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INTRODUCTION TO BRANDING
You probably hear the term branding being tossed around a lot.
But, what exactly does it mean? This chapter includes insider
advice for developing strong branding elements.

WHATS IN A NAME
Struggling to come up with a name for your new product or
service? Learn how to brainstorm potential name ideas and
choose well with these actionable tips.

DESIGNING A BRAND IDENTIT Y

One of the most interesting projects that a graphic designer can
take on is designing a logo. This chapter helps you understand
the difference (and relationship) between a brand, an identity
and a logo.

CHOOSING COLORS & T YPOGRAPHY

Select brand-appropriate color schemes and fonts that help
convey your message. Certain hues carry powerful associations
that send certain signals to your users. Learn essential color
tricks from top designers.

CREATING BRAND APPLICATIONS

Ready to go live? Differentiate your brand from competitors with
a unique personality. Learn how to incorporate a genuine voice
and turn your online presence around in no time.

Readers are saying...

From naming your brand identity, to selecting a color palette, the Beginners
Guide to Branding is an easy-to-follow, comprehensive tool, designed to help
you cultivate consistent and timeless branding - a highly recommended read.

Callie Hegstrom

It felt like a 6 month design course that got absorbed, comprehended and
appreciated in 30 minutes flat. All in all, a beautifully presented stash of
invaluable design wisdom Its a keeper. Its gonna live on my desktop.

Nicky Laatz

Learning about branding can be really confusing, But it doesnt have to be

this ebook cuts through the jargon and offers real advice to help build your
brand.

Simon Stratford

This wonderful guide is not only for beginners, but for experienced designers
and customers. Everything in this ebook is written in a specific sequence,
which makes this comprehensible and useful. I would like to see this ebook in
my library! Great work!

Julia Baranova

After working in branding for a number of years this is a great tool and really
useful go-to guide that can be used by not only designers looking to create
an effective brand identity but also by business owners wanting to get a better
understanding of what branding entails before embarking on a branding
project for their business. I would definitely recommend it.

Rene Murray

Introduction
to Branding
zack onisko
@zack415
Creative Market

Zack Onisko is the Chief Growth

Officer at Creative Market. He is an
analytical thinking product growth
strategist with over a decade
experience building fast growth
start-ups. Hes also a husband, dad
and guitar noodler.

You probably hear the

term branding being
tossed around a lot.
But what exactly does
it mean?
In brief, branding refers to the
elements that define the image,
ethos, and tone of your company
and its products. Think about iconic
branding elements like Apples logo
or Taco Bells slogan. Hear or see
those things and youll instantly know
what the brand truly stands for.
As you read this ebook, remember
these three pieces of advice:

Know your audience.

Understand who you want to get
your brand. The user who gets excited
about an app that can automatically
help sort emails would look for a
very different kind of branding than
someone looking for a mobile game
to pass the time. Identify your target
market, not just by demographics
but also by tastes. Is it quirky?
Businesslike? Cutting-edge? Retro?
Once youve figured that out, you can
start to create an identity that draws
their attentionand business.

Everything counts.
Keeping your brand consistent is key.
That means that the graphic elements,
copy, and any type of content all
must be part of the same concept.
Each one needs to be tailored to the
preferences of your target consumer.
If you are going with a streamlined,
tech-obsessed look, for example,
you should concentrate on finding
angular (but legible) font styles that
complement that contemporary style.
It might also be a good idea to avoid
pastels in favor of working with more
dramatic colors. Similarly, make sure
any promotions, whether on email or
social media, reflect that identity.

Memorable is vital.
Standing out in the crowd is the only
way to get your brand noticed. Taking
some calculated risks can make
that happen. If you are working on a
portfolio site, going for monochrome
can pay offits dramatic and can
help highlight the images. Or, you
can embrace your own creativity
and create an immersive site where
each element reflects a different
time period or looks like a landscape,
among other examples.
These are a few important points to
bear in mind when creating a brand.
Consider making a paper sketch of
branding ideas to get a sense of how
they look on the page before you
actually create it.
Try to review concepts from a
consumers point of view. Would the
brand identity & message youve
created interest you? Are you the
brands target audience?

Whats in a Name?
Crucial Steps to Take Before Naming Your Brand

OWEN ANDREW
@owenandrew7

Owen Andrew is a journalist and

tech enthusiast from Southern
California. When hes not writing
or obsessing over the latest Apple
product, he enjoys hanging with his
three kids.

The wrong brand

name choice can sink
your ship before you
even set sail.
We are building brands in the age of
technology. Because of the times we
live in, public opinions of any given
product are subject to the whims
of first impressions and search
engines. While brand loyalty extends
beyond the brand name itself, the
attractiveness of a company or
product is often complemented by
effective brand names that attract
different kinds of customers. The
trouble is, the naming and branding
process can be difficult and timeconsuming.
Brand names, like any other attribute
of a business, require brainstorming
and work-shopping before the right
idea turns into the right concept. Its
incredibly easy to pick something off

the top of your head, but it could turn

out to violate trademark laws or have
suggestive connotations. Taking the
time to come up with the right brand
name will inevitably save you money
in the long run. Rebranding is an
expensive process and potentially
risky for business.
A handy article from Entrepreneur
Magazine outlines a step-by-step
process for naming your business:

1. Decide whether you

will consult the experts.
There are plenty of branding firms
out there that are willing to help you
to come up with the right name.
However, it depends on what youre
willing to invest in the process. Using
a firm is expensive. Only you can
decide whether your team can come
up with a brand on its own or you
need to enlist help.

2. Come up with a goal

for your brand name.

also have to perform according to

your brand name.

Decide exactly what you want to

communicate to potential customers.
It should relate to what you do and
how you do it. What makes you stand
out from other businesses?

Avoid brand name

missteps.

3. Brainstorm different names.

The best brand names evoke an
emotional connection and impart
logical information at the same time.
Try brainstorming from different
angles.

