We have all heard the term “Consistency is Key” right!? Well this is true when it comes to all aspects of your company including your Brand. You want to make sure you are using consistent font, colors, imagery and design elements across all your digital and print materials.
When you are walking down the street and see Starbucks green or their mermaid symbol you know right away which brand that belongs to right? You want the same recognition for your brand. Your colors and fonts should represent your brand the same way your logo does.
The best way to stay consistent in this is to create a brand & mood board. What are the differences? A mood board is what you use for inspiration. When I am developing one for myself or a client I use Pinterest as a great place to gather ideas.
You want to collect images that inspire you or represent the feeling you want your brand to have. Once those are collected you will usually start to see 1-2 colored themes emerge. From there I define your colors and imagery in a collective board that will help inspire you at a glance whenever you or a team member are struggling with your brand inspiration.
Here is an example of what my Mood Board looks like:
Next is the most important part: Your Brand Board, this is what you or any member of your team will reference before they make any marketing materials to make sure you stay consistent. This can be as detailed as you would like. Some company’s even have specific rules on how much white space needs to be around there logo at all times.
The 5 key elements to any Brand Board are as follows:
Next is the most important part: Your Brand Board, this is what you or any member of your team will reference before they make any marketing materials to make sure you stay consistent. This can be as detailed as you would like. Some company’s even have specific rules on how much white space needs to be around there logo at all times.
The 5 key elements to any Brand Board are as follows:
- Your Primary Logo – This is the logo you will use 90% of the time, it’s the star of the show of your brand.
- Your Color Palette – These are the colors that inspire your brand and bring it to life, we collected these from the mood board that we created earlier.
- Alternative logos or Submarks – Some brands like to have alternative logos that they use at different times, such as B&W or another brand color. Submarks are also useful to represent your brand when the whole brand name does not need to be displayed.
- Fonts – Its usually good to keep your brand to about 2-3 fonts (depending on your industry). You want to have a main text font for your body text, a Headings font and Logo font ( or complimentary font). This is just a guide, as you can see below I have 5 fonts that I use in my brand. That’s because I custom designed my logo to include two different fonts that I custom altered together.
- Design Elements – This includes any special textures you may want in your brand, any shapes of designs, as well as your social media icons.
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