A branding and marketing strategy is essential to the success of a small business. This is the framework by which you define who you are, differentiate yourself from your competitors, communicate these qualities through design and reach your target audience effectively. Because it is capable of so much, there are many moving parts that go into building a brand and marketing plan. That’s where a brand strategy template comes in—a detailed worksheet can make this nebulous process painless and straightforward. By Julié9 Whether your small business is preparing to launch or has been up and running ..read more

The stronger a nonprofit’s visual brand, the more likely they are to get donations, meet goals and make an impact. Artists love when they get the chance to design for good, and working with nonprofits to build out their visual branding is an excellent way to help make an impact. So let’s get into why visual branding is so important for nonprofits and how to get the most out of it. First and foremost, branding for nonprofits builds trust — Think about a company whose website is really user-friendly and visually attractive. Then think about a time you were searching for something on the internet ..read more

For all the time, thought, research and iteration that goes into creating a logo design, it is rarely a one-time process. Editing a logo is something most brand owners will have to deal with at some point. Even after your designer has delivered a standout design, you’ll likely find yourself needing to know how to edit a logo from time to time. For example, you might find that you need to add a new tagline. Or, that you need additional alternate color versions for any number of reasons. Your brand is a living thing. So the contexts to which your logo will need to adapt will always be changing ..read more

Ever see a logo for a brand and feel like you’ve seen it before, but for someone else? You’ve probably just come across a generic logo—a cliché in the logo game—a been-there-done-that, uninspired graphic that isn’t doing much for the brand it represents. Chances are, you’ve seen this a lot. by AikDesign Logos are more than just an image and some text. A logo is the face of an entire brand, which means that an unoriginal, overused logo design signals to potential customers that a brand is also unoriginal. In today’s crowded marketplace, why would people want to give business to a ..read more

Are you down with colorful logos? Great! Who doesn’t like color? But “colorful” can mean a lot of things. For some, a colorful logo is one that’s bright and fun. For others, a colorful logo is one that’s bold and eye-catching. In this article, we’ll explore how color can be used in a logo, and help you decide on the right style for your colorful logo. Via Mat W Jump to: Consistent analogous color examples Contrasting complementary color examples Three-colored logo examples Natural color scheme examples Rainbow color scheme examples What your logo colors say about your business 5 stunning way ..read more

What’s the best way to get a good logo design? Better yet, how can you avoid bad logo design? That may seem like an oversimplification, but there’s a lot of truth to it. The best designers are aware of the most common mistakes that can happen when designing a logo—mostly because they’ve made those missteps themselves at one point or another during their career—and are able to catch poor choices before they make them. In logo design, certain “what not to dos” occur more frequently than others. Seeing these ineffective choices in action can help you sidestep them in your own logo design.   ..read more

Logos are the face of your business. Not only do they make your company beer can sleeves look sharp, but they also attract the right customers by letting people instantly understand who you are and what you stand for. In other words, when you create a logo, you’re building your business’ brand reputation. When it comes to creating a professional logo for your brand, there’s more than one way to get it done. This article includes a summary of the four best ways to create a logo, along with my personal experience using each and a list of pros and cons. Hopefully, this helps you on your journey ..read more

Crafting your brand identity takes time and thoughtful consideration of who you are and what you aim to share with the world. A great way to create your own unique identity is to look at other great brand identity examples for inspiration. Illustration by OrangeCrush As you develop your brand identity by fleshing out your brand, take a look at the successful brand identities below and be inspired by how brands use them to communicate who they are and what they do best. What is brand identity (and why do you need one?) — Brand identity is a cohesive collection of branding elements that creates ..read more

We’re constantly surrounded by advertising, in an inescapable whirl of words and colors and images. But it wasn’t always this way — there was a simpler time back in the Mad-Men era of advertising discovery and even many decades before that, when companies were on the search for something to help connect consumers to their brand. For foods, with the convenient backdrop of packaging, came mascot design. These visual representations of brands have gotten to the point where they’re world famous, and people who haven’t even gotten the chance to try one of these products probably know the image if n ..read more

A strong logo can have big impact on your business. Sometimes companies get it right the first time (think: Shell and Nike) and never have to consider a logo redesign. But more often than not, a logo has to be tweaked or adjusted to keep up with shifts and changes in your company (or the design world). This is especially true for businesses with longevity (which is not a bad problem to have)—the logo you created in 1974 is probably not going to speak to customers in 2017. And there are other legitimate reasons to pull your logo off the shelf and give it a solid once-over. When you do, you may ..read more