Tony Tsoodle's Narrative.

Tag: 2023

What is PR Design?

By

On December 2, 2023

In PR Design

What is it we perceive as visually pleasing? How do those elements form to create a message that creates an action? It’s really open to interpretation.

Closeup image of woman eye with creative makeup painted different colors
Dragon_Fly

While design and art are subjective, incorporating a semblance of structure and continuity is essential to recognize. Basic design elements will help a design flow and make translating a message more accessible. That’s ultimately the solution—a visually appealing image with a strong message encouraging action.

Design Elements


Design is everywhere. From the design of the bricks of a building to the look of a mailer, you might have received in the mail today. The design attracts or entices you to read it. They are the proverbial building blocks of a well-thought-out design. Generations of designers have established standards of design. Guidelines that help guide the messenger to receive the message appropriately. The designer’s job is to harness specific elements for a comfortable and manageable design to streamline the process. Once a designer knows color, typography, symbols, use of space, form-function-message, balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance and unity, the results can be formidable. These elements intertwine with the message to create the campaign.

Collection of designer oil paintings. Decoration for the interior. Modern abstract art on canvas. Painting set. Red poppy.
By Erenai

Stakeholders & Personas

As a PR design professional, marrying your stakeholders and personas to create your campaign is your bread and butter. When you create your design, consider what makes them tick, their interests, likes and dislikes. Ultimately, you are creating for an audience, and the design is as important as the message. Capturing attention will help alleviate your hard work ending up in the trash can with all the others.

Keeping in tradition with PR as a whole, compared with advertising, where there is an exchange of money, PR is a part of earned media. Design is no different. It operates in a free environment to capture an emotion and affect influence. According to Professor Sherry Kast, PR Design and Writing at The University of Oklahoma, “PR Publications provide a free, controlled media designed for publics who share characteristics and interests.”

PR Publications provide a free, controlled media designed for publics who share characteristics and interests

Professor Sherry Kast PR Design & Writing
The University of Oklahoma

Mediums, platforms and consistency

Mediums

There are a multitude of mediums for PR design, such as folded brochures, mailers, e-newsletters, social media campaigns, branded materials, and so on. You’ll want to choose a medium or a combination for your campaign. One isn’t better than the other, but it’s important to choose yours according to the stakeholders and where they are finding their information. The formula for a successful campaign relies on many factors. Planning, acknowledging, and recording those factors is wise and prudent.

Platforms

The importance of the platforms on which these deliverables spawn cannot be understated. The Adobe Suite and Canva are potent platforms for designers. I found that there are many ways to accomplish tasks on these platforms. It’s a preference when performing the processes of the functions.

Consistency

Staying consistent with a brand throughout the design process creates a lasting impact. It is in reasonable design taste to always stay consistent with the brand and is worth protecting it at all costs.

Conclusion

Pr design takes the ideas and basics of public relations and combines them with graphic design. It takes a more scientific approach than a free-form artist, though. I could describe it as tactful artistry. When done well, it prompts the receiver to react or spend money. I think there is no surprise that money is the general basis of why we are creating designs worthy of a campaign. Most designs are persuasive ways to encourage spending dollars. However, it’s important to remember that consistent public relations design encourages earned media and influence.

A short get to know ya, in your email inbox.

By

On December 1, 2023

In PR Design

A concise and compelling e-newsletter campaign will help further your contact with your clients or customers. Unlike the traditional hard copy newsletter sent through the mail, the e-newsletter allows readers to follow links to a further website or blog. Developing a specific message that resonates and prompts readers to follow those links is imperative. Creating the e-newsletter doesn’t take an extraordinary amount of time but is a great way to automate the contact with a client list. Constant Contact and Mailchimp are two user-friendly e-marketing solutions for the e-newsletter created for Zed Farm Media, including four previous blog entries. This is a bonus blog, lucky for you right?

