Create A Brand In 5 Easy Steps

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. If you're not branding yourself properly, it's very likely that your business will fail.

Here are 5 ways anyone can do to improve their brand right now:

1. Create your brand story

Before you start figuring out the visual side of things, start with establishing your brands story. Your brand story will work to tie everything together, and make it easier to decide the visual side of your brand. You brand story tells customers who you are, what you do, and why it matters. The story is framed in a way hat makes sense to you ideal customer.

This is an essential step in defining your company's identity and how people perceive it. It helps you understand what makes your company unique from others in its industry and how you want to position yourself against them. It also gives a clear idea of where you want to go as a business so that when you're ready to make changes later on down the line (whether they're big or small), there won't be any confusion as to what direction should be taken next

2. Pick a colour scheme

Your brands colour scheme, also referred to as colour palette, should be consistent across platforms and mediums. You brand colours work to give your business a distinct personality. By being consistent with them, you increase brand recognition. When someone sees it, they’re likely to think about all the great things you offer.

Yet, colour is used for more than just brand recognition as each colour will give your brand meaning, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. For example, red is associated with danger and warning signs while green is associated with health, safety and money (think stop signs). The choice of colour can influence what people think about your product or service so make sure that you pick colours that represent who you are and what you offer clearly.

3. Choose a typeface

Much like your brand's colour scheme, your brand’s typeface, also referred to as font, gives your brand personality and helps convey what your brand is all about. The options here are almost limitless, as there’s a typeface for almost anything.

Depending on the direction you want to take with your brand, you’ll want to choose an appropriate typeface that supports it. For example, a brand that’s supposed to be professional and modern may want to choose a typeface that conveys that feeling, such as Helvetica, Gotham, and other geometric typefaces.

With anything, it’s important make sure you’ll be able to use your desired typeface across platforms. Whereas Helvetica may be available on Mac, it’s not, by default, available on Windows or popular platforms like Canva. In cases like this, the best typeface may be the one you can use consistently. Here’s a good list if you’re stuck going that route.

4. Create design elements

Much like a mascot at a sporting event, design elements are used to bring awareness to your brand. They act as the visual representation of your brand and are what people see when they see your business.

They can be anything from simple shapes such as circles and squares, to illustrations or professional photography. Of course, your logo also applies here too. For example, if you’re making a social media post, your brand might consistently use shapes as background elements, or illustrations to support the information being conveyed. Cropping photos in a distinct way is a great idea too.

The point here is to create a theme that people quickly recognize when they encounter your brand. This will help you build brand recognition, and make it easier for your audience to connect with you.

5. Make a brand guide

Now that you have your brand's story, colour scheme, typeface, and design elements all figured out, it's time to document them inside one easy-to-understand document.

Your brand guide—or style guide—is used to document everything there is to know about your brand. By having one, it will help you—and others—be consistent when applying your brand across multiple touchpoints.

You can create a simple document outlining the basics of your brand or get more advanced with a full-blown handbook. Either way, having this resource at your fingertips will keep everything organized and clear so you can focus on building an amazing product or service instead of worrying about whether or not your brand is being implemented properly.

For example, it should include the Pantone, CMYK, RGB and HEX codes of the colours scheme you created, the typeface you chose, along with design elements and how to use them.

In addition to giving instructions on how to use certain design elements, it should also include information on why they were chosen in the first place and how they impact the overall look and feel of your business. This will help ensure that all employees are on the same page when it comes to implementing your branding strategy across every aspect of your business—from marketing materials like brochures and ads all the way down to office supplies like letterhead and envelopes for sending invoices.

Conclusion

The main takeaway from this post is that creating a brand identity for your company or project doesn't have to be hard, or take much time! It's not the kind of thing you want to leave to chance. After all, your branding can contribute to your success or failure. Be strategic about it.

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