Your logo, signage, and promotional pieces are the external face of your company. Creating standards for your identity is crucial. You want your audience to see your best light every single time.
Here are 5 brand-building tips:
1. Hire a pro. Logos, signs, and graphics should only be designed by professionals. I know that could be expensive. But consider the fact that you’ll spend $200 on a name brand jacket to enhance your personal identity. Are you really going to let some random person who has some fun fonts and a copy of Photoshop, design your business identity because they are cheap?
2. Go for simple and timeless. Choose easy-to-read fonts instead of trendy fonts. Choose clean graphics and symbols to represent your brand. A fly-fishing outfitter in Idaho doesn’t need a logo that has an image of a fish, a pole, the Grand Tetons, the Snake River, and a potato field. It’s too much.
3. Give safe file formats. Ask your designer to send you your logos, trademarks, icons, and any other digital images in file formats that cannot be manipulated, reshaped, edited, or changed. When you send your logo out to be featured in an advertisement or at an event you’ve sponsored, you want to ensure that no one can squish it, change the colors, or do any other crazy thing to it.
4. Create an identity-standards manual. Take the time to create a living document or internal website that lists and states all the rules, fonts, colors, widths, etc., of your identity.
5. Communicate your identity rules. Every time you send out something that represents your identity, attach your standards and agreements for usage, and ensure that all your employees do the same.
To get more tips on branding, marketing, and small business strategies, download a free chapter of my New York Times Best Selling book, Worth Every Penny: Build a Business that Thrills Your Clients and Still Charge What You’re Worth at: https://photographybusinessinstitute.com/our-book/try-a-chapter/
