In short, your brand is the pattern that establishes your company’s identity.

So it’s more than a logo.

Brand is more than a color palette.

It’s more than a tag line.

Your brand is all of the above and far more.

So how to you, the business owner, marketing manager and company guru ensure that your brand is maintained?

The first step is to determine if you even have one, and if you do, figure out if you are being true to it. So how do you know? Let’s start with…

Your Logo

Your logo is the core of your brand. So ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do we have a logo?

2. Are the logo colors consistent?

3. Are the logo fonts consistent?

4. Does the logo appear in a predictable way on all our materials?

5. Do we have a logo file that will reproduce reliably on just about anything?

You should answer confidently “yes” to all five questions. If not, you need to find a way to answer “yes” in order to establish, maintain and or strengthen your brand.

Questions? Contact us for a free consultation!

Center: Logo

Ring 1: Colors and Primary Fonts

Ring 2: Secondary Fonts, Secondary Colors, Tagline

Ring 3: Logo Placement (Stationary), Logo Placement (Presentations), Logo Placement (Promotional Materials), Logo Placement (Electronic Communications), Document Fonts, Type Treatments, Secondary Image Marks and Icons

Ring 4: Photographic Guidelines, Graphic Element Guidelines, Editorial Policies, Catch Phrases…

…and so on.

As you can see, as the rings move out, more is added. While visuals are the primary elements in branding, sounds (music, voice and tonals) and even smells can also become a part of a brand. The more rings, the more detailed the brand becomes.

Not every brand is super-detailed, but the heavy hitters definitely are. For example, think about Coke®. Coke has a super-detailed, highly regimented brand standard. But… if I say “Coke Red” just about everyone know exactly what shade of red I’m talking about.

So should your brand be super detailed? Well, that’s for you to decide. However, no matter how simple you decide your brand should be, you should build it in an organized way (remember, think onion or solar system) so that should you decide to expand on it, the structure is already there.

What Now?

Now it’s time to write it all down in an brand standards manual. It can be a simple as a couple of pages of “this is the logo, here are the colors and the fonts that we used.” Or — it can be as extensive to the point where it includes diagrams for logo placement on everything from trucks to wardrobes, lists of approved soundbites and smells.

Either way, no matter how long or how short it is, it should function as a manual that anyone in the company can pickup and see how the company’s brand should (and sometimes should not) be represented.

And better still, it should be a manual that can be handed to any outside consultant (graphic, marketing or otherwise) so that they can either advise you in ways that can either compliment your brand, or even give you insights in ways that you can strengthen and improve the visibility of your company’s brand.

Not sure where to start? Contact us for a free consultation!

Now you need to think about collecting your resources and building your library.

So where to build it? There are a couple of good options.

For one, you can place it on a backed up server or desktop computer. And yes, BACKED UP. Not that any business should be running with out back-ups even to begin with, so a backed up computer of any sort isn’t a bad idea. And yes, back up… EVERYTHING. (If you don’t have a back up system in place, contact us and we can refer to you a couple of good vendors and IT companies.)

Another option would be storing a folder on your web server. This would be a reasonably secure option, and … it would be backed up.

And yet a third option would be utilizing a secure cloud service.

What’s the common theme here? You’re not relying on a medium that is likely to become outmoded quickly, and you have a recovery option should something go wrong. A big part of protecting your brand is protecting your critical files (not to mention protecting your business in general).

So now, what should be a part of your branding library?

Your logo…

In short, you should have it. It sounds like an obvious thing, but you’d be amazed how often I’d have a client who either never got their logo from their designer, OR they have it, but have no idea where it is. (Or its on a floppy disk from 1992.)

You should have every variation of your logo in the following formats:

• Print (CMYK), in vector (.ai, .eps, .pdf)
• Print (Spot Color), in vector (.ai, .eps, .pdf)
• Web, Word & Powerpoint (RGB Color), raster in a range of sizes (.jpg, .png)
• Bonus formats (RGB and CMYK) would be Photoshop and TIF files

Why? These formats and color modes more or less cover every possible way that your logo will need to be created. Any designer or print vendor would be thrilled to know that you’ve got them available ready to use?

Your branding guide…

It’s your rule book, the whole purpose of writing it is to give it out so that everyone knows how you want your brand represented. It should be one of the first things you hand any marketer, advertiser, designer and vendor.

Your professional portraits

You and your principals should have at least one, high resolution, professional portrait on hand digitally. These come in handy for articles, engagement or presentation promotions and other instances when you, yourself, are going to be the public representation of your brand.

Your arsenal of marketing materials

EVERY time something gets printed or produced, you should have a copy of the vendor-ready file stored. If for some reason the person who produced it goes out of business or otherwise disappears, you’ve got an excellent place to start from to either do a straight reprint or revision.

Just contact us and we’d love to clear things up!

“Nah. I don’t think we’ll need it.”

