Here is the final design for the XFC 24 event poster with the new main event between Scott Holtzman and John Mahlow.  Please let us know what you think.
We appreciate all feedback!

The XFC - Xtreme Fighting Championships set their sites on June 14th, 2013 in Tampa, FL for another action packed televised professional MMA Event!  Several of the top local and national superstars show the fans and the XFC all they’ve got in undercard battles you won’t want to miss.
Tickets on sale now (Click Here) | Doors open at 6:30pm, Fights start at 7:00pm, LIVE on AXStv at 9pm.

FIGHT CARD
MAIN EVENT – LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
John Mahlow vs Scott Holtzman
Co-Main Event
Rickey Rainey vs Reggie Pena
Kevin Forant vs Eric Reynolds
Dave Courchaine vs Luis Santos
Kelly Warren vs Cortney Casey
Jason Hicks vs Shah Bobonis
Undercard
Chad Livingston vs John Cofer (TV Swingbout)
Nick Smith vs Ladarious Jackson
Robert Gonzalez vs Gabe Maldonado
Jason Gladey vs Gilbert Burgos
Billy Quarantillo vs Theo Idleburg

via OrphicPixel

Every single company, from the small business owner in his street-side stall to the largest multi-national conglomerate, takes plenty of pain to create a brand they believe in. This brand becomes the reason for their existence and also the reason why they spend sleepless nights thinking about ways to make it better. When you spare no expense to make your product/service as customer-oriented as possible, then why shy away from using quality design?

The fact is, good design can mean the difference between a flourishing business and a shut-up shop. Here’s ten reasons why you need to pay attention to the effort and quality going into your designs!

When people think about graphic design, they normally think about a desktop program that allows them to create images and publish them on their website, business cards, invitations, or in a variety of other places. However, this is not true graphic design, and in fact – in order to produce professional graphic designs, this requires the skill of a graphic artist. The process is much different than using some type of desktop application because it requires a graphic designer that can create a unique experience when it comes to color, print, typography and the overall visual experience. Here you will discover the importance of graphic design, and how you can benefit when it comes to hiring this type of service.

Why Graphic Design
Creating a visual impact when it comes to advertisement or designing a website will require the skill of someone that understands how to put colors and images together that are not only eye-catching, but pleasing as well. This will not only be important from the standpoint of the visitor or person that is looking at a design or image that has been displayed on your behalf, but this is also important for you as a business owner because this is a critical element when it comes to the unique marketing aspects of your business.

The reason for this is – the designs, graphics, and colors you display, over time, will become associated with you or your business. In this respect, it will be important to choose a graphic designer that can establish designs that will convey the message you’re trying to get across to your potential audience. So, as you can see, graphic design plays a huge part when it comes to you, your business, or your marketing strategies. With that being said, this leads to the next point that will be just as important, and that is choosing a graphic designer and Successfully Working with your Graphic Designer.

Choosing a Graphic Designer
There are a wide variety of graphic designers available for those trying to get some graphics completed for a specific project or website design. However, it will be important to realize that every type of graphic designer will not be the same. You will discover that there are some that will specialize in certain types of design while others will work in specific areas that have to do with graphics. For instance, when looking for a graphic designer you’ll need to consider website design, company logo, photographic images, business cards, flyers, brochures, product packaging, and even your business stationary.

All of the items listed above will need to be considered, and it will be up to you to choose a graphic artist that will be able to handle the specific areas where you have important requirements. So, with the information provided above you can see why it’s important to choose a graphic designer that has superior knowledge in any specific area. Now, these are only a few areas where the skills and knowledge of a graphic artist will play a huge part; however, you can see that being a graphic designer is much more than using a simple desktop application.

Pretty pictures are the best. But you know who likes them even more than your readers, leads, and customers?
Marketers.

Well they should, anyway, because marketers who are embracing visual content are seeing huge returns in terms of, well, more readers, leads, and customers. Oh, also revenue. Not a bad setup.

Whether you're already a champion of visual content and just want a little affirmation, or you're interested in dipping your toes into the burgeoning visual content space, these 19 statistics should help you make the case for doing just that.

