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In today's digital landscape, breaking through all the noise is getting harder and harder. Between the competition, so many different channels, and the fast pace of your customers' lives: how do today's audiences decide where to direct their attention? Well, we've discovered that it all comes down to personally aligning with a brand's values!! 

That is why by having a tool, such as a Brand Kit, you manage to build a solid and consistent image for your target audience and a set of values ​​aligned with who they are and the lifestyle with which they identify. 

You must build your brand from carefully selected elements. This includes not only the visual aspects, but also the storytelling and the values ​​that define the purpose of your venture that must be aligned with the audiences you intend to reach. Having a solid Brand Kit allows you to have a solid brand presence on digital and traditional platforms, allowing your audiences to better understand and trust your value proposition. The result will be brand trust, loyalty, and, ultimately, the driving force of repeat purchases.

Are you ready to know how to create a Brand Kit in just 5 steps? Keep reading…

 

How to create a Brand Brand Kit in 5 steps

A Brand Kit is a manual of graphic elements for content creation. Includes everything you need to create any piece. It is a fundamental and very useful tool that will allow you to save time when you delegate your communication and the content is not always created by the same person. 

Your Brand Kit kit ensures that all marketing and communications included in your strategy are accurate and on-brand. Whether they come from your social media team, sales reps, or customer support, the assets associated with your business should include the same colors, fonts, and logos.

 

1. LOGO: Whether you have a logo or you have to create it, it is important to establish the basic rules on how it can be used. Your brand kit is the place where you can explain the rules for applying your logo and what should never be done. Some of those rules are:

 

Application for horizontal, square, round spaces, etc.

 

Space to be left around the logo: There should be enough free space around the logo to let it breathe and prevent its clarity and visual impact from being obstructed. 

 

Typography: This guide dictates which fonts go with your logo. If you think that using a script typeface below your modern and minimal logo will not flatter your design, you better make a note of that in your guidelines, for example.

 

Size: It is good to set a minimum size. The ideal minimum size is in pixels for digital use and in inches or millimeters for print. Setting proportional values ​​is just as important as setting a minimum size. It's crucial that your logo has consistency in size across letterheads, across various products, in digital or print applications.

 

Defining your minimum size and proportional value guideline could be as simple as:

• It should be legible at any size. 
• Please do not use our full logo unless there is enough space to allow legibility.
• Do not stretch or distort

 

Or as specific as:

• Our isotype should always be 16x16 pixels.
• The minimum digital size for BOTH our wordmark and logo is 20 pixels.
• For all of our digital signatures, the minimum size is 35 pixels.

 

Logo colors:One of the key principles of logo design is that your logo should look good in black and white, in its simplest form without effects. What other colors could your logo have? This is something you should determine in the logo usage guidelines. Here are the logo color considerations you need to set guidelines for:

 

• Logo colors on white backgrounds
• Logo colors on dark backgrounds
• What does your logo look like in black and white?
• Grayscale vs Full Color Logo
• Inverted logo colors

Variations and how to use them: Depending on your needs, it can be useful to have a full version of your logo and a simplified version, an isotype or avatar. All of these variations should mirror each other and stay within the overall style of your logo.

 

Examples of misuse of the logo: It is just as effective to show how not to use your logo as it is to show how to use your logo. Make sure your guidelines include samples of your logo distorted, in the wrong color, too small, etc.

 

Examples of misuse of the logo It visually shows when and how your logo looks wrong, or more specifically not how it was intended to look, anticipates and helps prevent, for example, loss of resolution, illegibility and meaningless orientation. By placing the right and wrong side by side, your "logo incorrect use" guideline explains why your logo looks so much better in the ways you've specified.

 

 

2. GET THE RIGHT COLOR PALETTE Believe it or not, people evaluate brands within 90 seconds of first seeing it and…up to 90% of the time that evaluation is based on brand colors alone. For this reason, you should choose your brand colors very carefully!

Your color palette:

1. Connect with emotions: Today there is what we know as "Color Theory" that explains very well the impact that colors have on our emotions and based on this knowledge, brands make very well thought out decisions about their color palette. 

