Blog | BrandStyle Design

1 / 9 / 13 | 7 comments

What Is Visual Presence?

Your visual presence is sort of like branding.
Except it’s a whole lot more than just that.

When I used to say, “branding”, people would say… isn’t that just like your logo? Or your website?

Not quite. They’re parts of your brand, but a whole brand is made up of many parts… all of the fine, delicious visual details that show the truth about your business and give it an identity all its’ own.

So I’ve voted in a new word. Presence.

Because presence shows that your thing exists.

A visual presence gives your service or your idea body and shape that can be shared with others.

Because presence is tangible.

Presence has a depth, some oomph behind it. A weight and momentum to it.

Because presence has the capacity to grow and change.

Presence-making is not a one-time event in the life of your business. Your business is a living, growing, changing thing and as it evolves, your presence will shift too. Presence is nimble, and unless you change something at the heart of your business, you shouldn’t have to redesign completely.

Because presence makes an impact.

You can feel a presence when it’s in the room with you, and you’ll know it’s absence in your life when it leaves. Your clients can feel it too. It commands attention.

Look at your designs from this stance.

Do they exude presence?

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12 / 17 / 12 | 4 comments

Creating a new program? Consider its’ impact on your brand…

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Branding and design questions you should ask yourself when planning a new program:

1. How does this relate to your other programs and offerings? Think of them as a family tree, how does this fit in?

2. How do your clients/ people you serve want to feel when they’ve interacted with you? Your design should reflect this emotion.

3. What comes before this program and what could people go into after (you want it to make visual sense in the place where it lands, and to relate to each of your other offerings.)

4. What is the value of this program? If it’s high-end, the design should reflect that by looking more sophisticated. And if it’s lower-end, it can look a bit more casual.

5. How can you use elements of the designs you already have in place to extend the credibility you’ve already built into this new thing? It may be a color palette, font styles, photography, etc. This will also help you create consistency.

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12 / 4 / 12 | 3 comments

Plan Your Brand Like A Pro

You have a business plan. And a marketing plan. So why don’t you plan out your next moves with your brand?

Just look at what can happen when you plan your brand:

A brand plan makes you get strategic about the results you’re getting – and that you plan to get – from your brand. The first step in planning for your brand is to look at what you’ve been doing – what’s worked, what hasn’t, reviewing client reactions, and looking at what could have gone better and what new ideas were sparked along the way. Armed with that kind of knowledge, you can really dig into creating better results with each new step in your brand.
A brand plan creates more profit from your brand. When you plan, you can make sure that you’re using all of the existing elements of your brand to your best ability. After all, it doesn’t make strategic sense to invest in designing new things when you may already have materials that you could tweak a bit for your new campaign or project – and that will increase your return on investment.
A brand plan encourages consistency. Brand consistency creates momentum and forward motion in your brand. And it makes you look ultra-polished and put together.
Most importantly, planning matches the evolution of your brand to your business plan and your marketing plan, to make sure that all of your plans are supporting each other. That way, you’re not scrambling with your designs and materials to meet the goals and dates you’ve set out in your business and marketing plans, scraping things together at the last moment.

How to Plan Your Brand Like A Pro

Get the fre*e Brand Planning Blueprint to help you map out your next steps in your brand. http://bit.ly/ScANxS
Look at what you’ve been doing in your brand and with your designs – what’s worked, what hasn’t, reviewing client reactions, and looking at what could have gone better and what new ideas were sparked along the way.
Think about where you want to go next year in your business – what are your goals? How do you want to feel about your business? How much of a leap will you have to make to get there?
Review your brand as a whole and look for any missing pieces. Do you really wish you had a new newsletter template or Facebook profile graphic? How do you feel about your website and what would you like to fix there?
Make a note of any outdated materials you may have in your brand – a package on your website that you’re not selling any longer, an old bio, headshots that don’t look like you. Set dates to make these minor updates by, and think about which designer/photographer/writer you’d like to have help you with your changes.
Look at your business and marketing plans for the next quarter, 6 months or year and see what big launches, relaunches, promotions, programs, events, etc. you’ve got planned. Break it down into a list of what sorts of designs and marketing materials you’ll neeed to support your growth. (An expert can really help you do this quickly, easily and thoroughly – I offer Brandstorming Sessions at http://www.brandstyledesign.com/brandstorming to help you do this sort of flash-planning)
For bonus points, create a timeline. Write down when you’re going to launch each thing, and then work with a designer to go over your design needs and come up with start dates, copy deadlines, print timelines, etc. You may start doing this just a month at a time, to keep it simple. This level of organization makes sure that there’s plenty of time for your projects and you don’t get rushed, late-night, last-minute stuff.

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11 / 20 / 12 | 5 comments

Business As Unusual Brand Case Study

Do you ever feel like you want to break the rules in business? To do something different, exciting, and out-of-the-box for a change?

My client Andrea J. Lee is challenging the status quo and showing entrepreneurs how to boldly go where other businesses haven’t gone before. And she’s starting with something she’s never done in her 10+ years in business – going on a 3-city road tour. She’ll be teaching what’s working now, what’s not and what’s next for small businesses.

She needed an online campaign for her event to build buzz, get the word out and encourage registrations. It had to flow with her existing company brand. We’re also transitioning her brand to showing Andrea herself in the materials, which hasn’t been a major focus in her brand in the past, because she’s a huge part of the heart and soul of her company.

Here’s part of the resulting marketing kit – a registration website, Facebook banner campaign, and email marketing graphic. Note the strong design consistency between all of the materials, created by her signature red-bar look, the photo, and the text treatment. We added fun to the designs with a little speech bubble from Andrea herself.

It’s generating all sorts of excitement. Sandra DeFreitas of WPBlogsites.com says, “Erin I look at the site and I think “This site is sexy and it knows it”.

The first stop of her tour is next Tuesday in Los Angeles, and there’s still time to sign up – you can visit http://www.businessasunusualbreakthrough.com to find out more. She’ll also be stopping in Dallas and New York! There’s a big version of the invitation below so you can get all the details.

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