Presenting ideas in a Digital Production

An e-newsletter and PowerPoint presentation are similar in the regards. They both replaced a form of legacy media. No longer are designers strictly relegated to traditional print deliverables but have access to an array of features within a digital production.

e-newsletter

I’ve used MailChimp and its great features. However, for the Zed Farm Media e-newsletter, I used Constant Contact. I have never used the service and wanted to see if it was similar to MailChimp. It offers a free trial period with plans from $12-$80/month. Like Mailchimp, Constant Contact lets you see if your e-newsletter was opened and read. I always thought that it was a great way to target your audience. Both services offer a way to measure your campaigns—a minor feature offering significant upside to the marketer or PR professional.

Teachable moments in PowerPoint

Sometimes, designers must hand off a presentation to another colleague. Perhaps the designer is absent from the presentation, and another colleague must deliver the presentation without the designer. Whatever the case, Microsoft PowerPoint is another helpful arrow in a designer’s quiver. Its another option to create a digital publication. The robust platform incorporates video and other effects exclusive to PowerPoint. One of those features contains notes on the slides created within PowerPoint. Those notes are only visible to the presenter—a handy feature. Taking

Bangkok, Thailand – August 22, 2019 : Microsoft PowerPoint, a presentation program developed by Microsoft, on computer screen.
By wachiwit

Presentation example

For this example, using the mailer and brochure blogs, I created this short, concise PowerPoint presentation with notes included. Notice that most of the text is in the notes, not the slide itself. Remember as you start to pay careful attention not to overload the viewers of the presentation with too much text on the slides.

Fortunate for the 21st-century designer, digital publications have added an advantage because of their control over designs and campaigns. Designers need to present ideas that are interactive and achieve the desired goal.

Designer Spotlight (this dude)

In Microsoft PowerPoint, designers can take full advantage of the notes features for presenters. So handy. I will pass along a great PowerPoint master. Jacob is doing some fantastic things with PowerPoint—Jedi-like tricks to take your designs to the next level. While the videos move quickly, he briefly explains how the trick works. His content is usable content, for sure.

Conclusion

Requiring a printing press or company to print your collateral costs money, and there is no guarantee the piece you create and send out will ever cross the eyes of your intended target. With digital publications, the chances of a glance rewarding your hard work or a reader taking action are more achievable than ever.

Bringing a Social Media Campaign to Life

By

On October 17, 2023

In PR Design

Launching your social media campaign is not as complicated or overwhelming as it may seem if the design is compelling and coherent. A simplistic design uses minimal text and imagery to convey the message in an easily digestible manner for users. Creating a consistent and concise message with a call to action is vital. The call to action spurs the user to visit a website, sign up for a trial, sign up for a newsletter, or spend money with your business or company.
Beginning with a goal is where the process starts. What goal is your social media campaign attempting to achieve? Is it selling more products? More email subscriptions? The list is endless. Here are eleven helpful trends in 2023 to keep in mind as you set out to create a successful social media campaign and here are a few of my own suggestions.

Social Media=Powerful PR Tool

The remarkable aspect of social media is that it’s mostly free, creating a powerful PR tool for the PR practitioner that is valuable to use. Most platforms monetize their ads but are far cheaper than legacy media streams. For the PR practitioner, social media also encompasses measurement and numbers to sift through. The analytics offered with social media only adds to the value of social media. These platforms are trendy and where your key demographics, regardless of age and status, most likely spend a majority of their time.

By jesadaphorn
By jesadaphorn

The numbers don’t lie, most with a smart phone and connection are involved in some sort of online activity. This is where your audience is most likely.

Source: datareportal

Important Design Elements to keep in mind

Brand and design elements are essential to remember as you craft your message and campaign. Social media users are bombarded with ads and campaigns all day. It is necessary to keep your campaign consistent across all platforms. Consistency will help keep the message for the end user memorable. While appearing memorable, having a call to action is almost as crucial in creating your campaign. Without a call to action, your campaign is useless. What is the goal of the campaign? It may be time to revisit your goal for the social media campaign if you are experiencing a difficult time in the design portion of the project.
Keeping the dimensions of each platform should also be considered in your design. You can create fantastic designs, keeping dimensions and work surfaces in mind.

