Paint a Picture with Your Brand
How do you translate your brand into the right image for your company?
As a business you have answered the basic questions for your company in establishing your brand:
What business you are in
Who your customers are
What products you are selling
What differentiates you in your marketplace
What value you bring
Why someone should care
Community Skate & Snow design program
You might have taken the big step and created your brand promise or brand positioning statement. Now what do you do with it? You have to start communicating it. You need to put together the materials that will represent your business. Part of this is taking that brand concept and communicating it through imagery. This begins with your logo and is followed by photography or illustration, graphical elements (lines, shapes, patterns, etc…), colors and fonts. All of these elements will be used to translate your brand into marketing communications like websites and business collateral. Hopefully, you are hiring a graphic designer that has the right experience and skill to develop your company’s visual brand.
The graphic designer’s job is to communicate answers to questions like: who made this? Who owns this? What is it? What makes it special? They also have to communicate the emotional aspects of your brand. On top of this, the designer must make your brand appealing to your business’ target audience. After all, if your potential customer does not like your image, then how far will you get? That is a tall order for a logo that might not appear bigger than one inch square on a business card or website. Here is some information that you can provide the designer to lead to a successful end result.
Attributes – describe your brand with personality traits. If you saw your brand walking down the street what would it look like? Is it classic or contemporary? Flashy or cool?
Associations – play the association game. What people, places, things, metaphors or symbols come to your mind when you think about your brand? Is your brand Teddy Roosevelt or Bono? Zeus or King Kong?
Values – the rules that guide your company. How do you go about your business? Are you loyal, ethical, a team player or only in it for the money?
Tone – the approach you take in the professional world. How do you communicate with your clients? Are you serious, edgy or funny? Are you laid back or a social butterfly?
Create a list of each of these categories. Brainstorm and look at every possible angle. Then pull five descriptions out of each category. Put all of these elements together and you begin to paint a picture of your brand. Here is an example:
Kaleidoscope Office Galleries
Attributes – stylish, connecting, knowledgeable, hip, global
Associations – Miles Davis, harlequin, kaleidoscope, collage, Paris
Values – creativity, inspirational, egalitarian, collaborative, community
Tone – respectful, flexible, approachable, personable, meaningful
Once you have compiled these descriptions together you will need to take it one step farther and analyze it. What do you think of this picture? What would your target audience think? Your competition? Does this make you stand out? If you like the answers to these questions then you are ready to create the imagery for your brand. If your answers start to look confusing and contradictory you will need to change your approach. For instance, if you are a web developer and your tone is elementary. That might not be the right approach. Analyze your list and cross off the descriptions that might be industry standard like professional or quality. Take a look at the competition and see where elements on your list separate you from them. Look for descriptions that make you unique. Be sure you can back-up anything you say. Do not promote your brand with something unrealistic or impractical. That might get you noticed, but will backfire as soon as people experience your brand.
Now you have a refined description of your brand. This description combined with your business strategy will give the designer the whole picture. This picture is what your designer will work to create into graphics and imagery. The clearer the vision for your company is, the more potent your brand’s imagery can be. There are people and businesses out there looking for your company. The problem is they will not know it till they see it. Make sure you paint the right picture for them to see.