Date: 10th April, 2017

You’re a brand, the clothes you wear, the vehicle you drive, the way you speak, the things you do, all portray the kind of person you are. Your company is the same, but it probably matters more to your customers. Should they believe you, are you the best, the cheapest, are you someone they can trust to do business with? Think of an established company, lets say Nike, as soon as you think about them or see their “Swoosh”, it conjures ideas of sporting performance, energy, passion and innovation. That’s what we aim to create when people hear your name or see your logo.

How we create a brand...

1. Branding workshop

This is our first point of call when it comes to designing a logo and brand. The half-day workshop gives us the time and opportunity dig into your company, it’s core values, it’s beliefs, dreams and aspirations. These findings allow us to really understand the company and where it wants to be. This session goes on the form the basis of our work.

The workshop can be an interesting time for companies – and more often than not, people realise key elements about the company that they may not have addressed, just by having the time dedicated to thinking and talking things through.

What does your brand think and feel? If your brand were a person what would it wear? How does the brand speak and conduct itself?

2. The logo

Once the logo has been designed and everyone is happy, we need to establish a set of rules to make sure it’s used consistently across the board. The main considerations for this are:

• Colours
• Typography
• Layout, positioning and style
• Sizing/proportions
• Photography direction

3. Tone of voice

The tone you communicate in is essential in delivering the right message. Is your company descriptive? Conversational? Technical? Formal or informal? Who’s the brand talking to and how does it want to come across? A consistent tone is key and should be applied to all pieces of communication – blogs, emails, social media, marketing collateral, and websites.

4. Consistency and exposure

A brand is only effective if it’s consistent.

After all the hard work of establishing a brand, it needs to be used correctly. Here are some tips for keeping things on point:

• Tell people about the company’s values and beliefs. Got a new member of staff? Tell them about your values and show them the brand guidelines, make it part of their induction.
• Use templates or starting points where you can, so people don’t change things where they shouldn’t
• Create email signatures for everyone
• Surround your staff with the brand – we have mugs, display banners and we use branded folders for our work, our offices spaces are (mostly) clear crisp and tidy. Everything we are as a company.

Stay true to who you are, keep things consistent, write quality content and watch your customers confirm that you are who you say you are.