Definitions Archives - Breakaway Graphics

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.

The post What Is Corporate Identity appeared first on Breakaway Graphics.

The Urban Dictionary of Social Media Marketing

Sheana — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 20:54:51 +0000

by Victoria Greene: Brand Marketing Consultant & Freelance Writer.

I work with online businesses and ecommerce merchants to create high-performing content and marketing strategies that yield successful results. I am always happy to share my expertise and love discovering new potential collaborators.

For new business owners and executives who are new to the world of social media marketing, one of the more common challenges you’re likely to come across at the start is attempting to digest all the jargon. Social media is a minefield of odd words, phrases and acronyms that make perfect sense to those who are fluent – but are inclined to baffle the new and uninitiated. Nonetheless, as you explore, you will become more confident. Don’t give up on social media just yet, because it could be just what you need to build an online community around your business. And it’s not going anywhere soon. Here is a guide to some of the more common slang words surrounding social media (don’t forget to read up on social media etiquette as well).

At mentions

At mentions (also know as @ mentions) are used on Twitter. They essentially do the same thing as Facebook’s tagging system, enabling you to mention someone in your tweet, which will automatically send them a notification.

Avatar

Your avatar is much like a profile picture. It’s an image – or sometimes just a username – that represents you online. This could be on social networks, as well as places like online forums. If you set up a Gravatar account, you can set an image to follow you from site to site, so there’s no need to upload one every time.

Bookmarking

You’ve heard of a physical bookmark – bookmarking is not much different, except that it’s digital. If you find something online that you enjoyed or would like to save for reading later, you can bookmark it either directly through social media websites (see bookmarking on Facebook) or through an external bookmarking manager like Pocket.

Brand ambassador

Brand ambassadors are very valuable. They are your best customers: the ones who love your brand so much that they will voluntarily share the positive experiences they’ve had with you on social media. Brand ambassadors are essential to building a good online reputation – even in this digital age, we must never underestimate word-of-mouth marketing.

Clickbait

You’ve probably seen clickbait around, you perhaps just didn’t realize it had a name. Any marketing material that relies on an overly hyped or sensational headline to try and entice you to click falls under the category of ‘clickbait’. Clickbait articles are designed to generate revenue and nothing more. They might sound like ‘People are doing something seriously weird with their McFlurrys’ or ‘How old was Rooney Mara when she first ate pie?’.

Facebook advertising

Facebook has its own advertising system that allows businesses to reach a precise audience with relevant, targeted adverts. There are various pricing options available for most marketing budgets, as well as the ability to select your audience by demographics such as age, location, and interests. Arguably, Facebook advertising is one of the more efficient ways to advertise online. Here’s a beginner’s guide.

GIF

GIF is shorthand for Graphics Interchange Format, and on social media they act as small animations or video clips – characterized by being rather jerky. They are usually just a few seconds long and played on a loop, often with subtitles (but not always). GIFs can a fun way to illustrate a point and are perfect for young, playful businesses to share.

via GIPHY

Hashtag

A hashtag can be a word (or group of words) that starts with this sign (#). The words are grouped together and are usually to categorize information and ideas, making your posts more relevant and visible for other users. Examples of popular hashtags (right now) include #wimbledon, #dontsteponabeeday, #thingsbleachcantclean and #mondaymotivation.

Influencers

Influencers are social media power users. They have large online followings and with them, the ability to sway the thoughts and opinions of others. Influencers tend to be well-connected, activists, early adopters of new products or technology, and social media savvy. Popular influencers in 2017 include Zoe Sugg (beauty), Lilly Singh (entertainment), and Mark Fischbach (gaming).

Meme

An internet meme is a catchphrase, image, concept or other piece of media that spreads. Mostly memes come in the form of an image, but they can also appear as videos, websites or hashtags. Memes commonly take their roots from popular culture, although not exclusively – they can come from almost anywhere. They provide a fun and playful way to express a point on social media. Here are some of the internet’s favorite memes.

New media

‘New media’ is really just another way of describing social media, though in the past it’s been used to describe all kinds of digital media. A more accurate description would be any digital communication channels that promote collaboration between users, rather than that which is static, such as a print magazine.

News feed

On Facebook, your news feed is very simply the central column of your homepage – the one that you will inevitably start to find yourself scrolling through. The news feed is constantly updating with new stories, pictures, events and other media from your friends and the people/businesses you follow.

Newsjacking

Newsjacking is when a person, brand or business capitalizes on a popular news story in order to amplify their sales and marketing efforts. Newsjacking can be effective, but it must be done with care and consideration, and only when truly relevant. Here’s a guide to successful newsjacking on social media.

Retargeting

This online advertising technique is used by social media marketers and ecommerce merchants to display ads on social media to users who have previously visited their website. Retargeting campaigns can be highly effective, reminding users of the products they were interested in but perhaps didn’t get round to purchasing the first time round. Retargeting functionality can be added as part of your online store setup using apps and/or plugins.

Tagging

Similar to ‘at mentions’ but for Facebook, tagging is where you can attach a person’s name to a picture, video, or status update. Tagging has a lot of meanings online, so it can be easy to get confused. So for example, if you were to upload a photo to your page that featured three of your staff members, you could individually tag each staff member and they would receive a notification and be able to see (and display) that photo as desired. Facebook tagging is becoming more sophisticated thanks for facial recognition software.

Troll

No, they don’t live under bridges – although who knows, maybe some of them do. An internet troll is an altogether different (though equally unpleasant) type of beast. They go around posting on social media and in the ‘comments’ sections of articles and forums, deliberately inciting arguments with irrelevant, hostile or inflammatory comments. Their primary goal is to make people angry and provoke some kind of response. If you ever encounter an internet troll, here is what you should do.

Viral

When something ‘goes viral’ on social media, essentially all that means it that it became very popular and got widely shared – usually in the tens of thousands or millions. So you might say “this Breakaway Graphics blog post has gone viral!” if it were shared and then reshared thousands of times on Facebook or Twitter. But it’s not always an article – equally (perhaps more often) it is a video, meme, infographic, or even a GIF. Virality is highly sought after in the marketing world, but can be difficult to achieve, as there are multiple factors (timing, relevance, shareability) at play.

Although some social media terms can be tricky to understand at first, most of the time they actually relate to something very simple. All it takes is a little getting used to – and just like learning a language, the more you immerse yourself in it, the quicker you will pick it up.

What other social media slang words do you find confusing? Let us know in the comments below (no trolls please) and we’ll see if we can help.

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