A Simple Guide to Creating a Brand – Logo

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. If you get your brand right your business will have a competitive edge.

What is branding?

Branding is a way of defining your business, both internally and externally. Your team need to know what your business stands for in order to portray the message to clients. Your brand should encapsulate your business goals and values. Potential customers should be able to look at your logo and what you stand for and do.

Identify and define

Before you get into the creative parts of your branding, you must define your brand. Identify who your ideal customer is and what their values are. You can use this as a starting point for your brand, after all, you want your brand to align with your (potential) customers.

Think about the benefits and features of your product, what makes you different. If you already have a client base ask them why they chose you and not your competitor. All this information should help you create your brand’s identity and put together a mission statement.

Creating your logo

Once you have identified your customers and defined your brand you can think about visual branding. The visual aspects of your brand play a key role in your brand message. If your brand is defined as simple and easy to understand, your logo, colours and font should all comply with this simplicity.

Logos should generally be simple. Try and use simple shapes and lines for your logo, over complicating it can make it look messy. When designing your logo it is also worth seeing what it will look like in black and white. Will all the elements be of the logo be clear?

Colours

There’s a psychological attachment to colours, different colours evoke particular emotions and portray the characteristics of your brand.

Red: Passionate, excitement, bold, modern
Blue: Trustworthy, loyal, honest,
Yellow: Friendly, youthful, accessible, lively
Green: Fresh, natural, eco-friendly
Black: Classic, refined, modern

If you would like to stand out from your competitors try using different colours to what they are. To create your businesses colour palette use 1-3 primary colours and 2-3 secondary colours

Fonts

Fonts set a tone for your audience, often holding more power than the words themselves.If you are a business in the financial or legal sector you wouldn’t want to use a font like Harlow Solid (see below). The font is playful, not serious.

It may, on the other hand, work well for an American style diner or cafe.

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