Tags
branding, color theory, Fashion Branding, fashion branding kit, fashion brands, fashion designer, logo design, style guide, Type direction
This month, we’re talking all things fashion branding. If you haven’t yet seen our first article on what branding means for you, take a look here.
Once the process is out of the picture, it is time for the outcome. A fashion branding kit can, in essence, be considered the end product of a branding exercise. It includes all the information you need to represent your brand across different media correctly.
Image courtesy: Gafferitsolutions
As with any good kit, a branding kit has certain key components. In no particular order, they are:
- The Style Guide: A branding style guide is the comprehensive account of everything that your brand stands for. Often a thick book or a bulky file, this is where you will come to refer to what you must and must not do for a social media post, or how small your logo can be before it becomes too small. Use the style guide as a reference point more than a hard-and-fast solution. When in doubt, always use your own judgment.
- Logo Guidelines: These guidelines specify what your logo should look like in a host of situations. Think of printing the logo on labels vs. putting up a billboard, or designing your office space. Dimensions are just one aspect of the logo guidelines- they also account for the many different surfaces and media that your logo might eventually play on.
- Color Theory: As the name suggests, this set of visual cues is meant to help you decide which combination of colors best represents your brand. Not just that, say you have four color guidelines. Should you use all of them in one go, and in every possible situation? How can these different colors be used to represent your brand? Moreover, how can these colors be used to generate quick recall? These are some questions that the color theory can answer.
- Type Direction: Your typography is as powerful as the text itself. Imagine using a powerful quote, except you type it in Comic Sans. The effect is drastically different. Fashion brands, in particular, should focus more keenly on this aspect, because it will impact everything from clothing labels to corporate presentations. As the name suggests, a type direction is flexible with fonts to the extent that they evoke the same reaction.
- Fifth Element: In the world of branding, a fifth element is a visual cue that is as powerful as the logo in representing the brand. This element is often used when a logo might feel too repetitive, or too obvious. For example, ‘Conscious’ is H&M’s fifth element for their clothing recycling program. What’s more, the fifth element can also serve to illustrate your brand’s values in a manner that people can easily connect with.
These are often the essential components, and depending on the scale of the business, social media guidelines can also be created. A branding kit serves as the starting point of the actual design. Why is it important to have this kit? So teams make as few mistakes as possible at the execution stage.
Some companies may choose to go through a rebranding exercise as they scale and gain more clarity on their priorities. Whatever be the case, a professional fashion branding agency is your best bet to succeed.
Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram
Fuel4Fashion 