media monthly
Birth of a Brand
From concept to reality! Bringing your personal brand to life step-by-step.
Also Inside:
Ins & Outs of Logo Design Start Your Website Branding by Numbers Issue 001 - October 2012
to: you
from: us
Finally! Here it is: Media Monthly has launched and I couldn’t be more proud! Our logo, the colors, the fonts, the symbols -- didn’t just simply come to exist; creating a brand is not easy. Every little thing you see has been picked out with precision, revised with critical eyes, and crafted to our ideals which is not easy when you’re a perfectionist like me... Believe it or not, even something as small as the curving tip of the Manchu Media water drop logo could become a topic for an email thread! I’ve realized a strong team is very important, and I’m thankful to work with amazing people. We’ve learned a ton in our branding process, and I hope this informational magazine can help you with the birth of your brand.
- Pelpina
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contents Logo Logic
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Answering the age old question: “How do you design a logo??”
Start a Website
Building a website for your brand can be a scary process. We’ve compiled our experience into advice for your benefit.
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09 This Month in Media
Branding is the name of the game in October. What events are going on in your neighborhood?
Brand by the Numbers
Our monthly infographic. The statistics of branding made easy.
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Logo Logic by Mark Zamora
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There’s a process behind every science, including logo design. Let’s break it down. Whenever someone finds out that I do graphic design for a living, I’m always asked the same question. “Hey! Can you give me some tips on designing a logo?” It’s no surprise. Your logo is the core of your brand’s look and feel: the colors, the font, the symbols: they all play a big role in the creation of your visual brand. Your logo will become your brand’s signature. It’s a fingerprint that will be seen on your website, business cards, letterhead, T-shirts, and perhaps even your car. In fact, I think it’s nearly impossible to have a solid brand without a good logo.
Follow & Ask Us Your Questions @ManchuMedia
If you stop and think of your favorite brands, you probably know their logos by heart and don’t even realize it. While not everyone is creative, most of us are visual creatures. And because more senses are engaged, visual information is easier to digest and more likely to stick. Of course, all of this starts somewhere and once you get some pretty basic steps, logo design is a lot less daunting.
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Design is a step-by-step process and most designers will tell you that Step 1 actually has very little to do with the actual design (for now.)
Conceptualize Before creating anything visual, you need to figure out how and what your brand does. What message do you want to convey? For example, when we were coming up with the name “Manchu Media,” we had one simple idea in mind. Create media that inspires hope. The things we do are for the benefit of the world... or at least their entertainment! Ok, maybe that’s not the simplest of ideas, but it’s a start. We wanted something powerful - yet pure. I wrote these as key words and it wasn’t until after taking all of this into consideration that we had our message, so I took my pencil to paper and started drawing ideas.
Symbolism Once you realize what your brand stands for, research symbolism that represents key words in that mission statement. For example, the words “brave” and “courageous” draw results of strong animals like lions and eagles. Commonly interpreted symbols are a great way to make a logo that appeals to a broader audience. Now you’re ready to sketch some ideas - but put down the colored pens! We’re not ready for color yet.
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“Create media that inspires hope... for the benefit of the world... Or at least their entertainment!” Black & White
When designing a logo, I always start in black and white - and I think everyone should. A logo in it’s most basic form must work in black and white. Remember, this is what people will identify you by and it must work on every form on media you can think of, whether you’re sending an email or just exchanging business cards from digital to print - your logo will represent your brand everywhere and everyway. Even if you have absolutely no intention of printing in black & white, it makes sense to design in duo-tone because of how greatly black and white contrast between each other. This is what makes certain things (like this black text on a white background) stand out in your design. Placing these limits on yourself right early in the process also prevents you from using too many colors in your logo - which can result in a hideous nightmare if not done right.
Example Time
At the top-left, you see a “logo” with a star. Everything seems fine now but just wait until Company A requests that important document for printing. If they aren’t using color ink, there goes your branding (as seen in the middle example) right out the window! The integrity of your brand should always be a priority. However, since I first designed the logo in black & white (like in the top-right square) I have a black & white version of my logo ready to go and my branding stays intact. Past-You making the life of Future-You easier.
Let’s Get Colorful
You may not want your final design to be in black and white of course, but you can see from our example that choice of colors can make a huge difference. Just like certain symbols represent feelings, certain colors can do the same, and emotions play a big part in your branding. Cool colors, like blue, can be calming to some but lifeless to others (we hope you find our shades of blue calming!) Warm colors can be inviting but also very extreme - almost sports-like. In our case, we went with blue and white because we wanted to keep things pure. We had already decided on a water drop, which is cool symbolism - thus, cool colors! A good way to chose color combinations is the color wheel, or with a site like colourlovers.com which provides tons of great color combos people have already put the work into creating!