4. Check for trademark

violations.
There are simply so many trademarks
in existence that you will have to
check each of your top names to
make sure it isnt already taken. You
can work around trademarks by
coining a new word or name.

5. Create a brand image

for each idea.
Once you have settled on a few
different options, create boards with
designs for each brand name. Seeing
the visual concept will help you
decide.

6. Make the final decision.

Whether the decision is an executive
one or a democratic one, you will
have to choose the name that fits
your business best.
After determining your new brand
name, you should pair your brandnaming strategy with a marketing
and ecommerce strategy to attract
the right crowds. Your brand name
should attract the masses, but you

With so many bad names out there,

it can be difficult to point out what
exactly is wrong. However, there
are some attributes, which when
combined, make an exceptionally
bad brand name:

1. Representing it with
the wrong image
One of the biggest branding mistakes
was committed by Burger King, which
used an actor wearing a king mask in
their commercials. They thought it
would be funny, but it just came off
as creepy. Be careful when selecting
imagery to go along with your brand
name.

2. Imitators
Consumers need to be able to trust
your brand. If you imitate another
brand, they will assume your services
are also mere imitations.

3. Puns that are funny

only to you
Obscure names are obnoxious, and
theyre even more obnoxious when
they are turned into puns.

4. Misspellings or
strange spellings
A brand name should still be
recognizable as a word. Companies
like Apple, Google, and Twitter have
achieved visibility through accurate
spellings and simplicity. Is your name
easy to pronounce?

Completely uninspired?
Check out Naminum, an
online name generation
tool that helps you discover
interesting options to get
your creative juices flowing.

Naminum.com

Brainstorming a Name
A simple 6-step process to come up with 100 ideas

Comp etitors
What name/s are your
competitors using to
brand their products?
Include substitutes.

Which words come to

mind when thinking
about your products
physical characteristics?

How could you combine

(either by prepending
or appending) any of
the words in points 1-4
to form a new name?
Write down 15 combinations.

Abs t ract
Which words related
to feelings or emotions
best convey your
products key functions?
Write down 15 words.

Write down 15 words.

Combinatio ns

What words encompass

the most important thing
your product does for
its users? Use verbs.
Write down 15 words.

Write down 15 words.

Literal

Va lue

Synonym s
Find synonyms for the
best 25 words that you
came up with in points
1-4. Spend more time on
your strongest ideas.
Write down at least
25 synonyms.

Designing a
Brand Identity
Gerren Lamson
@gerrenlamson
Creative Market

Gerren Lamson is an Austinbased designer, illustrator, and

typographer. He is the Head of
Design & Community at Creative
Market, where he is a strong
advocate for fellow makers. Gerren
co-created Satchel & Sage in 2010
with his wife Morgana.

One of the most

interesting projects
that a designer can
take on is designing a
logo.
It can be daunting and stressful to
come up with logo options based on
market research, and stumble upon
some design magic through the
exploratory process. Narrowing it
down to a final, approved logo and
then seeing it out in the world can
be a very rewarding experience for a
designer.
However, most of the time, a logo
is not enough. Large organizations
with layers of management require a
thorough brand identity system that
provides a unified vision and tools
that help everyone build the brand.
But before we dig in, lets define the
difference (and relationship) between
a brand, an identity, and a logo.

customers are having with each other

about the company, and how that
spreads. My favorite definition about
brand is the one Seth Godin gave:
A brand is the set of expectations,
memories, stories, and relationships
that, taken together, account for a
consumers decision to choose one
product or service over another. If the
consumer (whether its a business,
a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesnt
pay a premium, make a selection, or
spread the word, then no brand value
exists for that consumer.

An identity describes the visual

devices used to represent the
company. Identity systems are
visual components packages that
are paired with style guidelines and
used as a framework to ensure the
corporate image is cohesive and
consistent. Some of the visual devices
that leverage the brand elements
and style guidelines are as follows:
stationery, marketing collateral,
packaging, signage, messaging, and
digital projects, among others.
A logo is the central, identifiable

visual element that helps customers

discover, share, and remember a
companys brand. Usually its in the
form of an icon (mark or symbol),
logotype, or combination of the
two. The main purpose of a logo
is summed up nicely as the five
principles of effective logo design in
this Smashing Magazine article.

Brand vs. Identity

vs. Logo
A brand or branding refers to the
perceived image and subsequent
emotional response to a company,
its products, and services. It also
represents the conversation that

Phase 1: Research,

Crafting an Identity
Designing a brands visual identity is a
fascinating 3-phase process:
Has the audience,
market or your own
brand shifted? Is it
time for a change?
How will you
represent this brand
visually? Once you
have a logo, how
will you translate it
into various design
pieces? What will &
should your overall
identity look like?

Phase 3:
How is the brand
perceived &
positioned? Whats
your heritage? Who
is your audience and
with which values
& beliefs do you
enter the market?

monitoring
& rebranding

Phase 2:

Logo,
Identity &
Guidelines

Phase 1:

Research,
Vision &
Design Brief

Vision & Design Brief

This phase should be as thorough as
neededdepending on the depth of
research and size of the company.
Its the most crucial part of the
overall process, and should result in
a design brief that guides the rest of
the project.
Below is a list of foundational questions
and key dynamics to explore and
document through qualitative and
quantitative methodologies. (Note:
This is only a quick overview of the
most complex part of this process.)

Other brand image concerns:

market awareness, emotional
associations, value to the
consumer, brand perception vs.
consumer behavior, changes
desired in the brand-consumer
relationship over time.

As you can tell, its complicated. Two

agencies who I think do a good job
with their brand research are Landor
and Fi. It shows in the way that they
describe their completed work as
challenge-and-solution projects.

The design brief

How is the brand perceived

against competitors in the
market for products and services
youre looking to provide?

Its important to have a design (or

creative) brief if the brand identity
project is bigger than one designer
doing work for a small local business.

