by Gary Crossey | Nov 13, 2017 | Advertising, Graphic Design

Asheville Print Ad Design
At IrishGuy Design Studio we rely on One Click Fix for all of our computer repair and maintenance needs.
Without One Click Fix – our design studio would not perform as well. It is a great honor to do the design work for One Click Fix recent Monford Home Print Advertisement.
Custom Work Stations by One Click Fix
One Click Fix custom built all our professional Dell Desktops for our design and video team. We had many unusual requests.
For our Video Editing computer, One Click Fix installed a range of old and new hubs to capture video, photos, and data files from any device – even our old Canon GL2.
We had our most recent Special Media Events Dell built. With the specs to include 12 USB ports installed to handle Event devices (without having to toggle USB extensions).
Accompanied by the specialized audio and video interfaces that One Click Fix recommended and installed.
The Dells are dependable professional work horses for high-end custom design work. Everyone enjoys working on the Dell Desktops.
One Click Fix services all of our Laptops.
While traveling we depend on the MacBook Air laptop. The MacBook is a dependable personal computer. Ideal for email, spreadsheets, and light image editing. The MacBook Air is lightweight with a long life battery. Having the laptop serviced by One Click Fix has kept the MacBook Air a dependable laptop for over six years. Prior to One Click FIx our traveling laptop was replaced every two years.
Our Support Team uses the touch screen Lenovo. A great laptop for data entry and research. All running on Windows 10 – the touch screen feature is a favorite for everyone.
One Click Fix keeps our professional Windows design computers and personal Mac computers up-to-date, secure, and performing.
by Gary Crossey | Oct 4, 2017 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
by Gary Crossey | Sep 20, 2017 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
Postcards for Marketing

Designing a postcard to promote your business, event, or service is still an efficient, easy, and economical way to share your message.Postcards are ideal for marketing a particular service or event. Or to remind your customers of your daily deals and specials.
A postcard can be a powerful tool.
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by Gary Crossey | Dec 28, 2016 | Advertising, Website Banners


BLOG: 5 Reasons to See Your Dentist
Every good blog needs a strong graphic. Asheville Dental Care like a crisp, clean typeface. Eating apples are a key element of the blog. At the store, I bought the best-looking apples they had.
In the photo studio
Once in my photo studio, it is lights, camera, action. The studio is not a place that I spend time figuring stuff out. I arrive at the photo studio with a task to do, a concept developed, and outcomes expected. In this case, the subject is an Apple. But what an apple. It took six takes to get the right bite incision into the Apple. I did use the apples to make a pie (I like pie).
Photoshop Edits
What I did not say. I bought red apples, not green. The photography I did was a red apple. With Photoshop I adjusted the color values of the Apple to make it appear green (to match the Asheville Dental Care brand).
by Gary Crossey | Sep 10, 2016 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Website Banners
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by Gary Crossey | Jul 2, 2016 | Advertising
The fun part about designing a Yellow Pages Ad is the color. Black and yellow. Sure there is an entire range of yellows that you can use until that yellow become black. Often, yellow pages ad feel more like a school assignment from “Principles of Design” class. The only difference, Principles of Design is the study of black and white.
Yes, some businesses use yellow pages ads. Some firms even generate business from yellow pages ads. It is always good to at least test your target market out. Perhaps there is an opening for an older demographic to your market share. Reach them with a well designed yellow pages ad.

Creating contrast is key to standing out. And don’t over do it. Clean and straightforward. For the yellow pages ad I choice to highlight the phone number and availability. With the location visually following behind.
For this yellow pages ad I choice to simplify the logo – by leaving the icon off. With the health icon for artwork and the list of services. Along with licensing and insurance tagline. IN the space of a business card. Something had to go to provide some breathing room. While including the message the client want to confer.
IrishGuy Asheville Website & Development provided the online services for this ad campaign. The online campaign worked alongside the print and marketing campaign.
The yellow pages ads were as used in low-cost local marketing. The ads printed well in black and white – and showcased the local small business. The yellow pages ads were part of a much larger branding project.

