the Space: Why Does Spacing Matter?
No, we don’t mean personal space - we mean keep the space within your design. Spacing is a key element in graphic design, and it’s one that many businesses and brands overlook when creating marketing materials. But how do you even go about determining the right amount...
Clear Marketing is Successful Marketing
I was driving to my next client meeting when I noticed a big box truck with the words, "Midwest Sales and Service" displayed on either side along with a phone number. My reaction as both a marketing expert and a human being: What the heck are you selling and...
Creators Create Culture: Blackwood Creative
The concept of “culture” is one of those subjective areas that isn't easily defined. Understanding how to describe company culture is a challenge, and that culture is something that often evolves over time. For some, the definition relates to the “personality” of the...
Marketing Your Brand Through Your Products
You want your brand to look good. Of course you do, who doesn’t? The best way to represent your brand is through your marketing materials, and there are tons of ways to do it. Whether you’re marketing through print, apparel, or social media, we’ve got you covered. 1....
Facebook Lead Ads: Your Business’s Next Step
Facebook continues to be one of the front runners when it comes to social media advertising. Because of its extensive business features, you’re able to increase your business’s reach and engage more potential clients. Facebook lead ads can completely change the way...
Why You Need LinkedIn
With so many different social media platforms, it can be difficult to find the best one to market yourself and your business to other professionals. However, LinkedIn provides businesspeople with the most efficient network to find potential clients, coworkers, and...
Our Favorite Paid Photo Editing Apps
If you’re putting out a lot of content photos, it’s important to edit them professionally. It’s now easier than ever to edit photos directly from your phone. There are a multitude of editing apps on the market, but we’ve narrowed it down to a couple of our favorite...
Our Favorite Free Photo Editing Apps
Editing your content photos can seem complicated and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, you don’t even have to pay for photo editing software to make your pictures look professional! Here are a couple of our favorite free photo editing apps. Snapseed...
How to Pick Your Font
You’ve officially figured out your color scheme and logo design, and it’s time to pick your font. Seems like a daunting task, right? There are hundreds of thousands of them in the world, and you have to pick the one that fits your business perfectly. That sounds...
The 4 Main Font Families
Fonts may be one of the last things you think of when it comes to advertising your business. But just like colors, fonts have feelings that they convey to the viewer. It can be difficult to choose the right font for your project, especially when there are so many to...
Pick Your Pantone
You’ve decided on an awesome color scheme for your brand, and you’re ready to add it to all your products. However, when you pick up your newly printed t-shirts, they’re a completely different shade than the logo on your website. Uh oh. How could this have...
How To Pick Your Color
One of the most important yet most often overlooked aspects of your brand is the color scheme you use to advertise. However, your clients often pay more attention to your colors than you may realize. When you advertise your brand with specific colors, your clients...
Psychology of Color in Marketing
Color is probably not the first thing on your mind as you begin establishing a new brand. In fact, it’s probably not something your clientele or client’s clientele may even consider – not consciously, that is. Believe it or not, color has an undeniable influence in...
Analytics Are Important and Here’s Why
Analytics are one of the most powerful built-in tools on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The word may sound big and official, but these insights are super accessible and easy to find within the platforms. By learning how to properly read and...
Your Facebook Cover: Photo or Video?
You’re wanting to draw in more potential clients through your social media, but looking at your Facebook page, you realize it’s a little...blah. Your photos are outdated, and you’re looking for a way to revamp. But moving forward, should you stick with a cover photo...
Why Your Logo Should Be A Vector
You’ve designed the perfect logo for your business. The colors are bold, the letters are crisp, and it looks exactly how you imagined it in your head. You go to resize it for a presentation, and suddenly, it doesn’t look as perfect as before - it’s pixelated. Crap....
4 Ways To Make Your Content Photos Stand Out
Have you ever wondered how the pros create content?Have you wondered why some big brands have such a huge following on social media? Some photographers spend thousands of hours going to school to learn their craft. You don’t need a degree to take good content photos -...
4 Tips for Turning Stress into Productivity
For any driven and hardworking professional in a hustle-oriented workspace, stress is bound to creep up on you. When pushing yourself to reach hard deadlines, productivity can become confused with mental strain. Those pesky external stressors that often arise from our...
Video Marketing: Why You Should Do It
Hop on any social networking site you have and scroll down on your feed for just a second. Did you come across a video post made by some of your favorite brands or businesses? Chances are, yes. The Popularity of Video Marketing Video marketing is no longer an...
How a Bad Photo Ruins Your Credibility
It only makes sense to start an article about a bad photo with this cliché: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Yep, there it is. You half expected to see it, didn't you? This cliché is a cliché because it is oh-so-true. It's possible it's never been more true than...
Boost Your Creativity with These 5 Tips
Some people say creativity is something you have to be born with. Don't believe them. Of course there are those who are more naturally artistic, but that doesn’t mean that the left-brains of the world can’t be creative, too. Creativity is a worthy skill that can be...
