After wrapping up the updated Madalyn Yates Photography brand and website (you can see all that goodness over here), I realized something. As a brand and web designer, I’ve spent countless hours researching, studying, and most of all trying to understand what makes a brand effective.
When inquiring about a website redo, I consider it my duty to ask people if they want to upgrade to the brand + website package, or just stick with the website package alone, and I find that a lot of people’s answer sounds something like this:
“Oh, I already have a logo, so I just need the website”
And it breaks my heart.
And then I have to take a step back, put on my brand educator hat (I didn’t know I owned this, but now I certainly do!) and explain the difference between a brand and a logo.
So in today’s blog post, I want to do just that.
Today’s blog post will share all about why your brand is so much more than a logo, and how a solid brand can help your business grow.
What exactly is a logo
As a designer, terms like logo, brand, color palette, fonts, etc all make sense to me, and I know exactly what the difference between these are. But for my clients, they might not necessarily know the difference between these terms, or at least not what this difference means for them and their business.
Before we dive into the actual importance of a brand, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.
According to Entrepreneur.com, a logo is “a recognizable graphic design element, often including a name, symbol or trademark, representing an organization or product”
Okay, simple enough.
Using Madalyn’s brand as an example, here’s her logo:
It’s a design element, featuring typography (writing if you will) and strategic choices of colors and fonts to help people easily recognize what Madalyn does!
Throughout this blog post I’ll be sharing how this logo fits into the overall brand, and how it all comes to life through her website to help you see how a brand is so much more than just the logo!
How a logo fits into a brand
Imagine a puzzle, where the logo is just one (although large) piece of the entire picture. When starting a business, you might do just fine with having just a DIY or Etsy stock logo, but as your business grows, and you’re trying to get recognized for more, having a full brand becomes more important.
First off, let’s start with another definition. What exactly is a brand? Again, using Entrepreneur.com, “The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials–all of which should integrate your logo–communicate your brand.”
In other words, the logo becomes the foundation of your brand, but also an integral part of the overall message that you’re sending to potential customers and clients about who you are and what your brand provides!
So let’s take a look at how a logo fits into the overall brand! Below is an example of Madalyn’s brand board. This brand board is a quick overview of how all the little pieces of the brand can be used to communicate what Madalyn does for her clients. With the various elements, they all play well together and help create consistency, but can also be used individually when needed.
By having consistent colors, fonts, and the logo created for her brand, Madalyn is able to push out marketing collateral that all fits and looks like it belongs together, which helps potential clients recognize her brand and builds that brand recognition.
If you only have a logo for your “brand” chances are, you’ll head into Canva and choose whatever font feels right that day, and over time, your graphics, fliers, and other marketing material end up looking somewhat inconsistent.
While that might seem ok, imagine if a potential client saw all these marketing materials all together, the impression they would get of your brand would then be one of inconsistency! Most likely not what you were going for, right?
What happens if you don’t have a defined brand
So what happens if you don’t have a clearly defined brand?
Your logo in combination with your website and all the other marketing efforts that you push out like social media graphics, Instagram posts, and even the way you show up to perform the service you provide all essentially create your brand for you.
The only problem here is that you’re not in control.
Like I mentioned earlier, your brand message exists whether you’re aware of it or not. So by not defining your brand, you’re letting the brand define itself. Which could definitely turn into a hot mess express, or worse, a brand image that does not reflect the kind of product or service that you actually provide!
The solution?
Once your business has outgrown the DIY logo and you’re feeling like your business is destined for more, I would strongly recommend that you hire a brand strategist or a brand designer to help you put the puzzle together.
The Hygge Design Co brand experience involves understanding the why, digging deep into the heart of your business, and then creating a brand that truly speaks to that so that you can more easily communicate value and capture the attention of your ideal clients.
What do you say? Are you ready to take control of your brand and the brand message you’re putting out into the world?
I’d love to chat with you to see how we can partner to bring the heart and why behind your brand to life through my brand and web design services!