Visual content is an important part of creating engagement across social channels. It stands out from all the text promotion companies typically do, helps tell a story, and gives event attendees all the information they need in a short amount of time. Visual content for events can be a valuable tactic before, during, and afterwards, becoming a cornerstone of your event marketing strategy.
Creating a custom graphic for every webinar and event that we promote on social channels increases the EdgeRank of our posts on Facebook because our followers tend to engage with images over text only posts. We have seen a huge uptick in registration by using this tactic, particularly in a promoted post.  Take a look at a visual image we used on Facebook for our Keynote at Marketo Summit.

We, as designers and as MMA fans, are always interested in hearing your opinions on all things design-related.  Pictured above are the event poster designs put forth by the UFC for UFCs 160, 161 & 162.
Let us know what you think of the poster designs.
I personally feel that these three posters go from best to worst in terms of design. The UFC 160 poster is an excellent fight poster design, while the others look far less inspiring (in my opinion).

Remember the kindergarten exercise, show and tell?
Well, based on its more mobile-friendly News Feed redesign, it appears Facebook will now be more show than tell. Or, to be more precise, it will be burying the tell in billions of pictures. The shift to a personal newspaper-style format with larger and more prominent photo displays is a response to photo-driven behavior that has rapidly changed the social media landscape. In fact, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that 50% of all posts are now pictures, double the amount from just a year ago.

It’s a shift that makes sense considering our brains are wired to favor pictures over words. A recent HubSpot study of 1,500 B2B and B2C company Facebook Pages determined that photo posts generate 53% more Likes and 104% more comments than average posts. In addition, photo posts receive 84% more link clicks than plain text status updates or links with thumbnail pics.

So if it’s true that Facebook is becoming (a bigger version of) Tumblr or Pinterest and text posts are dying, what happens after the funeral?

How Will the Social Web Monetize Visual Content?

In what easily could (and perhaps, should) have been a Knockout of the Night garnering performance, Anthony Njokuani finished-off Roger Bowling with a vicious left hook KO in Round 2 of their lightweight clash at UFC on Fox 7 last night.

We here at MMA Fight Banners & Design, along with Knockout Representation and CSC Memorabilia, are making Anthony's fight banner available to MMA collectors and fans. The banner will be hand-signed by Anthony and come with photo proof of the signing.

This is a great opportunity to add a piece of MMA history to your MMA collection!
Contact CSC Memorabilia HERE with your offers and inquiries.

Some upcoming UFC fight banners we will be working on are for Anthony Njokuani at UFC on Fox 7 and Jim Miller at UFC 159.

Njokuani will face Roger Bowling on April 30th in San Jose, CA. Miller will be fighting again in New Jersey at UFC 159 when he meets Pat Healy in a highly-anticipated match-up.

As always, if you have any suggestions or input of any kind as to the designs for the banners, we are open to it, so please comment below. Thanks!

Content marketing may be all the rage, but the visual components of your content are more important than ever. If you look around at the most trafficked social media platforms, it doesn’t take an MBA to figure out that visual platforms are growing in a major way. Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube make it easy for companies to connect with their consumers in highly visual ways. The popularity of these platforms has even pushed Facebook to change its user interface once more to make it more image-heavy. In fact, it’s been noted that posts that include an album or picture receive 120-180% more engagement from fans than a text-based post.

Visual marketing may seem like the newest fad, but it’s more a progression of how we consume content. Think about the platforms on which you’re engaged and ask yourself: do text-only updates suddenly seem dated? In my view, the answer is yes.

Why visual content is important

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But there are many reasons to identify and create visual assets for your marketing program:

• As the mobile space becomes an increasingly important marketing channel, creative visual content is a must. Visual content is quick and easy to digest – not to mention create – in the on-the-go mobile space.
• Sourcing visual content gives brands the opportunity to collaborate with fans and followers. In fact, a strategic visual marketing initiative can turn brand evangelists into brand operatives.
• Visuals can tell a story that goes far beyond what can be communicated via text. They let your followers see the behind-the-scenes aspects of your organization and help them feel more connected to your brand.
• The proliferation of smartphones makes creating and sharing visual content beyond easy. Just think, every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube and 40 million photos are posted to Instagram every day.
  
  

Now that we understand why visual marketing is important and why it’s here to stay—how can you go about implementing it as part of your marketing strategy?  Stay tuned…that’s coming up in part II.

How have you incorporated visual mediums into your marketing program?