Photo: Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Happy Monday, again!  Wow, time is flying huh?  Time for the 3rd segment of this fantastic guest blogging series from Lisa of Step Brightly called ‘Developing a Visual Vocabulary to Create Brand Consistency for Your Company: Be honest and Be You!’

Hello all! I have had great feedback on this series and hope that you will find this installment just as helpful and inspiring! Today I want to focus on how to create a visual vocabulary for your brand that you, in essence, can pick and choose from to create delightfully impacting and relevant marketing pieces. My goal is to highlight what you, as a client or a creative do-it-yourself entrepreneur, can do to make your brand memorable, beautiful and consistent, which will lead to customer loyalty and success.

Photos: Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Both Edyta and I have had the pleasure of working with BabyDolls Boutique in Chicago’s Southport neighborhood (website coming soon). BabyDolls is a retail shop that has fabulous jewelry for women, amazing gifts for friends and cutie-pie accessories for babies. I have been friends with the owner, Vanessa, for many years and when she asked me to help her take her boutique to the next level in terms of branding BabyDolls, I jumped on the chance. I am a big believer in brand consistency. If your product, brand or company is not consistent overtime, your customers will never get to know you and trust you. Jennifer Morla, the creative director of Design Within Reach told me at a recent AIGA Chicago event that “brands must be honest” if your customer doesn’t believe your are being truthful, they will not buy your products. If you project an image of trust, kindness and interest in your customers they will be loyal to your brand. The best way to create trust with your customers is to be consistently you.

Using BabyDolls Boutique is an easy example. Vanessa, the owner, is a bubbly sweetheart of a woman. Client service flies out of her heart and smile to her customers with ease and, most importantly, authenticity. Her personality alone warrants a logo! I started this project’s visual vocabulary at the most obvious point: the logo. Generally I take my clients through 2-3 conceptual directions before landing on a single design direction. Contrary to popular opinion, the logo, or identity, is not the brand. It is only one element in the visual library. After establishing the logo we can move on to building out additional design elements, like colors, fonts and copy writing tone, which will move into pieces like a postcard, business card (a great way to advertise!) and store windows. These pieces in totality make up your brand.

Photos: Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Unless you only have an online store, retail space and your art fair tents are the most important interaction the customer has with your brand. With french flourishes of pink and black satin, lace and Audrey Hepburn, the queen of elegance and wit, Vanessa and I developed the look and feel for her retail shop. I highly suggest asking your graphic designer to consult with you on your space. A talented designer will be able to see unique opportunities to help you stand out from your competition and build brand loyalty.

Photos courtesy of Abercrombie & Fitch, Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Now you have made a sale and your customer walks away with your shopping bag. This is a huge opportunity! Your shopping bag is a walking billboard, utilize your customers travel time! Who hasn’t seen the beautiful men gracing the covers of Abercrombie and Fitch’s bags? Additionally, you should think of what you put into the customers bag, these elements are called give-aways. They are your product hangtags, postcards, coupons, etc. Continue the brand experience from your store into their home.

Photo courtesy of CHANEL

Having an online presence is imperative in today’s marketplace unless you are CHANEL and can get along on brand recognition only. (if only!) For the rest of us mere human beings, online presence is a must. Creating a fully functional e-commerce site is a huge venture and should be considered a second business. Storage, inventory, shipping, updating…it is a lot of work, but can be done successfully with a team of talented people and web design strategy and planning from day one. My company, Step Brightly, has worked on many e-commerce sites and I can personally help you think about the right questions to ask before jumping in, just shoot me an email.

Just as important as an e-commerce site, is a brochure site. BabyDoll’s website highlights their products, mission, contact information and beautiful photography. This is called a brochure site because you cannot purchase products from it at this time, instead it acts as a marketing brochure would.

I have highlighted only a few elements in a visual vocabulary that will help you extend your brand from an idea to the marketplace. There are many more ideas and directions to consider and I would love to talk with you if you have further questions!~ Please feel free to email me at lisa@hellodesigners.com.

And most of all good luck, have fun and be consistent, your customers will thank you for it!