That response is becoming more and more common — and I can understand why. How many companies have boxes and boxes of old, outdated letterhead? To throw it out would be a waste, so instead many admins are stuck updating their letterhead with white-out, markers and labels. Back when all that letterhead was ordered, the only “economical” printing option was press runs of 10,000 and up. Besides? Why print letterhead at all? Less and less paper is being pushed through the mail, email is the thing these days.

And yet, you still need it. Just like the sign on the front of your office, your letterhead represents you to the world. So here are 3 economical re-imaginings of the traditional letterhead:

1.  Printed: Print isn’t dead, and probably won’t ever be, but it has changed drastically. Instead of the traditional press run, consider a smaller digitally-printed run of your letterhead. Bonus, you can get it in full color for a small fraction more than straight up black and white. This will leave with the flexibility to update your information and free up space in your supply closet.

2. Get it Designed in Word: Granted, most designers would rather gouge their eyes out than work in Word, but Word is a standard tool and most business communications are created in Word. There is a way to create good-looking Word files that will print well in an office environment (please don’t send it to a print vendor). So have a well-designed Word template on hand for when you need it.

3. Have Your Letterhead as an HTML Email Template: There is a very handy file format that Outlook supports that will allow you to have a pre-designed HTML email that you can edit. This goes beyond a signature or an attachment, fonts, your logo and other elements can all be replicated within reason inside the body of your email.

If you find yourself using those boxes of old, outdated letterhead as step-stools in your supply closet, or if you buy a pack of sharpies for the express purpose of keeping your letterhead relevant, contact us today so that we can talk about some “SmartArt” solutions to your letterhead conundrum.

In fact, usually when someone calls me about a logo design business cards are usually mentioned in the first sentence. And that makes sense. Logos are the cornerstone of branding. From that mark comes the inspiration and direction for every other material that a company prints or posts on the web.

But logos should not be pigeon-holed for company branding alone. Events, products, campaigns and anniversaries also are worthy of branding with logos of their very own.

Why?…

Confidence

You might have the best event in the world. You might have the best product out there. You may even have the absolute best message to spread. But if your materials promoting that event, message or product don’t look well thought out or cohesive, your viewer may have reservations about it, or worse, they may not think that you don’t have confidence in it.

By taking the time and the trouble to brand it — logo, font choices, color choices all working in harmony with your existing company branding — it says that this something that youbelieve in and care about, and worthy of paying attention to. If you’re willing to invest in it, then it might be something that your audience would want to invest in it as well.

Recognizable and Memorable

In a sea of media, getting lost is easy — too easy. By not investing in even a minor level of branding, getting the notice of your audience is going to be extremely difficult. Creating a strong visual, and repeating that visual as many times as possible and in strategic locations is an effective way to help people quickly recognize and remember your message.

What Now?

Once your company logo is designed and your business cards are delivered, don’t toss out your logo designer’s contact information. When you create a promotion or campaign, host an event, celebrate an anniversary or create a new product, call up your logo designer and create a “daughter brand” for that specific thing. Not only will you increase the odds of success for that particular event/promotion/product/celebration, but you will also strengthen your main brand.

1. It should be able to reproduce in black and white with as few grays as possible.Why? Because there are going to be times when you won’t be able to have everything printed or digitally displayed in full color. Simply converting your logo to grayscale may cause the logo to loose definition and look “mushy.” But a well designed logo will actually be able to be translated to a Black and White version with (if necessary) only one or two gray tones.

2. It should be able to translate to different shapes.Very few logos are perfect squares and a very horizontal logo is not going to help you much in a skyscraper (very vertical) ad. Even if you have a “preferred” version of your logo, you should also have an alternate shaped logo in your back pocket.

3. You should have a copy of it in several different formats and sizes. It’s your logo. Granted, unless you have some sort of software that will allow you to save it out in different file formats, you really need to make sure that you have copies of it in different formats AND colors:

1. In a vector format (EPS, AI, PDF) in Black and White, all white, Spot (or PMS, Pantone) colors, and CMYK. — These are the formats and colors that your print and signage vendors are going to need. Most vendors can adjust to other file formats if they absolutely have to, but you will save on time and sometimes money if you can give them one of these formats. Keep in mind that unless you have Illustrator, Photoshop or other imaging software, you will only be able to open to “see” the PDF format.
2. In a JPG format, in RGB and CMYK, in various sizes. — This is primarily a web format, although if it’s large enough (more than a 1000 pixels in any dimension) in a pinch it can be used for print. RGB color is what you would send to your web designer, or use in your Word or Powerpoint application and CMYK is what you would send your printer or graphic designer.
3. In a transparent PNG format, in all white, black and white and full (RGB) color, in various sizes. — PNG files are great for Powerpoint presentations when you don’t want that darn white box around your logo when you have a color background. It’s also useful for web design.

When getting the different versions of your logo, make sure that the files are clearly named and labeled so that you can quickly and easily identify the differences without having to open them.

If your designer is not willing to design and provide these essential things for your logo, find a new one. Your logo represents you, and just like you wouldn’t buy a shirt a size too small for a business meeting, don’t settle for a logo that won’t meet all your potential needs.

Looking for someone who can design a logo that’s right for you? Contact WrightBrain Design!