Branding
Branding is key for any business or organization, large or small. Branding is the face of your company and should tell your customers everything they need to know about your business and product. Branding includes your company's logo, packaging, and promotional materials such as flyers, mailers, business cards, and your website.
Step 1: Logo
From the start, every company needs a logo, an image that is simple, legible, and is instantly recognizable as your company. A logo should represent your brand's identity, mission, and what products or services you offer. Once completed, everything your company produces should have your logo incorporated in some fashion.
Fig.01 (PixelDog Logo)
In this write up, we are using the PixelDog logo, pictured above (fig.01), as an example of how to brand your company or organization. If you would like to see other logo examples, click here.
Step 2: Packaging (if applies)
After your logo is finalized it is time to add it to your product and design your product packaging. Your product packaging should feature and match the feel and color scheme of your logo. It is important that the packaging sells the product and states visually what the product is and what message you want to convey about the contents. Once the logo and packaging design are created, everything that follows should be consistent in design and message.
Fig.02 (PixelDog Packaging)
In the image above, (fig.02) we used the PixelDog logo from fig.01 to create the product packaging for a ficticous PixelDog juice. Mmm, doesn’t that sound delicous?
Step 3: Website
After your logo and packaging have been laid out, it is time to create a Website for your product. However, before designing the site, it is key to get the perfect domain for your brand. Preferably, the domain should be the name of your company or product. If the name is already taken you can add to it, but remember the shorter the URL the better. In our case, the .com for the name of our comapny, PixelDog, was already taken. So, we added "Company" or "Co" to our domain. PixelDogCompany.com & PixelDogCo.com both work for our site.
When designing a Website, you need to make sure that the site design and color scheme are consistent with your logo and packaging. Crucial elements to remember when designing a Website are simplicity, easy navigation, and responsiveness. You don’t want your visitors to have a hard time viewing or exploring your site. When finding someone to code your Website, if you are not proficient yourself, you typically get what you pay for. There are a lot of “free” advertised Website companies out there, but they typically end up owning your domain and the free designs are, at best, templates that are not custom tailored to you and do not match your brand. Most cheap or "free" web design companies make you lay out your Website yourself using their template, are not very user friendly, and come with big fees when you have to renew the next year.
Fig.03 (PixelDog Home Page Design)
The image above, (fig.03) is a screenshot of the PixelDog home page. The PixelDog logo is prominently featured toward the top of screen. The layout is simple and easy to navigate. The home page says who we are, what we do, and where we are loacted without being image or text heavy. To learn more about Web design or to see more examples of Website designs, click here.
Step 4: Social Media
After your Website design is completed, you will need to start setting up social media accounts. Today, social media presence is just as important as having a Website. Remember, when setting up social media accounts, it is important to stay consistent with everything you’ve done to this point. Your social media accounts should look identical to each other and the rest of your branding. When picking out your social media account's usernames, or url’s, it is best to use your company name or something similar to your Website domain. For us, often "PixelDog" was already taken so we would use "PixelDogCo", like our Web domain.
Fig.04 (PixelDog Social Media Pages)
In the images above, (fig.04) you can see the PixelDog logo featured prominently in each of the different media accounts. The same color scheme is repeated throughout everything we’ve created to this point. Social Media accounts should be monitored daily. Knowing your audience, when, how, and what they react to is key to getting the response that you’ll need to grow your client base. At PixelDog, we offer a social media package to help you setup and maintain all of your various accounts. Contact us to find out about our different packages and rates. Click here to contact us.
Step 5: Promotional Materials
After you have created your logo, product packaging, purchased your Web domain, and set up all of your social media accounts, it’s time for promotional materials. Promotional materials include anything that you will use to market your brand, such as flyers, business cards, mailers, stickers, billboards, commercials, and on and on. Remember, when designing promotional materials, always stay consistent with everything that has been designed up to this point. If a potential client sees one of your flyers, then goes to your Website, they need to instantly know that they are in the right place. All of the promotional material needs to be cleanly designed while prominently featuring your logo and where to find your product, ie Website domains, phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses.
Fig.05 (PixelDog Promotional Materials - Business Cards, Brochure, Mailer)
In the images above, (fig.05) you will notice that all three of the different promotional items have the PixelDog logo prominently displayed along with contact information and what we offer. To see more exmaples of promotional materials, click here.
Summary
In the images below, (fig.06) you can see all of the branding items that we have discussed side by side. You will notice that all of the items have a consistent look and feel, they all have the exact same color scheme, font treatment, and imagery. You can see any of these items seperately and instantly recognize it as being from the same company. If you would like to learn more about branding your company or orgnanization, or would like a quote on one of our branding packages, please fill out the form below fig.06. Our team at PixelDog has been creating award winning brands for decades. Whether you want your brand to fit with the current trends or you want a timeless design, we can help.
Fig.06 (PixelDog Branding Materials)
Fill out the form below, to get a quote for your own branding package!
