I’ve worked on a number of brand projects in Yorkshire for organisations and businesses of all sizes. Brand is often seen as something scary or just for the big names. But it shouldn’t be. Your brand is crucial whatever size you are. Your brand communicates who you are, why you are and what sets you apart from your competitors.
It doesn’t have to be big budget or scary. I can be there to hold your hand through the process. Here are a few examples of Yorkshire branding projects I’ve worked on.
Creating a brand for a small business
The smallest brand project I’ve worked on was the creation of my own brand for my jewellery business Little Silver Hedgehog. I spent £100 and worked with a local artist to create a logo and colour palette.
To me, as a York based artist, it was important that my brand reflected my York roots and artistic background. I chose to work with a local York artist to create my logo.
Creating a good brief for your designer is vital for all brand projects. I can help you with this. It needs to set out how you anticipate using the brand, what values you want to convey and what formats you need your logos in.
For my jewellery brand, it was important to create a logo and colour palette that looked professional but didn’t detract from the jewellery it promotes. The logo and images would be used alongside strong product photography. The logo needed to work in a range of shapes and sizes – from in a circle for social media sites like Twitter to on a jewellery gift box.
Design sites like Canva mean it is now easy and cheap to translate your brand into a wide range of templates using your brand colour palette and logo. Being professional needn’t be prohibitively expensive.
Brand refresh
Brands shouldn’t be static. They should evolve and be reviewed every so often to ensure that they are still right for your business and your target customers or audiences. You might need to review your brand over time to ensure it works across new communications channels or that it meets best practice guidelines for accessibility.
I worked with Leeds Housing Charity, Latch, to refresh and update their brand guidelines. The logo and essence of the guidelines were fine but the colour palette needed updating to be more accessible. The guidelines also needed updating to include new photography that better reflected the brand.
I commissioned a freelance designer to review and update the brand guidelines and create an updated document.
This project cost a few hundred pounds and I would advise reviewing the guidelines every couple of years, especially with new photography assets.
Major rebrand
I’ve worked on a number of complete re-brands for large and complex organisations including the National Railway Museum.
I’m currently working as an external consultant advising on a re-brand for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
The principles for a major re-brand are the same as for a small one.
- Appoint a project manager to coordinate the project. This can be someone from within your organisation or a freelancer like myself.
- Develop a clear brief with objectives, timeline and budget.
- Include as much information about your vision, values and future direction as you can.
- Get buy-in from all key stakeholders
- Find an agency who understands your organisation and has a track-record of delivering similar aspirations.
- Consider accessibility and ensuring your brand is accessible to all.
- Set aside plenty of time – most branding projects take far longer than you think.
- Set aside budget to deliver your brand roll out across all channels – from your website to uniforms and pin badges.
- Internal communications about your brand change are crucial.
- Set up a brand steering group to help you secure buy-in and embed the brand throughout your organisation.
- Your brand guidelines should be a living document – review and update them regularly.
Emma Kate Farley Communications 