Design And Your Brand by Dani Nordin, the zen kitchen

How Design Can Make or Break Your Brand

Step One: What’s in a brand?

Step One: What’s in your brand?
Your brand is made up of every experience a prospect has with your business, including:
Your logo, business card, website, etc.
How you present yourself (dress, online presence, etc.)
How you interact with customers and prospects
The visual aspect of your brand (logo, marketing materials, etc.) speaks for you when you aren’t there to present yourself; it determines the expectations people have of your business .

Step One: What’s In Your Brand?
Visual components may include:
Business card
Logo
Website
Web presence (social media profiles, etc.)
Brochures, fact sheets, e-books
E-mail newsletters
Annual reports

Step Two: How your image impacts your business

What impression do you want to make?
What do you want to convey?
Professional integrity
Warmth and friendliness
Strength and stability
Hip, “funky,” irreverent
Elegant and sophisticated
The right colors, fonts and imagery work together to convey this message instantly and concisely to those who need to hear it; the wrong choices can confuse the message and give your prospect the wrong impression.

What impression do you get about these businesses?

What about these businesses? Peak Performance, LLC Unique Marketing Solutions ightening Rod Partners

Step Three: Dress for Success

What components do you need to convey your brand?
Foundation:
Logo
Business card
Website
Extras:
Stationery
E-newsletter template
Brochures, fact sheets, etc.

What functionality does your website need?
E-commerce?
Flash?
Who’s handling updates - you or designer?
Blog?
What type of content do you need to present? How much is there?
What are your competitors doing?

What does your brand need to convey?
Who’s your target customer?
What specific primary benefit do they get from you?
What’s the “mood” you want to create with your brand?
What tools might work best with this audience?

Step 4: Hire the right team

How do you find the right designer?
Determine your needs
Determine your budget
Look at portfolios
Interview a few candidates and get proposals
Hire the team who meshes best with your personality, aesthetic preferences and goals.

What should you be looking for?
The right designer/team for you will:
Have a portfolio of work that you admire
Have the capacity to handle the type of projects you need him/her to do for you, including any technical aspects
Ask lots of focused questions about your business, goals, etc.
Have a personality that meshes well with yours
Offer you a written estimate and work agreement for you to sign prior to beginning any design work
Require a deposit prior to beginning any design work

Things to watch out for
A designer who doesn’t ask questions about business goals
Language barriers
Someone who doesn’t offer a contract up front
A firm offering heavily discounted design services

What should I budget?
Realistically, you should be thinking about:
Logo: $2500+
Promotional website: $3k+
Flash website: $5k+
E-commerce: $8-10k+

Step 5: working with your design team

Proper care and feeding of designers
Clear communication of goals, target audience, aesthetic preferences
Clear communication of deadlines, including when content and feedback will be provided
Timely delivery of content and feedback
Respect for their professional opinion and their contribution to your success
Timely payment

How to give feedback
GOOD:
“ I don’t know if this [part of design] is standing out enough. How can we make it more of a focus?”
“ Could you tell me what your thought process was behind [certain design choice]?”
“ I’m not sure this is sending the right message. I want it to feel more [this way]. How can we make that happen?”
BAD:
“ Can you make this box blue?”
“ Can you make the logo bigger?”

Step 6: DIY hints

When it’s okay to do it yourself
Personal projects, like blogs, scrapbooks or invitations
When you don’t know yet whether you’re going to move forward
While you’re saving up for professional design costs

DIY: Choose color wisely
Different colors convey different moods
Red: luck, fire, energy, passion, success; sometimes anger
Dark Blue: corporate, professional, stable, conservative
Light/Bright Blue: fun, friendly, conservative but approachable
Bright Green: organic, natural, fun, “hip”
Dark Green: conservative but approachable, professional, organic
Brown: luxurious, tasty, elegant, organic
Orange: cheerful, optimistic, autumn, friendly
Yellow/gold: friendly
Pink/Magenta: feminine, sassy, fashionista

DIY: choose fonts wisely
What are you trying to convey?
Serif fonts (Georgia, Times, Garamond): professional, conservative, distinguished, corporate (lawyers, accountants, etc.)
Sans-serif (Arial, Helvetica, Gill Sans): approachable, friendly, informal, down-to-earth
Script (Nuptual, French Script, Zapfino): elegant, weddings, jewelry
Decorative: fun/funky
When researching fonts, ask yourself “what impression do I get from this font? What does it tell me about the copy I’m reading?”
You should have 2-3 standard fonts: one for headlines, one for body copy, one for business name

DIY: find the right fonts
Avoid decorative or script fonts for body copy; standard serif or sans-serif at about 9pt is best for most projects
Avoid clich é or system fonts (Papyrus, Comic Sans, Arial, Times) for print materials or logos
Don’t be afraid to pay for just the right font - fonts are relatively inexpensive and can make or break a design
Avoid overuse of bold or italics
No more than 2-3 fonts on a single piece
Font sources: Myfonts.com, Veer.com, P22.com

DIY: choose the right blog template
Wordpress, blogger and typepad have free templates you can use for your blog
Choose the template that best matches your blog’s content, audience and mood

DIY: Choose images wisely
The right image can convey your message instantly
Adding images to blog posts, postcards, brochures, etc. adds quick visual impact
Low-cost image sources: istockphoto.com, sxc.hu

Thanks! Any questions?

Design And Your Brand by Dani Nordin, the zen kitchen

by Dani Nordin

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