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You may have seen these recently in various places, you may have heard people talking about them in the realm of mobile and wondered what the heck they are. Quick response codes (known as “QR” codes) are a very convenient way to display a small bit of information that is easily scanned and processed typically by mobile devices. Allowing physical items to almost become interactive, by providing information that is easily scanned like a website URL.

To make a simpler analogy, most people are familiar with Universal Product codes (known as UPC codes). Everything you buy at the grocery store (and almost any store these days) has one of those that the cashier will scan. The computer then immediately knows what the product is based on the code that it picked up.

Does anyone remember the days of grocery shopping and the cashier had to punch in the prices and codes for every single item you purchased.

They had to memorize most of these in their head and if they forgot? They had to pickup the loud phone, make an announcement in the store asking for someone in that department to help them out.

Think of QR codes as UPC codes but instead they’re used in a much broader spectrum, not just to ‘identify’ products but to convey ‘information’ of some kind.

Basic QR Code Usage

The most basic (and popular use) of QR codes is to display website information (a website address). Lets say you’re at a trade show and you’re walking by my booth. You want to find out more information about my company, so you open up your phone and start fumbling away trying to type in some long URL (that is on my display) into your browser, and off you go.

The other option would be for me to display a QR code (on my display), you take your phone and scan it just like cashiers scan items at the grocery store, and your phone automatically starts loading my website, how is that for convenience?

What about billboards outside on the street, or bus shelters while waiting for public transportation.

You can place these little codes anywhere. People with free scanners on their phones (iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids, Nokia, etc.) can quickly scan the QR code and find out more information, like opening up a website.

Whole Foods Market (popular in the US/Canada) uses these in their stores. I was recently sitting down to have a bite to eat at the one in Yorkville Toronto, and on the table where I was sitting was a table tent with two QR codes.

It was obvious where they would take me if I scanned them, one would take me to their twitter account, the other would take me to their facebook page.

If I was interested in checking out their twitter or facebook page, rather than opening up each respective app and going to the search function and typing in their name etc. (I likely wouldn’t, too much effort) I could pick up my phone, scan the QR code and automatically open each page!

You can find a lot of examples of QR codes online, here are a few more:

Airline Boarding Pass

This is an interesting one because you use your mobile to display the QR code rather than scan it.

In this case, the airline sends you a QR code that you display on the screen of your phone. This allows the airline while at the airport to scan your unique QR code which represents your passenger information (your digital boarding pass).

Wine Bottles

A lot of vineyards are placing QR codes on their bottle labels. When you’re out and try a bottle you like, you want to find out more information, or browsing in a wine shop, you may want more information. So rather than writing a long URL out (which most people aren’t going to go type in for lack of convenience), you can scan the bottle just like the cashier will. The only difference is your QR code scan is to give you more information on the wine/vineyard (sales stuff), and the UPC scan is to identify the item in stock and figure out how much of your money to take.

These QR codes are all over the place in Asia, and they’re becoming more and more common in Europe and North America. Just walk around and you’ll start noticing these things.

Just the other day while doing a keynote presentation at a local college on social media, there was a big banner up for birth control, HUGE banner. At the bottom of the banner was a ….. you guessed it, QR code:

Anyone with a QR scanner on their phone could quickly scan that QR code at the bottom and be on their website in a second or two.

What They’re NOT For

I’ve seen people put QR codes on their website and quite frankly that just defeats the purpose and nobody will ever scan it. The point is to take people from the physical world to the online world. If someone is already browsing your website, facebook page, twitter, some online ‘property’, they’re already there. If I’m on my phone, I can exactly scan my screen of my phone with my phone’s camera now can I?

QR Code Generation

Creating your own QR code could not be any easier. There are countless websites online that allow you to easily generate a QR code image. You take the image they give you and print it on whatever you want, place it wherever you want, it’s a ‘label’ so to speak. Here is one to get you started: => http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

QR Content

Though typically QR codes identify URLs you can essentially represent any piece of information you like, here are some examples:

Website URL Send a text message Send an email message Address Book record (vcard) Display some text on your screen Any bit of text you like

What determines the success of what you put there is how it’s read and consumed. So that means the scanner has to know what to do with the ‘text’ it reveals after scanning the QR code. So almost every scanner I’m aware of knows what a url is and will open it for you. Most will allow you to ‘start’ a text message (it will not create/send one for you). But when get into more complicated (not as popular) usage, they won’t always work.

