Media Archives - Breakaway Graphics

Your Essential Guide To Social Branding

Sheana — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:08:41 +0000

Social Branding 101

Social branding isn’t simply a case of just going on Facebook and chatting with your customers under the auspicious canopy of a fancy branded image. It goes a lot deeper than that. It’s about ensuring that every action you take on social media embodies and reflects the essence of your brand. To help you nail that perfect but elusive social media nirvana formula, read on for our essential guide to social branding 101.

Implement a solid CSR initiative

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a new one, but it’s increasingly becoming a crucial aspect of a business’s social branding. CSR refers to a brand’s commitments to social and charitable causes. A shining example of this is apparel brand Patagonia, whose marketing channels are permeated with messages of sustainability and environmental concerns. By aligning themselves so publicly with such a hot button issue (and by actually fulfilling their commitments to them), Patagonia convey a powerful social brand that speaks to their customers. And it works. Consumers are increasingly buying from brands that have a genuine, visible CSR commitment.

Identify a social cause that matters to you and your customers and make it part of your brand strategy. Set up a charity initiative or donate a percentage of your profits to a cause. But most importantly, make your CSR visible. Weave it into your social media channels and let your customers know the good work you are doing. As more and more consumers choose to align themselves with brands with a conscience, it behooves you to be vocal about your support for social causes.

Identify a social cause that matters to you and your customers and make it part of your brand strategy.

Find out what matters to your customers

Social branding isn’t passive. It’s a proactive idea that relies on listening to your customers and finding out what matters to them. Just as a relationship between two people relies on each person being aware of their partner’s needs, hopes, and desires, so too does the relationship between a brand and their consumers rely on the same.

Brands have the advantage in this respect though. They have a range of social listening tools that can help them learn more about their customers, helping them to reposition themselves and their social brand accordingly.

Such tools include Twazzup, a simple application that provides alerts in real-time when your brand is mentioned on Twitter. Alternatively, you could use HowSociable for a more holistic view of social mentions. And for mentions outside of social media, Boardreader lets you search forums and message boards for keywords or phrases.

Monitor what people are saying about your brand online, then adjust your marketing efforts accordingly. You could capitalize on positive mentions, or head off negative ones before they become an issue. But by interacting with them on a meaningful level, you’ll help bolster your social branding with ease.

Offer personality, not a sales pitch

While it’s tempting to focus on chasing the almighty dollar as a brand, try to avoid turning your brand personality into a constant sales pitch. An excessively self-promotional tone across your website, email, and social channels will simply repel your customers.

Indeed, studies show that 45% of consumers unfollow a brand on social media as a result of being overly self-promotional. As a rule of thumb, employ the 80/20 rule: 20% of your content should be promoting your brand, and 80% should be content that content that engages your audience.

Social branding is about building relationships, rather than a one-way street of sales pitches and image boosting. A strong social personality leads to repeat customers and regular sales, even if your product and service can also be bought elsewhere.

A good example of this can be seen in the many dropshipping stores on Exchange. These are businesses that are selling the same thing as thousands of other websites. But they’re successful in making themselves look and feel different to their competitors because they have good social branding. Their customers buy from them not for their products, but for their brand. The evidence is clear: social branding works and adds value to your business.

A strong social personality leads to repeat customers and regular sales, even if your product and service can also be bought elsewhere.

Be speedy and responsive

A brand ignores its customers at its peril: people don’t just expect a reply when they reach out to you, they expect it to be quick and compassionate. A swift and empathetic response to your customers portrays you as a brand that cares about their consumers, in turn augmenting your social branding. An example of how this can impact your branding can be seen in the case of disgruntled businessman Hasan Syed. He made headlines after he spent $1,000 promoting a tweet blasting British Airways over some lost luggage, after they ignored his original complaint. It was seen by more than 50,000 people and was very bad publicity for the airline.

image via Twitter

On the flipside of this is fast food restaurant Wendy’s whose speedy response to one of their customers led to the most retweeted tweet of all time. Carter Wilkerson asked the Wendy’s Twitter account how many retweets he would need for a year’s free supply of nuggets, and the company promptly replied with ’18 million’. The tweet went viral, garnering support from Apple, Google, Microsoft and other big brands. Twitter even included the story in its Q1 shareholder letter of 2017 (and Carter did finally get his year’s supply of nuggets). This brief exchange generated a huge amount of free publicity and goodwill for Wendy’s, proving the importance of engaging with social media followers.

