3 ways to make your brand stand out – starting with your logo.
Before setting up Phil Armstrong Creative I’d had the pleasure of designing, producing artwork and carrying out art direction for some fabulous brands, like O2. But also, some not-so-fabulous ones. The following is borne out of both sets of experiences and is by no means exhaustive. Neither is it the perfect solution for all scenarios. But it might just help get the biggest bang for your visual branding buck when it comes to brand exposure.
1. Will your logo stand out in a 25mm square?
Yes, I know. There are lots of successful brands out there that won’t. And some people quote smaller spaces, or that it depends on the end application you’re branding. But as I said before, these are guidelines, not rules. And if you’ve created a logo that’s twenty times longer than its height, your fabulous creative design will unfortunately struggle to gain the brand visibility it needs in the bottom right-hand corner of a narrow online skyscraper banner.
2. Will your logo reproduce in white?
I realise that a lot of our branding these days is online. And that digital printing is now much cheaper than it used to be, so creatives have access to an amazing spectrum of colour to design with. But if you’ve designed a logo that needs to be multi-coloured, you might just find yourself appearing on a plain white background a lot of the time. Now that might be okay if you’re managing the Google brand. But if you’re Fred Shuttleworth Widgets of Batley you’ve probably not got the same exposure and creative budgets to work with. So your branding will need to use every trick in the book to stand out on a shoestring. On your own collateral. And on third-party branded material, such as your distributors. Who will probably be taking full advantage of flooded colour and photography. And in their own corporate colour. Which could completely clash with yours. Like blue on red. So make sure your logo design will work okay in white.
3. Don’t let your company name spoil your branding.
If you happen to have a very long company name and it’s commercially viable to do so, consider reducing it. Or adopting a shorter trading name. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company might fit nicely down the length of a pencil. But P&O is much less of a mouthful. And it will help with your creative material when it comes to brand exposure.
About the author:Phil Armstrong is an award-winning Art Director and Designer with over 25 years experience in brand design, marketing and advertising. He works directly or through design and advertising agencies for clients and brands throughout the world and can be reached or commissioned by clicking here.