Websites, social media, print, great design, digital marketing…and maybe even one of those Apps everyone else seems to have…
Yes, developing a modern and successful brand means there are loads of things to consider. But at the heart of everything, the most important thing that will link all of those individual elements together is your brand.
Of course, a brand is more than just a logo, but it does not have to be overly complicated either. In fact, the best brands are beautifully simple and engage people at first glance, growing in impact over time. But like many things, something that seems very simple has been planned and carefully stage-managed for our benefit.
To keep things simple, why not relate the facets of a brand to that of a person. People have a visual identity, a voice, they act in a certain way and have an identifiable personality.
Like a person, if a brand changes the way it looks you wouldn’t recognise it. The more consistently it acts the more you understand it, the more you know where you stand with it. Over time this not only builds the profile of the brand but you grow to trust a brand for a certain set of values such as quality, cost or reliability. If I said EasyJet, Nike, Apple or Bentley most people would be able to sum up those brands fairly accurately.
When developing a brand we often design creative mood boards to gather references for fonts, image style, colour use, tone of voice and concept advertising (always a great way to develop a brand). And when developing the brand further we suggest guidelines are established to act as a reference for each element of the brand – both in print and online – to ensure consistency in the future.
This does not need to be as scary as it sounds. Our design studio has worked with some household names (Jet2, GSK, Hitachi & Balfour Beatty) that come with some epic brand guidelines. But, we have also designed some very effective, concise guides that are appropriate for SMEs who operate regionally.
When we work with clients the focus is often on a new website or flashy new marketing materials, but this is like starting your book at chapter 2. It pays to begin with your brand identity because taking time to put those foundations in place in the beginning is a wise investment in the future of your brand.
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