Brands. Recognizable even upsidedown and backwards.

The name of your company is or should be a unique tie-in to the heritage, identity or other meaning of your business. It is the very first identifying mark of your company. In other words, our name establishes not only a brand identity but a corporate vision as well.

Why Brands are Important

A brand is a set of attributes that—in the minds of customers—distinguish one company’s offerings from those of its competitors. A brand identity is the visual and verbal expression of that set of attributes. A cohesive, distinctive and relevant brand identity is an enormous asset in the marketplace. The very name provides added value and—in many cases—can command a price premium. It is necessary to establish a direct and unbreakable linkage between the attributes of the brand and the way they are expressed. A strong brand is one with immediately recognizable characteristics that set it apart from the crowd. When current or potential customers see or hear that brand name, they form a positive mental picture, based on its well-established attributes.

Why Consistency is Important

The consistent display of your brand enables your company to benefit from the success of itself. You will also realize savings, in terms of both time and costs, in the development of communication materials, products and services, not to mention the increase in professionalism your business with take.

Growth Demands Discipline

As your company expands, your communications needs to become more complex. We will be introducing yourselves to many new audiences, and first impressions are very important. The consistent use of your brand identity will enable us to establish your company as a forward looking, professional provider of products and services. That is why each and every communication describing those offerings must bear the unmistakable mark of your brand identity.

Building Your Company’s Brand

It is important to understand that your guidelines provide for considerable flexibility. You shouldn’t want all your communications to look exactly alike. That would destroy their effectiveness. Instead, the main goal is to present a consistent “look and feel” that is unique to your company. This will enable you to continue to build your masterbrand, which will, in turn, enhance public recognition of every part of your company.

Dan's photo gear setup

This is my regular quick setup. I also have two tripods I use on occasion and a Canon A510 pocket shooter as a secondary.

Nikon D40x

18-70mm
55-200mm
50mm f1.8

ML-L3 remote

SB-600

2 sets of rechargeable batteries + charger for flash

2 Nikon batteries
1 Aputure battery grip

Hand Strap

Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home

2 GB Sandisk Extreme 3 SD Card
2 GB Sandisk SD Card

Business Cards

Rocket Blower

USB cable

Camera manual
Screen protectors
Microfiber cleaning cloths

Branding is not marketing. Rather, it is an integral part of your marketing strategy. It’s also an important part of how you interact with clients, prospects, vendors, employees, and anyone else with whom you come in contact. Branding creates an image.

Your organization may be small or big, but at its core, it is still complex and significant in every way. You could be seen by any number of prospective clients, customers or future employees…not to mention your competition!

Just think for a moment…how many times per day do you send out a communiqué with your business name on it? How many times do you advertise? Do you have a website? There are lots of messages being voiced from your company just to do business.

To reinforce clarity, it is essential for your organization to present a unique,
memorable and easily recognizable visual identity that sets you apart. And, you must do so consistently and coherently. Sometimes, your visual brand is your most valuable asset and it is your job to make it as easy as possible for people to recognize information from
your company. The application and usage of your organization’s logo is one important element in achieving that objective.

In addition to the communications goals, there is a more practical, financial benefit to logo standards. Specifically, by having a basic design for stationery (print and electronic) and business cards, you will save money on design and printing costs.

The bottom line is “Be consistent”. Too many businesses don’t respect this simple consistency rule. They end up with five or six variations on their logo causing dilution of their brand, confusing their customer base and projecting an unorganized business ethic. You need to be able to reassure your customers and simplicity is the key. Your messages may be complex, but the way you communicate them needs to be simple and consistent.

Here are some specific tips I personally think are important.

1. Logo placement is probably my number one pet peeve when done wrong. Do it properly and I won’t criticize.

a. Do no change the shape of your logo via skewing, stretching or blowing it up so it gets all blurry and pixilated.

b. Give your logo “breathing room” around the outside. This is how you create emphasis, not making it huge. Pay special attention to how you place it in conjunction with other logos if, for example, you are sponsoring an event alongside other companies.

c. Use a high enough resolution version. Do not use a logo you pulled from your website for a print piece. This will always look terrible.

d. Make sure you use the proper logo for the application. If you are placing it on a dark background, use a white (reversed) version so you can read it.

2. Quality stationary is perhaps the most effective tool in communicating your company’s own quality standards to your clients and competition. You will realize their effect and the good image a business card will reflect on your brand in addition to the awareness it will create.

3. Your website should have a unified brand identity, which includes the Logo, Icon and/or word mark. All these items should walk together, they should be using the same colors, fonts and concept.

There are a lot of things that can turn an exciting new design project into a nightmare for a graphic design business. Many graphic design businesses have experienced these issues below, including myself. The best way to avoid stress and problems with clients is to educate yourself about what can go wrong ahead of time and take steps to protect your yourself.

Below are 3 common problems that can go wrong and while they may sound simple and the solutions are simple, thousands of designers fall victim to these pitfalls.

1. Clients Who Won’t Pay

We all want to get paid and there are several ways to protect yourself against not getting paid. The first big mistake is to not require a down payment. Many designers do the work on spec or let the clients pay at the end, which is a big mistake. There are a few ways you can bill clients, but I prefer to simply bill half upfront and half when done, or get the full amount upfront for smaller jobs.

You should also use invoicing software or fill out an invoice template and a contract and have them all signed by the client so you have the project and payment details in writing. This will give you more power if you have to actually use the law to get your money, but hopefully it will not come to that.

2. Endless Revisions

This is an easy one to forget. You may be a great designer, but its an inside joke in the design community that the client always picks the worst design so they may not pick the design you worked hardest on, which means lots of possible revisions.

Many clients can be very picky and detail oriented, which is fine because they want to be happy, but if you do not limit revisions your project could turn into a nightmare where you actually don’t make any money because you had to put in so many extra hours.

As an example, you could offer 3 initial concepts for a logo design and then 3 revision rounds once they have picked one of the initial concepts to move forward with. You should also specify the price for additional revision rounds in case they want more.

3. Poor Planning and Timing

If you don’t plan out a project to the last detail and set a time frame you will run into major issues as well. For example if you are doing a website you need to know EXACTLY how many pages you need to create, what each page will have on it and so on. Talk about this with the client and make sure they give you everything you need before you start and get it in writing.

Creating a wire frame can be really helpful. A wire frame is basically a quick outline of what a design or website will look like and what will go where. This way you don’t miss anything and wont run into spending more time adding missing items later, which could cost you money.

Many clients also have very tight deadlines so you need to be able to gauge how long a project will take you and you need to get this in writing as well. For example you could say the estimated time to complete the project will be 3 weeks, but it could take a week more depending on extra revisions and such. Its better to add a few days or more to your estimated project deadline to give yourself a buffer.