?? Improve your companies appearance, like a champ. Your branding checklist.

We have all been there, excited to get started on our new project. And then it hits - you're missing a few vital parts before you can actually fully dive in. Therefore, as a standard, when we onboard any new creative clients we tend to ask for the following Items. Now, some of these you won't have OR won't need, but if you can get them all together in one place, well my friend, you and your brand are onto a winner.

Questions below will serve as an introduction to clients before starting on your new outsourcing project for creative assistance. These should be followed as best as possible to avoid unnecessary changes to your ongoing project. Also to serve as a creative agreement from you to your creative regarding setting parameters for the art style, elements, and other segments set on the brand guideline. 

I should add though if you don't have any of the below - we call this your branding toolbox - then you can absolutely get your brand creative assistant to create them for you. IT'S NOT A SHOW STOPPER! To create this we can simply ask you a bunch of questions and get to where we need to get.

No sweat!

Okay, let's dive in.

1. LOGO / WORDMARK

Do you have an existing logo? If not, what do you like and how do you see the brand, or how would you like its market to see the brand?

Your LOGO is the brand’s graphic logo while WORDMARK is the brand’s logotype. (e.g Coca Cola, Disney)

2. COLOR PALETTE

What is your current color palette? If you haven't decided on their colors yet, you can be guided by asking basic questions like what color is significant to you and your business; refer to a mood, your services, goals, and other emotion-driven aspects. An example might be Amazon. Orange color stands for pride and happiness, the orange in their logo is a smile.

3. TYPOGRAPHY

Do you have an existing font or custom typeface, If you do, the better. If not, check out Word or another word processor to suggest fonts that are in line with the brand plan or support existing graphic elements.

4. PLACEMENT AND USAGE

This refers to how the logo is placed on different mediums and its limitations on design (e.g. whether allowing shadows to the logo, outer glow, distortion, etc.)

5. BRAND IMAGERY

Brand images serve as the mood or reference that sets the visual base tone for the brand. These can be a growing collection of images that would represent the visual imagery of the entire brand and are important as they will support the brand without the help of graphics. If you have existing brand images or can afford to invest in a good photographer/videographer you would be one step ahead of the game.

You can use free image banks like Unsplash or Pexels to find really good images or failing that if you want more, uncommon ones, you can pay for Adobes bank...

6. GRAPHIC ELEMENTS

Graphic elements are objects or shapes that would support existing collateral that relates to the brand and/or its services/product (e.g. a fruit stand business has graphic elements of fruits, leaves, boxes, and anything that would represent the brand collateral in graphic form)

7. BRAND PERSONALITY

The easiest way to explain this is by asking for a set of adjectives (words that describe the qualities or states of being of nouns) that would best describe your brand; joyful, corporate, fun, rich, classy, etc. These will greatly help in shaping the brand when it’s new; and will serve as a guide for curation in choosing elements, images, etc.

We have a document which can help you answers these question, let me know if you want to use it and I'll send it over.

"We aim to create a brand where comfort, desire, mini- malism, uniqueness and leisure are all met half way. Our products are meant for all women, diversity, continually improving our products and for the betterment for our customers, encouraging empowerment, and ending boundaries for dreams. " - Oh Cai!

8. TARGET MARKET

This segment is allocated for the brand’s consumers/clients. This also helps in setting the tone for ads as they will be made specifically for their designated market. Demographics can also be an even more specific aspect (The consumer’s age, lifestyle, etc.)