The other week a friend reached out to me asking me about advice for building her first website. I started to send her a voice note back with a few quick tips, but turned into a freaking podcast length message about all things branding.
Not only did I get all excited in sharing my insights with her, but I also realized:
Damn, I sure have learned a thing or two over the years.
And I figured that there’s a lot more people out there who are new to the branding world who could benefit from some big sisterly type of advice. So here we are.
Today’s post will share with you what a brand kit is, why it’s important to have, and how to create the brand kit of your dreams. Don’t forget to check out my post on what you need to know before you create your brand first to get a better understanding of how to establish a brand at all.
How To Create A Brand Kit
What Is A Brand Kit?
A brand kit is otherwise referred to as a brand identity kit. This is an asset that clearly illustrates your brand rules and guidelines with specific features that ensure consistent application of these rules in your creation process.
The real nuts and bolts of your brand kit can usually be condensed into one single page document, while more indepth brand identity kits might be several pages long.
What’s In A Brand Kit?
Depending on the scope of your business, your brand kit will vary in size and length. Ideally, you have a minimum of a single page that shares your exact logo, fonts with the font numbers, and colors with the exact hex codes.
It’s imperative that you have the exact numbers and hex codes for your fonts and colors so that when you’re working on new creative assets, you’re able to match everything exactly. This helps to create consistency with your branding, and establish a more solid presence in the market.
More in depth brand identity kits might feature the entire mood board for the brand, include examples of the branding a variety of objects and platforms, and often have more variations of your logo.
At a minimum, make sure the brand kit you create has your exact fonts, colors, and logos (along with logo variations) that can easily be understood by developers, graphic designers, and creatives.
Why Is A Brand Kit Important?
- Establishes the essence of your business.
- Creates consistency.
- Big impact for a small investment.
- For building your website.
- Using Canva.
- For your social media presence.
- Manufacturing merch and swag.
Establishes The Essence Of Your Business
Your branding will establish the essence of your business, and you want this essence to remain conducive across all platforms. If you’re not sure how to establish branding for your business, check out this post HERE.
Creates Consistency
One of the most important components of branding and marketing is cultivating consistency. This is why the specific fonts and hex codes for colors are imperative to include in your brand kid. You don’t just want any ‘ole green to be slapped on your website, you want your green to be used for brand recognition.
Big Impact For A Small Investment
One of the best things about creating a brand kit is that it’s super affordable to do, even for an entrepreneur on a budget thanks to Fiverr and Upwork. The whole undertaking won’t take up too much time and every, but the impact it will have on your business is huge. We love anything with a low risk and high reward.
Building Your Website
You need a brand kit before you build a website. While this adds a whole other layer to building your first website, I swear this will actually help to speed things up, and keep your message and look streamlined. You can always get a brand kit made for a really affordable price using Fiverr or Upwork, so that the overall cost with building your website isn’t too steep.
Using Canva
Canva is a creator’s best friend, right? We love Canva around here, because you really don’t need to be a graphic design genius, or know anything about coding in order to create the most beautiful marketing material.
Make sure you upgrade to Canva Pro so that you can plug in the details of your brand kit. This ensures that Canva has access to your exact fonts, colors and logo. When this information is plugged into your Canva Pro, then you can create content for your social media, blog, or website.
Social Media Presence
Having a brand kit will help you to better understand how you’re going to create for social media. Social media is a visual platform, which is why your brand kit is so important. Once you understand the colors, look, and feel of your branding, then you can better edit your content for social media with the correct presets, filters, and tones.
Merch And Swag
If you plan on releasing any kind or merch or swag, you absolutely need a brand kit. The consistency of your colors, fonts, and logo is a must if you plan on sharing that on clothing, coffee cups, or hats. You want people to see your merch and know that it’s yours from the essence alone.
How To Create A Brand Kit
- Create a name for your business.
- Understand your audience.
- Recognize how you want people to feel.
- Establish a color scheme.
- Decide on your fonts.
- Solidify a logo.
Create A Name For Your Business
Trust me when I say I know that creating a name for your business is no easy feat. If you’re getting super hung up on the name, skip to the next steps. Sometimes getting clear on the following points will help you to better understand a name for your business.
Understand Your Audience
In order to understand your audience, you need to know who you’re marketing to. In other words, who is going to buy or engage with what you’re trying to sell? Try to get as detailed as possible in the description of this person. Perhaps even create a named avatar to get as clear as possible on who you’re selling to.
Recognize How You Want People To Feel
The way people feel when they interact with your brand will ultimately contribute to whether or not they invest in what you’re selling. Make sure to have a deep understanding of how you want people to feel when they interact with your brand, as well as the overall feel you want your brand to have.
Consider how people will feel when they stumble upon your social media page, as well as what they’ll feel like if they walk into your store, or see your clothing on someone walking down the street.
Establish A Color Scheme
Now that you understand your audience and how you want your brand to make people feel, you’re probably going to be able to narrow down a color scheme more quickly. Do you want warm or cool tones? Do you want something gender neutral, or girly and flamboyant?
If you’re unsure of where to start, check out Pinterest to see what people in the same industry are doing. You’re not going to copy them, because that won’t create success, but you can get an idea of what you like and what you don’t like.
Decide On Your Fonts
Whether you realize it or not, fonts play a huge role in brand recognition. Of course the font for your logo is one that becomes memorable, but also the fonts you choose for your website and marketing materials is just as important. Again, Pinterest is your best friend here to help you get started.
I’d suggest choosing something legible, while still being memorable and unique.
Solidify A Logo
Finally, you can get to work on solidifying your logo. Don’t worry, you can always hire someone for an affordable rate on Fiverr or Upwork, so you don’t have to break the bank on some fancy logo. It’s best to hire a professional for this, rather than trying to bootstrap it yourself (unless you have graphic design experience, of course).
Remember, your logo is going to tie up all of the above points in one pretty little bow that is your brand, so make sure you love it before signing off on something that’s just okay. Most designers offer around 3 revisions in their initial creation fee.
It’s time to get your brand kit made now, so your business can thrive. Trust me, it’s going to make a huge difference.
Share your brand or business in the comments below!
xx,
K