Graphic Designer Gary Crossey
by Gary Crossey | Jun 27, 2016 | Advertising


Promoting Banner Ad Space


by Gary Crossey | Jun 21, 2016 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design

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Crowne Plaza Postcards
I created a series of directional postcards for Crowne Plaza – Atlanta. The cards for printed and given to customers who were interested in particular Atlanta attractions. The postcards were a welcomed tool for the hotel concierge and the Crowne Plaza customers.
Map Making
Not everyone can make a map. And, even fewer people can write clear directions. I did both for this projects.
Are the directions correct? The instructions are all right. I walked every one of them to be sure.
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The Importance of Research
As a designer doing your research is always key to a successful project. The directions that were provided by the client had been pulled from the internet and were mostly incorrect. I always check the information submitted to ensure that I am creating the result that my customer needs. What’s the point in creating a directional postcard that is wrong?
I walked all the routes. Drunk coffee and discovered the most enjoyable path. I then wrote directions and created the maps for each route.
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by Gary Crossey | Jun 8, 2016 | Advertising
Small Business Print Ad
Non-profit Print Ad for Asheville Manufacturers Executive Association (MEA). The graphic design for the print ad is quite simple with an extended members list. The slight slope of the membership list does give the graphic design just enough to set the ad apart from the rest of the publications.

by Gary Crossey | Aug 30, 2015 | Advertising, Graphic Design
Banner Ads
Reach your target market using website banner ads. Yes – someone has to design all those website banner ads. Here is a small collection of website marketing ads that I have created for Asheville Tech Community College, OurVoice, and Heville Social Network.
Graphic Design created for Asheville AB Tech Classes

Graphic Design created for OurVoice Asheville
Some website banners work well by being simple, clean, and easy to understand.

Ads for Heville Social Networking Websites
The Heville Social Networking website ran ads on various websites. Depending on the website that Heville ran their banner ad designs – they wanted either still or animated banner ads. These three banner ads are examples of some of the still ads created for Heville.


Sign up for Membership Ads

Ads to announce
Announcing the launch of a new social networking website .









by Gary Crossey | May 26, 2015 | Advertising, Architectural Photography, Graphic Design

Most all of my Graphic Design work gets impacted by my photography in some form. However, with this marketing package, the photography takes center stage.
The marketing package for a vacation rental for South Beach condo. Photos posted on VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). Creating the multi-panel images reduced the cost of publishing images by a third.

Other Direct Mail Design Samples
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by Gary Crossey | Dec 15, 2014 | Advertising, Motion Graphics
Website Banner Ad
A national banner ad created for PBS The Newshour show. The banner was first created as a Flash banner. For display, the format has been converted to an animated gif (for our Iphone and Ipad users).




by Gary Crossey | Dec 11, 2013 | Advertising, Motion Graphics, Website Banners
Made In Honduras published in the New York Times and The Washington Post.
If you don believe in online marketing, you might want to track how many clicks these banners got – it was huge!
Using Adobe Flash, I created the Motion Graphics from still photography. Due to the size requirements for Banner ads, I had to reduce these ads to a 27K file size. Creating a banner ad is certainly one skill, having that banner come in under 27 K is quite another skill altogether. Data file reduction is a skill that I excel in.


[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”http://fastfwd.info/ALH_Banner/Doors.swf” width=”500″ height=”500″ targetclass=”flashmovie”]
[/kml_flashembed]
by Gary Crossey | Dec 2, 2013 | Advertising, Illustration
Digitally Drawing by Gary Crossey. Created on the iPad 2 using Adobe Ideas.
Creating digital art with something other than the ‘mouse’ sounds ideal. However, after 15 years of learning how to draw with the mouse, I did find working with Adobe Ideas to be slow. It was fun. Somewhat steamless with Adobe Illustrator. For production work I would use Adobe Ideas for outline work. Complete the painting in Adobe Illustrator.
Was an AWESOME App – however, as of Fall 2014 Adobe have disconnected the support of Adobe Ideas.
by Gary Crossey | Dec 1, 2012 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
Create a discount coupon for CSC end of year sale on Computer Training Classes. The campaign involved establishing an online service that could handle the coupon discount.

The discount graphic was placed seamlessly into Charlotte Street Computers (which then had a black background).
by Gary Crossey | Jun 5, 2012 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design

The Asheville Salon presented by the Asheville Adobe User Group. Featured four guest speakers on Being Creative.

