Planning Ahead With Your Designer: Tips For Design Consistency With Your Logo And Brand Elements

While we recommend that you contract with the same designer or design team while creating your brand identity materials as possible, we know that this scenario is not always possible.

Whenever you work with a designer other than the original who created your logo, stationery and marketing materials, we suggest a few practices that will prove invaluable for ensuring a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing communications.

At a minimum, make sure that you have information on:

? The Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors used in the designs. These will come in the form of a number. For example, PMS #280 is a deep blue color.

? Fonts. Ask your designer what font is used in your logo, and what secondary and tertiary fonts are used in your stationery and other marketing materials. Having this information will save a future designer many font matching headaches.

? The type of paper on which your materials are printed. In order to duplicate and keep consistent with the look and feel of your materials in future print runs, you'll always want to have your items printed on the same type of paper.

? The printer who printed your materials. Knowing whether your materials were printed by a digital printer or a press printer can help to ensure that they are reproduced at the same quality in the future. In the case of press printing, this can save you money on additional films as well.

To make for an even smoother transition, negotiate for the original files for your designs. This can be a delicate matter, as some graphic designers do not sell the rights in the original files to their clients. If you cannot get the entire assembled files, we recommend that you negotiate for a minimum of the following pieces:

? An original file of your logo. This is typically known as a vector graphic version, which means that, if the appropriate software is available (Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand are the most common), you can scale the image up and down without losing image quality. If your logo was not created as a vector graphic (i.e., if it was created in Photoshop), then you need the largest, highest resolution file available. See our article on Logo File Formats for more information on which type of formats of your logo you should have on-hand.

? A file containing any specialized secondary graphic brand elements. Some designers will give you files containing special headers, backgrounds, illustrations, etc., so they are available for any future projects. Loss or lack of these elements keeps a new designer from knowing what original effects were used to create the design.

This information will ensure that your materials have graphics that are consistent across the board, and will save time on future projects.

About the Author

Erin Ferree, Founder and Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and graphic design expert. She has been helping small businesses grow with bold, clean and effective logo and marketing material designs for over a decade. elf design offers the comprehensive graphic and web design services of a large agency, with the one-on-one, personalized attention of an independent design specialist. Erin works closely in partnership with her clients to create designs that are visible, credible and memorable - and that tell their unique business stories in a clear and consistent way. For more information about elf design, please visit:

Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Branding Information:

Related Articles

Branding Your Radio or TV Campaign With A Musical Identity (aka Audo Logo, aka Jingle)
You don't think twice about a business card and letterhead logo for the visual aspect of your campaign, why not an audio logo to brand your broadcast campaign?With the magic of music you can capture the personality of your business, create an emotional connection to your target audience and get recall & branding recognition (in some instances with people tapping their feet and singing your company name) even when you are not on the air.The majority of advertisers use the free production services that radio and TV stations offer to save money.
How Will Your Visitors Remember You And Your Business? Brand Yourself From The Crowd...
Big and Yellow 'M' reminds you McDonalds..
Brand Strategy - Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru
Developing brand strategy is extremely critical. The most important asset your company has is its brand.
10 Secrets for Free Media Placement
Why pay a high priced PR agent when you can get free media placement to promote your product, service, or book?Follow these top ten tips for 2005 and it willbe your most profitable year yet!1. Write an attention grabbing headline.
Too Dull? Too Sharp?
You work hard getting the right cover message and words for your brochure. Now, you want to give it a look, an image.
Your Small Business Name -- Important?
You bet a name is important. Many small business owners try to come up with a clever name for their business rather than one that explains what they do.
Corporate Internet Branding - Branding Your Business Online
Let me tell you a story about Pete and a pizza. After a long day of fighting uncooperative pipes and fixtures, Pete P.
Your Brand is Your Promise! (So What Are You Promising?)
When people mention the word "brand" they usually mean a well known, well defined company. That's why consumers frequently mention names such as Target, Rolex, Apple, BMW and others who have done an excellent job in crafting an image and sticking with it.
The Positioning of Success
Many businesses of today are often driven to compete striclty on price, quality, and features of their products and services.  Companies who prosper over the long term don't simply offer the best deals, the best quality, or the most impressive bells and whistles.
Power Your Word for Profit
Discovering and owning a powerful word that reflects you and your business is the true key of successful branding.Some organisations invest fortunes in this endeavour but there's nothing stopping any of us from doing the same at a fraction of the cost.
Im Just Starting, Why Do I Need a Logo Design?
Businesses eager to open often give little thought to their identity.With so much to get done, designing an appropriate logo hardly seemslike a top priority.
Value-pricing Strategy: Were not The Cheapest but...
In this highly competitive online marketplace, it can be difficult to persuade customers to buy from you when you offer a similar product to your opposition but with a higher price tag. And trying to beat competitors on price alone is a cut-throat business, very risky and not recommended.
Value Proposition Writing - Brand Identity Guru
Your Value Proposition, or as I usually call it, your Core Marketing Message, is still misunderstood by most professionals. It's not just a tagline, sound bite or even an "Audio Logo.
Branding Fiasco -- Better Be Who You Say You Are!
Our experience as customers offers great instruction into the concept of branding. Come with me on a recent "experience" and you'll see what I mean.
Branding Strategy - Brand Identity
Today, in many organizations around the world, branding is treated as a cosmetic exercise only, and regarded merely as a new name, logo, stationary and possibly a new advertising campaign. But, to associate your "brand" with such superficial cosmetics is like saying that people are really only the sum of their name, face and sometimes their clothingBut branding is a thoughtful discipline that strongly belongs to the long-term strategy of an organization; brand strategy is, or should be, business strategy, and vice versa.
What is Private Franchising? It is Nothing Someone Made It Up
The Federal Trade Commission has an obligation to the general public, their stated consumer education mission and to the over regulated franchising industry and the small business operators running Biz Ops to separate the two business models by way of legal definition. Any failure to completely separate them will trigger additional problems down the road and cause the current on-going process of rule review to continue, without any formalization for decades.
Brand Building For Profit: The Colour Behind the Brand and Why I Wear Red Ties!
Colour is essential to building a strong brand.Many of you know my passion for wearing red ties.
Branding Junk Removal - He Did It, Can You?
What does it mean to be remarkable?Brian Scudamore, CEO and Founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, who in 1996 was operating the million dollar plus company at the age of 26, said it means, "You've got to get out there and be loud and proud..
Personal Branding: Characteristics of a Strong Personal Brand
How many times have you been at a networking function and been lost for words when asked "what do you do"?We all have. But do you see this as a threat or an opportunity?Developing a Personal Branding Statement or PBS can be a powerful way to help market yourself to prospects, clients or potential employers.
McDonalds Supply Chain of Potatoes
McDonald's buys its potatoes from corporate farmers in Idaho not the commodities market; therefore it limits its exposure to price gouging that might have occurred by using the commodity exchange to get those potatoes. Starbucks is doing the same thing, but instead of having partnerships and coffee beans, they are all of in-house.