DesignU Series: Good Branding Design for Non-Designers
A big misconception out there, brought on in part by flashy success stories, tv shows, and curated social media, is that if you dream up a product you can make millions in the blink of an eye. What’s missing is throwing back the curtain to reveal all of the nuts and bolts that go into successful products that oftentimes require more work than just thinking of and executing the product itself.
We’re going to launch a blog series to shine a light on that “other stuff” that is the make or break of a successful product launch. Welcome to DesignU.
Today, since I’m writing this one and I’m the graphic designer half of our 2-person team, we’re focusing on branding. And since I know a lot of you out there are NOT designers by trade, I want to encourage you to stick around because (ssssshhhhh) you don’t have to be a graphic designer to create good branding.
I do want to denote that what I’m talking about here is visual design for branding and not establishing your brand strategy, mission, or identifying your audience. We’re focusing primarily on how to get started on creating brand visuals. If you’re interested in the conceptual work on establishing a brand, let us know on Twitter (@GamiiProducts) and we’ll work it in to a blog post!Step 1: Keep It Simple
The best way to make branding that looks professional and attractive is to keep it simple. Use fonts that are clean and modern and don’t get too caught up in making sure the font exactly depicts the style of your product. In general, modern, clean and friendly personality traits favor a sans serif font, while a more traditional, conservative, or historic personality will usually favor a serif font. Using novelty or extremely decorative fonts can be OK, but can also work against the product and can increase an amateur look.
Same when it comes to colors. Choose 1 or 2 main colors to represent your brand. This is a color outside of black or white. If you use 2 colors, try to keep them complimentary or within the same tone family. If you aren’t super familiar with color families, reference an online color wheel like this one to help you out.
As far as imagery or logos go, simple is best again. Any artwork found off the web is off-limits. If you feel like the font and color is enough to represent your brand – go with it. If you do want a symbol or image, try sourcing a stock site for purchase such as Getty Images, or you may need to reach out to a graphic designer for something custom.
Step 2: Keep It Consistent
Once you have your brand font, colors and potential logo, use them (and only them) in all of your visual materials. For example, your website, social media and campaign page should all use the same colors, fonts and logos. Any graphics pertaining to your product as well, such as social media posts, web ads, brochures and even mailing packaging should coordinate with these branding elements.
A helpful tool is to create a template for all of your social media posts or banners where you switch out text and images but the branding elements stay the same. This will immediately create a cohesive look and make your brand look recognizable and professional. If you don’t have image editing software like Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva is a good resource that a lot of content creators use to create templatized, branded graphics.
Step 3: Keep it High Quality
The last step is really keeping it high quality. Quality can be judged in both the content of the design as well as the clarity of the visual.
When it comes to content, make sure that the visuals you create are part of your story or brand mission. It’s tempting to create visuals that seem “cool” or that are inspired by other brands, but it’s important to ask how it fits in to the story you are trying to tell through your brand, and if it is important to your audience and potential customers.
When it comes to clarity, the actual visuals should be easily recognizable and anyone can understand the message at first sight. Additionally, avoid blurry, oversized, or bitmapped images since these low quality images do not feel professional or trustworthy and detract from the message.
And there you go. 3 simple steps to get started on your brand identity that you can create even without a design degree! Have any other software suggestions or tried and true methods you think could help a starter product? Let us know on Twitter, and get the conversation going!
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