What is the positioning

statement of your brand? Answer
the what, how, to whom, where,
why, and when questions.

What is the heritage of your

product type, and the origin(s)
of its ingredients and fabrication
process?

A truly effective design brief should

contain summaries from the research
phase, such as: target audience(s),
messaging objectives, values and
mission of the brand, and the brands
products/services offering. It should
also include budget, project schedule,
file formats for delivery, and other
practical needs.

Who is your audience? Are they

digitally savvy? Where will your
products/services have contact
with them? How do you want
that contact experience to make
them feel, take action, and think
about your brand?

What values and beliefs should

the brand have about the
business and its mission in the
world? If the brand was a person,
what would its personality be?
How would it look, act, and talk?

What benefits do you want

customers to associate with your
brand? What is the vision of the
brand that you want to create?

If youre looking for tools and help on

how to write a design brief for a brand
identity project, explore the following:
Logo Design Brief, 99designs, and
Just Creative.

Phase 2: Logo, identity,

& guidelines
After the research phase is complete
and a design brief has been created,
its time to start designing the logo
and identity system.

11

The logo
There are many ways to start
designing a logo, but most often
youll see designers begin by
sketching out dozens if not hundreds
of iterations on paper. The process of
getting concepts down on paper and
creating variations of those ideas can
unlock new directions to explore and
final solutions that you wouldnt have
normally arrived at when starting on
the computer. After selecting your
best sketched concepts, you should
start iterating on them digitally.
Heres a peak behind the curtain of
a few logo concept sketches as they
became final digital solutions:

ITV logo by Matt Rudd of Rudd Studio

Firefox Logo by Martijn Rijven of Bolt

Graphic, art direction by Wolff Olins
Greenpeace Airplot Logo by Airside

12

The identity system

The identity system usually starts after
the logo is complete. The purpose
of the identity system is to form a
systematic visual language around
the logoone that complements the
design thinking of the logo and offers
a family of useful, flexible elements
that will help to design marketing
and business collateral. Here are
some examples:

Patina Restaurant Group by Mucca Design

Fortaleza 2020 by Guivillar

Handsome Coffee Roasters by Ptarmak

13

The style guidelines

The style guidelines contain and
prescribe the logo usage rules,
typeface system, color palette, layout
guidelines, and more. They exist
so that others can create design
collateral and marketing materials
that will have a cohesive look and
voice.
Style guidelines have traditionally
been produced as print and webready PDFs. Theyre the core of
the identity design, and usually
accompany the logo, templates,
fonts, and other resources packaged
together to make designing for the
brand easier. Style guidelines are indepth rules about logo usage, styling,
and layout, and are always interesting
to browse through.
Here are a few style guidelines of
popular brands:

Skype (pdf, brand page)

BestBuy (Euro Guidelines)

BBC

Adobe

Apple

Google

Walmart

Looking for more? Dig into this list by

Logo Design Love.

These days, the documentation that

a designer must deliver has a heavy
digital skew, with an emphasis on
development-ready files, such as
Style Tiles, Element Collages, Style
Prototypes, SASS documentation, a
logo/brand download page, among
others.
Dont forget to check out our simple
Creative Market brand page, and
download the logo if you want to
promote and share Creative Market.

14

Phase 3: Monitoring
& rebranding
Lastly, after a new brand identity has
launched, its important to monitor
and care for it, as its a living and
breathing thing that interacts with
your customers. Honestly, thats a
loaded statement as there are many
ways to properly care for a brand.
Regardless, over time, if your target
audience shifts, the market evolves,
or the brands products and services
change, it may be time for a rebrand.
The main challenge with rebranding
is trying to maintain familiarity and
consistency so that your customers
will remember you.

Learn more about each of these

branding projects: Emma, Bishop of
London, Apple Worldwide Developers
Conference 2013, Cancer Research
UK, and Google SketchUp.

Resources for brand

identity design
If youre starting a new brand identity
or rebrand project, weve collected
some Creative Market resources that
might help get you started. Check
them out in the next page.

There are two exciting sites that give

an inside look at what happens when
prominent brands get rebranded:
Rebrand and Under Considerations
Brand New. Here is a quick sampling
of their short before and after case
studies:

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The 5 Steps to
Visual Branding
c.s. jones
@thecsjones
Webcomicry

C.S. Jones is an installation

manager for an ISP by day and
a writer, artist and photographer
by night, contributing regularly to
Creative Market and various other
arts and design blogs. He also has
his own, which can be found at
Webcomicry.com.

Your whole company

is your brand, from
the lowest-ranking
employees uniforms
to how the CEO
communicates.
There are many different ways to
define a brand. Enterpreneurs John
Williams calls it your promise to your
customer. Copywriting legend David
Ogilvy described it as the intangible
sum of a products attributes.
re:Designs Paul Biedermann gets a
little more philosophical, defining it
as the essence of ones unique story.
In my opinion, its everything.
Your whole company is your
brand, from the lowest-ranking
employees uniforms to how the CEO
communicates. But one of the most
important aspects is visual branding:
the overall appearance of your
company.
In this article were going to break the
process down to the basics, analyzing
each major component and how it
fits into the whole.
Lets start with...

COLORS
Your color palette should be the first
thing you pick out. Colors are the best
starting point towards conveying
the mood you want. As you do so,
make sure you keep the common
meanings of each color in your mind
so that you can tap into them: bold,
bright colors symbolize energy and
dynamism. More subdued pastels
calm the viewer. Warm colors and
earth tones radiate down-to-earth
comfort. Cool colors calm the viewer
and subliminally inspire trust. Pinks
and purples can symbolize sensuality
and opulence.
Once you have a general idea as
to which colors you want to use,
you need to figure out what shades
of them will best complement
each other. There are many online
generators, like Adobe Color CC,
Palleton, and Color Hunter that you
can use to explore different hues.
Alternatively, pick out a pre-made
library from a searchable database
via a site like COLOURlovers.
As a final tip, once youve selected
your colors, arrange them with the
ones you expect to use the most first.
These will serve as your base colors,
and the rest will complement them.

