“The visual representation of your Business starts & ends with your company brand”
The foundation of any successfully business image must begin with an intelligent and well designed “company name and logo” in a word your brand.
I am amazed by the amount of companies who at the inception of their business spend hours and hundreds of pounds on business plans and cash flow projections and then make one of the most costly mistakes they will ever make by not seeking professional advice on their company name and brand.
It is essential that you employ professional expertise on the design of your brand to ensure it reflects the correct message for your company, your industry and your consumer.
You often hear stories from customers who spent an hour over a cup of coffee coming up with a business name and then ask their young nephew or niece who is ‘Fabulous at Art’ to put together their company logo. Only to find out a year down the line they realise they got the name and brand all wrong, someone else has the trademark on it, they don’t have the essential URL’s and have to re brand. By which time they have lost thousands of pounds on lost marketing, customer loyalty and brand recognition on a name and brand that doesn’t work.
With a well executed brand you can visually distinguish your self in the market place and leverage the power of your image. The same principles of communication and design apply to every visual interface with our customer it is essential to understand the significance of; visual communication, colour, styling and symbolism.
“1st Impressions are created within the 1st 30 second, a first impression is based on; 55% how you look, 38% how you sound, 7% what you actually say.”
In 2024 our lives are dictated and influenced consciously and subconsciously by branding. Our corporate culture and society has become so sensitive to the subtleties and importance of image that every business no matter how big or small must take serious consideration to their brand identity and image. To succeed in a global economy your brand image must be congruent and seamless from your management and staff image, premises and interiors, to your vehicles and signage, web design to stationary & marketing literature. Your visual communication with the customer is paramount due to the pace and choice of mediums now used by consumers when making decisions and choices to buy.
A professional and commercial design company should have an essential grasp of business and design. You need a design team that can help with the creative thinking process to help select the most marketable business name and put your business interests before creativity when it comes to your logo & brand design.
Name
Your name must first be available; does anyone else own the company name? Is the name available as a domain .com, limited company, trademark name and symbol? The last thing you want is a letter from an Intellectual Property Lawyer telling you that you are infringing on another companies brand or trademark.
What does your name translate, convey, imply? Is it communicating action, emotion, humour or intellect?
Is it short, clear, memorable, unique, distinguishable, simple and instantly recogniseable.
Visibility
Visibility is one aspect of brand design often overlooked. There is nothing worse than seeing a brand which has so many artistic filters and frills that it looks great on a website but is illegible and commercially unviable to reproduce on a billboard or vehicle. A commercially aware designer should evaluate the range of visual mediums you use within your company and provide a design that will meet the practical needs of the company as it grows or diversifies.
A great exercise in the 3 second visibility test;
On approaching or passing a motorway service station which brands are instantly recognisable and legible on the haulage vehicles. Alternatively when you approach your out of town shopping mall which billboards can you read and identify first. What colour, font, shape or symbols are most visible and legible?
Colour
Because colour is the 1st thing we visually register it is essential that you take careful consideration to your choice of company colours.
What do people notice first, visually register and what do they remember with a brand? Colour.
For example what company do you associate with brown, orange or red?
UPS
Why is UPS such a unique brand? Who has brown vehicles, uniforms & communicate a message that they are safe, trusting & reliable and clearly differentiate themselves from everyone else.
Easy Jet
Orange says cheap, affordable and budget.
Virgin
Red is assertive, energetic, exciting and sexy.
When choosing colours you have to ask what do you associate, feel, rationalise, and relate to with this colour or colour combination. Your colour selection is so important because colour communicates and generates various emotive responses and reactions. It can influence the emotions of the consumer and generate different subconscious reactions and responses from the observer.
Colour is one of the most important decisions in branding because it will be used for everything from your uniforms, interior design, signage, vehicles, marketing literature etc. This is why I advise that it is essential that companies should take professional advice to avoid costly mistakes when creating their brand.
Symbolism & Styling
Your choice of symbolism and styling is also conveyed through your choice of font, logo shape,
artistic styling & filters each impacting on your message as a brand.
A font alone can communicate a variety of messages from its casing, contrasts of colour, italics, size and scale. Something as simple as your choice of font can communicate and define you as a modern, traditional or creative company.
Contact us for further details on Business Mentoring & Design Consultancy info@designovation.co.uk