Six Ways to Know if Your Visual Brand Standards Are Working
Visual brand standards create visual cohesiveness for your brand, and usually include usage guidelines for your logo, colors, fonts, and images.
But their usefulness can vary widely depending on how old they are, how robust they are, and how they’ve responded to changes in your world.
Here are six questions to ask yourself to see if your graphic standards are still serving you well—or if they need an update.
1. Is the logo practical?
Does it perform on a lapel pin or your website as well as it would on any outdoor signage? Does it work in color and black and white? Professional designers test out their designs in multiple different formats before finalizing—to ensure readability and legibility across the board—yet it’s not uncommon to find logos that are difficult to execute at certain sizes.
2. Is the logo footprint unwieldy?
Odd-shaped logos often get problematic because they take up too much space in certain formats. A discrete, contained footprint is ideal for a logo.
3. Do you have enough font options for users?
Different applications require different types of fonts. Fonts that work well on an outdoor board don’t always work well on your website—and vice versa. So be sure you have enough font options to mesh with all the applications you have in mind.
4. Is there a standard font included for general users who aren’t designers?
People in your company will be trying to work with these standards on their own laptops and desktop computers, all equipped with the standard fonts that come with their computers. With that in mind, you should have at least one of these standard fonts as an option in your recommended fonts.
5. Do you find yourself struggling with the colors?
Maybe the palette doesn’t translate well to web applications, or there isn’t enough contrast in the colors for it to be readable in print applications and outdoor signage. Or maybe you haven’t chosen a wide enough variety of colors—or the colors are starting to feel dated. Additionally, the colors should convey the desired emotional aspect of your visual brand.
Colors do go out of style—particularly those that aren’t classic colors—so if yours aren’t looking fresh, don’t be afraid to add some new ones.
6. Does the logo give a current representation of your brand?
Companies shift over time—and trends become dated. While classic colors, fonts, and images can have a much longer lifespan, logos and other visual elements that don’t represent who you are as a company now should be updated.
Then what?
If these are problems, you can update your standards—you don’t have to completely recreate them to keep them useful. Add colors, fonts, and applications as the need arises. Fine-tune the areas that need updating. While it’s important to have consistency across a brand, brands migrate visually with time and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing—as long as it is intentional and strategic. Look for ways to update it that won’t involve major expenses, like signage replacement.
Remember that while it’s important to preserve consistency, it is ultimately as important that your visual brand works for you. As the needs of your business change, tweaking it should be expected.
How might your graphic standards serve you better with a little tweaking?
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