A lot of my clients come to me because they don’t know where to start when it comes to branding their business.
Often they jump right on Canva, have a play around, end up spending hours and come out with a logo that looks nice but is also used by many other business over the globe. And, often, its not doing anything for you. It just sits there, looking ok, but there is something niggling at you because you know it’s just not quite right.
I believe you should always start with these 3 steps before creating you brand:
1. Values
Nailing your values and knowing what is important to you and your business can define your brand’s personality. It can help you discover what you should look like and what will appeal to your dream clients.
2. Research
Yeah sounds a bit boring but looking at your competitors can really give you an insight into what your logo & visuals shouldn’t look like. It can also tell you what they are doing right to create a successful brand.
3. Ideas & inspiration
Taking a look at what graphics, colours, fonts, logos and brands are out there in the world can really help make sense of what your brand should look like. It can give you direction rather than just plucking something out of thin air.
These 3 steps are key to creating a meaningful brand that also works as a super strong marketing tool. Not only will your brand look shit hot but it will also attract the people you want to work with (and bore off the crappy clients!).
Here are a few websites that can help you along the way with these steps:
Inspiration: www.Pinterest.com & www.Instagram.com
Fonts: www.myfonts.com & www.typewolf.com
Colours: www.coolors.co & https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel
What next when branding your business?
Knowing your values, your competitors and having an idea of what your likes & dislikes can really start to help you paint a picture of your brand. You can use all of these points to give your business a personality which should start to come through in your logo and brand design.
With my clients I go through a strategic process which highlights the above steps plus more. Any good brand design expert should do the same. Having a brand strategy can give your business identity a really strong foundation to build on – making it easier to develop things like patterns, social media graphics, photography, slide decks, brand books, brochures, websites etc.
If you’d like to chat more about brand strategy and logo design get in touch using the form below: