A brand kit is an important resource that is easily overlooked. In this post, learn what a Brand Kit is, why it is important, and how to create one for yourself.
Everyone can benefit from having a brand kit. If you are just starting your business or if you have been in business for years, you can create this useful resource for keeping your brand cohesive across all media. By having a brand kit, you can help increase your sales. Keep reading to find out how.
What is a Brand Kit?
A brand kit - or brand style guide - is a resource containing all the visual elements or aspects of your brand and rules for how to use them. If you think of some of the biggest brands out there, you think of certain visual elements without even realizing it.
Let’s do a little exercise. Can you identify the brands below?
FedEx is easily recognizable just by their colors.
Coca-Cola can be identified by its signature font.
Target’s logo is one that can be picked out easily in a line up.
By using their branding and styling guides, these companies are able to keep their brand cohesive and easily recognizable.
What is Included in a Brand Kit?
A brand kit contains all the visual elements associated with a brand. This means the fonts, logo, logo variations, colors, and any images or graphics that are associated with your brand. Let’s break that down.
Fonts
Having several fonts to use with your brand will help you to create a variety of content with appealing visual aesthetics. You may not use all of the fonts for every piece of content you have, but when you do, it will be cohesive with the rest of your brand. When choosing your fonts, try to select a couple different styles (script, block, serif, etc.).
Logo and Variations
A logo is the image that is used to identify your business. There are many types of logos, including letters, a mascot, a word, or an emblem. The more customers see this logo, the more they will recognize it with your brand.
Variations of a logo can be used for different situations and designs. For example, if your logo is a simple black logo, it may work on your website that has a colored background. But, what happens when you take that black logo and put it on a black background? It blends in with the background and you can’t see it. To keep this from happening, you may want to have a variation of your logo that is white to use when the background is black.
Complicated or larger logos could have a simpler variation. While the complicated version works great on your website, a simpler version may work better for smaller uses. Think of Facebook, for example. The name itself is often used as the logo. But when they need a smaller icon, they have a simpler “f” logo. The user recognizes both as Facebook, though.
Colors
By identifying a color scheme, you can create consistency across all channels - from your website to your socials, and even to your email campaigns. This doesn’t mean you can’t use any other colors. It just means that it’s the basic and main colors you would like to use in most of your content. In fact, you can identify the uses and rules in the style guide.
Images and Graphics
Another element that you may want to identify in your brand style guide is images and graphics.
If you are a consultant or freelancer, you may have a professional headshot that you would like to use in email signatures, certain profile pictures, or brochures. If you manage an event venue, there may be particular venue photos that you would like to use for your media. Whatever your industry or job, there may be graphics or images that you want to use for your brand.
Brand Style Guide
In the style guide, or brand guide, you can create rules and guidelines for using your branding elements. Rules will include when to use certain logo variations, when and how to use colors, fonts, and graphics. Any rules that you would like to create go in the style guide.
Why is a Brand Kit Important?
By having a brand Kit, you can be cohesive across all your channels. Why is being cohesive important? By being recognizable, you are building trust. Repetition helps customers remember you. When they see your brand over and over, they will start to remember it and identify it. With the age of social media and the internet, people are constantly and quickly scrolling through hundreds of posts in a matter of minutes. They may see your content for just a few seconds before they keep scrolling. If someone sees your brand over and over while scrolling, it may spark curiosity that draws them to click on your content or website.
A brand kit also saves time by having rules already established. Let’s say you are doing a collaboration with someone and will have a guest post on their website. Their website may not have colors or styles that work well with your brand (remember the example earlier with a black logo on a black background?). By having predetermined rules, you won’t have to think about how to approach it. Just look at your style guide and use the elements that were predetermined for this purpose.
If you have a team or ever need to hire someone to do some work for you, you will have something concrete and well defined to give to them for reference. (Have you noticed that I’ve said cohesive fifteen million times in this post? I’m about to say it a few more times…sorry!) You brand can be cohesive across people, not just social media channels. Everyone will have the same toolkit to look at and reference before posting, creating, and designing new elements of your business, products, or service. It’s so important to be recognizable from wherever you are. Whether it’s on a box, an ad, social media, your website, in an email…wherever!, you want your customers to be able to recognize you.
In summary, by having a brand kit, you can be cohesive with your brand. Being cohesive with your brand will build trust with your customers. When customers trust you, they will purchase your product or service! Brand Kit = Trust = Sales
How to Create a Brand Kit?
Creating a brand kit is really about sitting down and writing all the rules for your brand style. Think about your logo and what variations you may need. Write down what rules you want when using your logo. Do you want to use certain variations for different things? Do you want to change the colors when the background is the same as the logo? Or do you want to just put a white or black box behind it instead?
When you identify what fonts you want to use, determine when each will be used and for what purpose. Do you want certain fonts to be used as headings 100% of the time? Do you want a certain font for the body of product labels or books? Think about what you use your fonts on and how you want to make them cohesive..
There are many online tools that can help you with creating your brand kit. If you have no idea where to start, I have designed a brand builder digital workbook that can help guide you through the process of building your brand. You can find it in my Etsy shop.
If you would like help creating one, request a free consultation call today! We can have a casual chat to discuss your needs and decide how I can help you out.
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