Lesson 8: Visuals

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00:02 color theory, brand typography, and logo. This is probably one of my favorite- favorite presentations just because I think the visuals do such a good job of explaining what I'm trying to say.

00:13 I feel like the visuals nail it. And I feel like it, of course, because it's color theory, brand typography, and logos.

00:18 It's all the visual elements of your brand. So let's get into it. What is color theory? Color theory is marketing color theory in marketing utilizes the psychology of colors and it corresponds emotions to evoke a certain response from the audience.

00:34 If you think about a lot of the fast food restaurants out there, there are two colors that you will see used pretty commonly.

00:42 Red and yellow. That is because these colors have been associated with evoking the feelings of hunger. Uhm, and so if you own a fast food brand and you want people to be hungry, you'll of course make your logo red and yellow.

00:57 Uhm, it, you can also kind of think of some other phrases, like you're seeing red or you're green with envy.

01:04 Colors have emotions attached to them. And so when we're picking out the colors of our brand, we want to be conscientious of what we are trying to communicate.

01:12 92% of consumers are persuaded by visual marketing and around 85% of consumers respond to color, making this design element one of the biggest motivators in selecting a product.

01:25 This is the fun part. Um, I want you to pause this video. And when you pause this video, I want you to write down three words you want people to feel when they think of your brand or when they think of your business, when they go to your website, what do you want them to feel?

01:39 What emotions? So go ahead and pause it. I'll wait a second. Okay. Welcome back. Um, hopefully you wrote down three words and, uh, no cheating.

01:50 This is why I love this presentation so much. Okay. So hopefully you've thought of three words and I want you to see where those words match on this chart.

02:01 Okay. So we have optimism, clarity, warmth, yellow, friendly, orange, red is associated with excitement, purple is associated with creativity, blue is trust, green is peaceful, white is balance, and then and you'll see it kind of on the edge over here.

02:18 Like Google, NBC, Ebay, uhm, diversity, just a whole bunch of different colors. Now, if you look closer and you look at the specific, uhm, logos, you'll see, like, yeah, they are trying to communicate something.

02:32 So, uhm, for example, let's see, we have yellow optimism, uh, UPS, I hope my package arrives on time. Uhm, if you see red, uh, red is excitement, youthful, bold, uhm, think about, like, okay, Target, yeah.

02:50 Target is known as, like, a youthful place, it is always, has, like, the best stuff, you are always, who's not excited to go to Target?

02:57 I am, uhm, maybe it's just, uhm, just cause they're a core audience, but they always have, like, the best stuff there, uh, let's see, trust and peaceful, these are two good ones, cause you usually find a lot of, uhm, finance brands in there, if you think about QuickBooks, if you think about Xero, green

03:13 and blue, right? There is one in here that I'd like to point out that I think is a little bit more sneaky, and under the blue, sort of, uhm, what is it?

03:23 Column? Not column, corner? I don't know what you would call this. The blue section, you'll notice Oreo. Oreo has blue in its logo, and you may be thinking, what do Oreos have to do with trust, or dependability, or strength?

03:36 But think about the Oreo commercial. The Oreo commercials, it's always, like, a father and a son, sitting at their, like, kitchen dining room table, and they're dunking Oreo cookies together, and they're having a moment, and the dad's like, oh, I, you know, I love Oreo cookies, my dad used to do it with

03:54 this with me, and then grandpa walks in, and grandpa's like, I remember when you were his age, and we used to eat, you know, Oreos before bed.

04:02 Now it's no longer just a cookie, it's Milk's favorite cookie, and Oreos, it's a generational thing. It is the memories that you have with your parents.

04:10 The parents of, you know, sneaking cookies before bed. It is now an emotional experience eating this cookie. It is not just a cookie.

04:21 So there you go. I think that one's always kind of very interesting and very subtle. And again, you see kind of the subtle stuff in multiple places.

04:30 With green, at the bottom there, you see BP oil. So, uhm, I'll, you know, take a look through this chart.

04:39 See if you can find if any of your words sort of correlate. With, uhm, some of these colors. And, uh, if not, if you maybe didn't write down any words, maybe it'll give you, uhm, some direction on what colors you should use.

04:52 The right colors also should go with the right audience. So men and women are, uhm, they, you know, gravitate towards certain colors.

05:02 They also don't, or sort of reject certain colors. So, uhm, blue, it's a pretty neutral color. It's liked by everyone.

05:10 It's, you know, it's nice. It's blue. Uhm, but then there's also some colors that really turn off a lot of people, like orange.

05:17 I actually really dislike the color orange. Uhm, and I'm right there with, you know, the majority of women. And men also really dislike orange.

