You’ve just got your venture off the ground, and it’s time to think about what your brand is going to look like.
Creating a strong brand identity takes research and the right expertise. But having worked with new businesses since 1993, I understand that time is tight – and budgets are often even tighter. Although my start-up design packages will really help you to launch your idea with confidence, sometimes the funds just aren’t there, and there’s no option but to work on your brand yourself.
If you find yourself in this camp, don’t panic. Evolution is a big part of being in business, and you can always get a professional to develop your initial concepts a little further down the line, if you need to. For now, you just need to focus on following a few basic branding principles that will ensure your designs look carefully considered and completely credible – and make sure you steer clear of some common blunders that could cost you that vital first impression.
Here are five of the main design mistakes new businesses often make. Make sure you bear these in mind when you’re designing your initial graphics and other assets (or getting a friend or family member to do the job for you).
1. Going colour-crazy
Knowing how to select and apply colour is a big part of my job as a graphic designer, because the shades I choose for my clients’ brands can make a huge difference to the way their companies are perceived.
My advice for anyone developing their first brand identity is to keep things simple. Colour can influence how people perceive your business, but the most important thing is choosing a palette that’s appropriate, recognisable and consistent.
Start with a small, carefully chosen colour palette. You might use a main brand colour, a complementary accent and a neutral shade for backgrounds. You can always develop your palette further as your business grows, but having a consistent starting point makes your branding much easier to manage.
2. Using too many fonts
I see this a lot – and it pains me every time! Applying too many different fonts to your visuals will make your brand look amateur at best. As with your brand colours, choose a couple of typefaces that complement each other. One should be what’s known as a body font, which is used for the majority of your copy. You can use a more stylised option for titles and headers that need to grab your audience’s attention.
Both serif and sans-serif fonts can work beautifully, depending on the personality of your brand. The important thing is to choose typefaces that complement each other, remain easy to read and work consistently across your website, stationery and other marketing materials.
3. Creating a logo in raster format
Raster images, such as JPEGs and PNGs, are made up of pixels and can become blurred or pixelated when enlarged beyond their original resolution. That’s why it’s important to have your logo supplied in a scalable vector format. This means your logo will remain sharp whether it’s printed on your roller banners or added to your business cards.
My logo design packages include professionally prepared vector artwork alongside formats suitable for print and digital use.
4. Being scared of white space
To make sure everything you produce is easy to read, be sure to use enough white space in between your lines, paragraphs and images. Leaving a suitable amount of negative space around each element will help the viewer to digest what they’re seeing. This technique can also be used to draw attention to key parts of your visuals, including the calls to action that you’ll need to add to your marketing materials to let your readers know what they need to do next.
5. Not creating clear brand guidelines from the beginning
Brand guidelines are the rules that define the look and feel of your brand. They are essential to making sure that everything you create for your business looks both recognisable and consistent.
Your brand guidelines document will provide everyone with instructions on how to apply your brand’s colour palette; which fonts and typography to use, and where; how your logo should be used, with examples of how it might be applied in different formats and scenarios; and anything else you think is useful when advising people on how to replicate your visual identity.
Your guidelines don’t need to be complicated when you’re starting out. Even a simple document covering your logo, colours and fonts will help you maintain a consistent brand image as your business grows.
Need help getting your new business branding right?
These are just a few of the design mistakes that can affect how your business is perceived. Getting the foundations right from the beginning will help you create a more professional, consistent identity as your business grows.
If you’d like a helping hand, my new business start-up packages offer practical options covering everything from logo design and business stationery to websites and print.
