What You Should NEVER Do With Your Brand

Every brand or product needs distinct and clear visual aids that would set it apart from the crowd. Logo, website, some video content, even the lettering — there’s nothing that may be neglected if success is what you need.

Before letting your creativity fly high, you DO have to mull over all the details of your future visuals. What idea do you wanna put in your brand? What reputation do you want to earn later? Who is your client, and what he or she may need? What niche do you plan to overtake? So many questions may definitely cause strong headache, but in this case giving in to this headache is the worst thing to do.

Working on visual aids of your brand may turn out a real disaster and even a curse, especially when the result you get is too far away from what was actually meant. But no panic! If you realize that something (well, ok, everything) went wrong, you still can improve it, or (probably, a better variant then trying to save something hopelessly bad) try to make a new better one.

Real trouble start when you don’t get that everything’s bad, and let this see the broad masses…

Diagnosis: ambiguous logo

Honestly, no idea who was the author of these “masterpieces” on the left, and this is not the main thing. Why did the companies agreed to use these logos? Not sure if they wanted to bury their brands 6 feet under mockery…

Obviously, the logo should NOT mean anything you didn’t intent to, so ambiguity is never a good idea. Especially if it appears to reflect some scandalous situations around your brand. Double especially if it reminds world society of any kind of tragedy (tyranny, genocide, wars underline what (not) needed). Also, avoid eye-tearing colors — you are to lure the audience, not vice versa. Then, if dealing with world market, make sure you have paid attention to all the cultural peculiarities (eh, at least the most obvious). Careful with jokes and humor — it is too individual thing. And kinda stupid if not intended initially.

A good idea is to make one-object image, properly planned and reflecting the main idea. Combine mild colors (better 2–3, maximum 4–5), and better put written brand name: this may give you more freedom about the image. A creolized text (see the blue one with a shark, and the one with penguin?) would be just great — but only if it’s short (1–3 words). By the way, if your logo has no corporate colors… That is weird.

Corporate identity: not found

This is what comes from logo. Or what logo comes from — these two are too interdependent. The main purpose of creating corporate identity is to IDENTIFY the brand. Colors, lettering, some personal unique things — all that should be like a single song. But just as songs may be impersonal, hard to remember, and simply of low quality, the same may be about corporate identity. It’s clear that if the logo is just awful, the corporate identity suffers the same disease.

Believe, you don’t need too many corporate colors. Actually, it is nice if all of them are reflected in logo. If not all, that’s ok, but don’t overload. It would cause nothing but headache and desire to leave the page immediately.

Lettering also matters not less than colors. Choose one font, you obviously don’t need more. Identity is the thing that makes you different. How are you gonna be different, if your brand reminds a chaotic mess? Minimalism is trendy now, and probably is going to hold the position. Just because it’s convenient and eye-friendly.

UI/UX: call the doctor!

What’s the concentration of corporate identity? Nowadays it is the web-site (or apps) — truly the face of your brand. The face should be neat and clear, the interface should be… neat and clear! And easy to navigate. Do you remember those websites of 90’s and early 2000’s? It’s unbelievable but some companies have the same even in 2019.

As it has already been mentioned above, chose one font and use ONLY it and its variants. Don’t write too much text of too small font size. What are you trying to economize? Page space? Practice demonstrates that it’s not difficult to scroll down if the material is relevant and interesting. At the same time, it’s easier to close the page than trying to figure out some little letters.

Images. If they have nothing to deal with the matter of the brand — don’t use them. It’s not an elementary school poster, and not 90’s to put “cute lovely” pics wherever you can reach.

If anything’s making the interface and navigation confusing — just put it aside. Better forever.

Amateur video — bad video

Please, dear, your website and social media platforms are not a teenager’s YouTube channel — there’s no room for unprofessional videos. Lo-fi quality is not the thing to serve good when it comes to brand video production. How can audience get your brand’s history or product’s aim though a poorly created low quality video?

90 or 120 seconds may become eternity if this time is wasted on unnecessary deviations and 8-bit picture. Or, what’s more real, this time may be shortened up to 1 second — a person would simply close it, and go find another one of another company.

Your video content does have to be the continuation of your corporate identity, with simple words and clear idea. You aim to educate, to share experience and to clarify, and it’s not a good thing to clarify the video, too.

To Sum It Up

The worst nightmare of anyone is to order the above listed visual aids, and receive the above listed results. How to find a reliable creative agency? You don’t have to do it, because we found you ourselves! With NinjaPromo your brand will get the visuals of your and your customer’s dream. We’ve made many companies happy — just see what we can do for you!