05:25 So if you were thinking about orange, uhm, I would maybe not consider it. It's kind of hard to maybe think of a bunch of logos that are orange.

05:31 If you look here, uhm, not a ton of logos in the orange column when compared to, like, green and blue.

05:36 Uhm, those are logos are pretty big when you, well, it also gets smaller. But, uhm, orange is a tough color.

05:45 Something else to kind of consider is, purple is not very well-liked amongst men. It is really well-liked amongst women. And if we look back at this chart here, at MediaBooks, we talk a lot about creativity.

06:00 It is the only place on the internet where creative accounting isn't a bad thing. You would think I would want purple in our brand, but it is this chart that made me rethink it.

06:10 I also really don't like purple, so I'm also like this. I don't want to alienate a bunch of men, and if you watched that presentation I did earlier about market research, I know most accountants are men.

06:23 And so if I had a brand with a bunch of purple in it, I would with an audience that is primarily men, uhm, I knew it was just not going to land right with my tar- with a good chunk of my target audience.

06:38 So I stayed away from purple. Hopefully you can kind of start to see how all of these elements are coming together, and they're sort of nudging you into the right direction.

06:46 Uhm, this isn't- now, this isn't to say if you want to have a purple brand, you can't have a purple brand.

06:52 a purple brand, it is just something to be aware of as you are building your brand. This is more information, take it or leave it, it does not mean that you are going to have a successful or not successful business, this is just the direction that the information is trying to push you towards.

07:09 Uhm, and it is okay if every once in a while you kind of override that information, every once in a while, not all the time, but every once in a while.

07:16 The next area I want to talk about is what is brand typography? Brand typography is a consistent font format that is engaging, interesting, and legible That's an important word, legible in a way that your brand message, uh, gets across most appropriately.

07:32 I want you to look at the logos on the right there. If you notice, there is zero, QuickBooks, Coca-Cola, Gusto, LinkedIn.

07:41 What is kind of the one that doesn't belong? I would say Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has a sort of fun whimsical font.

07:51 If you didn't know it was Coca-Cola, maybe it would take you a second to actually read what it says. Um, versus these professional fonts, which are more geared towards professional services.

08:04 Umm, they have a very legible font. And so, I want you to kind of consider the difference and consider your services.

08:20 whimsical fonts, I'm sorry. They are great for more creative brands. They are great for more artistic brands, for well-known brands, where everyone doesn't really need to even read the name to know what it is.

08:30 Um, if you want to focus on clarity, if you have a word that's maybe not super common. Um, if you are in professional services, it may behoove you to have a more clear, legible font.

08:46 Um, now, again, having said that, that does not mean that you cannot have a successful accounting or bookkeeping firm with a- more cursive or abstract font.

08:56 It is just a trend, um, and frankly, a lot of these really big companies have a lot of money to do a lot of research, um, that maybe they don't share as far as why they chose a very clear, easy to read.

09:09 But, um, I think I, it's one of those things where it's kind of like you want to trust, uh, that they know what they're doing with all their market research funds and money.

09:19 Um, now you can of course go against the grain. It's a great way to stand out. But that's, That's kind of, uh, that's kind of your call.

09:27 As far as, um, how much you want to go against the grain versus rely on the information other businesses and trends provide.

09:37 So, brand typography has meaning. Just like color is meaning for your brand, typography is equally as powerful in representing the values and tones of your brand.

09:50 Typography is a large part of your visual brand. It is a- I mean, it's to ensure that it is well considered.

09:56 Representation, each classification of typeface has a different set of connotations and therefore will create a different representation of who you are and what you stand for as a brand.

10:06 So, I mean- Like I said before, if Linkedin had the same font as Coca-Cola, it would be a little off-putting but is it off-putting because you know the Linkedin brand so well or because that font doesn't really seem to go with what Linkedin is.

10:21 I would say- It may be both. Um, the Coca-Cola font is almost too fun of a font to be, um, associated with a brand or associated with a business that uses a lot of Excel spreadsheets.

10:33 It just feels like off-personality-wise. It doesn't mean we're boring, it doesn't- I mean our job sucks. It just means we're more focused on, like, clear, legible, easy-to-read communication.

10:47 Versus, like, fun soda. Typography impacts and experience small font sizes. Think about it. Small font sizes.

10:58 And low contrast are the number one complaint for website users. answers. When reading online, the seemingly small and inconsequential typographic mistakes lead to bad experiences and consequently bad connotations for your brand.

11:12 So that's something else you want to consider. If you are using a cursive font, if you remember back in that presentation before.

11:17 forward. I was looking through mood boards, um, and like those font pages. There were a lot of fonts that were very difficult to read, especially when they were small.

