Building a brand for your business is the pre-requisite, if you intend to target the international market. Visibility and memorability are the keys to building a brand online and visual assets will help you with just that. Visual assets are reusable designassets that lend a unique ‘look’ to your brand. Visual assets include everything from pictures to pamphlets and charts and graphs. Here are some of the top 10 visual assets that help you build a memorable and impressive brand image.
Logos
The logo design is the most impressive and influential design asset for a brand. It is usually the first thing a consumer would notice about your brand. Often used as a marketing tool, the logo is a visual asset that sets your product apart from its peers.
The logo, hence, should be something unique and yet relevant to the services that you provide. You can use either a symbol, a wordmark, a mascot or anything else via which people can identify your brand.
Also, note that the logo should look good across all platforms, irrespective of their size and scalability. The logo should be flexible enough to look great on a billboard and as a tiny icon on your desktop.
Colour Palettes
The color schemes used in both the packaging and the logo of the brand play a huge role in nurturing a ‘look and feel’ for your brand. Remember to keep it simple and stick to the bold color schemes only.
Also, some colors are conventionally associated with certain ideas and invoke specific emotions that you can exploit. For instance, colors like red, black and white represent the elite, professional and expensive brand. Meanwhile, brighter shades like pink, yellows,and oranges generally represent more peppy products and brands.
As mentioned earlier, we recommend you stick to the primary colors and incorporate the secondary shades as and when required. Branding experts also like to mix and match colors or change the color scheme of packaging to signify the growth of a brand.
Pictures and Visuals
Pictures and other visual aids like videos and sliders are instrumental in developing a unique look for your brand. With a picture, you don’t just add on to the aesthetic appeal of the brand, but also make it more credible and relatable.
Again, relevance and consistency are important aspects. We recommend you pick images that are not only connected to your product or service but also enhance its appeal in the eyes of the viewer. The visual should enhance the brand value of the product as well as communicate its basic information and purpose to the user.
The images and photo sliders you incorporate should also be consistent. This doesn’t mean that you use one image or a type of image everywhere. Ensure that there is a pattern- maybe a similar color palette or camera angle or gradient.
Fonts and Typography
The typography used for advertising the brand, be it on the package or in the logo is crucial to the brand image. Typography and fonts today are not just confined to the tagline or the brand name on the packaging. The content displayed on the website, the descriptions on the web store, the newsletter messages- each have their own styles and formats.
Everything from the headings to footnotes, border styles,and in-line contentdetermine the typography of the brand. Also, ensure that the format remains clearly visible and accessible across all the platforms, irrespective of screen size and resolution.
Graphic Elements
Images, videos,and fonts are not the only visual elements in your brand. Thanks to technology, there are new graphic elements that you can include in your marketing messages to make them more lucrative.
Anything from handmade textures to personalized in-line messages and use of blank space can affect the look and feel of the website. Having a vast collection of graphical elements and plugins at your disposal gives you greater flexibility and creative freedom. We recommend that you pick a professional designer for the job and refrain from the DIY experiments.
With graphical tools at your disposal, entrepreneurs can also incorporate banners, buttons, breakouts, layouts and more onto the brand website. Including content blocks, customizable widgets and sliders further enhances the brand’s credibility.
Infographics
Source: drrobbell.com
Infographics are an important part of a brand’s visual assets library, especially if you are a growing start-up looking for means to boost your site’s reach. Infographics basically include elements like graphs, tables, spreadsheets etc. Using these elements one can display the statistics of the brand and showcase the data in a tabular form that is easier to comprehend.
Including graphs and tables on the website not only adds on to the credibility of the website but also gives you an opportunity to highlight the important aspects of the brand in a concise way. Most web development tools allow you to create infographics, optimize for mobile devices.
Animations
Animations have managed to hold on to their own. You can add animation effects to make your branding look more attractive and eye-catching. Consider the scope and reach of your market before you choose the type of animation though. 2D and 3D animation videos and effects are equally effective. Also, determine the length and duration of the clip. Oftentimes, the audience doesn’t appreciate lengthy and complicated animations, lowering the lead conversion rates considerably.
Websites and Portfolios
Websites and portfolios are perhaps your brand’s biggest strength. A website doesn’t just provide a space to display your content, but also to market it. You don’t have to hire professionals to design websites for you anymore.
Thanks to website builders, anyone can build a website or store from scratch without having to write a line of code. Most sites have drag and drop interfaces replete with intuitive tools and features that allowyou to insert images, videos,and other graphics easily.
Website builders come with the advanced functionalities and plugins that help you with design customizations, to further give your brand a unique look and feel. What’s more, in a website one can incorporate all the visual elements and other assets discussed above. Check more business website builders here: http://www.webbuildersguide.com/website-builder-categories/website-builders-for-business/
Mascots
Not all brands have mascots, and it’s certainly not easy to create and promote one. A mascot is essentially an anthropomorphic object that makes the brand approachable and accessible for people. Think on the lines of Chester Cheetah, or Pillsbury’s Doughboy, or Mr Peanut for that matter. Tony The Tiger, and Michelin Man are among other iconic brand mascots.
Not only can a well-made mascot bring huge fame and viral appreciation for the brand, but also enable super easy recall. While choosing a mascot, make sure you don’t open a can of worms in the form of legal troubles, choose a character that’s closely tied to your brand name (such as the chimp mascot Freddie of MailChimp) and use your mascot intelligently.
GIFs and Memes
Emojis, memes, stickers, memes – these are the modern brand’s visual branding assets. Let’s talk about GIFs. They’re colourful, they’re expressive, they’re cooler than static imagery and cheaper than videos, they’re mobile friendly, and they strike emotional chords. GIFs go a long way in humanizing your brand. They’re the perfect expression of humour with a lot of wit and creativity, all positive branding signals for your business.
Memes, to a great extent, bring the same qualities to the design table, and motivate people to share the content without prompting them. These graphic elements are bound to be received well by millennials, as well as customers who don’t’ respond to traditional visual branding messages.
What Next?
Simply having these visual assets at your disposal is not enough. You have to learn how to use them smartly and incorporate them into your business model in the best way possible. These elements not only make your product/service more marketable but also helps you enhance your brand’s reputation. Use them prudently in your brand campaign to create an attractive, practical and interactive experience for the consumer.
