Image Building

Home Office Computing, Jan, 1999 by Chuck Green

Finding, choosing, and using clip art online

IF YOU THINK THAT SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS A CLIP ART IMAGE CAN'T MAKE a big difference in your publications, think again. Adding a high-quality illustration may not get customers beating a path to your door, but the combination of a strong marketing message, a well-designed page, and an image that telegraphs a result can turn a dumb brochure into a smart-looking read.

THE PROBLEM

This brochure looks and sounds like lots of other brochures. First and worst, it fails the "glance" test. Whether a potential customer spots your message from across the room or comes across it in a pile of mail, the visual side of the piece has to grab him or her long enough to deliver a headline.

The second problem is the message itself. It talks about the accomplishments of "me," the business owner, when it should be talking about the needs of "you," the prospect. Terms such as "tradition" and "excellence" may mean something to you, but they're so overused that they are mere jargon to others. This company makes the classic mistake of thinking that, if it tells enough about what it does and provides a long enough list of features, that potential customers will somehow discover a compelling benefit.

THE SOLUTION

Instead of asking your prospects to figure out the benefit of using your product or service, tell it to them front and center. In this case, we're focusing on price. You might try what I've done here--asking a provocative question on the cover and answering it inside.

To grab attention, use bright colors and a simple piece of art that does some of the work for you. The paintbrush illustration does two things. First, it telegraphs the subject matter. At a glance, you know that this piece has something to do with decorating or painting. Second, I use it as a visual theme for the design by positioning it as if the brush were being used to paint the cover of the brochure. For the clip inside, I imported a fullcolor image into my drawing program, changed it to black and white, then colored a single panel the same color as the cover to reinforce the decorating idea.

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You'll find lots of free and cheap clip art on the Web, but in many cases, the ball's in your court when it comes to copyright. For me, if I don't know the source of an image and its copyright status, and get notice in writing that I have permission to use it, I don't. I prefer to use graphics from established providers. There are some great bargains to be found:

NVTech offers 200 free images from its Task Force Clip Art collection and cool tools for finding the image you're looking for. 800-387-0732, www.nvtech.com

Nova Development Corporation invites you to download 100 free images from Art Explosion, 20 animations from Animation Explosion, and 30 from Web Explosion. 818-591-9600, www.novadevcorp.com

The Art Today site offers a year's unlimited access to 750,000 searchable images for $30. Zedcor, Inc. 800-482-4567, www.arttoday.com

Finally, you can browse through an online gallery of work by established illustrators at Artville. 800-631-7808, www.artville.com