I have an app on my iPhone that does not handle address book entries, while the other one does. So even though you can represent many things with a QR code, it’s ultimately up to the scanner to understand what to do with the text and that is why the URL is the most popular, as it’s the most widely used and supported by all QR code scanners.

Large format printing, as the name suggests, are the large poster and banner prints that you see posted all around you. They can be posters that give directional information at a business conference or they be a vinyl banners that can cover an entire wall. They come in various size and made from different materials. They’re big which mean that will catch your customers attention! And you can certainly see a lot of large format printing in New York City. It’s here, there, and everywhere. Anywhere you look, they strike your attention.

Large format printing services by Influence Graphics in New York City have serviced both large and small business in the NYC area for many years. Many of New York City’s biggest names and most successful companies have used this large format printing service. If you’ve ever been to Times Square you know that New York City is a city that thinks big.  It’s got some of the biggest skyscrapers in the world and some of the largest billboards you will see anywhere.  With all that “big” it’s hard to compete unless your business uses large format printing for posters and banners.

Large format printing afford’s the option to use any kind of material depending on where it will be posted, whether indoors or outdoors. Most often, materials used are the following:

·         Vinyl banner is a synthetic material that is tear resistant and great for outdoor applications. It is durable and waterproof as well as resistant to fading. Add some metal grommets to the corners and it’s really easy to hang your vinyl banner anywhere you like. It is great for retail storefronts, real estate signs, construction notices and more.

·         Artist canvas is used for murals and portraits. The material has the look and feel similar to an oil paintings.

·         Glossy paper is used for indoor large format prints. The material is similar to those used for magazines with shiny finish only a lot thicker. It is more often used when high quality photographic posters are required.  This paper produces the most vibrate and saturated colors.

·         Semi and matte paper on the other hand can be used for indoor posters for displays in tradeshows, and presentation boards. The large format prints can be as big as 58 inches by almost any length.  The finished banner can be laminated to give them protection from scratches and damage.

The Large format printing process employs digital printing. Short run orders are now possible because of the economical digital printing process. The price varies, and most large format print shop price their poster and banner printing by the square foot.

Whether it is a big and bold posters or an eye-catching banners that you need, you do not have to look far because Influence Graphics, NYC produces all their large format printing right in midtown Manhattan. There seems to be no other printing shop that equals the services offered by Influence Graphics. If you want your message to shout out loud in tradeshows, or if you want step and repeat banners or even just pop up banners, you can trust that Influence Graphics will be there to answer your printing needs. You do not have to worry about durability, too. That is why they protect your large format print ads with film laminate and are mounted on gatorboard or foamcore.

How can you use a form of advertising if you aren’t entirely sure exactly what it’s supposed to do? Each marketing device you’ll come across was made for a different purpose. That’s what you should first consider, that these forms of marketing were invented to fulfill a very specific purpose, and if you want to use it, you have to know why it was made, and how you can use it.

I wouldn’t hope to be able to cover the full gamut of every kind of advertising and what each is meant for, so for this article poster printing is going to be the primary focus.

So why were posters made and what can you do to make them work for you?

Unlike most other forms of advertising a poster is a stationary advertisement that a person can’t carry with them. No other type of marketing is as stationary as a poster-I’m not really counting billboards here, because let’s be honest, a Billboard is just a larger poster.

Now because this advertisement is so stationary you don’t have the benefit of being able to hand it to people for them to peruse at their own discretion. You need to grab their attention based purely off of what your poster says.

This places a very strong emphasis on the images and wording that you use with your poster. Pictures are going to be the best way to get a poster to jump out at people and make them want to look over at it. If an image is large enough, colorful enough, and tied well to your message, it’ll make a person look.

A strong headline will accomplish a similar goal. Make your headlines short and easy to understand so all a person needs to do is glance over at it to understand what you’re trying to say.

This leads to another key point about poster printing. A poster can’t be taken with a person so they’re going to have to read the entire poster right when they see it. You don’t want to load down a poster with too much text or else no one is going to take the time to read it. Keep your poster messages simple and centered on a brief message. Hopefully a person should only need a minute at most to understand everything your poster says, if not only thirty seconds.

Lastly, a poster is stationary, so you want to make sure that you pick the best location possible for it. Before you print posters be sure that you already know a number of good locations to put them up. The right location can easily make or break a poster.

