Brand Design Orange County – Find Your Brand with NADA GLOBAL
One of the hardest yet most rewarding parts of starting a new business, or re-organizing one, are the decisions that are put into branding. It’s quite important to get your branding right the first time. If not, the cost and hassle of fixing it later will be more annoying than a little bit. Because of the mish-mash of styles, cultures, and industries here in Orange County, it seems like there are a lot of different subsets within the world of branding. From the laid-back designs of the surf shops on the coast to the more “refined” styles the corporate offices display just a few miles inland, the branding around town is truly eclectic. But each has their audience and each has their purpose.
Every business, like every person, is different and has a different story to tell. Those stories are going to connect with certain types of people while, at the same time, miss connecting with others. Think about it. Most people connect with certain name brands, for whatever reason. For instance, I am an Adidas guy and not so much a Nike guy. I don’t mind Nike, in fact I would buy Nike if I found something I really liked, but it’s not the first brand I look for. I don’t know why this is, other than preference. I don’t have any history or special connection with the people at Adidas. I suppose their styles and products just speak to me better and fit within the way that I want to present myself casually. So I suppose this is where it begins. As you consider developing and designing your brand, understand that it’s not going to reach everybody. This might be business blasphemy as business owners think that their business is going to take over the world. It’s not. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s discuss a few good guidelines to focus on when designing your brand.
Know your business and your general demographic.
Are you a profit or non-profit? May sound like a silly question, but you don’t necessarily brand a for-profit company the same way you would a non-profit. Different audience with different goals…for-profits sell, non-profits serve. There’s a different mindset there. In addition, who is your main audience? Are they generally 35-45 year old soccer moms or 25-35 year old upper class bachelors? Depending on which it is effects the colors, font styles, formatting, logo design etc. To put it short, marry your branding with your company.
Think classic and simple.
The goal in branding is for the world to see your logo/mark and immediately recognize it. So less is more. Consider Apple. All they ever display is their apple logo. They never have to write out the word “apple” in their advertisement and they don’t even have a tagline. They produce a beautiful commercial showing all the aspects of their latest product then stick their apple mark against a black or white screen at the end. Obviously they have been in business for decades and are among the top in their industry, which certainly helps with recognition. But throughout all that time they have only drastically changed their mark once and it was within the first year of starting the company. Do your best to develop classic branding that has the staying power to last for decades with minimal adjustments along the way.
Limit your colors, tones, and fonts.
Ever see a company logo that is so weird and busy and full of so many different colors and elements that you feel like you’ve just entered a funhouse? Yeah, don’t do that. For some reason certain companies want to explode their free-spirit all over the page when designing their logo. While there is nothing wrong with putting a little “you” in the design, there are some general guidelines in designing that have had more success than others. First, limit your colors. Unless you’re Rainbow Bright, don’t color your logo with more than 2 or 3 colors. Trust me, after that it’s just too much and not received well by the public eye. Second, limit your tones. Select tones that best portray your company and how you want to make people feel. Warm, cool, excited, easy-going, sharp, relaxed. What you choose depends on who your general demographic is but this is where people are going to feel you first and make their decision on if they move forward with you. Last, limit your fonts. Let your fonts speak to who you are as well. It’s best not to use more than 2 font types in your branding: a main font for your company name and a secondary font for your tagline and other content. Like with color, after 2 it’s just too much and confusing.
Why NADA GLOBAL is your destination for Brand Design in Orange County.
These three suggestions are just an overview of some of the dos and don’ts of branding. It would be ideal to work with a reputable advertising agency and graphic designer to help create branding that has consistency, integrity and synergy as it reflects your company. At NADA GLOBAL, we have a full team of creatives and designers to help you do just that. We have helped many large, small, profit and non-profit businesses and personalities develop just the right branding that fit their story. Call us today to get started setting up your company for decades of brand recognition.