Design-it-Yourself Graphic Workshop

PART 1: STEP-BY-STEP DESIGN

STEP 8

Create a Name,

a Defining Phrase,

and a Nameplate

Your newsletter’s nameplate is a statement,

a standard, and a brand. It’s a statement of

purpose, a standard that reflects or

establishes the visual style of the

publication, and a visual brand that readers

will grow to recognize.

The first stage of creating a

nameplate is to develop a name. In the

case of a newsletter the name incorporates

information from any of five different

categories—the newsletter’s publisher,

audience, subject matter, primary reader

benefit, or a modifier. Generally speaking, it

is to your advantage to create a name that

says what it means, or you will forever be

explaining its meaning via your advertising

and marketing efforts.

Begin by compiling a brainstorming

list. Divide a sheet into several

sections—the publisher, audience,

reader benefit, and a modifier—as

shown below, and list as many relevant

terms as you can conjure up. For

example, the list for a newsletter that

teaches builders how to sell homes

might look like this:

Publisher Sampler Group

Audience Builders

Subject Marketing homes

Benefit 1 Selling success

Benefit 2 Profits

Benefit 3 Marketing strategy

Modifier How-to

The modifier is a generic term for

the many ways you can describe

intent, frequency, importance, and so

on. Some examples: advisor, alert,

bulletin, currents, digest, forum, hotline,

how-to, letter, monitor, monthly, news,

newsletter, outlook, quarterly, report,

review, talk, trends, update, and weekly.

Use your brainstorming list to

experiment with combinations. The

goal is to create a name that states the

benefit of the newsletter to the reader

and then fills in as many of the who,

what, where, when, and why blanks as

possible. Even the short list above

presents many possibilities.

Sampler’s Home Seller Strategies

Sampler’s Builder Profits

Sampler’s How-To Market Homes

Sampler’s Builder Marketing

Sampler’s Home Marketing Forum

Sampler’s Successful Builder

Once you have a name and before

you invest any more time and money,

do a preliminary trademark check to

determine if the name you are

pursuing can be protected. Without a

trademark, you could spend a signifi-

cant amount of money and energy

building a brand that belongs to

8.1

(AB)

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Step 8: NAME CHECKLIST

Develop a name

Create a defining phrase

Design the nameplate

Test your message

8.4

8.3

8.2

8.1

STEP 8: CREATE A NAME, A DEFINING PHRASE, AND A NAMEPLATE

someone else. At a minimum, do a search

for the word or phrase on an Internet

search engine and search the Trademark

Electronic Search System (TESS) at

www.uspto.gov/web/menu/search.html.

The next stage is to create a

five- to fifteen-word defining phrase

(fig. A, below) that lays out the full scope

of the newsletter. Not an attention-

getting slogan or advertising tagline, but a

clear statement of purpose. A slogan such

as “All the News That’s Fit to Print” may be

appropriate for The New York Times, but a

small enterprise that doesn’t get that kind

of exposure is better off getting right to

the point with a defining phrase such as

“News, events, opinion, and resources for

New Yorkers.” Clever is only good if it

doesn’t get in the way of communicating

the message.

Include as much information as

possible—the publisher, audience,

subject, reader benefit, and a modifier. For

the builder marketing publication above,

the tagline might be “The builder’s guide

to home-selling success.”

8.2

8.3

An example of how to design a new nameplate

(left) from an existing design recipe (right).

See Style 4: Icons, page 228, for recipe details.

Use the name and defining

phrase to design the nameplate (fig. B,

below)—the logo-like banner that typically

appears at the top of page one. Since you

have already chosen a newsletter style

from Part 2 of this book, designing yours

should be easy. You have only to translate

your words into nameplate form.

You’ll find many nameplate examples

and much discussion about them in Part 2

of this book, beginning on page 201.

Finally, test your message.

The true test of whether your name,

defining phrase, nameplate, or for that

matter any other type of communication,

works is to present it to someone who

doesn’t know anything about your organi-

zation, and see if that person can tell what

you are trying to accomplish. Does your

material communicate its intended mes-

sage to that stranger? One complication of

writing and designing is that you are very

close to the action—at times, too close to

gauge its effect clearly. Find people whose

opinion you respect and invite their reac-

tions and suggestions.

8.4

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