What does your brand look like? Is it recognizable?in any medium? Or does it change its appearance and present a confusing array of visual styles?

Most organizations understand the strategic importance of a consistent visual style... but fall short on implementation, especially when there are multiple in-house or agency creative teams.

Add in new products, new sub-brands, time-sensitive promotions, changing management, decentralized business units, acquisitions and mergers, and the typical result is a tangled mess of visual styles?all purportedly representing the same company.

No wonder customers are confused. Or, worse, unimpressed.

A prescription for this all-too-common malady...read more

What does your brand look like? Is it recognizable?in any medium? Or does it change its appearance and present a confusing array of visual styles?

Most organizations understand the strategic importance of a consistent visual style... but fall short on implementation, especially when there are multiple in-house or agency creative teams.

Add in new products, new sub-brands, time-sensitive promotions, changing management, decentralized business units, acquisitions and mergers, and the typical result is a tangled mess of visual styles?all purportedly representing the same company.

No wonder customers are confused. Or, worse, unimpressed.

A prescription for this all-too-common malady is a carefully designed visual system.

The Elements of Visual System

Before we cover the benefits of a visual system, a definition is in order. At its most basic, a visual system establishes standards for each of the following: logo, typography, color, imagery, layouts, and formats.

Logo: Specifications for size, placement, horizontal and vertical configurations, clear-space requirements, color use, and tagline and address lockups

Yes, there are a myriad details here, but all these specifications are critically important?whether your logo is a wordmark (e.g., Boston Scientific), a symbol (e.g., the Nike swoosh), or a combination mark (e.g., Caribou Coffee).

Most companies take care to police their logo and understand the importance of maintaining its integrity.

Typography: Guidelines on specific font styles and weights for all digital and print communications

Most organizations specify precisely which fonts are to represent their brand?on their Web site and blogs, in their marketing literature, in PowerPoint presentations, in investor and employee communications.

To the untrained eye, typography is sometimes invisible, but it's an essential aspect of your brand.

Color: Primary, secondary, and tertiary palettes for use in all materials

Many strong brands are defined by their consistent use of color. For example, Target uses red, ING Direct uses orange.

Imagery: The styles and colors that define your brand

Will you use photography, illustration, or both? Will the style be abstract, realistic, or metaphorical? Will you use full color, monochromatic tones, or black and white? A comprehensive visual system specifies image standards.

Layouts: A wide variety of templates that establish a hierarchy of information for headlines, subheads, sidebars, and body copy

Layouts also specify how imagery and secondary graphic elements should be used.

Formats: Acceptable standards and grids (square, rectangle, horizontal, vertical) that build familiarity and continuity for readers?no matter what the medium.
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The Benefits of a Visual System

Once you've taken the time to put these visual building blocks in place, you'll benefit in four key ways.

1. You maintain brand consistency

It's obvious: If you don't establish a system to control the visual appearance?in short, the personality?of your brand, it's likely that many of your communications will be inconsistent or off-brand. "It just doesn't look like us," is a typical response to off-brand pieces, which may use inappropriate imagery, too many typefaces, or odd colors that don't align with your chosen palette.

By establishing clear guidelines for these visual aspects of your brand, you ensure that your audience will recognize you?in every context.

Think of a leading brand, like Apple or Starbucks. Part of what you're picturing in your mind's eye is a distinct visual style: clearly defined and scrupulously managed, regardless of the medium.

2. You eliminate a "culture of reaction"

To those who use them, visual systems are marvelous tools?providing, at once, both structure and flexibility (a proven catalyst for creativity). Visual systems also alleviate a "culture of reaction," where everyone charges ahead to meet the latest deadline without any visual context.

It's important to note that the purpose of a visual system is not to make all your communications appear the result of a cookie-cutter approach, but to create a comfortably coherent look.

3. You produce quality creative?faster

When you're facing a deadline, you don't want to find yourself bogged down in discussions about color, typography, logo placement, and the like, when you should be spending your time on creative concepts and marketing strategies.

With Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Quark templates, a visual system enables you to create on-target, on-brand marketing materials in far less time than it takes when everything has to be created from scratch.