This brand proposal for nutrition

supplement company Nativetech makes
brilliant use of bold colors arranged
in simple, geometric shapes.

17

ICONOGRAPHY

TYPOGRAPHY

In the words of Peter Gould: the logo

is not the brand, it is the gateway to
the brand. It should hopefully offer
a preview of the kind of experience
the customer will get from using your
products. Generally, you also want to
keep your iconography as clean and
simple as possible, with a distinctive
design that can be easily identified
from far away. In an increasingly
saturated world, design is trending
toward the simple, the reader friendly,
and the straight-to-the-point.

Like iconography, typography should

also symbolize your companys
overall feel. As an example, look at
Caterpillars solid, robust logo.

For a stunning example of hard-hitting

and focused design achieved through
simplicity, check out this concept ad
campaign for the French Postal Service.

However, dont take these as universal

commands. Plenty of businesses,
especially ones that pride themselves
on luxury and craftsmanship, are still
able to draw customers into their
detail-oriented worlds with lush and
ornate design.

Now contrast that with Hallmarks

script font that suggests handcrafting,
sensitivity, and sentimentality.

Once youve picked out your header

text, youll need to choose tasteful
body fonts that complement it while
continuing to contribute to your
brand image. A thorough guide to
that process can be found here. The
short version, though, is that while
you want your header text to be big,
bold, and jump out at you, body text
is meant to stay subdued and in the
background.

PRODUCT & ENVIRONMENT

DESIGN

Designer Ben Johnston is making quite a

name for himself with his stunningly detailed
and intricate illustrations and ad campaigns.

Web design is primarily composed

of shapes, colors, and type, so that is
essentially covered by the last three
entries. Where design enters the real
world, however, is a whole different
animal, requiring the consideration
of layouts, textures, and threedimensional shapes.

18

If your business sells the kind of

products that need to be designed,
it goes without saying that this is a
crucial component to your brand.
You should go out of your way to
make sure that the aesthetic quality
of the products is in line with the
experience that the customer will get
by using them.

Apples products are clearly all

designed with sleek simplicity
in mind. From The Week

The same goes for your brick-andmortar store, if youre the kind of
business that requires one. Where
possible, everything from the
furniture to the lighting to the way the
customers move through the store
should go to enhance their brand
experience and get them into the
mood of the company.

cohesiveness
As we mentioned in the brand
identity article, the first step towards
creating an identity is to come up
with a brief that sums up what youre
trying to achieve in your design
scheme. Thats because, in order to
be effective, all your design elements
have to work together to tell the same
message, and should look like they
are all part of the same whole.
One of my favorite examples of
harmony in design is in Eight OClock
Coffee, whose website, packaging,
and advertising are bold, modern,
and lively. Just like the product.

From Double Take Studios

Finally, feel free to break any of

these rules in the name of interesting
design, but you should at least know
them beforehand so you can break
them with a purpose.

This concept shoe store turns a

mundane shopping experience into
a futuristic escape from reality.

That leads us to our final entry, the

element that doesnt quite fit with
the others, but makes them all fit
together:

19

Choosing Color & Type

Building the Foundation of a Brand Identity System

LAURA BUSCHE
@laurabusche
Creative Market

Creative Market is a platform for

handcrafted, mousemade design
content created by independent
creatives around the world.

Colors can evoke

different emotions,
associations, and
responses that affect
how your brand is
perceived.
Color: what a deep and mysterious
language! (Words from French artist
Paul Gauguin) Put simply, color
choices can make or break a design.
In fact, research has shown that color
can increase brand recognition (by up
to 80%), memory, engagement with
a design piece, text comprehension,
among many other factors.
Fortunately, we are far from the times
when our color choices were limited
to a small batch of natural pigments.
Our options are no longer whatever
colors minerals, animals, and plants
had to offer. Synthetic pigments
and the screen have made our lives

increasingly easier, while making

deciding infinitely more complex.
With
such
an
overwhelming
amount of color options, selecting
a palette for a design project has
become excruciating, to say the
least. The Colourlovers community
has indexed nearly 8 million usernamed colors, while there are over 16
million possible hexadecimal color
combinations.
Overwhelmed yet? No need to
worry. We asked top designers from
the Creative Market community to
share their best tricks and advice for
creating stunning color palettes. Take
note of these 10 insider secrets and
bring them into your next branding
project:

1. Capture inspiration on the go.

Callie Hegstrom, the talented designer
behind Make Media, suggests:
I snap photos of gorgeous color
schemes (like flowers, or sunsets),

20

and later sample those colors directly

in Photoshop or Illustrator. Its also a
great way to match text or graphics
with any photo youre working with to
make sure your work is cohesive.

directly opposite each other on the

wheel.

Tools like Photocopa make it easy to

turn your photos into color palettes.
Just upload and explore the different
hues used in the image.
Cindy Kinash, the Vancouver-based
designer behind Cultivated Mind,
explains, When painting watercolor
flowers, a good way to show shadows
is to add an analogous color.

In this piece by Cindy Kinash, light

blue is paired with darker blue and
purple to create a sense of depth.

Callie Hegstrom (@MakeMediaCo) gets her

inspiration from real-life color palettes.

2. Use your color wheel.

Artist Marc Chagall came up with a
pretty amazing quote to remember
what works in terms of color
combinations: All colors are the
friends of their neighbors and the
lovers of their opposites. In the quote,
friends stand for analogous colors,
those that are side by side on a 12part color wheel. On the other hand,
Chagall refers to complementary
colors as Lovers, tones that are

This tip works for almost everything

else you can think of. Play with
analogous color schemes to add
shadows to your titles or borders
to your backgrounds. These colors
usually blend well because they
are closely related. Find unique
combinations by simply matching
colors to their neighbors on the wheel!

