Prepping your Brand Assets for a Website Project (Part 1 of 3 Steps to Planning a New Website)

You’re probably thinking, “I already have a logo!” Box one checked! If this is you, hoorah and congrats. Now let me burst your bubble…

A “logo” isn’t a “brand.” I mean, technically, the word brand comes from the idea of burning a piece of wood with a hot iron. You know, marking your cattle, labeling something that belongs to you, or marking your work so people know who made it…

Logos are important, don’t get me wrong. But the logo itself doesn’t tell the whole story.

Your brand assets should create an entire experience. A brand is the feeling that people get when they come in contact with your product or service for the first time: it could be the way your staff answers the phone, or how you use hashtags in your headlines when writing a really insanely good How-To article (Who, me? You’re too kind).

Branding takes creativity, feeling and strategy. But to make this easy-peasy for you, and to get everything in order for your new website (YAYYY!!!!), here are the assets you will need to pull off a super sexy, memorable digital experience. (Or maybe not, maybe you are going to dry humor with some under-tones of granola. P.S. Brands can do that, too…)

Un-relate your brand

I’m going to let you in on a secret. This is the exact method I’ve been using to elevate online experiences, connect your brand to your tribe, and give life and energy into your marketing.

Ready? Here it is: compare it to something un-related it to your own industry.

Stop comparing it to other websites in your industry! It’s no wonder all the websites and brands out there are the same. Real estate offices making house logos, construction companies using hammers, pizza companies using … pizzas. OMG you can thank Vista Print for these!

Relate your brand personality with something else that you love. Maybe you’re a pizza company that loves 80s music. What is it about 80s music that you love so much? How does it make you feel? Maybe you build houses and you reminisce about how they used to make quality tools… what is it about quality-made products that empowered you?

Don’t let those nasty marketing people lie to you: Everything has meaning in it.

If you want to learn more about why belief drives sales (and not price), read this article about creating a cult of obsessed brand buyers.

ACTION: Define Your Brand Personality

This should be like breathing for you. I want you to follow these exact instructions, in order:

1. Get a blank piece of paper
2. Gather your favorite pen, pencil, marker, or crayon, I don’t care.
3. Brain dump ALL THE WORDS that come to mind first when I ask you this question… ready?

Question: How do you want your customers to feel?

E.G. Inspired, smart, hilarious, spunky, healthy, modern, elegant, calm, etc

Nice work!! These words should reflect the emotions, traits, and characteristics you want people to associate with your brand. Next…

• Narrow the words down to less than 5 (trust me)
• Feel free to tweak and edit your choices. I personally love using Wordhippo or Grammarly to help me pick the exact adjectives I’m going for.

Your Final Words Choices:

Once you have your words, you can use them as a foundation for shaping your brand’s identity and messaging.

Next, build a mood board

A mood board is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a visual representation of the emotion your brand is trying to convey. Your mood board should be filled with images, text, colors, and illustrations that evoke those words you wrote down earlier. This will help keep all of your design decisions consistent and enable you – or your designer – to move through the build quickly.

Canva has some really great ready-to-customize mood boards and brand stylesheets (you can use either one). Here’s what should be included:

• Full color and white on black version of your logo
• Color pallet with up to 5 colors
• Font choices, up to 2 font families with different weights and styles
• Photos that represent the mood or lifestyle you are going for

What about white and black?

Speaking of color, you should include all of your color choices in your color pallet – including white or black if you choose to use them. Remember, you can use cream or off-white instead of white, and many designers choose a dark gray or even dark blue over black in most cases. Black and/or white are specific choices in a color pallet and make a big statement, so use them carefully.

Don’t have inspiration? Use this Creative Market trick:

This is real homework that I give to my clients.

1. Go to CreativeMarket.com
2. Use your brand words to search for power point templates (E.G. “[adjective] powerpoint templates” like “funky powerpoint templates” or “empowering, feminine powerpoint templates”)
3. Use the colors, layout styles and ideas to help you finalize your mood board. These can also help you create a stunning website layout as well!

In addition, I often recommend that my clients make a list of brands that they love and buy all the time, and then go look through their websites for ideas. You can keep these in a file as well.

Tools for creating your mood board:

• Coolors.co for creating a color pallet (you can even use a photo or graphic art to help you coordinate your favorite colors)
• Fontpair.co for matching fonts together
• Canva.com for mood board tools
• CreativeMarket.com for design inspiration

Stock Photo and Video:

If you do not have any branded photos or videos from a professional photographer, there are some natural stock photo options available. Some free, some not. What you will want to do is curate a group of photos or videos that you could use, or at least serve as examples of photos that you want to find more of. Here are some places to look:

• Canva
• iStockphoto
• Unsplash.com
• Twenty20.com

Prepping the Core Brand Assets:

Phew! Nice work. You’ve got a lot done already. Here is your final checklist of things you will need to have on hand to begin your website:

• full-color version of your logo with a transparent background (PNG)
• one-color version of your logo with a transparent background (PNG)
• Favicon: 16×16 pixel minified version pulled form your logo. Don’t have one? Go with a 16×16 square
• Color pallet
• Font choices and varieties
• A file of sample layouts or inspiring websites or brands that you compare to your own brand
• A curated folder of branded or stock photos and/or videos

That’s everything you should need!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our web design series. See ya soon!

Go back to the 3 Steps to planning your website