11:26 So you have to think about what font you pick. This is going to go on your business card. This is going to go on your website on all different sizes.

11:33 on Um, you want it to be easy to read, no matter the size, no matter the, you know, medium you were delivering that information to.

11:42 Your logo. Let's, uh, let's move on to the next. And that is your logo. Um, several reasons why your logo is important.

11:49 It grabs attention. It makes a strong first impression. It is the foundation of your brand identity. It should be memorable.

11:56 It separates you from the competition, fosters brand loyalty. And lastly, your audience. Expects it. Your audience expects you to have a logo.

12:05 Now, the logo is going to be the thing with your company that your clients probably see the most. Um, they're probably going to see your logo more than they're going to see your face.

12:15 So it's something that you really want to make. Make sure, uhm, captures their attention and is memorable. Your logo conveys a series of virtues and set of values without pages of copy and a team of copywriters.

12:28 It is not just about, what it looks like, but also about how it attracts the attention from your current and potential customers.

12:35 Here's an example. That logo on the bottom left. Do you know what that is? I'll give you a second. Now, uhh, you can probably decipher that there's the word London, and then we also see the Olympic rings.

12:50 But can you see, like, bigger picture of what it is? I don't know if you can tell. It's- oh, let me also move the bubble out of the way.

12:57 I don't know if you can tell. Um, this is supposed to be a 2012, like, a year. I'm sorry, but that is an awful logo.

13:08 Um, whoever designed this needs to rethink. A lot of things. Um, there's, it is very difficult to see that that's 2012. It is very difficult to read.

13:20 The numbers are awkward. The layout is awkward. There's also this yellow against white. You know, most backgrounds are probably gonna be white or a very light color.

13:29 And so to put yellow as the outline, the contrast is low. It's a very, very confusing and distracting logo. Your clients and perspective clients should not get confused or misunderstand your logo.

13:43 It should not require an explanation. Do not let design. Design, distract, customers, and the event your logo is too difficult to decipher or too dubious to describe.

13:52 You shouldn't have to explain it, like in, you know, in a whole bunch of detail. Here's another great case study.

13:59 Umm, this is Uber. This is Uber's first logo. What does that mean? I have no idea. I- I have no clue what this is.

14:11 But if you saw this app on your phone, would you remember that that's Uber? In those early days, when they're first coming out, probably not.

14:18 It is very forgettable. Umm, it looks like a backward C, and it's probably something you'd easily forget on your phone.

14:25 Versus this, where it is very clear contrast, very clearly it says what it is. It is a very simplified logo.

14:32 We are here to communicate clearly, and concisely, we are Uber. That's it. That's the end of the sentence. We're Uber.

14:40 I have no idea what this is. What do you want? Do you want a logo that inspires trust, loyalty, confidence?

14:47 You choose your logo carefully so your business may prosper and you may profit. You want to communicate ownership. Tell the world potential customers who you are, what type of product services you sell, what benefit you.

14:58 You offer customers and then also brand consistency is something you're going to want to consider. With your brand message, successfully tie your should be successfully tied to your logo.

15:08 Everything you do and create becomes associated with the logo and the brand. I realize this might be a lot of.

15:13 I don't know to wait to put on a small icon or the name of your business or a small little, just one word section.

15:20 But those things are going to be communicated when you choose a font, when you choose a color. And if you choose any sort of graphics, this is going to be seen all over, you know, everything you have.

15:30 So make sure that, um, it's something that you'll want to be consistent with because it communicates a level of clarity.

15:38 Um, that is not, uh, not difficult to see. Lastly, I want to talk about is a Brand Style Guide. A Brand Style Guide is a rulebook that explains how an organization presents itself to the world.

15:52 It's a reference tool that helps maintain consistency in what a brand looks, feels, and sounds like. And, essentially, you should be able to put this in the hands of any marketer, and they should be able to pick up your marketing without having missing a step in your branding.

16:08 Think of your brand identity as, as your company's personality. It's how the world recognizes you and begins to trust you.

16:15 So, if you see someone change frequently, um, you won't feel like you know them. You won't feel like you really understand who they are, and ultimately, you won't trust them.

16:26 That is why Brand Style Guide is important. Lastly, these are just some typical things included in a Brand Style Guide, and we have talked about all these.

16:34 So, mission, vision, values that we talked about, throw that in your Brand Style Guide. Logos, and the different variations of your logo.

16:41 Put that in your Brand Style Guide. Brand Color Palette, your Brand Typography, Your B hire Personas, your Brand Messaging. All of those should be in your Brand Style Guide.

16:51 as a little help. Um, in the bottom of this course under this video, um, there is a Brand Style Guide template for you to use and fill out and add your own Brand, uh, Brand Style Guide elements.