3. Borrow from interior design.

Different design fields share common
challenges when dealing with color.
Interior designers have to harmonize
spaces using textures, objects,
and color schemes that blend well
together.
In this respect, British designer Elena
Genova
(from
MyCreativeLand)
offers some key advice: I do like

21

the interior design rule that is pretty

much applicable to graphic design
too: 60% dominant color, 30%
secondary color, 10% accent color.
If youd like to introduce a fourth (and
so on) color, split the secondary color
(or perhaps the dominant but never
the accent).

4. Save what works.

Nicky Laatz, who owns a typography
and design shop at Creative Market,
shares how she stores stunning color
palettes for later use:
Whenever I see a picture or photo
with colors that I love, or that really
seem to go well, I screenshot it or
pin it for later. Then, when its time to
find a good color palette, I go to all
my saved images for inspiration and
I always find something appropriate.

Nicky keeps a Palettes board in her

Pinterest profile, where she stores
attractive color schemes for later use.
You can see the relationship between
the inspiration she gets from pins
like 14 Citrus Color Palettes and
the color schemes in products like
Vanilla Frosting.

5. Break out the trusty

Pantone set.
Sometimes a digital color wheel just
wont cut it. It can be inspiring to look
at a physical color swatch, and thats
exactly what Pantone sets provide.
Designer Callie Hegstrom breaks out
her trusty Pantone Color Bridge set
whenever she wants to select colors
the old-fashioned way. She explains,
Sometimes its nice to have a physical
guide that doesnt just rely on screen
colors. Its also helpful if a client has
a very specific color need, and they
want to see physical samples.

Vanilla Frosting, one of Nickys

top fonts, features this colorful
image inspired by bakeries.

The nice thing about Pantone

swatches? Not so old-fashioned
after all! Every Pantone color comes
with its HEX equivalent. You can
use hexadecimal colors in any color
picker.

22

6. Bring in colors from nature.

Our eyes are used to admiring natural
color schemes. If you take your
inspiration from the environment,
suggests Gary from the CO-OP, The
color combinations are endless.
Landscapes, foliage, fruit, among
others are all amazing sources of
inspiration. Gary designs in South
Africa, where he built his online shop,
and is constantly influenced by the
bright South African sunshine. The
colors are warm and striking.

German, a Chilean graphic designer

who owns a typography shop at
Creative Market, recommends using
three colors to make your graphics
look cleaner. When using more than
three, he suggests adding textures
to tone down some of the additional
colors.

In this piece for his Marty font, Rodrigo

sticks to three main colors: pink, black
and green. He also plays with texture to
achieve the right amount of contrast.

8. Match color to your

brands mood.
Consider the topic that you are trying
to portray in your brand identity
project. Is it sports, fashion, beauty,
or business? From there, think about
a specific mood that you would like to
associate with the activity. Is it a cute
fashion flyer, or an aggressive sports
brochure? Is it feminine, cheerful,
serious or elegant?
Salome, the designer behind Graphic
Box, suggests coming up with a
rough definition of the color theme
before you go ahead and work on
the details. For example, I need a
romantic purple or I want a cute pink.
Colored backgrounds like Forest Green,
Fire Red, and Apple Green are examples of
Garys technique. Bringing in tones from
nature, he created 60 watercolor textures.

7. Stick to 3 or 4 colors.
Unless youre going for a full-on
rainbow look, avoid combining an
excessive amount of colors. Rodrigo

For her fall graphic kit, Salome relied

on earthy greens and worn-out reds.

23

9. Search Pinterest for

themed palettes.
Pinterest holds an impressive amount
of color palettes curated by creatives
all around the world. Ian Barnard,
creator of Vintage Design Co.,
explains his search process below:
If I was doing a design for a beachthemed poster, I would do a simple
search under Summer Color Palettes
and choose one.

This is what a simple search for

Summer Color Palettes looks like
on Pinterest. The best part? Youll get
color inspiration from different design
fields: interiors, fashion, graphic, and
even event design.

10. Follow sites for color lovers.

Colourlovers is a creative community
where people from around the world
create and share colors, palettes, and
patterns. Join the site and explore
over 3.7 million user-created color
palettes to inspire your ideas.

24

Choosing the
Right Typeface

not only ruin the entire design, it

also ruins the entire message. You
wouldnt want to trust your taxes to
an auditing firm whose name uses a
font like Comic Sans or Chiller, would
you? I mean, how in the world could
you take them seriously?

Igor Ovsyannykov
@inspirationf
Inspiration Feed

Igor Ovsyannykov is a blogger,

designer and technology geek.
He runs InspirationFeed.com, a
site that aims to inform, educate
and inspire people in topics like
design, entrepreneurship and selfdevelopment.

A strong typeface
dictates what message
your brand is trying to
convey, what the tone
is, and even who its
creators are.
Its funny how many fonts there are
out there, but people still end up using
inappropriate typeface all the time.
Anything that uses letters, numbers,
and symbols, whether its a sign
outside your store or the report you
need to submit to your boss, requires
a specific typeface that makes all the
difference.
Some fonts may come across as
casual, while some may look formal
and professional. Others show a fun
and carefree identity, while some
give you an impression that theyre
meant to be used for more serious
things. This is what typefaces do.
They give any text they are used on
its own personality, allowing people
who read it to identify with it more
effectively.

Questions to ask when

choosing a typeface
Great text using the wrong font does

Before you choose a typeface you

must ask yourself a few important
questions. The answers to these
questions will lead you in the right
direction to finding the perfect
typeface.

