JANET MURR AY’S
audienceBuild youronline
identityCREATING YOUR VISUAL BRAND
WORKBO OK
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
WHAT IS YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y?
Your visual brand identity is the distinctive look and feel of your business - and what sets you apart from others.
It includes the fonts, colours, logos and other visual features in your branding. But it isn’t solely about that. It’s also about the feeling people get when they interact with your business, marketing materials, products, team members and physical locations (if you have them).
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
WHY D OES YOUR VISUAL BR AND MAT TER?
You might wonder what visual branding has to do with building an engaged online audience of followers, fans and subscribers. If your content is good, won’t people want to follow you anyway?
Not necessarily.
Because first impressions count. And consistency is everything.
Let’s take Instagram as an example. If people visit your account and see a jumble of ideas, images and colours, they won’t ‘get’ what your account - or your business - is about. Which means they’re unlikely to follow you and/or engage with your content.
If they visit your account and see a consistent approach to content, colour and style, they’re far more likely to ‘get’ what you do and want to come back for more.
It’s kind of like the difference between Marie Claire magazine and a homemade magazine you’ve knocked up on Microsoft Publisher.
Your fonts and colours in particular can influence how people perceive you/your business - and many of these judgements are unconscious.
Some colours - black, gold accents, deep reds, for example, are associated with premium products and services (think Chanel). Others e.g. orange have become associated with economy brands (think Easyjet).
Some fonts - for example Times/Futura - are associated with elegance and high-end products/services. Others e.g. novelty/bold fonts are associated with low-end brands.
This is why it’s important to spend some time thinking about how you want to be perceived by your ideal clients/customers and making sure there is a consistent look and feel running right across your brand.
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
This is something you can do right from Day 1 of your business. And you don’t need to hire a fancy designer or even have any natural creative flair. You just need to understand the basics of colour and font psychology, including which colours and fonts look good together.
This will help you create a simple visual style sheet, which will not only help you stay consistent with your branding. It will also help if you want to outsource any of your content.
If you have already created a visual style sheet for your business, there is no reason why you can’t go through the exercises in this workbook and use it as a ‘review’ process. You should be reviewing your visual branding regularly.
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
List three words to describe your brand personality. If you’ve completed the Developing Your Brand Voice class, you should have done this already.
1.
2.
3.
If you need a reminder/prompt, here’s a list of words that might help. We’re going to come back to these words later.
ADVENTUROUS
ALLURING
AMBITIOUS
APPEALING
ARTISTIC
AUTHORITATIVE
BOLD
BR AVE
BRIGHT
CALM
CARING
CASUAL
COUR AGEOUS
COLOURFUL
CREDIBLE
DETAILED
DETERMINED
DILIGENT
EAGER
EARTHY
ECCENTRIC
ELEGANT
ENERGETIC
ENCHANTING
ENTHUSIASTIC
FEARLESS
FEIST Y
FIERCE
FEMININE
FRESH
GENTLE
GENEROUS
GREGARIOUS
HAPPY
HOMELY
INNOVATIVE
INSPIRING
KIND
KNOWLED GEABLE
LIVELY
LOVING
LUXURIOUS
MATURE
MISCHIEVOUS
MODERN
MYSTERIOUS
NAUGHT Y
NO NONSENSE
OPINIONATED
ORGANIC
PEACEFUL
PRODUCTIVE
PROFESSIONAL
QUIRKY
REBELLIOUS
REFLECTIVE
RESPONSIBLE
ROMANTIC
SASSY
SERIOUS
SILLY
SMART
SOPHISTICATED
STRONG
UNCOMPROMISING
UPBEAT
VIVACIOUS
WARM
WISE
WIT T Y
WILD
YOUTHFUL
Z ANY
ACTIVIT Y 1
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
CREATING A MO OD BOARD
Put together some inspiring images that portray the overall feel of your brand. You can do this physically i.e. ripping out magazine pics, finding swatches etc. or use an online tool like Pinterest. We have made you a mood board template in canva HERE .
ELEMENTS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR MO OD BOARD
FONTS IMAGES
DESIGN ST YLESPAT TERNS
COLOURS
ACTIVIT Y 2
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
CHO OSING YOUR BR AND COLOURS
Having a basic understanding of colour psychology can help you choose the colours that most reflect your brand.
Here is a quick overview.
Now write down those three words you chose to reflect your business again:
1.
2.
3.
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
REVIEWING YOUR BR AND COLOURS
Do the brand colours you’ve chosen (or the ones you have in mind) ‘match’ with the words you’ve chosen? Write down your thoughts and reflections below. Remember you don’t have to have it all worked out right now - this is just about playing with ideas.
CHO OSING A COLOUR PALET TE
I’d suggest choosing two main colours and up to three complimentary colours, as in the examples below.