 

1. Influence on decision making: Once color triggers the emotions of your audience, it is very likely that it will also affect your decision making. In a groundbreaking study by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, he found that even if we think we've made a logical decision, that choice is usually based on emotion.

 

1. Strengthen your brand awareness:  Most importantly, the consistent use of your brand colors creates a strong association between your product and your potential buyers. That's a huge plus for your overall brand awareness.

How to get your brand colors: 

1. Define your brand identity: Chances are you've already done this, but let's think again. To better understand who you are as a brand, try to answer the following questions: What is your brand's mission? What are your values ​​and beliefs? If your brand were a person, what characteristics would it have? What style of communication would you use? What are the unique things about your company?

 

1. Define your audience and their associations: As we learned earlier, the effect of brand colors depends on the emotions that are triggered. There are many factors in how the human brain perceives different colors. This is why you need to make sure you know your audience. Try to define the age, gender, location, and cultural aspects of your target audience. Are there specific color associations for this group? How do you want them to feel about your brand? What are they looking for in your product? What emotion drives them to make a purchase?

 

1. Explore the meaning of brand colors: When you know all the answers to the questions above, you can start matching them with possible brand colors. A brand's color palette is usually made up of four or five colors and includes or complements the colors of its logo. The general rule is to choose:

 

• A light color to use as a background
• A darker color for the text.
• A neutral tone that goes with everything
• A color that attracts attention

 

3. TYPEFACE: Selecting the typeface is just as important as choosing the colors. You need to establish two mother fonts at most, and that they combine very well with each other. You will use the main font in the titles and a secondary one for subtitles. You can also select a more generic one for the copy or the rest of the texts. The way words are displayed in your brand's marketing materials is an important visual cue for your customers. Selecting the correct typeface is a significant step in unifying content and communications. 

The most commonly used fonts in marketing are:

• Helvetica -
• Bodoni-
• To come up
• Universe
• Arial
• Future - 
• trajan
• VAG Rounded
• Minion
• Garamond
• Frutige
• gauges
• Cocoon
• Avant Garde

BACKGROUNDS AND TEXTURES

With a well-defined color palette and typography, you will be able to create a document with the logo in the highest possible quality by applying it to different backgrounds. 

The backgrounds or graphic styles are used as inspiration for future graphic creations. When you design the images, content or posts, you will have a guiding background to follow with the style that will identify you. 

Patterns are one of the most exciting and interesting brand elements. They play an important role in creating strong brand recognition, adding depth to a brand identity and creating a memorable brand experience. In fact, sometimes a branded background or texture can be more recognizable than the logo itself.

They are used for:

• Define surfaces.
• Generate impact.
• Convey a specific design style.
• Add visual interest to a particular area of ​​the design.
• Draw attention to a specific area.

 

It is important to have the patterns and textures located in a document and with the PNG files accessible to be able to add them to any publication you make on social networks. In the Brand Kit, those backgrounds and textures that should accompany the brand are chosen.

 

STORYTELLING AND BRAND WORDS

 

Storytelling in marketing humanizes your brand, it is the narrative you need to communicate the message that your brand wants to convey. The goal is to make your potential customer feel something, enough to inspire them to act. Storytelling in marketing helps consumers understand why they should care about something.

As important as captivating design is, stories (and the words that tell them) are what make people decide if they like you, if you understand their needs, and if they want to do business with you. Brand storytelling cannot be done with images alone.

