Branding & Identity services

Branding is one of the more important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or business-to-business (B2B). An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.

But what exactly does "branding" mean? and how does it affect a small business like yours?

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates what you are offering from your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

Every business should have a strong concern for what their image is, as it impacts how consumers perceive you in the marketplace. A good logo, a strong visual identity, can withstand time, just like a catchy phrase that you can’t get out of your head. Can anyone see the golden arches and not think of McDonald’s or the weird little swoosh that is the Nike logo?

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your signage, website and promotional materials, all of which integrate your logo, communicate your brand.

At Style we have skills in both marketing and design so we understand branding and its link to graphic design. So whether it is the design of an entire corporate campaign or the creation of a simple company logo it still has to work effectively for you. There are four critical elements that should be seen in every logo design:

• It must be describable
• It must be memorable
• It must be effective without colour
• It must be scalable

For details on how a logo is created see the process of design. This page also answers a lot of the questions that people have for the design process.