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5 Reasons Your Visual Brand Is So Important

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Building a strong visual brand can feel overwhelming and unnecessary when all you really want to do is perfect the quality of your product or service and focus on selling it. But if you’re reading this article, you’ve probably already accepted the reality that a strong visual brand is an important part of both. It’s the foundation of product development and the catalyst for making that sell.

What is a visual brand?

A visual brand (VB) is a big part of your marketing strategy. It’s made up of all the visual elements (colors, fonts, and images) you use to represent your business. It reflects your vision and mission and helps to streamline marketing in a way that a fragmented visual identity cannot. Here are five key reasons why your visual brand is more than just for decoration.

1. Clients can easily identify you by your VB.

What’s your fashion style? Are you a casual t-shirt and jeans person with a laid-back personality, a slacks and blazer type who approaches life like you’re at the head of a conference table, or that person who dawns the latest, over-the-top trend every chance you get? Your fashion style is part of your personal brand. It’s one of the ways others identify you.  The visual brand you establish for your business has the same effect. It gives your clients and potential clients a strong idea of your business’ identity. If each type of collateral you distribute is visually independent of the next (i.e., your social media posts have a completely different color palette than what’s used on your business card and each of those items uses a different family of fonts compared to the ones used on your digital flyer), clients may find it difficult to know it’s you from item to item. On the other hand, if every piece of collateral you present uses the same combination of colors and fonts, high-quality photographs with similar lighting, and/or unique illustrations, clients are more likely to immediately remember to associate each of your promotional pieces with your product or service.

2. Your VB inspires clients to feel emotionally connected to your business.

As humans, we often have an emotional connection to a strong visual brand. Not only do we tend to associate a favorable (or unfavorable) experience with brands we’ve come across, elements of brands we are just seeing for the first time can inspire us to feel a connection as well. For example, a shade of turquoise that reminds you of the ocean you saw on a relaxing beach vacation that’s used on a spa flyer, might cause you to associate those fond memories with that spa and inspire you to patronize it. It’s not just colors that move us, other visual elements like fonts can have a similar effect. Heavy bold fonts with thick serifs might make us think of college sports while thin serifless fonts might remind you of your favorite perfume or beauty product.

3.  Your VB clarifies what you are selling. 

One of the characteristics of a strong visual brand is a clear message through imagery and text. Potential clients who can understand beyond a doubt what you are selling can easily determine whether your product or service is a good match for their needs and are more likely to patronize your business if they are in the market for it.

4. Your VB helps your business run more efficiently.

A strong visual brand is representative of your business mission and vision. For that reason, once it’s established it empowers you to navigate through a sea of otherwise time-consuming business operations like developing new collateral, expansion, and even helping clients to decide favorably on whether you are a good fit for their needs.

5. Your VB helps your business stand out from the competition.

Let’s face it, your visual brand is only part of what makes your business unique, the quality of the product or service you’re selling plays an even bigger role. But even before that first sale a strong visual presentation of your business makes you recognizable when compared to your competition.

Ways You Can Strengthen Your Visual Brand

There are lots of ways to establish or improve your visual brand is an ongoing process, but some key initial steps are:

  1. Audit Your Materials
    If you’re an established business, one of the first steps you should take to strengthen your visual brand is to perform a communications audit. A communications audit involves pulling together all your existing marketing collateral, displaying it side by side in the same space and comparing each element, and taking note of the colors, fonts, and imagery you use. If you haven’t already come up with a mission, doing so before you choose your VB elements is best.
  2. Choose Your VB Elements
    The next step involves selecting the colors, fonts, and imagery styles that best reflect your mission and vision.
  1. Create a style guide and decide what promotional items you’ll need.
    You can hire a graphic designer to develop a professional style guide for your business. In its most basic form, a style guide is a listing of all the visual elements you’ve selected to represent your business. You’ll use this guide for the life of your business even if you decide to rebrand years down the road.
  1. Choose your marketing collateral.
    Determining what promotional items will be the most useful is another important step. Every business is different, most start-ups need elements like a logo, social media graphics, and a business card.

Whether you own a start-up or an established business, a visual brand is always within reach. To learn more on how to strengthen your VB, take The Bulb Graphics Visual Brand Challenge.

Filed Under: BLOG, BRANDING

DeKalb County Small Business Development Conference

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Each year DeKalb County facilitates a small business conference in Decatur, Georgia at which around 300 attendees participate in workshops, a breakfast, lunch and dinner event, and a vendor exhibit area.

We were tasked with creating graphics materials for this event in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. For this event, we designed posters, vertical and horizontal banners, tickets, table tents, name tags, brochures and more.

 

 

Filed Under: BRANDING

Cornerstone Community Services

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Cornerstone Community Services needed GMDS to create a visual brand for its non-profit start-up from the ground up.

