How To Use Your Design Elements
Updated: Aug 31, 2022
This post is for those lovely clients of ours who've just finished up the design process with us, and have received a folder packed full of design elements, that they're wondering what to do with now.
The most important thing in terms of rolling out a brand is COHESION.
"A cohesive brand helps you to make a positive first impression, increase sales, become more recognisable, stand out from your competition, and become more memorable. Make it easier on yourself to do business by taking a cohesive approach to your branding." - LeapGo
What does this mean for you?
Just that when you start to use the elements, be CONSISTENT.
Use ONLY the fonts that our design team has selected and worked into your brand. Each font has been thoughtfully chosen for YOU, in order to tell the story you want to tell - strong, bold fonts for a brand that wants to stand out from the crowd; dreamy, flowy fonts for a whimsical brand that focuses on selling sweet illustrations for children's rooms.....
Each font, design feature and element has been very carefully crafted to tell YOUR story, and the more consistently you can make use of the elements we've provided you with, the better.
Keep referring back to your MOOD BOARD and BRANDING KIT (these will be in the final Dropbox folder we supplied you with), in order to fill up your eyeballs with inspiration every time you're planning out your feed, or wondering how to implement your branding across your platforms.
The aim is that wherever your client interacts with your brand - on any social media platform, in real life, on your website - they can INSTANTLY recognise your branding and know where they are.
1. Get excited!
Yay! Your brand is about to come to life - and WE ARE SO EXCITED!
If you already have a business and following, maybe you'd like to plan a "launch date" - a moment when you'll change the branding across all of your platforms, and let everyone know that you have an amazing new look and feel.
Or if you're starting from scratch, it's a great time to let all your friends and family know (via a newsletter, or even a whatsapp infographic), that you're launching, and to get them to get excited with you!
2. Roll it out.
So, here's how you action the above:
Start by changing your profile pic on all your platforms to your new logo.
Here's how to update your Instagram profile photo.
Here's how to update your facebook profile photo.
3. Dig deep on your MESSAGE.
All of these pretty elements are sure to make your brand stand out from the crowd, but having powerful copy to go with it all is VERY important as well.
Make sure that when you're introducing your followers to your new look, or your new brand, you're talking about the PASSION behind what you do, you're explaining the INTRICATE process that makes your product so unique, you're telling the story of how you inherited the skill that allowed you to create this service from a much-loved grandparent.
Get emotive, get expressive, show your heart, and engage with your potential audience - you can do this!
4. Get snapping.
If you haven't already booked a photo shoot with our team, we highly recommend doing so. It's one thing having cohesive branding elements across your platforms, but IMAGERY is very important to that as well.
Having the same team working on your branding AND your photography means that your brand's look and feel can be cohesive across ALL of your elements, which as discussed above, is SO important!
5. Go big
Update your facebook banner by following these instructions.
Use our instagram look and feel that we've designed for you to roll out a gorgeous 9-12 images on your feed, that tie in your brand's new colour palette, logo and imagery.
6. Customising your own IG stories and feed posts
Maybe you're ready now to start taking what we've created and having a bit more fun with it? This is great for when you're starting to create your own IG stories or feed posts.
We highly recommend using the app Over - which is super user-friendly.
You can import the fonts the team has selected for you into this app. Here's how.
And then you can drop in your logo, and imagery from your shoot from us, or from the stock imagery folder we've prepped for you into the Over app, and create the stories and feed posts as and when you need them.
If you'd prefer, chat to us about our retainer packages, and we can create this type of content for you on an ongoing basis. (We don't manage social media accounts, but we can do the necessary design work).
7. Get printing
if we've designed you printables (business cards, labels etc), get printing!
We recommend Jetline in Illovo for your printing needs. But also do remember - there is a big move away from printables right now (and we've ended up unfortunately tossing out more printed goods than we'd like to admit to!). Digital marketing is EVERYTHING these days.
8. Build a website with us
At this stage, usually the next step is building a website with us (if we haven't already done so!).
A website is the ultimate showcase for your brand, and it's really important to our web design team that they continue the same idea of COHESION throughout the site.
They will use your brand's colour palette, fonts and imagery to continue to tell your story - each element is truly considered when bringing your brand to life online.
Your website should truly be your brand's home on the internet - and the place that you're proud to send your clients.
Are you maybe making one of these make-it-or-break-it website mistakes on your current site? Find out quick!
9. Keep adapting
Chat to us as you go - we know businesses grow and adapt (especially at the moment!), at a crazy pace. Maybe you need updated banners for a new seasonal offering, or your team has changed so you'd like new head shots taken.
Or, if we've been working on your website, maybe you're ready to offer a new service, or launch an e-commerce store!
Either way, we're here for you, and can help with all of the above and more.
Pop our lovely office manager Grace an email to chat through the options :)
Robyn Davie Creative Studio is a brand with nearly a decade of experience in lifestyle photography and custom photo book creation. During 2020 they diversified into graphic and digital design, and have been happily creating branding for businesses around the world since then.
In 2021, the team launched Fynn Studio - a natural light studio space in Johannesburg, available for rent by photographers, creatives and clients.
The team has won multiple awards for their photography, and proudly partnered up with the iStore in 2020. Innovation is at the forefront of everything they do.
All photos and designs in this post were created by the Robyn Davie Creative Studio team.
All photos, designs and content are copyrighted to Robyn Davie Creative Studio.
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