5 Common Branding Mistakes

I see it all the time and cry on the inside a little, because I know sometimes wherever you are in business that investing in branding is not your top priority. If it is book in with us here you won’t regret it!

If you really want to stay the DIY route, at least make sure you’re not doing the following mistakes:

1. Inconsistent fonts

This happens quite often, there are a few font choices, and you can’t decide which to use or how to use them. I suggest sticking with a Subhead font for buttons, and subheads. A title font can be as simple, or as fancy as you like but you must be able to read it (do not use cursive here). Body fonts, stick with something very easy to read. If you must use a cursive font, use it only in certain places such as an accent word, do not use it in title or sentences since it is very difficult to read and can deter your visitors.

2. You’re using too many colors

You’ve got a color palette of about 10 and you can’t decide which to use so you’re mixing it up between each post or on each page, making things look inconsistent. I always suggest sticking with two colors that compliment one another, along with a third color that is neutral between the two and works well with both or each.

3. Thinking you have to look like everyone else

False, you do not need to have the same color palette, or fonts because Jill is using them for her business. If everyone is using pink, that is great but do YOU even like pink? If your style is edgy maybe you want to share that, if you’re vibrant and outgoing you might want to have a more fun vibe to your brand. When you don’t love what you’ve designed, you won’t be confident in sharing anything. Keep it simple and keep it you. Your brand attracts your ideal client.

4. You don’t know who your ideal client is

Without a brand and the person behind it, your logo is really just a logo. If you don’t know who your brand is for, how do you expect to get those clients? Having a clear vision is important, if you want to be a luxury brand then your branding and processes must be built to serve those clients. If you’re a mom who wants to sell to other moms, you must build a brand around that to attract other moms to your business. It’s all the pieces that work together to create your brand. Look at how Apple has built a community around their products, their logo is only an Apple without their branding, marketing and knowing who their target market is they’d just be that icon.

5. Going overboard on design

You really don’t need to get complicated with your designs, you don’t need to add hearts, flowers, lines, squiggles, fruits, waves and anything else you can think of. Sometimes having the right font and a simple logo can go a long way. This also allows your brand to stay on trend rather than become outdated. Paying attention to what’s popular and determining whether the logo you create will be outdated in a year or will the design stand the test of time.

The conclusion

Designing your brand yourself can be a lot harder than it looks, thinking to the future of your business and how the logo, colors, type suite and more will look in 5 years time rather than today. There are so many trends happening that die very quickly or become outdated and others can tell. If you’re looking at your logo right now, read above and make sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes. If you’ve come to the end of this blog post and think “I need help” send us a message we’d love to help! You can check out what’s included in your brand package here or if you’ve already made up your mind and want to hire us to read through the process and fill out our form here. We can’t wait to work with you!