Clients often come to me for personal (or business branding) photos without having a clear vision for their brand.
They often get lost and don’t know where to start so I’ve got a 4 step branding boot camp for you.
Step 1. Distill the essence of your brand into one word and make sure everything aligns with that word.
My business Photoform*’s one word? Fun. My website, photoshoot experience and client interactions align with that feeling. You can see for yourself: www.photoform.com.au
Think about this before you make any design decisions as it will save time and cost later if you have to redesign or reshoot. And your business doesn’t have to use fun. It could be calm, clever, you name it. Just make sure it aligns with your industry. I mean you wouldn’t want to use fun for a funeral business. Eek.
Step 2. Pick a colour palette and 2 or three fonts.
Again make sure these align with the brand mood you’ve decided on. You can literally Google ‘fun fonts and colour palettes’ for inspiration. Research brands you love for inspiration.
If you’re not super confident with design don’t go overboard with different colours. Two or three is fine. Again with fonts pick two or three. You don’t have to spend a fortune, you can even use Google fonts. Again, do some research: ‘fun Google font combinations’.
Step 3. Sign up for Canva.
You can even use a free tier account while you get started. Head to https://www.canva.com/brand
There you can plug in the fonts and brand colours you decided on before and you’re halfway there. Now every time you design anything in Canva you can use your brand’s fonts and colours. You can also use these colours and fonts on your website.
Step 4. Experiment and play!
I’m not a designer but over the years my design confidence has grown just from practice and experimentation. Like anything, the more you do it the better you get. And even if you hire a designer, having done this brand groundwork is going to help you communicate with them more effectively.
There are a billion design resources on the web to inspire you. Canva has a great section on the basics of design to get you started.
Two of my faves are https://ilovecreatives.com/ and an Australian designer’s https://emmatroy.com.au/
