Build your own brand with these design tips for small businesses.
We’re at our best when we’re growing, but that growth often comes with growing pains. We setting our sights on expanding our brand, and with anything in business, the struggle is definitely real. But what’s on the other side of the pain is always worth it though, and this is your friendly reminder (and ours) that it’s OK to stop trying to fit do everything all at once.
So here are our tips to help you with your small business.
Keep your marketing simple and that all starts with the typefaces that you choose to use
As a general rule, it is often better to pick a typeface that has more than one weight variation mixing and matching different typefaces in your marketing. This will ensure that the typefaces you choose work well together since they are a part of the same family and can help avoid awkward-looking layouts. When in doubt of which typefaces work well together, make it easier on yourself and just pick one with a light, medium, and bold option.
Don’t overwhelm by trying to say everything
When you are designing, make sure that you have a good amount of information on your marketing graphic without it being overwhelming. The amount of type that you place on a marketing piece should balance with the size of that piece. Meaning that a square social graphic is going to have less copy than a multiple page lead magnet. If you are creating something that requires a lot of content, it is better to spread it out among multiple pages, rather than try to squeeze everything into one.
Make your marketing easy to read
We probably mention this in every social post and blog post that we write, but it’s such an important rule, we cannot emphasize it enough. It’s often tempting to fill your entire page with type to avoid creating multiple pages, but this technique can make your marketing materials hard to read for individuals with vision issues. Your content will be communicated more effectively with breathing room on your page.
Keep text alignment consistent
Changing text alignment from left-justified, to centred and then to right-justified can be confusing for a reader. A well-designed marketing piece that can be read with ease is always going to be more beneficial for your ideal client than a chaotic one.
Pick 4-6 brand colours and try them out for size
Picking brand colours can be really overwhelming, that’s no lie. But our biggest suggestion to all of you who are DIY designing your brand is to first understand that you can change it up. Yup, that’s right. Pick four to 6 brand colours (some light, some dark), try them out for size and if they aren’t working for you, than feel free to change them. We know that you want to be perfect right out of the gate (we’re perfectionists too), but there is now harm in doing a little experimenting with your brand to see what feels good to you and that applies to the colours that you choose to use as well.
Use free and affordable resources
Are you taking advantage of all of the free resources available right now online? From blog content to affordable stock images, the internet pretty much has you covered, so we would advise to take advantage of it. Don’t be afraid to get scrappy because cheap and cheerful often wins the race.