Components of your brand (What you should brand)

Wednesday’s Production Tip for Successful Graphic Designers

Here’s the third part about creating an effective brand for you and your business.

When I first started freelancing, I put a website and thought that was all I had to really do when it came to my branding. I didn’t think of branding as a complete package until I was working on my branding report for my first website.

I then realized the power of seeing how all the different elements and pieces come together as a cohesive unit. I knew then how vitally important it is to have your brand encompass every material that comes out of your company. That’s the power of a complete brand. You brand should immediately identify who you are.

It was trial and error there for a time, but I’ve made a list of things in your business that you can brand with your design style, logo, color(s), and typography. It’s to get yourself thinking of how to better brand your business.

Components of your brand (What you should brand)

1. Stationery: Letterheads, business cards, envelopes, notepads, and labels
2. Paperwork for your business: Invoices, contracts, and forms
3. Promotional / marketing materials: Ads, e-zines, newsletters, postcards, …
4. Publications and/or products: Brochures, calendars, tip sheets, cheat sheets, special reports, e-books, books, …
5. Email: Signatures, backgrounds, typeface used, headers & footers, out of office replies
6. Telephone: The way you answer it, message if you don’t pick up, how long it takes you to get back to those calling
7. Website: Design, latest web 2.0 techniques and the way it’s written
8. Social Media: Your pages and backgrounds for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, …
9. Multimedia: Audios, Videos, Podcasts, PowerPoint presentations (jingles, intros and templates should all match)
10. Business processes: How long it takes you to reply to people via email or telephone, providing quotes, setting deadlines for projects, …

T A K E A W A Y S :

Creating a good brand saves you time and frustration.

A lot of what a good brand is is automation. It’s creating a system of templates that will automate what you do and create. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you have to send out an email or create a brochure; the elements are already in place. Familiarity is your brand.

As Roger C. Parker says, “Design it once, but use it often”.

Technorati Tags: Branding

Should you use the backs of a business card?

Monday’s Promotion Tip for Graphic Designers

When designing stationery, there is one question about designing business cards that causes some debate. “To use or not to use the backs of the business cards. That is the question.”

You’ve got 2 camps: one that says you should and the other that says a resounding “NO!” (I know, deep!)

Those that say “NO” claim it’s because you want to leave it blank so that the recipient of the business card can write notes about you on the back. They also say that there should be “no confusion” as to which is the front and which is the back.

Those that say “YES!” say it’s because the back of the cards are prime real estate for an ad or additional information. They say that the back is a continuation of the front and be treated as sort of a billboard.

In design school, everyone always told me it was a no-no to put stuff on the backs of business cards. When I started working at the print shop, the majority of business cards were one-sided. In fact, printers hated double-sided cards. 

Well, I’ve come across one man’s solution for combining these 2 seemingly opposing views. You can check out the post here.

He does use the backs. He uses a “next action form” on the backs so that the prospect can write notes. Brilliant.

TAKEAWAY:

The reason I like this is 3-fold.

It’s original and practical. You never see anyone really create the backs of the business cards as something to be used. It’s practical because the prospect has a place to write notes.

But, most importantly, it’s engaging. You are ensuring that they remember you. More likely than not, the prospect write out stuff to remember. Or, at the very least, he’ll remember your original business card (and of course the person that gave out the card).

Technorati Tags: Branding, Marketing

Extend your brand to your emails

Tuesday’s Design Tip for Graphic Designers

The one thing that constantly intrigues me is the afterthought of how emails looks. It’s just an email right?

However, most of the correspondence these days between us and clients is done via email. Why not look good online as well?

You can use parts of your brand in your emails. This serves to strengthen and build more familiarity of your brand. It also maintains consistency.

What elements of your brand can you use in your emails:

• Type treatment
• Logo
• Colors
• Signature
• Backgrounds
• Header from website
• Graphics (pictures of illustrations) used in other materials
• Emblems
• Graphic elements (customized bullets, lines, etc…)

T A K E A W A Y :

In order to really maximize the potential of your brand, carry it across all your promotional materials.

What’s great is that your brand is already set up and you should ensure that you project a consistent image throughout ALL of the documents and correspondence you use.

Technorati Tags: Branding, Design, Marketing

Using design principles in your emails

Tuesday’s Design Tip for Graphic Designers

We never think about it, but maybe we should. Do emails speak louder than the words they contain?

I talked about the idea of branding your emails, but what I’m talking about here is the actual content of your email.

Should we apply the same design tricks to our emails?

Strategies for making your emails look good:

1. Typography rules do apply: You wouldn’t use a brush script font in your design so why would you here?
2. Punctuation is important: You should ways capitalize the first letter in a sentence, use only one space after all punctuation.
3. Keep lines short: Don’t write emails that span an entire screen!
4. Use a signature: This ensures that your emails look professional and consistent!

C O N C L U S I O N :

I’ll never forget what my old boss said once to me. Never put anything in writing that you don’t want to come back to haunt you.

Should it be the same thing in design? Should we create emails that also “look” the part.

Technorati Tags: Branding, Marketing

Think about where your designs will go!

Friday’s Creative Review for Graphic Designers

WARNING: Parental discretion is advised. Sort of.

Some things just crack me up.

You know how I always emphasize that you should know how and in what context your designs will be used?

Well, you should also take into account how and where it will be printed.

Here’s a ad that appears on a bus. I don’t think I need to really explain why it’s really not all that appropriate do I?

I guess the designers never took into consideration what the bolts on the bus will do to the picture did they?

This is what happens when you don’t go and check out where your design is going.

C O N C L U S I O N :

Whether you are creating a poster, billboard, or an ad for a bus, go check out where it will appear. Check out if there are any marks or imperfections you should know about.

Another classic nipplegate example!

Technorati Tags: Branding, Production, The good, the bad, & the ugly

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