Creating the perfect branding for your business can be tough, especially if you're someone like me, who has an appreciation for a lot of different design styles. Keep reading if you want to learn how to make your brand cohesive and true to you.
Cohesiveness throughout your business branding is key, you want your clients to become familiar with your brand so that they can start to build a visual relationship with you. If you think about name brands, immediately you start to associate that brand with a logo, like Nike with their check mark, or Wal-Mart with their blue and yellow starburst. Creating a visual relationship with your clients keeps them liking, engaging , and buying from your business.
I know it can be overwhelming when starting to brand your business due to all sorts of reasons, what do you want to brand yourself with that will feel comfortable using for long-term reasons? What colors represent you and your brand? What types of fonts are you engaged with using throughout your branding? Here we will break down the branding basics and discuss how to keep things cohesive for you!
1. How to choose the right color palette for your branding.
As a designer, I have created branding for multiple brands. Anything from starting a business all together- to re-branding businesses who are already in love with their colors. First thing's first, start with what you know.
What type of business are you? For me when it came to stationery, I tend to love to work with watercolor. So that's where I started, stationery doesn't have one color it's associated with, yet a lot of businesses tend to have colors that represent them- like bakeries, a lot of the time you'll see bakeries with black and white or a pop of pink- just to show a little color. More natural brands tend to use a lot of brown, green, and yellows to feel more earthy. Some clients just have an image for their color scheme already and that's great- whatever you choose I encourage you to stick with for awhile. When branding your company, you'll want to keep the same branding for 3-5 years. In my opinion, this helps clients to get associated with who you are aesthetically and it's easier for clients to find you based off of your brand alone.
Now think of your brand....and in 1... 2... 3... NOW PICK A COLOR. That's the winner. You're already halfway there.
2. How to choose the right font for your brand.
FONTS, if you think colors are hard to choose, I think fonts are the hardest decision if you ask me. As a stationer, I'm in love with so many fonts- as I should be... so, for me finding the right font was hard. I try to make this easy for clients who have no idea where to start.
First I always ask, do you like script or modern fonts- or do you like something of a mix between the two?
I love to mix script and modern fonts in order to visually enhance the design. However, some brands are great with just one or the other. Once we decide what type of font to use (script or modern) I will send 10-15 fonts for you to choose from that I think relate well to your aesthetic and brand. This helps clients to narrow down their options in a world with millions of fonts. - another great thing is that I purchase a lot of my fonts and send you the files so that you can use them for any business purposes later on! Think website, marketing, social media, signage and more!
3. Logo Design for your branding.
It can be hard to find exactly what you want your brand's aesthetic to feel like, the great news is that by choosing color and font you can really help narrow down the process. Again, I love to try and go off of what your business means to you, and your businesses mission statement. This is where we go back to basic business marketing 101: Find your mission statement and write it down. This process not only helps with branding your business but also helps you to really figure out your WHY for your business, why are you doing this, what purpose does your business have for your clients? Need help creating a mission statement click the link below to help you process your ideas.
Once you've completed your mission statement, this helps determine logo wise- what direction we should go in. A lot of clients are really into the clean-modern aesthetic. This is great for all sorts of reasons, meaning we can make your clean modern logo all sorts of colors so you can use it in a variety of ways. When you start out more basic and clean it also helps for adding onto your fonts later- I typically encourage this if you're all over the board design wise.
However, some clients come to me and know exactly the look and feel they want for their logo and that's when the magic starts to happen. All in all- I say, do not skip this process when launching a business. Branding is what sets you a part from the other business, so incorporating a logo and feel that you truly love is well worth the time and effort.
4. Business cohesiveness.
Okay okay, you did it! You decided on the perfect logo for you. Now what?
Now we get to create a brand! The opportunities for branding are endless-truly. I like to start out with business cards, thank you cards, and maybe even business logo stickers and return address labels. I feel that once you have those major business branding items you can create cohesiveness throughout your branding. This truly makes your brand feel professional and INTENTIONAL.
Now cohesiveness doesn't have to mean having the same exact image on multiple cards- this just means we use your colors and fonts to create new variations of your brand, making each stationery piece feel truly inventive and inspired by your logo. Trust me, once you have all of these pieces your brand will feel so fun to you- I adore placing my little Shaytionery business cards into an envelope with my Shaytionery sticker seals and return addresses, it just really feels professional and thought out.
5. Extras.
Once you've handled all of your basic branding needs, extras are always a fun thing to add into your branding mix! This could include some fun branded thank you cards, boxes for shipping, signage for your storefront or home, mugs, tee shirts, you name it! I love incorporating my branding onto things to really make each element feel special and personalized to my clients. My Shaytionery boxes are my favorite branding element, they just put a big smile on my face- and my clients love to open it! This allows us to create even more of an experience for our customers, and who doesn't love opening up some fun mail? Not to mention It's free marketing for you too when your clients share to their Instagram, and let's be real- you want something unique to make you stand out!
I hope this helped you shed some light onto your business branding, and if you need any new fun elements I would love to help you out! This is the perfect time to nail down these branding projects!
Wishing you peace and safety,
XOXO,
Shay (Shaytionery)