Social branding is vital when it comes to your business’s success. Brands are so much more than their product or service: they are a personality, and they should act as such. You are under scrutiny from your customers 24/7, so you need to work to convey a positive brand that your audience will engage with.

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Digital Painting in Adobe Illustrator

Sheana — Mon, 21 May 2018 18:46:24 +0000

Watch the whole process from start to finish below.

This weekend, which happened to be the opening weekend for Deadpool 2, I challenged myself to create Deadpool fan art in Adobe Illustrator in under two hours. Why under two hours? Because that was the exact amount of time before needed to head towards the movie theatre to see the movie itself (it was AWESOME btw). Anyway, I would have much preferred to freehand the artwork but given my self-imposed time restraints, I knew I needed a little help. I decided I’d have a better chance reaching the finish line on time if I used a reference behind my art board. I was right….from start to finish the drawing took exactly one hour and 42 minutes (including several breaks to care for and feed my furbabies and to get more coffee).

All-in-all I don’t think it came out half bad for a quickie personal project. AND it allowed me to distribute the result using my “five around” method. (a general rule I use to determine priority and set up of various deliverables: If I make it for one specific purpose, can it be used in at least four other ways?). In this case, the original purpose was to create tiled Instagram posts for fun but because I knew I’d want to find four more ways to use it, I screen captured the entire process. I then sped it up, added some royalty free music and created the video above. Then, I was able to post the video on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook….and as for number four? Well you’re reading it. So there you have it….one for-fun challenge, five distribution points, and a pretty neat looking deliverable.

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What Is Corporate Identity

Sheana — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 00:09:14 +0000

Our Process for Building a Solid and Relevant Identity

The combination of all of the elements that make up the company’s aesthetic is more or less, its identity. Its a visual presentation of the company as a whole. Identity design is based on the visual elements created by a brand expert to build cohesive and appealing sales tools, marketing collateral and tradedress. A specific set of guidelines are developed, inspected and examined to ensure that a company’s brand identity remains intact throughout all avenues and each element adds value to the overall visual feel. To learn more about the ideation process, read my blog about Creating Iconic Brands.

Marrying these elements, the brand expert will create a brand manual and style guide which should be studied and followed closely as it illustrates how the Identity is applied throughout all mediums by using exact color palettes, specific fonts, pre-approved layouts, etc. By establishing and following these guidelines early on, the company can begin the process of building brand recognition, customer loyalty and achieve success by offering a cohesive message and visual aesthetic no matter where the customer encounters them.

To illustrate how each element works together to form a corporate identity, we’ll take a journey through the process using a client of mine and the identity I created for them.

Logo Development

In this case, I had been working with LoPresti Aviation for four years within the limitations of an existing identity they had when I was contracted to do collateral for them. When leadership changed hands, the new owner contacted me to strategize a completely new look (something I had been itching to do since the first sales deck I had produced for them.I started from a slightly difference place than I usually do (see my typical logo design process here), instead choosing to skip some initial steps simply because I already knew so much about the company. I already had a good understanding of their values, competitors, position in the market and goals. The SWOT analysis had already been performed and metrics defined. The first sprint of heavy lifting was in the past. So in this case, I chose to start by confirming if my view of the company’s ideal presentation was aligned with the view the new owner had for the future of the company.

I asked him if there were any elements that needed to stay from the old brand. (Sort of, yes…more on that below). I asked how he wanted the customer to FEEL when they interacted with the company. (Safe and as if they were dealing with THE professionals of the trade). From these and several other questions, I was able to determine four solid personal characteristics that were the foundation of the company’s representation: Dependable, Innovative, Accessible and Bright

The old identity utilized bright yellow, orange, red and a ‘swoosh’. The new owners wanted to maintain some similarity to the old brand. Specifically, they loved the movement expressed by the swoosh and a secondary use of the warm color palette but wanted a more ‘high-end’ feel. I chose to represent movement by positioning the plane as if it were landing or taking off. This ambiguity would also allow the user to unconsciously assign perspective resulting in an organic connection to the mark. I liked the idea that yellow represents optimism, brightness and sunshine in color theory (one of their main product lines is super bright HID lighting systems). It is also the most easy to see color of all the rainbow. This worked right into their product line of high visibility aftermarket lighting.