It’s Your Brand
It’s amazing what can come out of logo design. When we created the Manchu Media logo, we also created our overall company aesthetic. Clean and cool yet enticing. We came up with a color motif - blues, greys and white - and we came up with our font family. Our entire visual branding came out of the logo and after the months of work put into it, we came up with something we’re happy with and you will too!
Quote for Thought
“A product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless.” -Stephen King oct 2012 •media monthly
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Start a Website 5 Essential Tips! by Pelpina Trip
Once you have designed a logo, you will have a better idea of the ‘look and feel’ of your brand - which is essential in your website design. We’ve come across several major decisions during the website design process, which we couldn’t underestimate -- your website is not only your ‘home’ on the web, it’s also your digital business card for potential business partners or clients. Your website needs to be informational, easily accessable, easily recognizable, and effectively convey your message (teaching, selling, entertaining, etc) while matching your brand’s image.
Here are five things to keep in mind when you’re starting a website.
1. Dominate the Domain! Since your domain is your online address and main digital ‘identity,’ it needs to be: easy to remember, short, and available. You can go to any domain name registrar to figure out whether your domain is still available. If your prefered domain is taken, you can play around with the words or add hyphens. Try websites such as brandbucket.com for inspiration.
Quote for Thought
2. Find a Theme or Build from Scratch
“A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment.” -Kent Huffman 07
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You can build a website from scratch or use a site like Wordpress and find a good pre-built theme. In order to build a website yourself, you not only need to know exactly what functionality and look you’re wanting, you’ll also need to have great knowledge on design and coding (or hire someone with the right skillset).
When designing our site, we opted for the ‘ClearVideo’ theme that had exactly what we were looking for: a static front business page, a photo/video slider at the top, responsive design, built in video pages, sleek look, and easy customization. Check out our website! manchu-media.com
3. Responsive = Mobile Friendly
Click and watch a video on Responsive Web Design
Since more and more people are accessing websites via mobile phones and tablets, it’s very important your website looks great on every device. A responsive website design responds and adapts to fit the screen and functionality of the device you’re accessing the website from: whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone or tablet.
4. Hosting: Don’t Fall for Cheap Prices
The hosting world is like a jungle. There are crazy prices and discounts everywhere: it’s so easy to just go with the cheapest price. However, it’s very important to pick a good host for your website. Find one with plenty of servers (maintained often), known for good customer service, and make sure they provide security. For large websites, it’s probably best to go with a dedicated server.
5. Help Google Find You Of course, it’s important to make sure that Google can find you through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by putting keywords in titles, headlines and tags, getting other websites to link to you, etc. But also keep in mind the importance of UGC: User Generated Content. For example, try to get one client review on your website every month. You’ll have both great content, not generated by you, and incoming links at the same time!
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Branding by the Numbers
“By the Numbers” is our monthly infographic where we visually break down some fun tidbits of knowledge!
75% of buying
decisions are based on emotion.
Your Brand Consists of 3 Elements:
• Visual Identity (what it looks like) • Brand Tone (how it conveys the message) • Brand Strategy (how it turns the message into results)
57% of Facebook users have
shared a video or link about a brand.
39% of Twitter users have tweeted about a brand
84% of Facebook
users who have liked a brand are active on Facebook daily
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This Month in Media Branding & New Media Events for OCTOBER
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Dallas, TX
Cleveland, OH
Podcamp Dallas
Branding Boot Camp
Pelpina will be guest at a Q&A panel!
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Media Convergence and Business Dallas, TX Pelpina is speaking!
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Fast Track Digital Marketing Chicago, IL
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Digital Brand Building
Toronto, ON, Canada
Know of other events? Let us know! Facebook.com/ManchuMedia
One more thing...
Simple Branding Steps • Find a good name • Check URL & social media availability • Design a logo/stylesheet • Design a website
• Launch social media channels • Create business cards, letterhead, etc • Tell the world
Manchu Media is a media production, design and consulting company, passionate about visual creativity and multi-media productions. Contact us today to help you build your brand.
Pelpina as a panelist @ Dallas Social Media Club panel Sept 2012.
info@manchu-media.com Manchu-Media.com (469) 759-9033
Attributions & Credits | October 2012
Blueprint Cover Photo - Cameron Degelia http://www.flickr.com/photos/degelia/6894587439/ Heart Latte - thepinkpeppercorn http://www.flickr.com/photos/gail_thepinkpeppercorn/5084847252/ Time Pieces - Moyan Brenn http://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/4178265189/
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