Startup Branding Tips – are your ideas in the clouds?
One of the first big expenses new business pour money into is their brand and design of stationary.
For some this is justified but for others who have a tight budget there is a number of simple, smart and affordable steps you can take to avoid sinking too much money early.
1. Visual message? Don't jump into your designers office and say man - really love cricket Australia colours - yeah that's what I want!
Before you go in, think about:
What sort of styles represent your identity
What's the key message we néed to put forward in a flash
What are the words, what are symbols that best represent who you are
What are my competitors doing? Are they doing it well or poorly: how silly would you feel if you created a logo only to find out your competitor has the same one
2. Funky Freebies As you know I love a good Internet freebie!
So here's some for today: Funky Fonts There is some fantastic and funny fonts on this site. A lot of the fonts are Freeware so can be used for commercial purposes also. But do check out the terms yourself, the teams behind the smart open source graphics deserve a little recognition.
99Designs Is a good place to get some simple start up design done on logos, stationary, animations, graphics and it's quite easy to use. I'd watch out for some of the bigger jobs though, check out reviews and be clear in your expectations. Even if it's in writing it's important to be clear.
Free High Quality Photos Is a fantastic place source good quality photography at decent prices, and even for free for your website in exchange for a link back.