F.A.Q.S
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT BRANDING
What is the difference between a logo and brand identity?
If the answer to this is obvious to you, feel free to scroll along.
For those that don't know, here's a brief explanation:
A logo is the singular mark that identifies your brand. It’s typically a wordmark or graphic image or combination of both that is unchanging and helps as an easy to recognize visual reminder of your business.
A visual identity is all the other elements that go into making your brand recognizable and memorable. This includes submarks and secondary logos, supporting design elements, patterns + textures. All of these pieces are usually relayed in a Brand Guide that shows how to use your visual branding pieces.
In a more abstract sense, branding is the emotions that your brand creates. It can even be the philosophy that your brand holds to be true. There are SO many elements to what makes up a whole brand. Some other elements beyond your visual identity include:
the tone of voice you use
your image style
packaging design
your marketing methods + platforms
2. What is the logo design process like?
We start out design off first with our design exercises that we have crafted and refined over the years we’ve been in business. Once you complete the exercises we set to work crafting different logo drafts. The initial drafts will be presented in black and white so that your focus will be on the design of the logos instead of how any colors may interact. Once you have decided on a direction for the logo we will put together a color palette, image direction and overall branding direction.
3. Why don’t we use the fonts found in the logo throughout the rest of the branding?
There are a few different reasons why using the same font from your logo throughout the rest of your branding isn’t best practice:
Keeping your logo noticeably different than the rest of your branding is a key way to make your logo memorable. Your logo should always stand out as the highest priority when it comes to your website hierarchy or marketing materials.
Often times, it’s just not possible. The fonts that are used in wordmark logos are usually designed specifically for that logo. They are custom fonts that don’t have a full alphabet created.
We pick out typography palettes that will blend with the logo marks, without completely blending in for an unforgettable brand design.
4. What components make up a successful brand?
Start with a plan.
You know the saying: those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Branding is absolutely not an exception to that rule. Our branding process includes strategy that is customized specifically for your industry and to help you stand out in any market.
Pre-launch marketing.
Let people know something is happening before it happens. This can look VERY different depending on what market you’re in but don’t be afraid of showing some teasers and building some buzz around your launch before you actually do so.
Launch (also, with a plan!)
Once you have a plan and have done some marketing to generate some interest, launch your brand. Make sure you stay consistent once you launch. Use your brand guide to help garner trust from your clients and don’t stray from it! It will make sure that your clients know what you provide for them and why they should work with you, buy from you, follow you, etc.
Stay Consistent
This part can be hard for creatives, but it’s extremely important. Whatever pieces you’ve decided are part of your brand, those are the pieces you need to stick with. Stay intentional about every piece of collateral that you provide so that you won’t confuse people about who your brand is.
5. How long does a branding project take?
This is quite variable, but usually a branding project for small businesses will take 4-8 weeks. If you’re a more established company with lots of moving parts it can take a bit longer than that since we’ll have to wrangle all decision makers and get to know all the components of your business. That doesn’t mean you’ll be sitting around with nothing to do for 2 months. We begin the process as soon as our design queue allows for, but we take our time researching your competition and the details of your business to make sure we get this branding thing RIGHT. We know your business has a lot of moving parts and needs to be properly represented as soon as possible, but we don’t want to hurry to get you something up just for the sake of having it. We aim to create a brand that will last at least 5 years and aid in your business growth. A brand can easily last much longer than that and usually pieces of the beginning brand design will last the brands lifetime (see Google’s logo history, Instagrams logo history, Coca-Cola, etc.) as long as the branding is kept up to date.
Learning your industry standards and providing you with thoughtful branding that speaks to your desired clientele takes many hours of work and years of learned expertise. We don’t just slap a pretty logo on a website. We want your branding to be your best advocate for many years to come.