Branding: How to Ensure Your Brand Assets Are Memorable
As an entrepreneur, you have to sit down sooner or later and figure out your branding strategy. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs launch their business, start engaging in promotional activities and never give branding much thought. You can’t create a memorable and professional brand by accident. The importance of building strong brand recognition can’t be overstated, however. Let’s look at how to create a brand and brand assets that look professional and memorable. Getting your branding right will allow you to stand out from your competitors, so this is a worthwhile effort.
Get Your Logo Right
When it comes to branding, your first task is your logo. If you are thinking of starting an eCommerce website or any other business, you are in luck. You can start from scratch without having to undergo a redesign. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of rushing the logo design and selection process. Or they get overly involved and micromanage a graphic designer or overdo their concept. Here’s a blueprint to follow when you approach your logo design:
- Define Your Core Values: The first task has nothing to do with design. To create an effective logo that resonates with your core demographic, you have to make sure it aligns with your business’s core values.
- Choose Your Main Branding Color: Once you know what message you want to communicate through your logo, it’s time to choose your main branding color. Different colors have a different psychological impact on the viewer.
- Decide on Your Logo Style: Do you want to use a brand mark, text only, combination mark, or emblem type of logo? This is a stylistic choice and can reflect your personal preferences and personality.
- Choose a Suitable Graphics and Font: This is the fun part of the logo design process. Play around with different graphics, fonts, and layout options. Try lots of different concepts and only finalize a version once you have gathered feedback from business stakeholders, potential leads, and loved ones.
Set a Design Direction for All of Your Brand Assets
Once you have a logo in place, you can start thinking about your other brand assets like websites, business cards, presentations, flyers, social media posts, etc. Don’t just jump in and start designing right away. Here are some points to consider when you are building out your brand assets:
- Brand All of Your Graphic Design: Whether you are designing a banner ad, coupon, or poster, make sure you incorporate your logo. Each brand asset is another opportunity to enforce your branding.
- Incorporate Your Brand Colors: In addition to your logo, you want to make sure you choose its core color and incorporate it across your designs as accent pieces. You can also repeat your logo’s secondary colors. This will give all of your designs a consistent and memorable look.
- Make Use of Images: Another way to create a consistent look and feel is through images. Instead of choosing random photos, find a set of professionally shot images, and use those exclusively across your branding. With enough repetition, users will soon start to see those images as part of your brand too.
- Use Additional Visual Aids: You can elevate the quality of your graphic design with visual aids like icons, illustrations, etc. Just like with images, be consistent in your use and stick to a particular set.
Here Are Some Free Design Resources To Get You Started
If you are starting, you probably don’t have the budget to hire an in-house designer or freelancer. Luckily there are some free do-it-yourself design resources available that you can leverage to design professional and memorable branding assets. Here are a few tools to get you started on your branding journey:
- Business Cards lets you create free printable cards
- My Color is a free color generation tool ideal for branding
- Canva is a free web-based graphic design solution
- Pexels offers royalty-free images that you can use for commercial projects
Now that you have a guideline in place on how to create professional and memorable brand assets along with some free resources, it’s time to get busy designing. Good luck with your branding project!
