Do you want your brand to have a consistent look that expresses your brand’s personality and appeals to your ideal client? Today I will teach you a visual strategy that will help express your brand and attract more clients you love. .
Think of your favourite logo.
Can you picture it right now?
Why is it your favourite?
Is it because the design is the best?
Or is it because you feel something when you see it and it has some sort of meaning to you?
A logo only becomes memorable if the brand is effective in attaching its meaning to it. This is done through your brand strategy. The logo is merely a shortcut for your brain since visuals are processed much faster and improve our brains memory and processing.
It’s like a shortcut on your computer’s desktop. It helps you access the content quicker.
Let me take you back to when I was the Creative Director of my branding agency where I worked alongside graphic designers to create beautiful logos and brand identity systems for our clients.
As remarkable as the designs were, this work was unfulfilling to me.
I quickly realized we were unable to make the impact our clients needed in their business.
My clients asked me to “brand their business” by creating a logo.
We offered them more than a logo and created an entire visual system, but this still did not solve the business problems our clients were facing.
I created a very efficient operation and was making lots of money and provided a pleasant client experience.
The systems and processes I created allowed me to leverage both technology and people and gave me freedom in my life, however I found my role and work unfulfilling.
I realized what my clients really needed, but they just couldn’t see it. I felt like my team and I were doing them a disservice by creating logos and brand identity systems that could never solve their business problems.
What my clients wanted and what they needed were 2 completely different things.
They never knew what they actually needed.
Their misconception of what a brand actually is led them to believe they just needed a logo to build a brand. They put so much emphasis on design and thought that’s all they needed to become a brand.
I started asking better questions that revealed their business challenges and started to really educate them about branding and brand strategy.
I went from creative director to brand strategist in their minds.
I went from simply taking design orders to creating a true transformation in my clients business using strategy.
It was the best of both worlds.
My clients got what they wanted (design) but they also got what they needed (a brand strategy).
As you have probably realized by now, building a brand involves much more than just a logo. In fact, a logo only makes up 5% of your brand. There are over 50 different elements of a brand that I teach in my BrandPlan Online Course. A Logo is just the tip of the iceberg that people can see. It is part of your brand’s visual expression.
Your visual expression can be thought of as dressing up your business.
Most businesses that only have a logo are like someone who only wears make-up and has no clothes.
Few businesses have a logo and some other design elements like colour palettes and typography will always feel like their outfit is missing something.
Even fewer businesses that have a complete visual identity system will feel like they have an incredible outfit and are rocking their look.
Brands have meaning. They use any of the senses to help them express themselves and communicate their meaning to their audience. Using design and visuals are just tools to help communicate their meaning to their target audience.
Remember, branding is the process of creating and managing the meaning the brand has to its target audience.
Your brand’s visual system can be thought of as an individual’s wardrobe or outfit. It works in unity, has flexibility and maintains consistency.
Let’s look at the various elements of a brand’s visual system before I help you create your visual expression strategy.
Brand Visual Identity System: A complete visual system that is consistent across all brand touch-points.
Logo: A one of kind design that is sure to make you stand out and attract your ideal customer.
Alternate logo: a secondary logo optimized for specific sizing that compliments your primary logo.
Brand Sub-mark: a variation of the logo, used in situations when your primary and secondary logo is not ideal.
Brand Colour Palette: Use colour to your advantage to express your brand’s personality and attract your ideal client.
Brand Patterns & Textures: create strong brand recognition, while bringing depth to your brand identity and creating a memorable brand experience.
Brand Imagery: Express your personality and strategically appeal to your ideal client using images that resonate with them.
Visual Tone: Creating a specific difference between the lightest and darkest areas in your identity system maintain a consistency while enhancing the overall look and feel.
Before we play dress up for your business, let’s start with a strategy for what we want our visuals to achieve.
1.There are 7 different logo strategies but what one is best for your brand?
2.What type of alternate logo and submark will complement your primary logo and give your brand the most flexibility?
3. What brand textures and patterns give your brand depth and feel by creating unity?
4. What colour palettes are going to attract your ideal client and convey the emotions you want them to feel?
5.What image tone should you create for your brand that maintains consistency and enhances the overall look and feel.
6. What images should your brand use to resonate with your audience and help communicate what you want to mean to them?
My Brand Visual Strategy will help you with all of that.
