3 Tips for Developing your Brand

We all want our own businesses and brands to succeed. This starts with developing your brand to be the most awesome looking one in your industry from the beginning. Your company and brand are who you are! And the best way for people to learn about who you are and what you do, is to ensure that your company’s logo and design elements are consistent in all areas of your kick a** marketing efforts.

I have worked on a lot of businesses over the years from established, corporate companies to small boutique companies who are just starting out. I’m happy to share some secrets and knowledge to help develop your brand to look great on every piece of your marketing from start to finish.

Don’t skimp out on investing in your business’ logo or branding.

This is the one thing that will attract your customers/clients and boost your reputation against your competition. This is where I strongly suggest that you always invest in a professional, established graphic designer who has studied and been properly trained.

Becoming a graphic designer does not happen overnight or with ‘2 simple courses’ that you found online like a lot of people are starting to do. There are a lot of people who claim themselves to be graphic designers but are not trained. Especially today when there are so many tutorials that you can find on the internet about ‘how to’ do it yourself. A lot of these people are ones that offer designing a logo or brand for very cheap prices.

One thing that a lot of these tutorials don’t teach you, are proper guidelines and rules that professional graphic designers follow every day. Graphic designers who are professionally trained are equipped with a larger knowledge of what it takes to create a strong, cohesive brand and help develop the entire system for your company’s values.

Now this isn’t an article to put down anyone who wants to learn and practice graphic design., I simply want to empower you with the knowledge on key elements in a brand system to look and ask for when talking with your designer to boost your business to its full potential.

Here are a few key elements to build your brand and be consistent across all platforms.

1. DESIGNING YOUR LOGO.
   Work with your designer to ensure that your logo works on all platforms. This is the most important rule that I can share with you on building your company’s brand. Think about where your logo will be placed in all marketing aspects. A few examples to help are: Your stationery (business cards, letterhead, envelopes), website (which includes desktop, tablet, and mobile devices), promotional items (such as water bottles, pens, etc.), Sometimes your logo will have different lockups so that it can work in small formats and large. This vital piece is what professional graphic designers work on and help develop with you.
2. BRAND COLORS
   One common thing that a lot of companies struggle with when developing their brand, are consistency in their brand colors. Printing utilizes CMYK color values. This means Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Websites and digital screens use a different color value called RGB which many of you know as Red, Green, and Blue. To ensure brand consistency with both on screen and off, sometimes these values need to be adjusted.
3. TYPOGRAPHY
   Typography is one of my favorite things to play with when it comes to developing a brand. Typefaces, or fonts, possess personalities and human characteristics that we relate to without realizing it. This is where you can let your personality show in your brand. Script, Sans Serif, Serif, Hand drawn; let your imagination run wild!

Check back in a few weeks! I will be offering classes on graphic designing tips and developing your brand to be the best that it can be.  

* I am a professional graphic designer and photographer and have worked in marketing from small startup companies to larger marketing firms in and around Houston. I am a proud graduate of the University of Houston with a bachelor’s in graphic communications and a minor in Art History. I am working on my masters in Brand Management and Communication in Italy.