So remember, consider where your posters are going, what kind of images you have on your posters to grab a person’s attention, and how long it takes to get all the information your poster says. If you’re considering these key points you’ll be on your way towards some great posters.

Graphic design is a creative process that uses combination of art and technology for interpratation of ideas. It is the process of communicating visually using typography and images to present information and is applied in virtually every organization or society. Graphic design is used whenever visual intricacy and creativity are applied to the presentation of text and imagery. It is also applied to layout of unlimited types of material to make the information more accessible and more readily understandable. Graphic design is everywhere, its part of everything we do, everything we see, everything we buy: we see it on billboards, on taxi receipts and on web sites, on birth certificates and on gift certificates, on the folded instructions inside jars of aspirin and on the thick pages of childrens’ picture books. Basically, on millions of man made objects and items that we see everyday and everywhere.

Graphic design is not just about being fluent in some graphic software, but also about communication and imagination of various ideas. It plays a supporting role, which delivers the message to your target market. But what would be a Graphic design if its just a part of a Web-site or available only on computer screen, So, Graphic printing is another important aspect of graphic design. It is the combination of shapes, colors, typefaces, images and words that cause you to react or feel something. Graphic design is the art of taking a concept and turning it into an aesthetically pleasing real world incarnation and the print of such desins is the physical incarnation of great work of Art.

Graphic design & printing is becoming a big gun in the business arsenal. Although just about every business uses graphic design, many businesses use graphic design as their main service and offer these creative services to other businesses. A growing niche that utilize graphic design within their day to day business is the promotional products industry. Companies within this sector supply many different types of business gifts, such as personalised pencils, USB flash drives, custom printed mugs, Event Gifts, Bags, branded biodegradable carrier bags, customised shirts, hats or other apparels and many other items to other businesses who are wanting to use promotional products to market their business. The first stage of this process is graphic design and next is printing. Each product has a printable area or engraving area and a designer will produce some artwork which may include a company logo, text, or illustration which will then be printed using a particular printing method suitable for that product.

There are many promotional resources available on the world wide web, some of which offer a vast amount of information.For more information about the company that will meet up with your complete printing, designing and promotional printing needs in Pasadena and Burbank and to know about printing in Burbank, Pasadena printing, printing in Pasadena, and Burbank printing and for business queries and more information on Design Pasadena and Burbank design, feel free to visit us at http://arroyographics.com

When it comes to advertising you have to go the distance. You must get a jump on what your competitors are doing so that you dont get bypassed by consumers. It isnt what you have that always makes the sale but how you market it that seals the deal. Lighted vehicle advertising is a fun and creative way to share the message you have with your market.

This works very well if you already have a vehicle that you drive around all the time. You may use it for both work and business, but any time you are in it then it will be seen. Lighted vehicle advertising allows the message to be more evident during the daylight hours. It wont be like billboards and other forms of marketing that consumers have simply grown oblivious to.

Instead, it will be something that they visually find appealing. They will also be able to read the message from a distance because it will be large and it will be bold. It is going to be easy on the eyes and that means a good impression is going to result from this image. Lighted vehicle advertising works amazingly well at night too. Even though it is too dark for people to read that business information on a typical vehicle, this is going to be lit up and it is going to be something they simply cant ignore.

This type of advertising doesnt harm the environment either and that is important. All of us need to be taking responsibility for the quality of the Earth. When you have a business you should strive to do all you can that is green for the environment. It sets a strong impression and you wont be isolated by those consumers that have decided to be green in their own lives.

You can do any type of message you want with lighted vehicle advertising. This is your opportunity to be creative. You can have fun with the process too so dont feel limited in any way. Chances are you dont see much use of this type of advertising around. Therefore, you can be among the first to really benefit from it.

Now that you know about lighted vehicle advertising, you certainly should be looking into it. Make sure the company that you work with offers quality so that you can be proud of the message you share with other people out there. Keep in mind that the impression it makes is very important. If the impression of the message isnt good then it wont provoke them to check out your business in more detail.

This type of advertising is much more affordable than you might think too. Dont bypass it because you thing it isnt in your budget to make it work. Before you know it this type of advertising is really going to pay off. It will more than pay for the cost of what you invested in it. If you have several business vehicles then you should use lighted vehicle advertising on all of them. The more you can share your information the more successful your business is going to be.