Online Banner Ad – posted on websites to promote the Asheville Salon.
by Gary Crossey | May 4, 2012 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
Club Hairspray – Asheville NC. Rather than creating two postcards for two different events – we went with the concept to feature one event on each side of the Postcard. The printing cost was reduced by half.

Calling on Adobe Photoshop to quickly create some visual effects for the back of the postcard.

by Gary Crossey | Oct 18, 2010 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design

Graphics created to promote the events of DJ iGuy.
The series of graphics created to promote DJ iGuy began with my photography.




by Gary Crossey | Oct 6, 2009 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design

This guy not only built his own house. But, when it came to selling. He had an awesome house showing. I began by photographying the house in Asheville: I spent an hour photographing different views of the house.
Interesting Design Aspects
The home had many interesting design aspects that the client wanted to include on the postcard.

by Gary Crossey | Jun 24, 2009 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
Art Opening Asheville: Intersection:8
The photographic journey of eight men.
There were an entire series of postcards created for the Art Opening. Here are a handful of the samples.
by Gary Crossey | Apr 28, 2009 | Advertising, Graphic Design

The print ad, Poster, and Flyer for the Dining Out for Life event in Asheville. The Table event was a great success. Glad I was able to show my support with the design of the Asheville print ad and eating (two of the things I seem to do best).
by Gary Crossey | Oct 15, 2006 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Product Photography

by Gary Crossey | Oct 2, 2006 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Product Photography
Asheville Graphic Design and Product Photography samples. Both print ads were created for Our State publication.
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by Gary Crossey | Sep 30, 2006 | Advertising, Graphic Design
Asheville Print Ad samples. The Graphic Design is working equally as well in color as it does in black and white.
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by Gary Crossey | Sep 24, 2006 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Illustration
Graphic Design sample of series of Asheville Print Ad.
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by Gary Crossey | Feb 6, 2006 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design
Graphic design for the Asheville Public Access grand opening. That was a fun opening party. Here is a sample of one of the postcard invites that I designed for the opening. The postcard design was also redesigned into a large format poster. The poster design was quite awesome (if anyone has a copy of the poster – please forward a photo).
Prior to URTV going on the air, I headed the Branding Design team. And designed the first
URTV LOGO: Asheville Wiki. I also headed the Graphic Design and Programming team for the first URTV website (I do miss the URTV flash navigation I created for the website).
Yes, Cat Williams performed opening night – what a gem for Asheville culture.
by Gary Crossey | Nov 4, 2005 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design, Photography, Product Photography

The Seasonal Greeting cards are part a larger branding campaign.
- Catalog.
- Website and Online Store.
- Print ads and Flyers.
- Posters, Banners, and Signage.
- Series of greeting cards.
- Postcards – with discount programs.
- Seasonal Greeting Cards.
by Gary Crossey | Oct 12, 2005 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Product Photography
While the format for this print ad is long and tall. It may not be the easiest format to showcase well online.

Asheville Print Advertising.
For most businesses print advertising is that extra word-of-mouth. While most businesses do benefit from marketing – you do have to know when and where you advertising dollar is best spent.
For the series of prints advertising designs I had to first photograph the products. Once I had the photography collection I created a base template with InDesign.
While the template did serve to reduce graphic design time – by bringing all the design assets (logo, photography, styles) together into one place. The ads were always different sizes, with different artwork, and a different list of features – which always required design considerations.
Product Photography
Shining products photography with iridescent showing that luminous different colors from direct angles.
Outside Signage
All weather signage. This is the graphic for a huge outdoor all-weather banner. The finish had a nice matt finish that stopped the sign from reflecting in the bright sun of event lights.

Outdoor signage is the graphic design task that separates mice from men. The large Enter the Earth banner was printed on a durable waterproof roll. My objective was to provide my client with signage for his traveling booth. The signage needed to show well, and travel well. I selected a rubber finish that added years to the usage of the signage.
by Gary Crossey | Sep 6, 2005 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Product Photography
Asheville Print Ad for National Trade Shows
Asheville Print Ad series created for small business. While the client is local. They are a global player . They manage fragile items that they discover from around the planet.

