An iconic brand with good design is more necessary than ever in the modern world. Consider the Apple logo or the Nike “swoosh.” The logo is the foundation of a brand, and its colors can convert or dissuade customers through color psychology.

Hues and their various shades conjure up different feelings in your customers and leads. Color plays a vital role in how we perceive a brand. Your brain processes an image 60,000 times more quickly than one text.

Some 90% of data sent to the brain is visual. Color matters the most to your customer, and here’s how customers view your brand through the lens of color psychology.Continue Reading..

Have you ever heard of a brand book containing your brand message? You’re going to need one to ensure your brand is best represented to the public as professional and personal enough to draw in your ideal customers.

Your brand book, or brand style guide, is a rule book that spells out how your company presents itself to the public through color, font and logo selections, photography, and more. The brand book helps you communicate your brand’s message and share its personality, or rather, how it sounds, looks, and feels.

One often overlooked area is selecting brand colors without considering how consumers will perceive those colors, and thus, your brand message.Continue Reading..

Is your company good for its word? Is it as good as its name? Poor print quality can easily tank a brand’s reputation.

Tangible assets made up 95% of most companies’ worth before the prevalence of the Information Age before everything went digital. Now, intangible assets make up 75% of a company. Once, all you had to worry about was your print logo, letterhead, business cards, and other advertising materials. However, these printed materials and their print quality are more important than ever to your brand reputation.

Discrepancies in appearance in print quality affect a brand’s reputation value. Unique colors in your logo and brand styling set your company apart from others, and any discrepancy can make it disappear altogether. So, consistent colors keep your brand visible and reliable in your customer’s eyes.Continue Reading..

Your star of branding is your logo and its unique hue or colors. That’s right, your branding colors. However, your visual position is the cornerstone of how customers perceive your brand, and they have strong opinions about, well, everything.

Your unique color system may vary a few shades depending on where it appears, but you want it to represent your brand in the best possible way. Your customers must still understand your mission and the message you are sharing. But what do your customers think when branding colors vary?Continue Reading..

It’s easier to say something by voice search than type it. Texting is dangerous and illegal when on the road, so it makes more sense to speak your question. Moving through the day, for most folks, means multitasking, and voice search gets people the information they need now.

Voice search is not a fad. Over 40 percent of adults searched by voice in 2016, and more than 50 percent of searches will be spoken, instead of typed, by 2020. Now is the time to optimize your website for voice search.Continue Reading..

Many companies turn to retro branding to bring out nostalgia and a sense of trust. In 2014, Coca-Cola released Coke Life. A new product with less sugar and more natural ingredients. Also with the classic Coke taste — minus one component, its red branding color. Coke Life came in a green to match its natural transition. Needless say, the product was pulled from many shelves over the next few years.

So color is essential to branding. And over time, brands grow and adjust. But they may find themselves revisiting their roots and boosting retro branding.Continue Reading..

By now, most people know that the best press-ready materials don’t originate from designs in PowerPoint. However, you may still be left scratching your head when you think you’ve done everything right. But the final products don’t match the proofs. Seriously. And: Why?!

Color matching on all print materials must prove successful to ensure strong brand integrity. You would notice if Coca-Cola switched a shade over from their iconic red. The original red is three different shades and came from a time in the ’90s when the company painted the barrels of Coca-Cola bottles so that tax agents could tell them apart from alcohol during shipping. The color would later inspire the pop artworks of Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.

So, for over 30 years, every designer that the brand has used always has had to match that iconic color from proofs to final product. Yes, movements and sustainable brands are made by getting one color right. The stakes are high and rightfully so.Continue Reading..

Is sustainable packaging the new enemy of print experts?

Color management can be a challenge at the best of times. Introduce a new variable like sustainable packaging into the mix, and brand color consistency suddenly becomes even more complicated.

After all, how a color shows up on a specific type of material is going to vary. That seems obvious enough. But knowing that colors look different on different materials doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.

For print experts, brand color consistency isn’t just the goal anymore – it’s a requirement. So, here are several steps you can take to ensure you’re ready for any challenge that comes your way.Continue Reading..

So, is G7 certification what you need?

Companies tend to be quite particular about their branding elements — especially colors. So, when you’re producing print materials for your clients, the pressure is on. And, you want to ensure that all materials are as close to perfect as they can be.

But what can you do to create consistency in the finished products you produce?

Are you in the business of helping companies strengthen their brand? Do you help them achieve visual similarity across printing processes? Then the G7 certification is for you.

So, what is the G7 certification? How can it help you in your career? Read on.Continue Reading..

Print quality standards are essential. But how do you maintain consistency from start to finish?

Printing typically begins with the design process. This being the starting point, getting it right is crucial. Careful attention needs to be paid to color, design elements, formatting and positioning and so on.

Then, the proofing begins. This isn’t to say that the pros don’t check all designs before a large run. But it is always a good idea to inspect what you expect and check the accuracy of the design quality.

After proofing, printing can start. This is where you would print the exact number of copies you or your client need. Sometimes, this is done in-house. Depending on the job or the tools available to you, you may outsource this process.

Finally, there’s the delivery. This is where the pros pass collateral to your client or the people who are going to be using it.

Ensuring accuracy at every stage is essential to meeting print quality standards.Continue Reading..