Once the owner of Cornerstone shared it’s creative goals, we were able to come up with colors that represented its mission and vision, finalize a logo and create supplemental promotional items like a brochure, business cards, a website and letterhead.

 

 

Filed Under: BRANDING

En-Lyfe Nutraceutical Research Group

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GMDS went a step further when En-Lyfe Nutraceutical Group had us complete it’s visual brand with a consistent brochure, corporate identity items and a website.

Initially ENG presented us with three original logo comps that they had procured from another graphic designer, the design dimensions we were to use (5.5 x 8.5 inches with bleeds), and the actual product in a plain white bottle as the foundation for what we were to create. The logo comps were great and gave us a foundation on which to build. Read more about an item from this project.

 

 

Filed Under: BRANDING

The Power of the Purse Event Branding

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A fun project with a burst of bright colors. Girls Inc. of Washington D.C. enlisted our services to create the look of it’s elegant event entitled The Power of the Purse. Girls Inc. representatives submitted an idea and some great photographs that enabled us to come up with an effective identity symbol and other promotional items like a program booklet, save-the-date cards, a flyer and an e-blast.

 

 

Filed Under: BRANDING

Roswieta Glass
Roswieta Glass
December 4, 2022.
Bulb Graphics is at the top of their game! After years of experience with the highest quality of service we applaud the never ending excellence of Bulb Graphics. This company has the ability to manifest thoughts in brillant ways, far above the ask. Everytime, we are amazed at the outcome of our projects, they are clean and always professionally trendy! Bulb Graphics, LLC is for sure, the best in the business! Rose M. Glass Business Woman
Audrey Galex
Audrey Galex
December 2, 2022.
Joey Johnson’s warmth and creativity shine through in every project she touches. She brings a sensibility of wonder and joy to all of her endeavors, from her eye-catching craft projects for kids to her up-cycled and recycled fabric projects. She is flexible and professional and a joy to work with. I look forward to seeing how she will next put her talents to use in the future!
Christina Evans
Christina Evans
November 30, 2022.
Joey at Bulb Graphics is a pleasure to work with! Her graphics are beautiful, her turnaround time is stellar, and her products are high quality. It is amazing how she brings our ideas to life through her graphics. We are very pleased with her work and she is our graphic designer of choice for the foreseeable future! I highly recommend! You will not be disappointed.
Adrienne Montgomery
Adrienne Montgomery
November 30, 2022.
Joey is so resourceful and creative. She listened to my ideas and created an impressive logo for my business. She's thoughtful and professional. Timely and innovative and such a pleasure to work with.
Foodlove with Anna
Foodlove with Anna
November 30, 2022.
I needed a design for my catering business logo and all I can say is wow! The design is more beautiful than I could ever imagine. The finished product was completed in less time than I anticipated and the price was more than reasonable for the work. The logo they created capture the essence of my brand perfectly. I will definitely use them again and I’d recommend their services to anyone needing designs.
Monica McGhie
Monica McGhie
November 29, 2022.
I found Joey online and have been working with her for over a year. She is creative, fast, and reliable. Her files are clean and technical, and she fully understands the needs of her customers. She takes feedback well and is an absolute pleasure to work with. I can't recommend her more highly.
Coleen Stanley
Coleen Stanley
November 29, 2022.
I met Joey in 2015 on a project for a government client. She was honestly the best graphic designer that I had ever worked with - extremely creative, professional, and manages to deliver before deadlines every time. Since then, I have commissioned her for every project that I have been in need of graphic design services - branding, logos, eBooks, etc. She always nails my vision and I am so grateful to have crossed paths with such a talented and creative mind!
M. Mitchell
M. Mitchell
November 29, 2022.
I have had the pleasure of doing business with this company for a couple of years. They are Talented, Professional & Efficient. Highly recommended.
Google rating score: 5 of 5,
based on 8 reviews

FAQ

What kind of graphic design services does Bulb Graphics offer? We specialize in publication designs like programs, reports, magazines, and brochures. We also create other marketing collateral—posters, ads, fact sheets, e-learning elements, logos, and graphics that are optimized for social media. In fact, if you bring us your idea, we’ll do our best to transform […]

5 Reasons Your Visual Brand Is So Important

Building a strong visual brand can feel overwhelming and unnecessary when all you really want to do is perfect the quality of your product or service and focus on selling it. But if you’re reading this article, you’ve probably already accepted the reality that a strong visual brand is an important part of both. It’s […]

7 Projects You Need a Logo for That Aren’t Your Business

7 Projects You Need a Logo for That Are NOT Your Business

A logo is an important part of your visual brand. If done well, it tells a story about the products or services you provide. But a logo is not just used for a typical business. Symbolism that can be used on a variety of collateral is ideal for other ventures. 1. Professional Events A well […]

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