For smaller businesses, image is often a secondary or even neglected area. The question of a company logo is usually first raised when designing a website, so often something simple and quick is created, which usually goes against both the written and unwritten rules of logo design, but this is so common and typical a mistake that there will be a separate post on it. Coming back to the image, the sooner the need for a quality image is established, the sooner the company can differentiate itself from competitors (for whom this is still not an important enough area) and thus gain an important communication advantage. Let's look at what it's all about and why it's so important!
Branding is one of the most important elements of visual communication, and in fact it includes everything related to the appearance of a business. The website and its appearance is a particularly important part of the image, but so are all other digital and physical interfaces, be it a newsletter, a business card or a car sticker. These are the media that customers, (potential) partners and competitors encounter first. The image (or lack of it) will create a first impression of your company, which can be positive, neutral or even negative. This can easily create an unfavourable image of us in the minds of our customers, potential partners, instead of having any direct experience with our products and services. This can of course be easily reversed by personal experience, but it is possible that, because of the above, they may not even get to the point of experiencing it because the competitor had a more engaging and professional image and was therefore perceived as more trustworthy even when unknown.
What is good branding?
The most important characteristics of a good image are that it is consistent and in line with the communication objectives. So first we need to define what we want to communicate about ourselves. Do we represent traditional values or do we use modern technologies? For example, a 100-year-old family-run factory and a start-up that is just forming will have different images. It is also important to know what industry and what field you are in, because you need to choose the right branding elements. Once we have our communication objectives, we need to match our logo, colours, fonts, illustrations and other graphic elements to our business. Finally, it is important to ensure that the image you have created is consistent across all the surfaces you use, whether digital or physical. Is this your image? Let's take a look together, contact me and we'll spend an hour consultation going over any issues with your image and suggestions for improvement. Don't have a corporate identity yet or not happy with your current one? I can help you with that too!