Why having a brand identity can make people feel like you mean it.

Ok, so first – remember what I mean by a “brand”…

Think about a brand like a huge blanket that covers the entire business. Everything the business does is under this blanket – from customer service to office decor to writing a blog post.

A brand is not visual. It’s intangible, abstract, mostly written about and implied in every facet of the business. You can think of a brand as somewhat like placing human attributes to a business. “Wait? What?”

In case you’ve just woken up: Yes, this part is important. A brand is not a logo, colors and fonts. A brand is the human part of your business, i.e. the way your business connects with people.

Identity (sometimes called brand identity)

This is the visual pieces. (This the the stuff I make and choose for a living). Logo, colors, patterns, typefaces & typography, photography, business cards, flyers, stationary, signage, music or other sounds, textures, smells, etc.

For corporations, these elements are typically put together in a “brand book” and/or a “style guide”. The guide then instructs future designers how to visual elements should be paired together and how to display any parts of the identity. These can be just a few pages, or they can be 100s of pages. For my clients who have smaller businesses, typically 5-30 pages is sufficient for their needs.

So, why the bleep does any of this matter to you?

When your business has a complete Brand Book/Style guidelines, people can “feel” you’re actually taking business seriously (even though your tone may be fun!) and it makes your decision-making process for all marketing materials WAY easier.

How can people”feel” like you’re serious? Consistency. You can, but you don’t have to accomplish this by using the same image over and over or even the same colors every single thing. But, consistency that is born out of the rules created in your style guide.

Everything from the type of photography (like all black and white, shallow focus, really bight, really muted, etc.) to the way you use text on a page (particular margins, font color, sizes of fonts to use for headlines vs. body text, space between images and text, etc.) can be included in a style guide. These rules are created and followed so everything a company creates or uses “feels” like it’s under that brand blanket. This can all get head-y, so check out my example.

What would you think if Chevy came out tomorrow with new ad using chartreuse Papyrus on a black background?

 

Maybe, you’d think… “Well, good for them!” But, if you look at it, does it look anything like Chevy’s advertising? Do you think it looks like a way they’d want their trucks to be represented?

Ok maybe you’re still not convinced any of this matters, what about this one in a script font?

 

What would you think about Chevy if they changed all their ads and signage to different fonts and colors, including these and more?

I’ll tell you what you’d think… You’d think someone at Chevy had lost their marbles.

Yet, small business owners do this everyday – they decide they’re in a “fancy” mood, so they use a “fancy” font. They decide this should be neon pink and that should be forest green. AND they AGONIZE over these decisions.

With style guide, you make decisions FASTER and EASIER. No more of this… “well, let’s put that text on the right, since this text is on the left so the flyer can feel balanced” or “I think that color needs to be a few shades darker”. Nope, you’ll have a trusty guide to help you see where things need to be placed – it takes the guess work out of it.

Because let’s face it. You’re probably not a designer.

You’re a lawyer, a bookkeeper, a coach, a hairdresser, a doctor … so, why not spend more time doing those things and less time deciding what color and what font to use on your new business card?

So to recap: a brand is “feeling” that covers an entire business, from one-on-one interactions to a virtual website, a brand identity is the visual pieces creates to represent a brand and having a style guide can make life easier, faster and shows to everyone you mean business.

I am currently taking new clients for creating brand identity, so if you’re interested shoot me an email – rachel@rcvane.com.