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elf@elf-design.com.
Best regards
Erin Ferree
http://www.elf-design.com
Visual elements are a major part of your business's brand
identity design. The keystone of that design is the logo,
but in many cases, the logo isn't enough to convey all of
your brand attributes. A visual vocabulary is a way to
reinforce and add to the messaging that is contained in
your logo.
A company's visual vocabulary consists of the secondary
design elements that are used in conjunction with your logo
to form your brand identity. The visual vocabulary is
composed of font styles, colors, shapes, layout
conventions, backgrounds, photographic library, text
treatments (such as taglines) and even the type of paper
you choose.
These elements should be used consistently throughout your
stationery set and marketing collateral and have the
following 9 advantages over use of a logo and text alone:
- The elements of your visual vocabulary become a graphic
language, which takes your viewer deeper into your graphics
and materials. They add visual interest and continue to
tell your business's story. They are another way that you
can communicate about your business with potential clients
and prospects, aside from the actual words and text about
your business.
- Graphics in a visual vocabulary are a method of
communication that's more quickly understood than text
alone. A viewer can absorb the meanings of colors, symbols,
photos, shapes and even font types much more quickly than
by reading text. So, in cases where time is of the
essence-when you're marketing to busy people, creating
motion graphics such as animations or commercials or
designing items that people will quickly pass by, such as
car graphics or billboards, this is an important
consideration.
- Many people have a deeper emotional connection with
graphics than they do with text. Customers will be more
likely to form an emotional bond with your brand and
company if you use more graphics, as opposed to just using
your logo and text on a letterhead, business card,
datasheet or brochure. Color and photography are two of the
most effective visual vocabulary elements to use to affect
this emotional brand connection.
- You can communicate some of the "personality factors" of
your business through your visual vocabulary. You can make
your company look more professional or people-oriented,
more contemporary or traditional or communicate any of your
company's values by varying the shapes, colors and fonts
used as the surrounding visual vocabulary. So, if you
choose your vocabulary elements carefully, the story of the
personality of your company can be told through those
elements.
- Using a visual vocabulary consistently throughout all of
your corporate materials will automatically make your
materials look more coherent, credible and professional,
through the repetitive use of consistent elements.
- The right combination of visual vocabulary elements can
also make your materials more eye-catching. When your
materials are in competition with others-in a stack of
proposals, on a table with other brochures or even a
postcard coming out of a crowded mailbox-they'll have a
better chance of getting noticed when they are designed
with stunning and unique visual vocabulary elements.
- Forty percent of viewers better remember visual elements.
A visual vocabulary will increase the memorability of your
materials as well, since people will have more visual
elements to remember in your materials.
- Elements of the visual vocabulary can reinforce your logo
to help quicken the brand recognition building process. One
common way that we do this is to use a large version of the
company's logo, or a portion of the logo, as a watermark on
the letterhead, business card, envelope or website. Not
only does this vocabulary element effect add visual
interest, but it will help to speed the time that it takes
for your potential customers and existing clients to
recognize and remember your brand.
- A visual vocabulary becomes a tool kit from which you can
easily pull visual elements to create new marketing
materials. If you have a business card and brochure and
need to create a post card quickly, then many of your
visual elements, such as color scheme, font styles and even
layout and photograph choices can be pulled from the
existing marketing materials and rearranged to create a new
piece. This is especially convenient when you have a short
time or low budget to produce new marketing materials.
The bonus function of a visual vocabulary is that when
you're doing a special promotion, launching a new product
or extending your services or product line, you can vary
elements of the visual vocabulary or even develop a new set
of visual vocabulary elements, to make the materials for
your new promotion stand out. While consistency throughout
a campaign is important, the elements of your visual
vocabulary aren't as set in stone as your logo. This is
especially effective when you work just with the colors and
drawn elements and leave the text and tagline treatments
the same. That way, your materials will still be partially
consistent with your other company materials, but you can
give your new product or promotion's materials a voice of
its own.
Adding some visual vocabulary elements to your brand
identity makes communicating with your audience easier,
quicker and more emotionally charged. This gives you a
highly effective way to increase your visibility and
memorability. When used correctly, they can increase your
credibility as well. They even can help add some
personality to your brand identity and can make future
marketing materials easier to develop. And, unlike your
company logo, you can modify the visual vocabulary elements
you use from time to time to spice up your business
communications.
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Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design
strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses.
Through her customized marketing and brand identity
packages, Erin helps her clients design effective websites
that help them extend their brands, bring in new clients
and make sales. http://www.elf-design.com