Graphic design
Design Matters.
Your brand is the face of your company. Well designed or not, it says something about you and your product. We want to make sure people love what you’re saying and get what your message is loud and clear, no matter where they encounter your brand.
In our nearly twenty years of business, we’ve built a portfolio of literally thousands of designs! Our range is extensive—spanning from the basic business card to the corporate brand report. Whether you need a logo for a small start-up or an entire display campaign, we’re here to help.
We’ve worked with farmers and dairy producers to build some of our favorite local brands. We’ve designed extensive rack card systems for care provider networks. We’ve even designed New York maple syrup and honey labels for sale in upscale Chinese supermarkets. Our talented team of designers, layout artists, copywriters, and other species of creative minds are ready to tackle any and all design challenges that you run into. We’re excited to help, so let’s get started!
Graphic Design Services
LOGO DESIGN
Our team of professional graphic artists create beautiful, long lasting logos, offering multiple revisions and affordable packages.
Brand Identity
All of the building blocks necessary for consistent and recognizable branding- laid out with easy-to-follow brand guidelines.
Newspaper Ads
Print is not dead—not yet at least! We take care of the sizing, design, and placement, and you get a single simple itemized bill.
Direct Mail
Print is not dead—not yet at least! We take care of the sizing, design, and placement, and you get a single simple itemized bill.
Business Cards
We offer low cost business cards with great designs. We can also makes something custom shaped out of a wide selection of paper stock.
Sales Literature
Equip your sales force with bold and informative sales literature, customized to hit every customer touchpoint.
Point of Sale
Sometimes it’s the little things that count. Point of purchase materials can be the “selling“ point, winning over a customer.
Labeling
We make custom labels designs and label ordering for your next project. We offer all shapes and sizes including food grade labels.
Signage
From hanging signs to carved wood business signs, from posters to window cling—The Ad Group has your signage needs covered.
Billboards
Billboards and outdoor signage have seen a resurgence in recent years. We’ll help you get your message up in lights, literally.
Vehicle Wraps
Enhance your company vehicle or commercial gleet with custom designed vinyl graphic decals or vinyl wrap services.
Brochures
Our expert team of layout artists and graphic designer can create and source all kinds of brochures, rack cards, and collateral.
print isn't dead
Well, at least not entirely. While it’s true that newspapers have decreased in their reach and relevancy for most demographics, graphic design and print collateral are still going strong. In fact, with the increased focus on customer service and product education, we’ve seen an increase in collateral and design requests. You may get the news on your phone, but there’s a lot more to the print industry than just the local paper.
The Top 5 Myths of Graphic Design
ANYONE CAN BE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Warning: This list may seem snarky, self-entitled, or just plain whiney. I promise it’s not meant to be. We absolutely love our jobs; we live and breathe design and wouldn’t have it any other way. That being said, it can be helpful to see things from the other side. As a client, we know you need to keep your costs low, you want a return on your investment, and you want everything to look great. We do too! But here’s a few things you might not know about graphic designers:
Not everyone is a graphic designer. Being a graphic designer requires dedication and a lot of effort to learn and master the necessary skills for the job. It takes patience, attention to detail, knowledge of print and production processes for a variety of media. It requires a commitment to continual learning, both in the world of design, and the industry trends of our clients. This combination of earned experience and fresh eyes are what makes a great graphic designer so valuable, yet rare.
Working with a graphic designer is a partnership; a game of give and take. Sometimes we hit it out of the park on the first try, but every once in a while it takes a few practice swings. No one knows your product better than you do, so part of our job is to help you communicate your value to us. The more open our communication, the easier it is to take your vision and craft it into something extraordinary; it’s what we love doing. Want to make something together?
GRAPHIC DESIGN DOESN’T TAKE MUCH TIME
Graphic design is a complex job that requires a lot of time, dedication, attention to detail, and understanding of the client and/or service a project is associated with.
Not everyone is aware of the complexities of making “simple” changes to a particular project. “It will only take you a few seconds.” “It’s not a big change, it shouldn’t take you long.” “I know I’ve had this but I just had a chance to take a look… you can make it by deadline, right?” are a few of the things graphic designers hear on a regular basis and are usually quite far from the truth.
Depending on the complexity of a project, some changes will take a long time to complete and may have to be scheduled within the rest of a graphic designers schedule. Have you ever noticed how bad designs tend to look cluttered? This is because designing with simplicity and clarity is actually much harder than it looks.
If we’re sounding negative, we promise we aren’t. We love our jobs, and we love making great work for our clients; we’re used to skipping lunches and burning the midnight oil, but we also ask that you be patient. Good design takes time, but we promise it’ll be worth it.
IT’S GOOD TO BE A STARVING ARTIST
Graphic Design costs money. While that seems obvious, sometimes people fall into the trap of believing graphic design should be free; or worse, that the fulfillment we get from creating is somehow an offset for a fair wage.
Sometimes potential clients believe that a project can’t have taken much time (and therefore money) to create because it only took a few minutes to critique and approve. Like we’ve mentioned in other myths, good design takes education, experience, research, and time (see myth 1). Graphic designers have to pay their bills, buy tools for their trade, and eat – just like you and me.
IF I JUST HAD PHOTOSHOP I’D DO IT MYSELF…
This is a popular myth across a lot of creative industries: that all it takes is the right tool. While Adobe Creative Suite is a set of software we use a lot in our profession (and for good reason – it’s an awesome set of programs that has become the industry standard), it’s still only one arrow in a designer’s quiver.
Most of our ideas and concepts start in a sketchbook, on a post-it, or scribbled on napkins after a burrito lunch. Just getting the right inspiration is tough enough, but that’s not the end of it. The initial concept is then reworked, taking shape as it passes through a multitude of processes involving a wide range of programs, technologies, and skill sets.
We believe every single person has great ideas to contribute. We also love when clients are interested in design, and welcome their input. That being said, just like owning a Kitchen-aid mixer doesn’t make me a baker (as anyone who has tried my charcoal briquettes masquerading as cookies will attest), I doubt owning photoshop will make anyone a graphic designer.