You’ve spent some time creating an amazing company logo design and you’re ready to roll out that new logo and introduce it to the world. But what do you do with that new logo?
Launching a new logo design is exciting, but you need to consider how the use of that new logo will affect your overall visual brand identity. That means you need to plan and coordinate your efforts, so all of your marketing materials look and feel like they come from the same business. In other words, anything that a person sees that can be tied to your company should consistently represent your brand.
Your new logo is a big part of your visual brand identity, so its consistent use is imperative. Following are several more elements of your brand identity that should carry over to your business and marketing materials to maintain visual consistency.
1. Color
What colors are used in your logo? Your visual brand identity should include a primary brand color. That color should be the primary color of your brand color palette. Your brand color palette can include secondary colors and even tertiary colors, but the primary brand color should always be the most dominant color used in all of your marketing materials and company materials. The best thing you can do is to choose a color from the Pantone Matching System (PMS), which you can learn about at www.pantone.com. This is a color system that printers and designers use to ensure color consistency in all materials. You can even match Pantone colors in website design.
2. Design
To tie your marketing materials together and make them look and feel like they’re from the same company, you can use consistent design elements such as shapes, borders, dividers, page layouts, logo placement, and symbols. If your logo includes a symbol or shape, then this symbol or shape could be the consistent design thread. For example, a logo that includes a circle or ring could be tied into other marketing materials graphically by using circles instead of boxes to call out key points, in the background, or in borders. This is common in a lot of technology logos. The images or photographs you use in your marketing materials are another important design element that should effectively represent your brand. For example, notice how financial institutions often include pictures of people in their marketing materials to make the company seem more personable and trustworthy.
3. Typeface
The typeface used in your logo is usually the best choice to be a primary font used in your company materials. Your corporate identity should include your logo, color palette (as discussed in #1 above) and typeface. Select a serif and sans serif font to be the primary fonts used in all materials to ensure brand consistency, and make sure those fonts are appropriate choices to represent your brand image. A highly professional company could choose a simple font such as Helvetica while a children’s clothing store could choose a less formal font such as Comic Sans.
4. Copywriting
The words, phrases, style and tone that you use to communicate your brand messages must accurately reflect your brand and appeal to your target audience. A brand that promises low prices and no-frills, fast service would use a very different style in its messaging than a high-end, luxury brand would use. Even your tagline (also called a slogan) must include the right language for the brand and audience. For example, the McDonald’s slogan, “I’m lovin’ it,” works well for that brand and audience. However, the same slogan would not work well for a high-end 5-star restaurant with a discerning clientele.
5. Production and Use
Consistent printing and use of your new logo design are critical parts of your brand identity. Your logo should be printed on all of your business materials (both online and offline). Colors and typeface should match approved variations only and resizing must be done proportionally, so the logo doesn’t appear skewed or misshapen. Establish a preferred printing position and size and use that position and size whenever possible. For example, many businesses print their logos in the upper left-hand corner or lower right-hand corner whenever possible.
The most important aspect of building your business brand using your new company logo is to be consistent in all five of the core visual brand identity principles described above. In time, that consistency will pay off through increased brand awareness, recognition, recall, purchases, and loyalty.
