Graphic design and branding is the first impression of your product or service and a snippet view into your brand’s world. A study from Microsoft Corp showed that an average adult’s attention span was 8.25 seconds. This is essentially your pitching time. Our world moves faster than ever and so do our brains, as defined by T.S Eliot in The Long Song of J Alfred Prufrock: “I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker”. So first impressions are everything. Here are 3 pointers about shaping the elements of your brand’s graphic design.
Think It Through
A study named The Impact of Colour showed that 90% of us make hasty decisions about purchases based on the colour of the branding. This is great news for designers. There are many brands out there who have managed to successfully ‘own’ a colour, like Virgin and red and Orange with orange. Of course that level of branding takes time, in order to build up a reputation and rapport with customers. Having eye-catching colours is a good start, but you must also find a way to tie this in with your brand’s purpose and persona in order to achieve success.
The colour associated with your product and on your logo can be tenuous and don’t have to 100% make sense, but they have to be eye-catching and form part of a bigger campaign. UK-based charity The National Trust have nailed it, with
Shape/logo – A picture is worth a thousand words. So make the most of your logo! As mentioned above, you’re limited to a short time and not a lot of space in which to sell your product. You have to make sure that your logo represents what you’re selling, is visually intriguing, not over-complicated and versatile so that you can potentially adapt it for future campaigns.
2. Making your logo adaptable allows your brand to be adaptable.
Quicksilver did this very successfully when they introduced a ladies range, doubling up their original logo to it to create whole new one that now represents this.
3. Timeless
If you want to be in it for the long haul, your branding must reflect this. A brilliant example is Vodafone, who use a bold red as a backdrop for their definitive speck mark, which looks smart, instantly characterises their service and (until English grammar becomes obsolete), remains timeless as a component of their logo.