When you are passionate about your product, you want your sales and marketing visual materials to be as effective as possible. The design team or agency creating those materials wants the same thing. Here are a few things to keep in mind when working with them to help them help you.
Submit High Quality Images
Often times, companies have specific photography they need to include in their visuals, such as product images. If these will be printed, such as for a catalog, the images should be high-resolution. It can be hard to judge if a photo is high-res or not without the use of a photo editing program such as Photoshop. The file size is an indicator you can use. A JPEG with a file size less than 1mb may be too small to be used for anything being printed larger than a 2-inch square. Images may look great on a computer screen but they need to have a much higher resolution to look as good in print. Screen resolution is 72 pixels per inch while the print standard is 300 pixels per inch. If you can zoom in to your photo on screen, more than three times the original size and it still looks good, chances are it will be okay for print purposes. If you are worried about the file size being too large to email, relax. Agencies are more than happy to set up an online file folder, such as Dropbox, for you to easily upload any size image directly to them.
Consistency is Key
You want your visual materials to be instantly recognizable to your customers. Keeping a consistent look to your images helps build your brand recognition. While the photo your co-worker quickly snapped with their phone may show what happened at your recent event, it may not represent the quality your customers have come to expect. If you don’t have suitable photos, your design team can offer assistance by suggesting alternate visual ideas for representing your product.
When in Doubt, Ask
Depending on your project, you may need to send a specific file type to the design team or agency and have no clue which is which. Designers love what they do and love when they are supplied with the quality of images that can be turned into stellar visual materials that will make you shine.