Helpful Hints for Creating Brand Guidelines.

When you begin to come up with your business’s brand guidelines, be specific. The more details you include, the better. Providing specific examples of do’s and do not’s will prevent any mix-ups. Make sure you include details about when/where to use certain colours, fonts, icons, etc. For instance, if your company operates through multiple channels, make sure you are clear about what styles to use and where they are best applied.

You’ll also want to think about colour. Colour says so much about a brand and it can easily be misrepresented. The hue, shade, and saturation all matter when it comes to the unity of your brand colours. Lots of companies will often name their primary colour(s) in order to keep things simple and generate a level of importance around the colour. 

Lastly, consider articulating your brand guideline package in a way that mirrors your company’s brand. For example, using the same colour scheme, shapes, complementary typefaces, etc. All of these details can help you solidify what your brand is to look and feel like: right within your own guideline package. The moral of the story is that you want to make your brand guidelines feel like an extension of your company.

Check out this example on Imborrable of Coca-Cola’s brand guideline package for a better reference.

Whatever your past experience with local marketing companies has been – we can change your opinion. Working with a professional should feel different. You should feel as though you are in good, capable hands. Knowing that you’re working with a competent team who can solve your biggest digital marketing questions is a good feeling and we encourage you to trust in your creative community in 2022. 

Where do you start when you want to reinvent yourself online? If you were hoping for a list then you’re in luck. If you were hoping for a magic bullet, sorry? 

Setting Realistic Expectations/Goals

Setting realistic goals and expectations for a project is a great place to begin. Dates are helpful as a universal way to communicate with every supplier on your project. There’s not too much one can argue about a date. It either comes or it goes. My advice in today’s hyper-paced wanted it yesterday world, is to be more generous with this particular budget than was ever required before. Grab a calendar and look at what you’ve got coming up. Factor in weekends for creative burnout, add in a week or two for personal time and then add a few more weeks for good measure. This should give you a good start. It’s also good to confer with your developers before you sign the contract. They’re likely as busy as any builder, or Architect. Don’t expect that just because you’ve signed and sent the deposit that they’ve already started. All your deposit has gotten you is likely a spot in line. Most marketing businesses are working on a whose next basis these days with funnels that are very full. Trust us when we say that working with your first choice regardless of the wait is often worth it in the end. I was so happy that we waited for our Architect to make room in his schedule. The end result is exactly what we hoped for and in the end all the months of waiting allowed us to really dig into and explore some cool concepts. 

Setting Realistic Budgets

This is one I have personally never been great at. I know what I want and as a rule that wanted thing is generally the most expensive option. It can be a problem, but one thing I’ve learned is how to compromise and how to listen when it comes to budgeting.  Listening for queues is key when you’re setting a budget, but so is planning. When someone’s face changes expression abruptly in a budget meeting you should pay attention. Sometimes you can’t get everything you want right out of the gates, either due to time constraints, cash flow, or these days’ availability crunch. What you can do, is make a plan to add said items later down the road. I like to plan things in phases, very similar to a house build. We start with a top-level budget and filter it down from most to least important. Most important are the bones of the building eg: electrical, HVAC, plumbing, drywall, etc., next are the fun things eg: fixtures and finishings. A website is no different, you need to have the foundation in place before you can add the things that make it come alive. Start your budget with a good foundation and spend the money on getting the bones. Don’t blow your budget on one home page animation that will wear out its welcome faster than your neighbours Airbnb. That means getting into a website that is up-to-date to start, secure, and fast. From there you can plan to add new sections, animations, and lead generation that will make it more worthwhile over time. It’s hard to go back when it comes to technology, so keep that in mind when you set a budget. 

Organizing your assets & vision

Get familiar with a free, easy-to-use cloud storage system called Google Drive. Use Google Drive to create folders that you can share with suppliers to keep the project moving, keep everyone informed, and track your progress. For instance, when we started designing the new office I created a series of folders for potential suppliers to view and collaborate with. Pictures of the space and surrounding area, interior and exterior vision boards, potential floorplan layouts, and existing documentation on the buildings mechanical were all carefully organized into various folders. These folders were then shared with the appropriate suppliers. It made it easy to see who had viewed the docs, we can message within the folders and all information was centralized even though we were working between multiple cities. The best part about using free tools like Google is that they are efficient, secure, and free. Get familiar with Google’s business toolset and stop wasting money on flashy software that does less to keep you organized. A website project should contain folders like Sitemap, Logos/Branding, Content Map/Docs, Images, Mockups, and whatever else is important to the project. Each folder will likely have various sub-folders associated within that hierarchy. 

Tracking your progress & budget

Reviewing your progress can be tied to a few metrics. Time is one. Money is generally the other. How much have you spent and where has it landed you on X date is generally the equation we look to when it comes time to quantify a project. It’s important to stay in touch with your project. Some developers will provide progress reports, others will provide live wire-frame links where you can watch the project evolve in real-time. This will vary between project, developer, and customer. Again, it’s all about communication and planning. If you know that you need regular updates like sands through an hourglass then spell that out early to your team. If you’re happy with setting a date and surfacing for air until the reminder bell chimes then I always say prepare to trust in the team you hired and hope for the best. In the case of our office space, it’s been a long haul. Much longer than ever imagined to inch barely forward. But man, can I see it all so clearly now and it is EXCITING. And that’s exactly how you should feel when you plan ahead to work with a great team on your next website.