In this episode, we're going to be talking about three things you need to build a solid brand for your business.

Choose your colours.

Developing a colour palette will help your brand give a look and feel that is consistent. Colours say a lot about you! When we’re developing a colour pallete we will sometimes pull from a photo, or special objects - or when you’re just getting started, try picking up a book of paint palletes from hardware stores! 

Choose your fonts.

No more than three! More fonts do not make for better designs. When you’re just getting started, I recommend using two fonts max and learning to vary your designs with those two. When you are ready to explore - try a third!

Choose Your Imagery.

You can tell a lot of stories with one image! Original, branded photos are always the best option - but if you’re just getting started with your brand and need to find photos - we recommend choosing stock photos that tell a story and look like they belong together. Always make sure you have the right to use the images you select.

Hey Heather.

Hi Amin.

How are today?

I'm really good.

How are you?

Good.

Awesome.

Today on the show, we're going to be talking about three things.

You need to build a solid brand for your business.

Oh my goodness.

It's hard to narrow it down to just three, you know?

I think if you really look at the essentials of a brand, it would be the

look, the voice, and then the experience.

So the look would be everything that people think of when they think of

a brand, you know, the logo, the colors, the type, all of those things.

But a lot of people don't think about the brand voice.

So the brand voice is, the tone of voice people use the way they

speak the words they use through the way you name your products, but

there's also the brand experience.

And that can even be right on your websites.

So, you know, when a link breaks or when a shopping page doesn't

have a smooth checkout that impacts your brand experience.

But I think today I'd like to focus on my favorite part and that's the look.

Nice.

And I think that's what most people think about when it comes to a

brand is the colors, the pallets.

They don't really think about the voice and experience much.

But go ahead.

Let's hear what you have to say about the look.

Well, I think that, if we're gonna be talking about how to build your brand,

your brand look is you want to start with making sure that you have a map.

So we did this in a mood board.

Some people get brand guidelines.

You can put it all simply in one page that you can give to somebody so

that they can articulate your brand.

Or you can put it in a complicated book if you have lots of time on your hands, but

what you want to do is choose your colors.

So you want to choose a color family that you like, and you can go to Adobe color.

You can pick a color palette that way.

Or one of my favorite things to do is to go to a paint store.

So whenever I build any new brands, I use check out the colors that are turning

for interior design, because they're often trending in branding as well.

So then you can get your colors directly from that.

The second thing you want to do is choose some fonts.

So this is one of the biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs doing is they.

Use a bazillion fonts, so they don't even pay attention to what fonts are doing.

They just use whatever template pops up in Canva and they don't even care what

the typefaces is that they're using.

So I say, if you're not experienced in design stick to two fonts, if you've got

a lot of experience, you can maybe have three, but take the two typefaces that

you know really well because it will help people build recognition of your brand.

These fonts are they like headers and then one for the body, or are we talking

about two different header styles?

Well, you can have different header styles, but say, for example, if I'm

using a font like Ariel, we both know that's not my favorite, but say we're

using Ariel Ariel bold with Countess one and Erica light would count as one.

So you could use area light for your type.

And then Ariel bold for your headings.

That counts as two.

So if you're going to go with the rule of only two, you should be able

to do most of your design with that.

If you're going to add in a third one, maybe it's something a little

bit more bold, or maybe it's something that's a script font, something that

looks handwritten, you would use that in one of your heading styles

in your website, probably, but.

That's kind of the rules.

That's sometimes we need rules.

Like for example, in jazz, you have to learn your scales before you can learn how

to break them and learn your jazz scales.

Right?

It's like, you gotta learn the rules before you break them.

So the other thing that's important is.

The visuals that you use or the images that you use.

And we recommend if you're not going to be purchasing stock images, like

we have licenses for stock images that we purchased, you can find a lot of

free images on Unsplash and Pexels.

And what are your favorites?

Amin, well, I like 20, 20, it's a, it's not a free one, but it's

really good because they're more natural and a death to stock photo.

That's another one.

I love death to the stock photo.

I have a sufficient to that as well.

So what you want to do is kind of pick a vibe and a mood and a what you can

download a whole bunch of images that you feel like you resonate with, and then

look at them together and you'll notice which ones stick out and don't belong

and you get rid of those, and that will help you build your visual identity.

That's awesome.

Heather, thank you so much for explaining all of that.

Thanks for listening.

Your, your brand visuals are an important part because they're

the representation, right?

They're the first impression of your brand.

So having a few rules can help you really build something that's solid.

That's awesome.

And that ties in perfectly with tomorrow's topic, which is how brands build a trust.

So hopefully I hope you'll join us tomorrow for that topic.