The key to professional branding is consistency. Of course, your brand assets need to look professional and visually pleasing, but the consistency in implementation is crucial. Many entrepreneurs who don’t have a design background and go the do-it-yourself route, or hire freelancers for one-off projects, end up with inconsistencies across their different brand assets. You can have beautiful graphic design pieces in place to promote your business, but if there is no cohesiveness, your branding won’t come across as professional or be memorable. To help you avoid this mistake, let’s take a look at some guidelines and resources on how to match your website and other branding assets.
Set the Right Design Direction with Your Logo
Your entire visual direction for your branding assets should be determined by your logo. If you haven’t launched your business yet, tackle your logo as the first creative project, and then strategically build out the rest. When you are making creative decisions for your logo, don’t simply go by what looks pretty, rather focus on landing on a design that will convey the right message that is aligned with your business’ core offering and values. You can achieve that by choosing the right colors. Different colors evoke different emotions so make sure you study the psychology of color and pick a color palette that speaks to your core demographic.
Develop a Brand Consistent Website
Once you have finalized your logo, it’s time to build out what’s arguably, your most important brand asset and promotional tool – your website. All too often entrepreneurs make the mistake of building a custom website or purchasing a template and treating the logo as merely an afterthought. If you have your logo in place first you can incorporate your branding colors, complementary photos, and images. To make sure your website and logo are well tied together, visually implement the core color of your logo throughout your pages as accent colors. You can also use your logo’s secondary colors to establish an even stronger connection.
Use Visual Aids Across Your Branding Assets
Tying your website and other branding assets together isn’t limited to repeating the core color and including your logo consistently. There are a lot of visual aids you can use to create brand consistency. You can leverage these tools to instantly boost the quality of your brand assets and to strength your branding:
- Images: Images are a great tool to create consistency across all of your promotional material. Using professionally shot photos in your social media posts, flyers, website header, etc. can easily elevate your design. The trick is to find a set of photos that you love and to use those exclusively across all of your brand assets. This will give your designs much needed cohesiveness.
- Icons: Another way to separate your designs from amateur attempts is through the use of professional icons. The trick is to stay away from cheap looking clipart and to stick to one set of icons. There are a lot of free icon sets available that you can find and download online. Once you pick a set, use it across your presentations, website, business card, etc. where appropriate.
- Fonts: Similar to photos and icons, fonts are a great way to elevate your designs and content. When it comes to fonts you want to be careful not to use too many different kinds. Choose a couple of fonts that read well and are visually pleasing and use those exclusively through all of your content pieces.
Some Free Resources to Help You with Implementation
Creating a beautiful brand that’s also consistent across all of your different items can be intimidating, especially if you aren’t operating with a large budget. Luckily there are resources available that you can use for free to build out matching brand assets for your website. Here are a few free tools to get you started:
- Paletton: This tool lets you find matching color combinations quickly through an interactive color wheel.
- Business Cards: One of the most effective offline promotional and branding tools is still your business card. This resource lets you create free printable business card designs in minutes.
- Burst: This resource allows you to search and download high-resolution images that you are allowed to use for commercial projects.
- Free Icons: As the name implies this website offers professional icons that you can download for free.
The resources and tips listed in this article will help you come up with your own designs as a quick solution. If you are looking for fully custom branding, our team at Millennium can help you succeed.
About Millennium Agency
Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman led B2B branding, positioning, and digital marketing firm who knows how to create value that emotionally influences your customer’s buying decision, giving you the competitive advantage. As your trusted partner in B2B software technology and manufacturing, we provide the branding and positioning framework that make an impact – so you can focus on what you do best – run your business successfully. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business. Visit www.mill.agency or book time here.