Is it legible enough?
Lets face it, fonts were created to
give life to the text, but there are
times when font designers overdo it
and end up creating typefaces that
can barely be read. Some fonts may
also be too thin to read, while some
may be so bulky that its hard to
distinguish one letter from another
when an entire word is spelled out.
Make sure that the font is legible by
checking if each and every letter
can be easily read, and if they can
still be distinguishable should they
be placed beside other letters. Is the
shape taking up too much space? Do
the strokes lack definition?
If legibility is your goal, here are some
great, easy-to-read fonts that come
in a variety of weights:

How much emphasis

do you need?
Some fonts give more emphasis to
text compared to others. The font
Impact, for example, stays true to its
name as its width makes the letters
stand out over other typefaces. Some
fonts also come in varied styles to
allow you to lessen or improve the

25

amount of emphasis that it gives.

Helvetica Neue, for instance, also
gives you options for light and ultra
light, aside from the usual bold and
italic styles.
How do you know what kind of
emphasis you are looking for? Figure
out where the text will be placed.
Is it going to be used for the brand
name? Then choose something that
would be easily distinguishable. And
if youre looking for a font to use for
the tag line beneath that brand name,
then make sure that there is just
enough emphasis for it to be noticed
without overshadowing the name
above it.

Is it appealing to the audience?

In choosing the right font, you have
to figure out what personality your
audience has. What would appeal
to them the most? Whats their age
bracket? Are they the fun type, or
are they the serious type? Once you
have this all figured out, you could
finally choose the kind of font that
you believe would appeal to them the
most.
The font Gotham has a beautiful
contemporary
design
perfect
for audiences who are modern,
confident, and secure. However, this
font is also President Obamas favorite
font, with all his banners, flyers, and
other campaign material using this
specific typeface. So you may want to
use this if you want a contemporary
look, but think twice if you think the
association with the person using it
a lot may not be fitting for what you
need.
If youre looking for a professional
look but would still want your text
to pop out, avoid using Times New

Roman as a default. The font has

been overused and comes across
as boring and devoid of creativity.
Now look at Apple Garamond and
compare it with the previous font.
Isnt the second one friendlier to look
at, and a lot more stylish? However,
this font is associated with the Apple
brand, as its the one they used in all
their marketing materials. So if youre
speaking to a loyal Samsung crowd,
then this would be the worst choice.

Does it represent your

brand and goals?
If you are designing material for
a learning center for toddlers, do
you think fonts like Garamond or
Baskerville would be appropriate?
Definitely not. Because you want
to have a colorful, fun, and lively
faade, you could be better off with
something that would show just that.
Go back to the brand and what it
represents. What are your goals?
What image do you want the brand
to have? What do you want your
audiences to think the moment they
see the final design? If the font you
choose aligns with your brand and its
goals, then this is the perfect font for
you.
Once these questions have been
answered, then you may be on your
way to achieving the design that you
want.
If youre looking for fonts that are
uniquely appealing, check these out:

Criteria to use when

choosing a typeface
for your brand
And so, once you get to the drawing
board and start creating the design

26

that you need for your brand, have a

checklist ready for the things that you
must consider.

Pairing
You will need more than one font to
make a design work, especially if
youre working on a brand application
like a webpage. This is why pairing
matters. You have to make sure
that the fonts you use are similar
enough to complement each other,
but different enough to show the
distinction between them.

Size
Better readability would also mean
using larger sizes. Brand names
would have to be large enough to
be noticed, but not too large that
they overpower the tagline (if it
exists). Text bodies would have to be
readable enough, but should not be
so large that they start taking up too
much space on the page.

Hierarchy
Every design involves hierarchy. For
example, a brands name should have
the top rung of the ladder, and often
has the most emphasis. Taglines
should be less prominent than the
name, but not too small that all
emphasis is taken away from them.

Leading
Leading is the amount of space given
between each line of text. Figuring
out how much leading you need
would depend on the font you use.
The smaller the font, the less leading
required between the lines. Bigger
fonts require larger leading.

Tracking
If leading decides how much space
there is between lines, then tracking
decides how much space there is
between letters. The spaces should
not be too small that it becomes hard
to make out one letter from another,
but not too wide that a single word
takes up a whole lot of space even if
it uses a smaller font.

Color
Of course, color is not exactly one
of the main aspects that comes with
choosing a font, but it greatly affects
the end product, so this should also
be given serious consideration. If
your font is already light enough as
it is, then avoid using light colors and
go for more solid ones.
Always have this checklist handy
when designing your brands identity
system.

Final thoughts
on finding the
perfect typeface
Here are a few final words that could
help you decide what font or typeface
you need for your design:

Have an outline of the identity

system that youre building
Having a clear outline of the entire
project on a page can help you plan
the number of fonts that you need,
as well as how you are going to lay
everything out.

Look at other designs

for inspiration.
There are so many amazing creative
designs out there that show how

27

the right choice of font creates a

masterpiece. Find some of them
and use them for inspiration. Heres
a great resource to do just that:
Design Inspiration: Sites and Tools
for Boosting Creativity

KNOW YOUR TERMS

Stand out to be noticed.

Of course, getting inspiration from
other designs does not mean that you
will make your design very similar
to it. You have to find ways to make
your design stand out. Dont be afraid
to experiment and be bold with your
choices.

Do research about the font.

Make sure you do some research
about the font youre using. Using
Trajan as a font for a page that
discusses Ancient Greece, for
example, would be a little awkward
once youre asked to explain your
choice. This is because Trajan was
actually a Roman Emperor that came
much, much later than the period of
Ancient Greece.

Avoid clichs.
Stop using Comic Sans for funny text,
and stop using Papyrus for anything
related to Ancient Egypt. This makes
the entire design too predictable, and
makes it appear to lack creativity.
(Actually, stop using Comic Sans and
Papyrus altogether.)
With this guide on choosing the
perfect typeface for your project, are
you ready to create a masterpiece?

28

Creating Brand Applications

What happens when your brand goes live?

LAURA BUSCHE
@laurabusche
Creative Market

Laura Busche is passionate about

consumer research, design
thinking, branding, and their
exciting crosspoints. She is the
author of OReilly Medias Lean
Branding book. Laura is a Brand
Content Strategist at Creative
Market and regularly blogs
about branding and business at
laurabusche.com/blog.