ACTIVIT Y 3
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
PUT TING COLOURS TO GETHER
Using a colour wheel can help you choose colours that go together. There are three types of combinations
Analogous: Colours that are adjacent on the colour wheel
Complimentary: Colours that are opposite on the colour wheel
Monochromatic: Colours of a single hue
GO OD PL ACES TO FIND COLOUR COMBINATIONS
COLORHUNT.CO
DESIGN-SEEDS
PALLETON
COLOR-HEX
ur
pl
es
bl
ue
s
g
re e n s y e l l o
w
se
ds
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
CHO OSING YOUR BR AND COLOURS
Write down the colours you have chosen. Remember, nothing is set in stone just yet. You’re just exploring ideas (which means you can change your mind later).
Main colours
1.
2.
Complimentary colours
1.
2.
3.
ACTIVIT Y 4
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
PAGE 11
identityCreating your visual brand
CHO OSING YOUR FONTS
As the examples show below, fonts definitely have ‘personalities’. Which is why you need make sure the fonts you choose reflect the feeling you want communicate about your business.
I’d recommend using two main fonts/typefaces and a third complimentary one (as in the example below).
1. A bold serif font/typeface for headings and quotes
2. A sans serif font/typeface for sub-headings and body copy
3. A complimentary font/typeface for large quotes e.g. a handwritten look
You might also want to choose an alternative bold sans serif font/typeface for the times when you want to create a different look with your headings.
ComplimentaryCOMPLIMENTARY Handwritten typeface used for large quotes
MAIN ALTERNATIVEBold sans serif typeface used for headings
MAIN Bold serif typefaceUsed for quotes and headings
Main Alt
Main SECONDARY Sans serif typeface used for sub heads and body copy
SECONDARY
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identityCreating your visual brand
Here is an example of how fonts might work together.
Good places to find free fonts
DAFONT
GO O GLE
FONT SQUIRREL
FONT SPACE
1001 FONTS
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
REVIEWING YOUR FONTS
Do the fonts you’ve chosen (or the ones you have in mind) ‘match’ with the words you’ve chosen to describe your business? Write down your thoughts and reflections below. Remember you don’t have to have it all worked out right now - this is just about playing with ideas.
CHO OSING A LO GO
A great logo is simple - and conveys the owner’s message, as shown in the examples below. It should also be memorable, versatile and easy to scale up and scale down (i.e. it will look as good on a billboard as it does on a beermat). If you invest in nothing else design wise, I’d really recommend hiring a professional designer to create you a logo. Otherwise yours could end up looking a bit ‘amateur’ (and not have the versatility you need).
ACTIVIT Y 5
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
PAGE 14
identityCreating your visual brand
BRIEFING A DESIGNER
If you do hire a designer, here’s some tips to make sure you get exactly what you’re looking for. A good designer should ask you these questions anyway...but just in case.
1. Explain what aesthetic and feeling you want your brand to evoke
2. Share some brands with them you love and hate
3. Tell them who your close competitors are
4. Give a clear timeline and agree fees/budget upfront - before they start the work
If you’re briefing a designer for a logo, ask for different variations to use in different applications e.g. an avatar/submark for your social media, a watermark for images etc.
GO OD QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR DESIGNER
• How much time will it take?
• How many revisions will I get?
• Do you have any customer testimonials?
• What’s the ‘return’ policy? i.e. what will happen if I don’t like any of your designs?
• Which formats will the final logo come in?
• How will communication work? e.g. do you use a communication tool like Slack to keep in touch with your off-site team
GO OD APPS FOR DIY GR APHIC DESIGN
CANVA
PICMONKEY
BEFUNKY
PIXLR
SPARK
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
CREATING YOUR BR AND ST YLE SHEET
Your visual brand style sheet should contain your chosen colours, fonts and logo(s).
We’ve created a template for you to use, which you can access HERE . But you can create your own.
Remember to include the hex codes for your colour choices. A hex code is an individual code assigned to every colour which starts with a hashtag sign and has mixture of numbers and letters e.g.#AFD645.
This will help when briefing a designer and/or anyone else who creates content for you.
You can use COLOR PICKER to find the hex code for any colour.
A FINAL WORD ON CONSISTENCY
If you want your visual branding to work for your business, you need to use it in EVERYTHING. That includes:
• Stationery - business cards, invoices etc.
• Website
• Social media headings
• Social media posts
• Email headers/footers
• Packaging
• Merchandise
Although it’s tempting to cut corners and knock out the odd social media post in any old colour/font, if you take the time and care to be consistent, you will see the impact on the bottom line of your business.
JANET MURRAY
CRE ATING YOUR VISUAL BR AND IDENTIT Y
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identityCreating your visual brand
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES
Congratulations on completing the Visual Brand Identity class. Before you move onto the next class, please ensure you have done the following.
COMPLETED ALL OF THE EXERCISES IN THE VISUAL BR AND
IDENTIT Y WORKBO OK
PICKED OUT/REVIEWED YOUR BR AND COLOURS
PICKED OUT/REVIEWED YOUR BR AND FONTS
CREATED/COMMISSIONED/REVIEWED YOUR LO GO DESIGN
CREATED YOUR VISUAL BR AND ST YLE SHEET
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