Here’s what we’re up to.

One of the best things about working at Randall Branding is building relationships with great people. We love it when our clients share their world with us. And in the interest of returning the favor, we’ll be sharing parts of our weird and wonderful world with you here.

Six things you may not know about Kate Fallon, our Account Executive, Research Specialist and Strategic Planner.

1. Skiing is my favorite activity. I started skiing at age three in Telluride, Colorado and have been at it ever since. As president of my high school’s Alpine Club, it used to be a goal of mine to spend a year as a liftie at a ski resort in Colorado. But, I’m even happier to be spending my time in advertising.

2. I LOVE animals. While a big fan of domesticated pets, like dogs and cats (I have a black lab named Boomer and a cat name Kitty), my favorite animal is a Kinkajou. It’s this cute little monkey-like creature with a really long tail and really big, awesome eyes.

3. I really enjoy playing music. I played violin for six years and have learned (to varying degrees) how to play piano, guitar and the bagpipes. However, my favorite way to make music is singing. I was in choir for six years, travelling to Nashville and around the state of Illinois for different competitions before I went to college.

4. As a result of my love of music, I have grown to be enthralled with the performing arts and participated in a few different plays and musicals in my area. I love musicals. You can most likely hear me humming the melody to a show tune at any given moment.

5. In high school, I worked at a specialty foods store and catering company. We were on Oprah’s Favorite Things list for our Deeply Fudgy Brownies and the company has a ton of other great items on our menu. Because of this experience, I am a big foodie and take so much enjoyment out of trying a new restaurant. I want to open my own restaurant some day, but for now am subsisting on delicious sandwiches, steaks and…my favorite food…dill pickles.

6. My family is from the Chicago area and my parents are my biggest inspirations. They both work full-time, but have been able to give my younger sister and I such a loving and supportive life. We’re especially close with our neighbors and one of my favorite memories is of my mom making delicious chili and buffalo wings for football games, and sitting around with all of our neighbors talking about life. As a Midwesterner, Chicago Bears football, mom’s chili and family friends were an integral part of growing up, and I hope to always bring the kind and hardworking Midwestern work method into my professional life.

If you want to know more about us, you can jump over here. If you’d like to see what we do, you can always jump over there.

When you work with designers, you may hear them refer to the typography of a display ad or the typeface they’re using on a poster. What does that mean, you ask? Well, typography in simple terms means the style, arrangement, or appearance of printed letters on a page. It’s how we designers make an advertisement that will be both effective and visually compelling.

To go a little bit deeper, typography is made up of typefaces, or in other words, fonts. There are thousands of typefaces out there on the Internet, but how you choose and utilize them is part of how you ensure your work will be successful. So, let’s talk a little bit more about typography, shall we?

There are six main styles of typefaces. Serif typefaces include small embellishment lines at the end of a letter or symbol. These typically have great readability, so they’re perfect for large areas of text. Sans serif (i.e. without a serif) simply does not have that embellishment, giving it a modern look. You’ll notice these on websites and traffic signs because of their limited detail. Slab serif is a form of serif typefaces. You may recognize it used on our website! Script is the next style, which can have both a formal or friendly look. Display typefaces are used to get the attention of an audience, but shouldn’t be used for large areas of text. Lastly, monospace means that each letter occupies the same horizontal width. This was more popular several years ago when a typewriter only allowed letters to be so wide.

Phew. Now that we’re finished with styles, let’s move on to the nitty gritty stuff of typography!

There are four types of justification: left justified, right justified, center justified, and justified. Left justified will be the easiest for a readers’ eyes to comprehend, whereas right justified will be the hardest. That’s why it’s best to make most areas of text left justified, while keeping right justified to smaller areas, such as call-outs in an article.

Did you know there are actually three ways to correctly use dashes? You’ll recognize the first one. A regular dash is used to connect two words, such as “full-time job.” The next one, an en dash, is slightly longer and is used between a range of time. You can type this by pressing Opt+- on a Mac, or Ctrl+- on a PC. An em dash is even longer, and this is used to replace some forms of punctuation, like commas and parentheses. You can type this by pressing Opt+Shift+- on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+\ on a PC.

The last thing you need to know is font file types. Our clients will often ask us for the working files of projects. This way, they can make small edits to the text over time. We package the entire file together including the production files, images, and what’s most tricky — typefaces. These don’t always work when the client goes to download them on their computer. The font file type that we purchase may not match their computer’s ability to download the font. Nowadays, we try to stick to OpenType (.otf) typefaces, which are usable on Mac and PC, so that our clients may use them with no trouble.

There we have it! If you’d still like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us here at RBA. We’re always happy to answer questions!

At Randall Branding our design process is like a game of table tennis.

You review designs and ask for changes. Ping. We take your feedback, make improvements and send it back your way. Pong. This back and forth is part of the rhythm of life here at the agency.

We do our best to serve up (get it? serve?) great creative, but providing great feedback is just as important to a project’s success. Here are few examples of Supremely Triumphant Feedback and Not So Supremely Triumphant feedback.

Not So Supremely Triumphant Client Feedback

“I don’t know what it is, but the website just isn’t working for me”

“James and Ivan want to see the logo in blue. Britt’s favorite color is hot pink. Personally I think green looks best.”

“Let’s try a different photo on the cover of the brochure.”

Supremely Triumphant Client Feedback

“We want the website to feel a little more professional.”

“After some internal discussion, we’d like to see the logo in blue — I think this would help visually differentiate us from our competitors.”

“Let’s try a different photo where the mother is younger — we want the brochure to resonate with 20–30 year olds as well.”

Here are a few tips:

1. Try to make feedback as actionable as possible. Spend time thinking about what specifically is in need of improvement.

2. Consolidate changes into one organized punch list. This is especially important if you have multiple folks reviewing a project.

3. Be thorough, and don’t pull any punches! We’re out to make the best work humanly possible, and your critical thinking is invaluable.

4. Be as prompt as your time and schedule allow. The sooner we hear back from you, the sooner we can provide you with a new and improved design.

Great feedback helps us be efficient with our time, and it keeps your project on schedule. It eliminates a project’s weaknesses and amplifies it’s strengths. It also makes us want to stand up on our desks and sing.

It’s a game of table tennis that everybody wins.