Dina Graphics :: Services

Professional Services include strategic planning, marketing, advertising, photography, printing, brochures, technical writing, presentations, sales tools, posters, post cards, business cards, letterhead and communications, presented in an artistic, effective manner.

An engineer by education and training, I have spent much of my career involved in sales, marketing, strategic planning and management. By temperment, I am a photographer, designer, writer and musician, and lover of the arts. With a foot solidly in each camp, I am uniquely qualified to draw these disparate disciplines together to provide an end product that is both effective and artistic.

Our process always begins by understanding your needs, goals and desires. Once those are clearly defined, we hone in on those aspects of your project that will help determine its effectiveness and success. A clear vision and outline always lead to a superior result.

Click the links to the left and learn more about our capabilities and experience.

Photography & Printing

Photography & Fine Art Printing have been my passion for decades. As a child, my father exposed me to the magic of developing B&W film and converting light into silver based images. Ultimately, my interest in photography blossomed and evolved into a complete B&W and Color Darkroom in the 1970's. I spent countless hours perfecting my techniques and my art. In 1994, I made the leap to digital, which offers unparalleled flexibility and control, but at a cost. "Art Quality" digital printing requires a huge investment in equipment, but more importantly, training, education and experience. I had the interest and the motivation to become an expert, since my position as Director of Marketing & Advertising demanded accurate control to achieve predictable color from concept to final output.

We have an ever expanding library of stock photographs for sale, printed on the best quality archival paper, using pigmented inks for longevity. We also work on assignment, whether you are interested in portraits, product photography, advertising, pets, weddings, family occasions, architecture, etc.

We encourage you to look through our image gallery. If you are looking for something specific, we may already have it in our archives. If not, we welcome the opportunity to create a work of art specifically for you!

Restoration & Retouching

I have extensive experience restoring old, irreplaceable photos, especially those from family archives. We can create true B&W, sepia, platinum, palladium, brown or other tones in the finished image. A successful retouch does not always strive to remove every vestige of wear and age, which can often look contrived and artificial. Each person has an idea of what they want, and we strive to attain that goal, insofar as the original image makes that possible. We scan, remove creases, stains, blemishes, tears, correct tonal range and color, and otherwise remove years of abuse and neglect.

The example below, of my father and his brother, (taken circa 1917), was creased, scratched, cut and faded, and required complete reconstruction, including the recreation of parts of the missing photo.

Before (click image to see "After")

Another turn of the century retouch:

Before (click image to see "After")

Brochure & Flyer Design

Brochure Design is one of our favorite projects. When we design a brochure, we first make sure we understand your product or service, target market, competition and the purpose of your brochure. We develop a concept and a basic design, subject to your suggestions and approval. Clarity of vision, concrete goals and a well crafted outline are the keys to a successful marketing piece. We provide a guideline to help you clarify your vision, goals and the key points. You provide bullet points, basic text, requested images, technical details, sketches if desired, and "hot buttons". We do the rest.

We supply your brochure in PDF format for web display or emailing, and we also do all prepress work, press checks (if desired), and make sure that your finished product meets your requirements.

We can also handle all your photography needs, or we can mix and match your images with new images created especially for your brochure, flyer, poster, post card, or presentation.

Click the links below to view full sized PDFs of sample brochures.

Posters & Trade Show Graphics

As Director of Marketing and Advertising for a large corporation, I was continually designing posters and large trade show graphics for our annual shows. We used a combination of stock and custom photography, illustrations, charts, text, performance curves, etc.

Graphic components were designed and assembled using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat, in addition to some specialty software products, when the need arose.

Trade Show graphics are generally designed as "eye-catchers" to bring traffic into your booth, or contain 'talking points' to stimulate discussion and exploration of a product or service. So, they must be simple, uncluttered and bold. To see an example of a trade show poster that we designed using Adobe Illustrator, click here.

