What is branding?

Branding helps you convey values through visuals. In order to stick to their message, brands use guidelines or graphic standards. This can include how your logo should be used, what colour scheme or what fonts best reflects your message. It’s basically a recipe.

Why in hell do I need branding?

Have you ever tried to cook without following a recipe? Sure sometimes it might end well (& don’t get me wrong great inventions come from people who deviate from the path) but usually instructions are here for a reason. Point is: brands should and will have irregularities but they also need consistency and order, which will lead to familiarity and trust.

If you don’t have time for a design crash course here are some basics you can apply when branding your product and your Ulule page : )

Keep it simple

Not a designer? Perfect you’re going to love the less-is-more mantra! This simple advice will keep you safe in your branding journey. The rule of 3’s is a great start, limit your choices (including fonts, colors) to just 3 choices. Anything more will lead to confusing, cluttered messages.

Logotype

First things first, you’re going to need a logotype. Either you find yourself a designer, you can pick one online: Fiverr (cheapest online community, you can have a logo for less than 10$) or here: 99 Designs (very trustworthy several designers will work on your logo for less than 300$)

Feeling arty? You can design your logo online with tools like: Tailor Brands (get a logotype in 3 steps) or here: Canva (a free editing tool quite easy to pick up)

Always remember to keep it simple, your logotype should work at a large scale (billboards or signage) as well as a small scale (business cards, or social media avatar).

Colors

You might want to define colours at the same time you’re creating your logotype. They should coexist in harmony. If you ain’t keen on color theory, there are great online tools out there that will help you pick a colour palette Adobe color or Coolors Pretty simple: choose a palette and stick to it ;) 

Fonts

Moving on to fonts, to spice things up my advice is to go with 3 different font families. Such as a serif for title, a sans-serif for body text, and a more creative/fun one. You can find free fonts here : Font Squirrel 

If you’re planning on having a website you want to find your fonts here : Google Web Fonts They are web-friendly ;) 

Social media assets

Once you have your style guide ready stick to it when communicating, for example when creating assets for social media. 

You can create them yourself with : Canva  

And you can find inspiration, and free assets here: Freepik (database of free visual assets: photos, icons, illustrations)

If you want to customize vectorial files (.ai, .svg, .eps) you’re going to need a graphics editor such as Illustrator (you can download the free trial) or Inkscape (open source: inkscape).

You should definitely make those choices as soon as possible, and apply them to your Ulule campaign. If your message is clear and cohesive it will bring trust, and trust will enable you to consolidate or grow your community of backers!

Here are some examples of Ulule pages with a strong branding:

Dossier magazine  /  Hylla Penderie Partagée  /  La Nomade   /  Oh My Tea

My advice: hire a designer. 

You can find freelances online (more or less cheap): Fiverr (cheapest on the market) or here: 99 Designs (very trustworthy)

You don’t need the whole package and you can simply start with a logotype + styleguide. Decide on a budget add it to your campaign budget and you’re done ;)