6 Design Basics For Startup Branding

Starting your own business and building your brand is both exciting yet moderately stressful. There’s a lot of planning involved before your new company takes off. However, if you take sensible actions, you’ll grow soon enough. 

One of the first things you must do is branding. This step is vital for all product and service providers because it’s one way to promote yourself to potential customers. Most individuals won’t trust or be interested in a company with a weak image. Therefore, your branding must have a well-thought-out design. Keep reading this article to learn more about branding design basics.

1. Brand Name

Before anything else, your brand should have a name. Otherwise, no one will remember you or have anything to refer your business to. Thus, you must think of one that fits your company’s mission and vision and its products or services.  

Consider choosing a short and catchy name to stick in your customers’ minds. Remember that the longer it is, the harder it’ll be for people to recall. Additionally, ensure that it’s easy to pronounce and spell. If not, your brand may require assistance appearing in online search results. 

Furthermore, a concise and impactful name helps a design agency create your logo. However, any professional team should have the skills to turn any name into a unique brand. You can check this full list of reputable design agencies that can make your vision a reality. If you coordinate with them, you could have a stunning logo design you’d want to see on your marketing collaterals.

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2. Target Market

Another crucial factor you must consider when designing a brand is your target market. Knowing your audience helps you plan the succeeding steps because they depend on whom you sell your services. Designs, colors, and text may require edits if your target market changes.  

For example, a female customer base may not give a second look at a bath product brand using dark, monotonous colors. Similarly, adults may avoid brands using childish fonts, thinking they’re meant for children. Ultimately, when you know your target customers, you can design your branding appropriately to attract their attention.

3. Slogan And Tagline

Slogans and taglines are also crucial components of branding. When you have them, it’ll be easier for customers to remember you. Most global brands have one or both, such as McDonald’s’ ‘I’m lovin’ it’ or Coca-Cola’s ‘Open happiness.’ However, slogans and taglines serve different purposes.

Typically, a slogan is longer. It describes the company, its product, and its mission. Slogans are frequently used in advertising and marketing plans to promote a product or service. 

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On the other hand, a tagline is often a short, catchy quip that may help customers remember your brand when they hear it. Since it’s meant to catch people’s attention, you can play around with words, rhymes, and puns to make it witty and memorable. It could even be an earworm if paired with a melody.

4. Personality And Tone

Some brands may have a mission to cater to everyone on the planet, but you should know that that’s impossible. Focus on one primary business goal, and your road to success will be less complicated. Your brand must have a consistent personality relevant to your target demographic and goal. Moreover, you should align your brand’s tone with its character. You’ll incorporate both into your social media accounts, emails, and website when the time comes.

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Here’s an exercise you can do to find your brand’s tone and personality. Get a sheet of paper and list all the words you associate with your brand’s story. It can be anything from nouns to adjectives. You may even include a few verbs. Afterward, analyze your list of words and pick the top ten that best describe your brand. You could also narrow it down to five if you want. 

Building your internet presence will be considerably more manageable if you’ve established your tone and personality. Your brand will have a character that will entice consumers to try your products.

5. Imagery

Next on the agenda would be your visual identity. Even without text, people should be able to identify your logo and immediately think of your business. It should be unique and recognizable no matter its size. A perfect example would be Apple’s logo, a silver apple with a chunk bitten off. 

Brand logos can be anything from the following: 

  • A mascot like KFC’s Colonel Sanders 
  • A letter mark like HBO 
  • An icon like Twitter 
  • An abstract image like Pepsi 
  • An emblem like Starbucks 

Since you’re building a startup, avoid using icon logos. Or, if you prefer, pair the icon with additional text for that recall factor. After all, you can rebrand once you’ve established your business.

6. Colors And Typography

You only have eight seconds to attract customers, and one of your best tools for the job is color. Proper use of colors can elicit the responses you want from your clients. Take a look at restaurants, for example. Most of them use warm colors like red, yellow, and orange. These hues make people feel hungry; thus, they incorporate them in their branding. 

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Additionally, your choice of font also matters. Choose one legible font for the headline and another for the body text. As a rule of thumb, serif and sans-serif font pairings are standard for many brands. They should complement or contrast each other or belong to the same typeface family. Your typography should also match your brand’s personality, so there’s a reason why you need the latter first.

Entice Your Customers

Designing your business’ branding requires time and effort, but it’s worthwhile when you see the positive results. Always remember that you could encounter more pitfalls than successes if you rush the process. So, focus on your goal and work with a reputable design team to have attractive and memorable branding in no time.

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