Of course, many people want large posters that are not trade show related. This can include large canvas prints for the home, storefront posters or banners, announcements or large art prints. We are well versed in this area and happy to accommodate all requests, using both stock and custom photography. We can also assist with matting, framing, coatings, laminations, and other post printing treatments.

Technical Writing

Effective written communication is often the difference between success and failure. Over the years, I have created dozens of manuals, instructional guides, sales aids, CD's, brochures, advertisements and presentations. Every one of these pieces involved establishing clear objectives, good organization, familiarity with the product and/or service, and an understanding of the customer's needs (whether one's customer is external or internal to the organization).

It is at this point that effective writing and communication can commence. While the elements above serve as the indispensible foundation, writing clearly and effective is an art form. It requires anticipating your audience's questions, wants and needs, past experiences, psychological obstacles and desired outcomes. A well crafted written document weaves these factors together and builds upon a solid foundation to a natural conclusion that is forthright, logical and compelling.

Samples of our work are available upon request.

Presentations and Sales Tool Development

If you have a product or service to sell or promote, it is likely you have need of, or have used, presentations and sales tools. Presentations can take form as Power Point presentations, PDF files, slide shows, videos, flip charts or web based training. Sales tools can be physical samples, brochures, presentations, demonstrations or any of a host of creative solutions to get your message across in a way that engages your prospective client.

Having been in sales, marketing and advertising for much of my career, I have seen, used and developed numerous presentations and sales tools. The most effective ones always address real needs and real problems that people experience on a regular basis.

Like most marketing and sales related activities, success with presentations and sales tools begins with understanding customers' problems, needs and wants, establishing clear goals, addressing these needs in a manner that is convincing and obvious, and in building rapport, confidence and credibility.

Prepress Services

Designing a brochure, flyer, postcard, trade show graphic or poster is one thing. Getting that job to press and having it match your expectations is quite another.

In fact, there are so many options today, it can be a bit confusing....traditional printing presses, digital short run presses, lightjets, color laser output, inkjet, solvent based printers....lots of options. To further complicate things, a decade ago, most of this work was done 'in house' by the final service provider. For better or worse, the age of digital desktop publishing changed all that. In general, this has been a great leap forward, but it has also resulted in confusion, loss of control, color consistency problems and jobs that simply will not print. The traditional prepress house is nearly gone, and service providers have taken up some of this slack, but with so many nonprofessionals doing their own file preparation, printing companies are overwhelmed.

Having sent hundreds of jobs to press, I have worked closely with dozens of printers and used nearly every type of output device. I am also highly experienced in the field of color management, so your job will look like you expected it to. Preparing jobs for accurate quality output is a detail intensive job that requires experience, and there are literally hundreds of ways to ruin a print run, costing thousands of dollars.

We can help you get your jobs in on budget and on time. In fact, knowing the right vendors to use for a given job can save hundreds or dollars on a single job. We look forward to helping you, whether it be complete project design and creation, file preparation, file conversion, press checks or troubleshooting.

Marketing & Advertising

Marketing is both Art & Science and can encompass a broad range of activities, including strategic planning, product development, building name and brand recognition, finding and developing markets, creation of sales tools and advertising. While it is a sister discipline to sales, it is different in scope, time frame and focus.

A well conceived and executed marketing strategy often makes the difference between a company that succeeds and one that struggles or fails. Done properly, it drives the entire organization, including staffing and allocation of resources. At its core is an investigation and assessment of a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and a clearly delineated growth strategy and action plan. Unfortunately, many companies flounder and waste valuable human and material resources for lack of a cohesive plan.

The science of marketing includes an organized, step by step process which culminates in a precise and clearly written action plan. The art of marketing is implementing that plan in a compelling and creative manner, and using the best tools and approaches for the task at hand.

Advertising is most effective when driven by a cohesive marketing plan and supported by the efforts of the entire organization. The theme and message, and often the best venues, will suggest themselves clearly if the marketing plan has been well designed. Decisions must be made where and how to best invest limited resources, whether in trade publications, direct mail, the internet, etc.

We welcome the opportunity to work with you and your staff in developing your company's potential.