4. You make a long-term brand investment

Make no mistake: Visual systems take time to develop. But they are a smart, strategic investment in your brand. If you're working without one, it may feel strange to codify what you already do intuitively. But stepping back to establish standards will help align your brand and your various business units.

Plus, establishing visual standards means your brand's appearance will not be dependent on one particular person's design talent, or subject to another person's whims.

* * *

So, where does your wonderful new visual system reside? Best-case scenario: in a brand-center Web site, accessible to all employees and agencies, and easily updatable.

Many visual systems exist instead as PDFs, and though having a PDF is certainly preferable to having nothing at all... a brand-center Web site centralizes visual guidelines, doesn't have to be emailed back and forth, and can't as easily be ignored.

By Gwyneth Dwyer collapse

One key way to develop your brand is to create a set of design rules that tie together the look and feel of all your marketing materials. These rules are often referred to as "brand standards." Ideally, brand standards do the double-duty of creating awareness of your brand and differentiating your brand from your competition's. Think you're not big enough to worry about your brand? It's recommended that even the smallest companies develop and maintain brand standards from the very beginning. It's an imperative part of what helps them grow.

The breadth and depth of your brand standards can vary greatly, depending on your needs. Keep in mind that if you're too strict, you may hem yourself in creatively, while if you're too l...read more

One key way to develop your brand is to create a set of design rules that tie together the look and feel of all your marketing materials. These rules are often referred to as "brand standards." Ideally, brand standards do the double-duty of creating awareness of your brand and differentiating your brand from your competition's. Think you're not big enough to worry about your brand? It's recommended that even the smallest companies develop and maintain brand standards from the very beginning. It's an imperative part of what helps them grow.

The breadth and depth of your brand standards can vary greatly, depending on your needs. Keep in mind that if you're too strict, you may hem yourself in creatively, while if you're too loose, design chaos can result. We suggest developing standards that focus on strategy and consistency in the following five areas:

1. Logo

There's perhaps no single more important element to your brand standards than the consistent use of your logo. First, you should never alter or redraw your logo. Second, its placement and sizing should remain consistent within each communication vehicle (for example, your letterhead, brochures, postcards, fliers, web site, product etc.). Rules can vary according the type of material you're using your logo in, but they shouldn't vary drastically.

And if you want to look like a large company, remember this irony: The bigger the company, the smaller and simpler the logo, think Apple, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen.

2. Graphics

Use distinctive symbols and shapes in a consistent way. Choosing the same basic graphic elements will help customers remember your brand faster. Also, be consistent when using borders and/or backgrounds, or show a pattern of consistency that complies with your brand standards.

3. Colors

Color is one of the most important components when it comes to brand identity. The colors you choose will make an immediate impression on your audience, and play a large role in memory retrieval. Therefore color can significantly impact someone's perception of your brand. For example, gold, silver and burgundy are perceived to be upscale, while green is viewed as fresh and healthy. I highly recommend you research and/or test-market certain colors before you commit to a palette. One easy-if not scientific-method is to create a brochure or ad in three or four different color palettes, then survey various people for feedback. And remember that colors have different meanings in different cultures.

4. Fonts

Choose just a handful of fonts for use on all your materials, selecting at least one serif font and one san-serif font. Serif fonts have "feet" at the bottom of the font to guide the reader's eye, while san-serif fonts don't. "Times" is an example of a serif font; "Helvetica" is an example of a san-serif font. Serif fonts work well in paragraphs or body copy because they give the eye something to "hang on to." San-serif fonts should be reserved for headlines, numbers in charts, very small text or text that's reversed out of a color. As a general rule, you should use no more than two fonts in a document, although a third, decorative font could be used sparingly.

5. Illustrative or Photographic Style

Consider what type of visuals-pictures-you want to feature on your marketing materials. Will your visuals consist of illustrations or photos? Try to stick with one or the other. Regardless of your choice, your visuals should be similar in style and color usage-black and white, four-color, two-color, etc.

5. Web Standards

Your look has to be carried aggressively to the web and it is this platform that pulls it all together. By developing your standards for the web, your technical team and strategic partners now have something to follow that will carry your brand to all online external elements. collapse