Sitting down to write your storytelling may seem challenging, and it surely is! But nobody better than you understands how to connect with your audience, the ideal is to always keep your value proposition in mind and surely from there you will be able to extract the elements that move the emotions of your potential clients. Here I leave the 6 P's to start writing it: 

 

 The PROBLEM: Answer the following question: What is the main problem you are helping to solve. The formula to write it is:

 

“I help (your audience) to (problem that your brand solves)”

 

The PAIN: What are the negative feelings or emotions or the negative effects that your audience suffers as a result of the problem you want to solve. The formula to write it is: 

“Surely it happens to you (negative emotion/frustration/consequence) because of (you describe the problem)”

 

The PRESCRIPTION: What is the solution you propose, what did you discover to solve the problem? The formula to write it is:

 

To solve (Describe the problem) you need (your unique and different solution)

 

The PIVOT: What is your mission? What is your source of inspiration to create this product/service? The formula to write it is:

 

I have the mission of (describe your mission) because (your purpose) and I have (unique solution) that helps you to (main benefit) 

 

POSITIONING: Why are you different from similar solutions on the market today? Why don't the others work? The formula to write it is:

 

Perhaps you have tried or thought about (workaround) but (why they are not ideal)

 

THE PRODUCT: Describe your product/service and highlight the benefits that make you better and different or more efficient. The formula to write it is:

 

The best/simplest/fastest/ way to (describe the problem) is (your unique solution) than (unique positioning)

 

Here I leave mine so you can see how yours can be after following this recipe:

 

“I help microentrepreneurs who don't know how to build an effective marketing strategy and who get stressed whenever they even hear the word MARKETING. They are entrepreneurs looking for practical advice delivered in simple steps from someone who has been there. Donate it, and survive.

I'm on a mission to be their “marketing compass” and to steer them away from potential chaos, cutting out the stress from day one. MaybeMaybe you have tried to go at it alone, with little to no results. Maybe, you've already worked with a marketing expert but you didn't seem to gel. So why try me? 

Because I resolve 3 of the biggest issues that plague microentrepreneurs: COSTS, STRESS and LANGUAGE BARRIERS.

 

I've got Marketing solutions to suit many budgets, with access to free educational material and a free first consultation. As a given, I keep things simple to keep your stress levels down and I work with clients in English, Spanish or both!

 

Interested? Just gimme Buzz

@grlbuzz”

 

 

What are the tools available to create a Brand Kit on your own?

 

As we have already mentioned, it is important that your brand has its own design that identifies it and that everything you publish has a characteristic visual form so that the brand is recognized at a glance. Remember that you have 3 to 5 seconds to generate an impact on your potential client and that impact is generated through what you can transmit with your image. That is why here I mention some of the tools that can help you in the process: 

P

With PicMonkey you can create designs online with fully customizable vector graphics: add animations, shadows, colors, crop, resize, remove backgrounds, put filters or effects and adjust color or exposure, among many other options. It has thousands of templates, graphics and textures to create everything from Instagram posts to a complete brand kit.

When you are done editing the photo/image, you can share it directly on social networks or download it as JPG, PNG, PDF, GIF or MP4. 

This tool offers a 7-day free trial and then you can choose from its 3 paid plans.

canva

It is one of the design tools preferred by users who are not professional designers since, thanks to its easy handling and versatility, it is one of the best solutions for creating graphic content. It contains a wide number of template options that you can use as a base. 

In the paid version of Canva you can create your own Brand Kit, store assets like logo, fonts, and color palette in a shared folder. This is an excellent tool if you work as a team since from here you can apply the materials in all the designs.

Adobe color

It is a very useful platform to define the colors and shades of your brand. With this free tool you will be able to see thousands of combinations according to chromatic rules made by professionals and define your own. It also has the artificial intelligence technology of Adobe Sensei, which works in the background to find the perfect color combinations for your projects without losing brightness or color accuracy.

Crello

It is an online design tool with a fairly simple and intuitive interface. Like Canva, it is ideal for professional creations without design skills. It has a wide variety of formats and editable templates to create animations and graphics for social networks and the web. In addition, you will be able to crop or resize images, insert elements, add frames, put filters, etc.

Conclusion: In short, creating a Brand kit will allow you to create a solid image of your brand, it will make it easier for you to create content by adapting your identity to the preferences of your audience. It will also help you create consistency, increase engagement and optimize your time. So don't hesitate and start designing it today!

Do you need help with this or any other topic of your business? Follow me on @grlbuzz or write to me at: dahlia@grlbuzz.com