Facebook Post Image (1600X630 pixels)
Facebook Header Image (820X312 pixels)
Instagram Post Image (1800X1800 pixels)
X Header Image (1500X1500 pixels)

The design elements are consistent throughout this campaign I created for my photobooth business. Also, there is a call to action. *DM for Info. I feel I can better answer questions talking directly to the client through phone or email at that point.

Remember, you don’t have to fit the whole message onto the design. That can be saved for the text of the post.

*For Example*

Go to the572djs.com and secure your date now! Dates are filling for the holidays. Book your event now and save.

Brand Voice & Culture

It’s important to remember the voice of your organization or client. Writing your message in a language that suits the voice of your campaign will help relate the message more believably. Remember that the message needs to resonate with your audience and prompt them to take action.

By jesadaphorn

Adobe Express

I use Adobe Express as a tool for social media. It is very similar to Canva. It is tailor-made for brands. I can also incorporate all of my other Adobe assets to projects using Adobe Express. You can get as specific as you can in Canva. Sizes for social media posts are accessible using templates. Adobe has paid particular attention to AI and incorporates it into several paid softwares. Here is a fantastic tutorial and link on scoring Adobe Express and adding it to your arrows in the design quiver.

Lod, Israel – July 16,2023: Adobe Express – Graphic Design app play store page on smartphone on a dark marble stone background. Top view flat lay with copy space. By wavemovies

Defiled for Educational Purposes only

By

On August 29, 2023

In PR Design

The spaces of newspapers are named and consistent. These allocated spaces are essential for the publication as they give the paper structure and the viewer the information they want. Most newspapers and newsletters utilize these specific areas to deliver various content. Here are some examples illustrated within the August 2023 ‘Football Preview Guide’ edition of the OU Daily.

Professional Portrait

By

On August 22, 2023

In PR Design

  Who am I?

My name is Tony. I am a husband and father of two children. As mentioned in my blog post from October of last year. Our children are growing fast, and we are working hard to teach them all the things they are going to need for their future.

I am a PR/senior at The University of Oklahoma with only a couple of semesters left. I work full time at WWLS and ALICE FM. Recently, WWLS celebrated it’s twenty-fifth anniversary at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. I work with a former professional baseball player and some accomplished journalists.

Pictured are some of the guys I work with weekdays from 4p-7p on The Sports Animal (Al Eschbach, Jim Traber, Me, Berry Tramel and Dean Blevins).
I’ve been with the company for about 20 of those 25.

What are my PR qualifications?

I have broadcasted in the Oklahoma City radio market for twenty-three years. My PR qualifications are scant however, around 2016 I started a boutique agency with a former co-worker. We named it Red Plains Media. The agency created audio and video content while managing the advertising buys for radio and TV. We were radio guys that were trying to find a fit and make money doing it. We had no formal training. We just had the gear and great ambition to go create great content. One of our first, successful clients was a CBD manufacturer that needed a partner to manage the flow of information and content. We created brochures and video sales collateral for their sales team. Once again, we had no idea what we were doing but we jumped in and tried. Luckily, they enjoyed our work for a few years.

This was an ad I shot and created for one of the many products the client manufactured.

What do I enjoy about PR?

  I have always admired the PR professional and their ability to create or manage the spin of situations. I have found that the untrained have developed an idea of what the PR professional really does and usually their assumptions are off a bit. I want to study Public Relations because of the ability to craft and maintain an image for a client while simultaneously generating revenue. It sounds like a canned response but when the client is successful, in turn, so are you.

Why am I studying PR and what motivates me regarding PR?

Ultimately the bottom line is at stake for everyone in a capitalistic environment. Revenue and the ability to nudge the direction of the company sales are what motivate my desire to know more about Public Relations. The PR professional isn’t exactly a salesperson but a voice of image, message and design.

What on-campus activities or community organizations do I volunteer with?

  The schedule I keep professionally and at home inhibits my ability to participate in on campus activities. I would genuinely enjoy participating, however, most of the meetings happen during my work hours. I am not a regular or active member in the community outside of talking on the radio for hours on the radio each weekday. If I had the option, I would participate in more extracurricular activities here at the university.

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