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In an adults room the primary focus is on style, comfort and relaxation. Most of our time spent in our bedroom is sleeping, we spend most of our waking time out of our bedrooms and in other areas such as the living room of the house. This is not true for children, they are less concerned about style, focusing instead on just whatever they like and enjoy. They also use their rooms for far more purposes than we would, from reading books, playing games, drawing and so on.
It is a good idea to take advantage of this multifunction idea of your child's bedroom, by splitting the room in to distinct areas. This doesn't have to be a literal division at all, and in most cases it would be impractical. The best way to implement the different sections of the room is to group furniture with the same purpose or that will be used for similar activities together.
Simple things like putting a comfortable small chair close to where your child's books are kept makes it far easier for your child to start reading. A desk next to or near to the window allows for greater light when drawing or painting, as well as giving an area to do homework.
It is a good idea to give your child a lot of say in what their bedroom looks like, it is there's after all! It will also allow them to feel a great connection to their room, as they will feel like they had a real impact on how it looks and the layout used.
In saying that, when it comes to a child's bedroom it can often be a difficult task to mix what your child likes at the moment, and what they will like in a month's time! As such it is important to try and decorate it in non-specific ways, focusing on colours and patterns that are not specific to a certain TV programme for example.
While children tend to love bright and beautiful colours such as bright reds, blues, pinks and so forth, try not to use too bright colours everywhere. They can tend to make the room too lively and will reduce the feeling of relaxation in the room, which is important when it comes to things such as sleeping or resting.
A great idea is to paint three of the walls in a light colour and one in a more vibrant but slightly darker shade of the same colour. The best place for this bolder wall is where the play area of the room is. This also has a dual purpose, as by having three light coloured walls and one darker wall it gives the illusion of making the room seem bigger – this works in any room of the house, not just your child's room.
Finally children's curtains should be fairly light, not just in colour but also in how much light they allow into the room, although it is advisable to not make them too light if there are street lights that might make sleeping difficult unless you include a blackout lining.
A company calendar is a mainstay for many gift presentations to clients and business contacts at Christmas time; they come in all shapes, sizes and taste ranging from the professionally shot and prepared iconic office gifts to the tacky and pornographic. In between lies the vast majority of calendars and many could do with a little e makeover in the imagination department but never the less, these gifts last for an entire year and therein lies their marketing worth.
Imagine how much you would have to pay to have an advertisement for your business in the newspaper every day of the year and still have no guarantee that your target audience will actually see it? This is exactly what a calendar achieves; an office and work tool which the recipient of your calendar gift is likely to use every single working day! You can see very quickly that you should be putting something extra into the design and production of the calendar and here are some ideas for you to consider.
Use Your Best Asset - Your Employees
Every month of the year usually ends up with some glossy photograph of landscape, fast car or good looking model; everyone does this so why should you? Try using your own staff as the subject so you are communicating to your customers and the world at large the human faces who are frequently nothing more than an impersonal email address or a disembodied voice on the telephone. This pays dividends too when it comes to your relations with your staff - you are promoting hem as they promote your business and it's a win-win situation.
Use Your Customers
Try using your customers as your subjects instead of seasonal countryside scenes; take the opportunity to demonstrate real-life case studies of how your business has helped a customer with a good quality photograph of them and their business. This creates variety and interest while advancing your company image and reputation for satisfying customer needs and demands very well. It is also great for creating variety within the calendar itself so each month will have a very different subject but the story will be the same theme - how well your business stakes care of customers. Your customers will probably be happy to cooperate too as after all they're getting some free exposure from your efforts so again, it's a win-win situation.
Avoid Religious, Political and Non-PC Themes
You never know who is going to see your calendar (or any themed business stationery or communication) so you need to be circumspect when it comes to the themes and subjects. Generally steer clear of religious subjects though you can include Christmas as though many people do not appreciate the religious aspects of the festival, it is nevertheless an almost universal time of good cheer. Avoiding political themes or any subject which may be construed as being overtly racist or prejudiced is a very good idea - do you really want to end up losing a good customer because you vote one way and they don't?
Calendars Aren't Just For Hanging on the Wall
Don't restrict yourself to a calendar that will sit on the desk or hand on the wall. Think outside the box a little and consider other formats which will serve the same function such as plastic cards with a calendar imprinted for use in the wallet or purse, or how about a calendar which is made of something different from paper or card?