As beautiful as your
identity design may
look in a retina display,
brands only come alive
when their audiences
get to interact with
them.
Applications in various mediums
(paper, screen, billboards, etc.) often
mark the beginning of a customers
relationship with a brand.
Consider the first time you ever saw
your favorite brands identity system.
Were you biting that burrito when
you spotted a logo on the wrap? Did
an amazing billboard in the subway
surprise you? Received an impressive
business card from someone who
worked for the company? As youve
probably realized by now, creating
pieces that truly represent your values
and identity is key to generating

a lasting, positive impression.

Sometimes the first impression is the
only one youll ever get to make.
Leave your logo aside for a second and
start thinking how you will actually
put it in front of your audience.
Rather than operating alone, your
identity system must come through
via a variety of vehicles. Take a look
at some of the most popular brand
applications and think about how any
or all apply to your current project:

Outdoor/Indoor Signage

Websites & Landing Pages

Business Cards

Letterhead & Stationery

Menus & Catalogs

Flyers & Brochures

Email Headers & Signatures

29

Social Media & Other Forms of

Content Marketing

Packaging

Online/Offline Ads

Annual & Other Types of Reports

Merchandising

Uniforms

Tradeshow/Event Displays

Stamps & Stickers

Customer
Lifecycle
Stage

Draw the entire customer life cycle

and figure out which touch points
require branded instruments. A
useful graphic tool to think about
this journey is the Get-Keep-Grow
framework introduced by Steve Blank
and Bob Dorf in The Startup Owners
Manual:

Sample brand
applications
to create

GET

Generating
awareness, interest,
consideration,
and purchase.

Ads, merchandising,
business cards, event
displays, signage, flyers,
and brochures, menus
and catalogs, content
marketing imagery
(blog, social media, etc.),
websites and landing
pages, among others.

KEEP

Doing everything
in your power to
retain the customer:
loyalty programs,
product updates,
satisfaction surveys
and check-in calls,
among others.

Letterhead & stationery,

email headers & signature,
merchandising, reports,
content marketing
imagery, among others.

GROW

Generating
additional revenue
from a single
customer by
stimulating upsell,
next-sell, crosssell, and referrals.

Letterhead & stationery,

menus and catalogs,
ads promoting discounts
for repeat buyers,
landing pages that
stimulate upsell for
existing customers.

Brands in different industries will

face unique challenges when trying
to apply their identity system to
a specific set of instruments. As
you build a strong set of brand
applications, consider the following
questions and tools.

With which applications of

the brand will a potential
customer interact throughout
his entire experience?

What it
entails

30

Who is the audience for

each of these potential
applications? Customers?
Investors? Suppliers?
Partners? Employees?

Thinking about the actual function

of these brand applications will also
strengthen the business case for
hiring your services in the future.

Get complete clarity as to who will

be looking at these applications
and ask relevant questions about
this audience. Who are they? What
are they looking for? What kind of
visual appeal and messaging would
work best to convince them? Do
they have a preference for specific
types of brand communications (e.g.
online only, environmentally friendly,
paper-based?)

How will we preserve a

consistent, recognizable identity
across various applications?
Look at your entire set of brand
applications holistically. Do the
different items preserve a certain
unity? Does everything look like
it comes from the same brand?
Consider how extensible your identity
system is. Could we easily create new
applications based on the patterns
that were currently using?

With which call to action is this

brand application related? Is it
being communicated clearly?

While controversial, Airbnbs new brand

identity was well implemented across
different channels. Innovative applications
like keychains were considered in addition to
more traditional pieces like business cards.

Design is not just how it looks, its

how it works. (Steve Jobs). Consider
the practical value of the applications
that youve just designed. Your
organization has decided to invest in
this project with a specific conversion
goal in mind. Figure out what that
goal is and make sure that it translates
well in the different pieces that you
have created. Will they help achieve
this goal?

31

Checklist
Make sure you think about these brand applications

Signage

collateral

Outdoor

Menus & catalogs

Indoor

Flyers & brochures

Tradeshows / Events

WEB PRESENCE

CONTENT MKTG
Social media profiles

Website

Ebooks

Landing page/s

Infographics

Partner sites

Blog headers

Badges

advertising

Banners

Online ads

Sponsored sites

Offline ads

Email

stationEry

for team use

Annual reports

Letterhead

Internal memos

Business Cards

Guidelines

Stamps

Handbooks

Invoices

Uniforms

MERCHANDISING

PACKAGING

Stickers

Bottles, boxes & bags

Swag

Tags

Designing With
Your Brands Voice
LAURA BUSCHE
@laurabusche
Creative Market

for them, that is. Us? We are

responsible for doing whatever it
takes to provide such an experience
while differentiating our brand in a
meaningful way. That means putting
in the extra hours to make sure that
our product does not speak robot,
but human. And, while this all sounds
very complicated, Ive narrowed it
down to three simple steps:
1. Finding a Brand Personality

Laura Busche is passionate about

consumer research, design
thinking, branding, and their
exciting crosspoints. She is the
author of OReilly Medias Lean
Branding book. Laura is a Brand
Content Strategist at Creative
Market and regularly blogs
about branding and business at
laurabusche.com/blog.