How I designed my Asheville print ad series
When I design for a print ad series. I begin with reason and logic. It is important for me to visualize the big picture. For me to connect with the target market. And for the print ads to reach their goal.
Questions I asked before I designed my Asheville print ad series.
- Who will see these print ads?
- What do they need to know?
- What are they looking for?

Asheville Print Ad Elements
While some people can claim graphic design for a print ad. That is not the case with this series of print ads. All design aspects of this project were handled by Irish Guy.
- Logo Design – Created Brian Jones & Gary Crossey.
- Product Photography – Gary Crossey.
- Graphic Design for Print Ad – Gary Crossey.
- Website Design & Development.
- Product catalog, with online store and shopping cart.
Ground Work for Graphic Design
This project required layers of planning. Photos of the products had to first be taken. Given the reflective nature of the product line creating print quality images is difficult. Each picture required a custom approach. The photo collection I created was quickly approved.
A series of print ads followed. To ensure print quality – I handed all of the digital files for the printer. Providing the printer whatever format best meet their needs.
The print ads ran in a national trade mag. Reprints of the ads also ran. Different versions of the ad ran – with various product line changes and feature product.
What direct the design choices for the print ad?
I did my research. I reviewed years of similar trade show mags. Their primary focus is BUSY. Overload of images – everyone is trying out do everyone else. Which is fine. As long as you use graphic design and typography principles to reach your target market.
Or limit your you curbside appeal – and pile everything into your ad. For this series of print ads – the client wanted to set his higher quality product line apart from everyone else. Some of the lines they have global exclusive rights to.
The design focused on either one featured item. Or, a small collection of similar high quality items.
The marketing objective of the print ads was too provide the location of the Trade Show booth. And an insight to their featured product line. Most participants of the trade show first review the trade show magazine for vector booths they want to attend. I trimmed the ads with bright memorable colors. Making the ads easy locate in the mass of other ads.
Reduce Graphic Design Costs
To reduce graphic design costs the print ads were converted into InDesign templates. The templates were easy and fast to update with new feature photography and product listings. The templates had four different variations that could be adjusted for most basic print requirements. The template deployment saved my clients hundred of hours in labor costs – that was better used to advertising costs.
by Gary Crossey | Aug 30, 2003 | Advertising
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Print Ad Design for Asheville Firm
The Fastfwd Print Ad was always fun and exciting to design. Always something a bit different from the other print ads running.
The first ad that began a series of marketing ads. The Fastfwd advertisements ran in the Asheville Chamber of Commerce Newsletter, Website, and other community publications.
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by Gary Crossey | Aug 10, 2003 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design, Product Photography
Hiring a Professional Asheville Photographer

Product Photography & Direct Mail Sample
I spent “days” photographing this stone collection. Thankfully, as a professional Asheville photographer; I love to work with hard objects. The entire Product line is shiny rocks. Yes, they reflect everything. Some of the spheres can reflect the whole room at once. And, I think I may have said it before, they shine, shine, shine, and reflect. (more…)
by Gary Crossey | Sep 16, 2002 | Advertising, Graphic Design, Photography
Series of Asheville Print Ads
The series of black and white print ads created for My Native Ireland (Asheville). The graphic design of the ads follows the company Branding and borrows graphics from the website.
The client hired us for Product Photography, Copy Writing, Graphic Design, Printing, and Distribution. We photographed the product in the downtown Asheville store.
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Diana Wortham Program
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Highland Games Print Ad
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Mountain Xpress Asheville Print Ad
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Rapid River Print Ad
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by Gary Crossey | May 30, 2002 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response
by Gary Crossey | Feb 17, 2002 | Advertising, Direct Mail + Direct Response, Graphic Design, Product Photography
- Product Photography
- Graphic Design
- Printing
- Distributing
The postcard design was created for Ab-Lib Asheville clothing store.
The creative graphic design services for this Asheville business began with product photography. The graphic design with completed by Brian Jones.
Having an experienced designer heading this graphic design project made all the difference. The postcard design was distributed to Asheville neighborhoods.
by Gary Crossey | May 30, 1999 | Advertising, Graphic Design