Five Golden Branding Tips

Paul Heaton

Reform Creative Limited

Video Producer, Digital Consultant, Internet Marketing Consultant, Web Designer & Developer, Marketing Consultant, PR Consultant, Creative & Graphic Designer

Logos are signs, marks of identity designed for easy recognition. They are used by every kind of organisation in every part of the world, from international corporations to charities and from political parties to community groups and schools. Logos also identify individual products and services.

Most people think of logos only as symbols containing some kind of abstract or pictorial element, in the manner of Nike’s ‘swoosh’ or WWF’s panda. But a logo can equally be just a combination of typographic elements — letters, words, numerals and punctuation marks — set in a chosen typeface, such as the 3M and Kellogg’s logos. In fact, a logotype, the word from which we get ‘logo’, is exactly that: a single piece of type. Most of the time, logos operate on a sliding scale between the purely verbal and purely visual: a word with a letter that makes a visual pun, for example, or a symbol containing a company name.

Here are our five golden branding tips:

Try and keep to one or two brand colours
Illegible text. Your company or product name should be clear to everyone
Make sure the logo works in various sizes especially small
Make sure the logo works in black and white
Don’t just settle with an ‘off the shelf’ typeface. Any design worth it’s salt will have illustrated or adapted a font to suit your business and make it unique to you and core values.

Logos or ‘brand identities’ are usually one small part of a far bigger identity package, which can include a new name and slogan, the development of a ‘brand architecture’ and numerous applications of a corporate visual system and verbal ‘tone of voice’. However, the fact remains that the logo is the focal point of any identity system and the key to its acceptance. Designing logos is generally seen as the quintessential graphic designer’s art. It is the compression of meaning into just a few memorable marks, the distillation of the big and complex into something simple and unique that presents one of the defining design challenges of the modern era. No other part of a graphic design firm’s output will be on such public display or be open to such intense scrutiny.

Why not check out some of our branding work.

www.reformcreative.co.uk | 0161 236 0054 | hello@reformcreative.co.uk

Paul Heaton

Reform Creative Limited

Video Producer, Digital Consultant, Internet Marketing Consultant, Web Designer & Developer, Marketing Consultant, PR Consultant, Creative & Graphic Designer

An award-winning designer who has had work published in the most coveted D&AD annual. Educated to degree level with a BA (hons) in Design. Paul has 20 years in the design industry. Paul brings with…