I chose a warm yellow for its additional connotations of durability (think construction tools) and because when combined with black and grey (the other brand colors we chose to convey elegance, prestige, and stability), the overall presentation was one of sophisticated illumination. I also replaced the old standard italic serif typeface with a sturdier serif/slab serif hybrid. Then, I manually adjusted some of the ligatures and skew so that it nodded to the old brandmark while departing from the commonality of the previous type.

Establishing Best Practices for the Brand

Once the logo was finalized, I further defined the identity by solidifying typefaces, accent colors, patterns, additional supplementary graphical elements, margins and use guidelines. The result of this process would eventually become the style guide which was used as a reference on how to use the brand elements and to ensure that the visual representation of the company is always congruent.

Utilizing the Style Guide to Create Collateral

By carefully following the guidelines and best practices set forth by the style guide, I began to create the various sales tools and internal business collateral utilizing the approved color palette, typeface, patterns and image standards. A typical starting identity suite from a designer would include letterhead, business cards and perhaps a presentation/pitch deck template. In this case, however, I was contracted to work beyond just defining and developing the identity. I was also tasked with creating many additional pieces including presentation folders, envelopes and sales sheets for various airplane models.

So Why Is This Important?

Everything from the shape, the colors and the type to the arrangement of elements, the use of space and minimum standards for imagery are all important components. When combined, they offer the viewer a dynamic view of your company. It’s that view and the resulting opinion formed in the mind of the consumer that will motivate how he or she engages with the company moving forward. Given that successful marketing and design expertly leverage the three “V’s” of communication (55% Visual, 7%Verbal [what is said], 38% Vocal [how it’s said]), it could be argued that your identity (or visual representation) comprises 55% of customer’s first impression. And since you only get one shot at a first impression, you should be deliberate, careful, and thoughtful. What you’d like that first impression to be? How you want your customer to feel in response to seeing it? How you will achieve that response through your corporate identity?

Think of it like this: if the logo is the face of the company, the facial expression and body language are its Identity. As a side note, the brand is how all of the above plus beliefs, personality, style of voice, etc are perceived by the audience….but more on that in a future post.

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How Iconic Brands Are Developed

Sheana — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 03:23:48 +0000

THE THREE ELEMENTS

Many assume that a company’s brand is simply its logo and colors. Most of my clients are surprised to learn that it is a much more intricate and thoughtful process than that. I tend to start with asking a client to describe the company as if it were a human being because a brand is a company, personified and what better way to start understanding WHO the company is than to define its qualities and values?

There are, though, three major facets of a company’s brand:

The logo (the mark that makes a company recognizable), the presentation (the marketing plan and optics), and the personality (message).

BRAND

The Personality

The perceived characteristics of the company as a whole.

LOGO

The Face

A brandmark identifies a business in its simplest form.

IDENTITY

The Presentation

The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.

IDEATION

SO WHERE DOES IT START?

The Brand Expert should start by becoming familiar with the products and solutions on a fundamental level in order to start with a blank canvas. Then, by looking at competitors in the market, the brand expert can examine strengths and weaknesses to identify where there are voids that needed to be filled.

Next? Brainstorming. This is far more than basic word association and shouting out ideas, directions or personal opinions; it’s a step-by-step, tried and tested, thorough technique used by Marketers and Brand Experts worldwide but only understood and utilized by few because it is a highly specialized sub field.

Starting with Latin root words then word combinations and finally brand-new words, the Brand Expert will carefully check definitions against multiple languages and even check slang words that could be negatively associated. Sometimes you find one that works in English, but wont work in Spanish or French. Often, through the process, you find a word that fits the core messages and has no conflict linguistically, but come to discover that another company has already scooped up the domain or has already trademarked the word. It is an arduous process.

Sony

Sonus is the Latin word for sound, but the name also comes from the founders considering themselves ‘sonny boys’, a Japanese word that suggest smart young men.