Why is it that some

brands take a piece
of our heart? What is
it about their design
that makes us feel
connected, amused...
delighted?
There are now over 2 million apps
in the iOS and Google Play stores
combined, and if that doesnt make
your head spin, lets talk about the
876 million websites and 212 major
social networks competing for your
users attention.
Fellow makers, its a challenging
market out there. As our generation
becomes exposed to increasingly
amusing products, we cannot help
but wonder how can our brand break
through the clutter? Users are tired
of the lifeless language that a vast
majority of products still force upon
them. They are done with the tired
interfaces that theyve had to deal
with for decades. Instead, users are
looking for genuine experiences that
bring comfort, ease and, why not, a
sense of connection.
Sophisticated consumers call for
effortless experiences. Effortless

2. Defining a Brand Voice

3. Translating it into User
Experience

Lets go one step at a time:

PERSONALITY: What makes

your brand humane &
why does it matter?
The
American
Psychological
Association (APA) has defined
personality
as
the
unique
psychological
qualities
of
an
individual that influence a variety of
characteristic behavior patterns (both
overt and covert) across different
situations and over time.
Our personality influences the way
we think, behave, and feel with regard
to everything that surrounds us.
Similarly, as users interact with your
product, they are expecting a friendly
language that guides them through
a specific flow of events. By linking
your brand with several traits that are

33

traditionally used to describe human

personalities, you can build a more
relatable story that consumers will
engage with.
In other words:
People relate to people, and if your
brand feels like people, theyll relate
to you, too.

VOICE: A simple template

to define your tone

Defining our brand personality gives
us a better idea of how we should
face the user. It elucidates what is the
voice telling the story. Keep this idea
of brand voice close to heart, as it will
help you make that crucial translation
from robot-speak to human. A welldefined voice will impact the different
stages of your users experience with
the product, and will also become an
essential asset for sales collateral,
social channels, and even customer
support.
Terms like voice, tone, and language
can be confusing. Just bear in mind
that voice is the overall style in which
your brand expresses, while tone
is a variation in that voice to reflect
a particular attitude or respond to a
specific situation. Language, on the
other hand, refers specifically to your
use of words. In a nutshell, your brand
uses a specific language to address
different situations with particular
tones that reflect its overall voice.
Based on the personality you just
found, take a few minutes to answer
the following questions about your
voice:

How would my brand speak to

users during the different stages
of their experience?

What does it hate?

What does it absolutely love?

Try some lateral thinking: What

is your brands favorite drink/
meal? Why?

Once you have come up with answers

to these questions, it is important
that you put your newly-defined
brand voice on paper. Creating a set
of guidelines and examples will help
everyone on your team align around
a common language. Take a look at
Mailchimps Voice & Tone site for
an outstanding example of such a
handbook.

Ive created a template to help you

capture a language that reflects your
brands voice. To fill it out, define
a list of words that youll use to
express excitement, encouragement,
concern, regret, and gratitude. A
success message, for example, would
express excitement, while an alert
message would display concern. Also
come up with a few sample phrases
that show how that word could be
used in context.
Check it out in the following page.

What would my brand say and

how?

34

Template
Create & express a genuine brand voice

Brand Voice Template

VOICE TO EXPRESS
Excitement

Encouragement

Concern

Regret

Gratitude

WORD BANK

SAMPLE PHRASES

TRANSLATION: 10 ways
to bring your brand
voice into designs
No matter which framework you are
using to visualize the entire user
experience (journey maps, flowcharts,
sitemaps, storyboards, and the like),
your brands voice can and should be
incorporated in every stage. Here are
some common places where you can
start bringing in the vocabulary and
tone that you just defined:

- Signup flow
- Call-to-action
- Onboarding
- Landing pages
- Notifications
- Emails
- Collateral
- Support flow
Translating robot-speak can be a
daunting task. You might feel like
you are crossing the line more than
once. Are we being too casual? Will
this scare users away? Is slang OK
for a purchase button? Going back to
the template above will help you stay
on-brand, and regular A/B testing
will allow you to experiment within
reasonable risk limits.

2. Virgin Americas
Witty Comments
The lesson: Humor helps ease
tension, and some industries (like air
travel) could definitely use more of it.
And yes, Virgin, life isnt a beach.

3. Hootsuites Ultrahonest Sleep Mode

The lesson: The user is draining
unnecessary server resources. Take
a nap and let them know theyre
slacking off, in the nicest way
possible.

To inspire you, Ive collected eight

stellar examples of brand voices
that have been translated into the
user experience flow. Most of these
focus on microcopy, those seemingly
little words and phrases that mean
everything to your user:

1. PicMonkeys Creative
Preloader Text
The lesson: If your brands pet is
a tech-savvy monkey, feel free to
let him focus a diffractor beam to
compress your users files.

4. Pandoras Touch
Station Intro
The lesson: If youve gone through the
trouble of building a highly complex
algorithm (Music Genome Project),

36

you might as well start a conversation

with me about why that matters.

7. Wazes Thoughtful Advice

The lesson: Let users know you have
their best interest in mind. Especially
when theyre messing up and your
app needs to toss out a panic alert.

5. Buffers Candid Notifications

The lesson: Use successful actions
as an opportunity to celebrate your
brands personality. And if that
happens to be quick-witted and
funny, then so be it.

8. Mailchimps
Glorious Reminder
The lesson: Sometimes a line of code
that reads success can mean so
much more for your user. I mean, yes,
your app did manage to send out an
email, but whats behind that? Take
some time to celebrate your user
instead of your skills. This is their
moment of glory!

6. Slacks Refreshing
Welcome Message
The lesson: Sometimes users are
overwhelmed. Face it, embrace it,
and make it a part of your mission to
become the best part of their day.

37

Thanks!
COVER DESIGN
WEB DEVELOPMENT
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
PROJECT MANAGER

Zach McNair
Stephen Hallgren
Laura Busche
Gerren Lamson
Zack Onisko
C.S. Jones
Owen Andrew
Igor Ovsyannykov
Priya Kothari

CREDITS

TIPS & ADVICE FROM

Texta Font Family by Latinotype

Newslab Font Family by Latinotype
Graphic Design Tools Icons by Roundicons
Multimedia Line Icons by Roundicons

Callie Hegstrom
Cindy Kinash
Elena Genova
Nicky Laatz
Co-op Goods Co
Rodrigo German
Graphic Box
Ian Barnard

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

38

Loved it?
Share it clicking on the link below and download
our free bonus pack, complete with 9 graphic
kits to create your brands style guide, business
cards, stationery & much more.

39