Fage

The word φάγε (translated from Greek to English as FAGE) both the singular imperative verb meaning ‘Eat!’ And is spelled using the first initial of the founders.

Google

A play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros – reflects the mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

THE LOGO

THE FACE OF A COMPANY

Used for identification, a logo represents and identifies a company or product immediately (and simply) through the use of a mark. It does not sell the product directly but rather derives its meaning from the quality of the product it symbolizes. The logo is the FACE of the company.

The 5 elements that make an iconic logo: Describable, Memorable, Effective without color, Scalable, and Relevant. See more about the logo development process here.

MESSAGE

DEFINING A PERSONALITY

This part of the process involves carefully defining the mission, vision, essence, and purpose of the company as well as establishing the Brand’s characteristics and promise.

Misson

What the company wants to do and how they want to do it.

Vision

What the company wants to become.

Essence

A three to five word summary of the brand’s space and how it fits in.

Purpose

The driving force behind the Brand.

Character

If the brand were a person, this is how you would describe them.

Promise

What the company ideally provides to the customer.

INDENTITY

A Company’s Identity might be defined, more or less, as the combination of all of the elements that make up the company’s aesthetic – a visual presentation of the company as a whole. Identity design is based on the visual elements created by a Brand Expert to build cohesive and appealing sales tools, marketing collateral and tradedress. A specific set of guidelines are developed, inspected and examined to ensure that a Company’s Brand Identity remains intact throughout all avenues and each element adds value to the overall visual feel. To learn more about copperplate identity, read my blog about it here.

Marrying these elements, the Brand Expert will create a Brand Manual and Style Guide which should be studied and followed closely as it illustrates how the Identity is applied throughout all mediums by using exact color palettes, specific fonts, pre-approved layouts, etc. By establishing and following these guidelines early on, the company can begin the process of building brand recognition, customer loyalty and achieve success by offering a cohesive message and visual aesthetic no matter where the customer encounters them.

Logo

The symbol of the brand.

Collateral

Marketing collateral includes flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.

Signage

Both Interior & exterior design.

Letterhead

Letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc.

Packaging

Includes the actual products sold and their tradedress.

Other

Any additional visuals that represents the business.

BRANDING

Many people have little or no understanding of what a corporate brand actually is. Essentially, a company’s Brand is the way the AUDIENCE interprets the company. This opinion can be shaped by the way the company presents its personality and corporate image combined with the message and how it interacts with the audience, however branding is a massive topic, a complicated task and a multi-faceted concept with a little bit of unpredictability added in. As such, it is not something that should be taken lightly. Through proper planning, research, ideation and development, the end consumer’s perceptions, reactions and emotions can be reasonably predicted.

The fundamental purpose of the company’s Brand is to add value, importance and create loyalty to the company. Every product or service a company sells, every message it sends, every advertisement it places, absolutely every part of a company’s message should represent the parent business as a whole to achieve this. It is the research, development, ideation processes, and objective communication of a company’s core message that defines a brand as much as the end result of these practices. You see, the consistency of the message (whether verbal or visual) and a company’s actions is what defines the company, announces what drives it, promotes where its values lie, and why.

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Logo Design Process

Sheana — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:51:25 +0000

In logo design and imaging, there is more to the process than simply creating a ‘pretty’ icon for the client. There are many blog posts and books out there that are dedicated to explaining this process and why it is so important in creating an effective and successful iconic logo. I’ve decided to include my own design process on this website as I believe it could be a valuable tool for other designers and an informative article for prospective customers who want to know more about how brandmarks are created and why choosing a experienced designer is a necessity, not an option. As you will read below, a good amount of work is done before the client ever sees a concept. There is also a great deal of research and critical thinking on the part of the designer to gain the information and perspective required to create said identity. So without further ado, here’s my logo design process:

First Things First

Before I do anything at all, I will send my client a questionnaire with comprehensive and detailed questions aimed at getting all the information required for me to start the process. When possible, I prefer to ask these questions and perform an interview in person but that’s unfortunately not always an option. The logo questionnaire/interview is extremely important in the logo design process and even if the client feels that they’ve already settled on a design they’ve created, it is vital that I, as the designer, have all the information so I can familiarize myself with the company, the company’s mission, the target demographic, their competitors and the client’s personal preferences. All these things will aid me in producing a design that they will really love as well as a design that will embody the company’s message, product or service in a way that will be successful for that company. It is only after this that the work really starts.

First, after studying the completed logo questionnaire and the logo samples that the client supplies (if they already have some ideas, many do), I will do some research on the client’s profession (looking for strengths and weakness in their or their competitor’s brand) and perform a preliminary visual scan for trademarked logos that we may want to avoid being too similar to. Of course, once the logo has been completed, a Lawyer would have to do a proper trademark search if they intend to TM/SM (state level) or ® (national level) the logo.

Now The Fun Starts

Next, I sketch out thumbnails….ideas on paper that I draft very quickly. This is faster than doing all the preliminary work in a design software and allows me to make changes and follow my thoughts as fast as they come. Also, it’s an easy and time effective way for me to get as many ideas out in a short amount of time as possible (esp. since I charge by the hour). I am able at this point to build off of the sketches and ideas until I get something that is worthy of conceptualizing digitally.

Third, I will re-create the chosen sketches in Adobe Illustrator. The client often receives only 2-4 preliminary designs as I will only proof them on the best ones and not waste their time with designs that simply don’t (or won’t) work. These choices will be based upon the 5 elements that make an iconic logo:

1. Describable
2. Memorable
3. Effective without color
4. Scalable (i.e. will work at 1″x1″ as well as it would work at 3′ x 3′)
5. Relevant (to the industry in question)

Describable and Memorable really go together because how will you be able to remember it and tell your friends about this great product or service if you can’t describe what the logo looks like?

Being effective without color is important because if the mark doesn’t work in black alone, color will not make it any better. A bad design is a bad design with or without color. As I have posted before, color plays a vital role in the emotional response to the logo and the company it represents. A really great design can be nixed by the client if he/she isn’t attracted to the color it’s presented in so to help the client really look at the designs themselves, I always proof in B&W.

A scalable mark is critical for collateral, such as office letterhead, business cards, return address labels etc.—these little applications can often be overlooked by the inexperienced designer and the client alike.

Being relevant is important as the design must be suitable for the business it represents. This is achieved through research, studying the logo questionnaire, knowing how color will play a role, and talking with the client. It also helps to differentiate the client from their competitors.

Proofing Begins

Once I present the initial designs to the client, they might be immediately attracted to one of the proposed designs and we can move forward with tweaking, adding color and finalizing the logo. OR they might want to combine two of the proposed designs until we have one design to work from. It is important to ask the right questions during this step to gain as much insight as possible why a particular design wasn’t liked by the client. By listening closely to the client’s explanations and suggestions, you can make the necessary modifications to the designs (being sure that any modifications will move the design in the right direction).

As mentioned above, I continue proofing in only all black or all white (on black background) as this aids in being able to focus on the design itself and not be influenced by color. What’s important at this stage is the mark’s shape, form and the idea it represents. This is the part in the process that often takes the most time.

Final Touches

Only when the final design has been chosen, will we start working with color. The proofing process starts all over and will be in the same manner as the black/white versions but with color this time. I use the science of how colors effect our emotions to help choose the right hue to gain the most appropriate emotional response from the customer. This process also fits into point five of the five points to a successful logo since I would likely not use pastels in a Law Firm’s logo just as I wouldn’t use bright red (the color of anger, emergency and danger) for a Nursing Home. In this case, the brandmark was going to work best in solid black (or white for reversed use) given that the overall brand aesthetic would be black, white and grey with warm (yellow/orange/red) accent colors for various applications.

After

After the colors are decided upon and the design is approved, I will get to work finalizing the logo for both print and web, making sure that the logo is easy for the client to use as well as ensuring that it can be used across many platforms and applications.

I know the logo design process can be a little intimidating for the client as well as the designer. But if you know what’s coming in the process and what steps to take (and in what order), the whole affair will go much smoother for both parties. This will make for a pleasurable experience for the customer and help the designer maintain control throughout the creative process. If you are a company or individual looking for the right designer to create your logo, be sure to do your homework to be certain that you and your designer are going to work well together towards achieving the same goal. If you’d like to see some of the logos that Breakaway Graphics has designed, we’ve included a few below. To see more, please visit the Portfolio section of the Home Page.

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