No designer likes to hear the word ‘revision’. But revisions are bound to occur, and they do, in almost every project. There’s no way to tell whether your client will order revisions or not. A proactive approach is important in order to have a successful revision and to satisfy your client. In this post, I would suggest some ways to steer clear from revisions in your corporate identity design project. So let us start.

Keep in mind from the very beginning of your project that planning is the key. A solid plan can go a long way to rescue you from repeat works ordered by your clients.

Question

Inquire what your client exactly wants the moment he calls you to give you the project. Get as much relevant information as possible. The client will not be able to tell you exactly what you need to know until you ask the right question. Prepare a questionnaire which would contain questions that give you a clear picture of what will actually work for your client’s corporate identity.

Ask his/her preferred colors, typographic choice, whether he/she is looking for something totally typographic or a combination of design and typography. Request some logo examples (existing company logos) from them. Obtaining these information will eliminate the need for modifications.

Create Rounds and Mention It in Your Contract

When you are creating your design contract, make sure to have some design rounds according to your convenience. You can offer unlimited rounds, up to three rounds or just one round. It is advisable to keep the number of rounds as few as possible. Keeping modification limits in your contract will make your clients feel like they have to abide by it and once they have exhausted it, they have to pay additional amounts for it. This will reduce your pressure remarkably.

Set Goals for Your Rounds

Every modification round should have its goals. For unlimited revisions, you should create at least 3 different designs and present to your client. For the round where you offer up to 3 modifications, you should provide at least 2 options to choose from and for your single revision round, offer one option.

Lastly, ask your client about their targeted demographic because it plays a key role in determining the color, the font and other aspects of your logo design. India is a preferred option for clients to outsource their design projects. If your client is targeting an Indian demographic, you would already know how to make his/her corporate identity design work. If that is not the case, you of course need his/her assistance.

A last piece of advice, do not take design amendments as an insult to your creativity. They are perfectly  normal in every creative profession. Have a cordial relationship with your client and encourage good communication.

Please share any ideas or suggestions that you may have.

Don’t forget to tell us what you think of this post.

Most experienced professionals agree with the fact that establishing brand identity of a company takes time, patience and effort. While you may introduce your company amongst much fanfare, it is obvious that earning trust of the customers will require time.

However, this does not mean that you would wait when your target audience starts trusting you. Rather, you should opt for a pro-active approach and build a strong brand identity of your company. This will create a positive image of your company and encourage customers to opt for services/products of your company.

Here are few strategies you can implement for creating a powerful corporate identity design of your company. Later, we will highlight few branding strategies that will allow you to help you to carve out a powerful presence in the social media.

Opt For a Catchy and Simple Brand Name

The first step is to identify a brand name that is stylish and yet, easy to remember. This will contribute in longevity of your company. Consider the fact that if people cannot remember the brand name, your company will fail to gain popularity. Therefore, stick to a simple and catchy name.

Identify the Target Audience

This is an important step. You need to identify your target audience and research about their preferences. This will help you in modifying the image and marketing strategies of your company, according to the preferences of your target audience. All these in turn, will enhance profit rate of your company.

Develop a Creative Logo

A creative logo creates awareness about your company and solidifies your presence in the market. Therefore, choosing a creative logo is important. However, ensure that the logo and the colors you use complement image of your company.

Once you are done with this step, move on to establishing brand identity of your company in social media sites.

Add a Personal Touch To Your Company

The best way to attract attention of people in social networking sites is by telling a story. State the history of your company, its values, and services. You can also mention your success stories and case studies, while implementing Facebook page customization.

Offer Rewards to Your Customers

To make your customers happy, you can offer them interesting coupons or reward programs. However, do not force them to ‘like’ your page or join any program.

Post Intriguing Pictures

Another great strategy is to post intriguing pictures about your products/services in the Facebook fanpage design. Remember that pictures evoke strong emotion and if used correctly, they can encourage your audience to develop a strong emotional connection with your company.

Take help of these tips to create a strong identity of your company-both online and offline.

There are some companies that come up with phenomenal corporate identity designs. Do these designs make you wonder how the designers create them and why you can’t come up with such ground-breaking designs?

Relax! This post will let you know how you can also create incredible designs. All you need to do is follow some points:

• Go with the trends

Sometimes, going against the trends is a ‘cool’ thing to do. Sometimes, following trends is smart. In fact, a lot of very talented designers follow trends and take inspiration from them.

However, do not follow trends blindly, otherwise it might create a negative impression about your creativity. Experiment regularly. This will help you create beautiful designs, from an interesting brochure design to an aesthetic website design.

• Study

The more you learn, the better it is for you as a designer because knowledge will open your mind to a world unseen and unknown before. Plus, staying updated about the latest happenings in your field, will increase your chances of being selected for a new design project. You get knowledge and you get inspiration. What more could you ask for?

Believe me, there are some great resources where you can find both of these and that too, absolutely free of cost.

• Go manual

Shun your computer for sometime and go back to pencil and paper. Get out of your studio and roam around a place where there is some greenery. Keep a pencil and paper with you and a design idea might pop in your head before you even know it. Show your design to your designer friends and let them critique it. That will give you the opportunity to improve

• White Space is important

Do not stuff your design with unnecessary colors, fonts, etc. Keep it simple and keep it neat. Have some white space in your design. It will make your design soothing to the eye.

• Find out your audience

You have to know which demographic will be your target audience. Otherwise, no matter how beautiful your design is, it would not be successful. For instance, if the majority of your target audience is aged between 50-60, you should keep the design very simple but creative.

• Use different software/apps

Go beyond the boundaries of Photoshop, Illustrator or CorelDraw. It’ll help you think out of the box and come up with a truly interesting design. Search the web and you will find plenty of resources for designers.

There is nothing very special about great designers. They work smart and working smart is not impossible or difficult. All the best!

For creating corporate identity design of a company, paying attention to logo design, visual vocabulary, colors, and fonts is important. Unfortunately, most articles offer information about logo, colors, and visual vocabulary, ignoring fonts. For this reason, we have decided to offer crucial information about fonts in today’s article.

Basic Information about Fonts

Font refers to text characters, available in various sizes and styles. These styles can include bold, italic, regular, and light. Fonts can also be classified into various groups, such as serif, sans serif, display, and script fonts. Read on to know more.

• Serif Fonts- These fonts usually assume an upright, narrow shape, with prominent serifs at bottom of the lines that create the letters. Examples of serif fonts can include Times and Garamond.
• Sans-Serif Fonts- Fonts that do not include serifs are known as sans-serif fonts. Examples can include Verdana, Arial, and Tahoma. As compared to serif fonts, they are neater and modern. They are usually used, while developing website design and content.
• Display Fonts- These fonts possess a decorative element. They are usually used in headers or logos.
• Script Fonts- These refer to cursive fonts. Examples can include Nuptial Script and Brush Script.

Apart from these four fonts, other fonts exist as well. However, these four fonts are extensively used in business branding activities.

We have discussed main types of fonts. Now, we will offer you few guidelines that will help you to utilize fonts correctly.

Guidelines for Utilizing Fonts

• Printed Materials- If you are planning to incorporate long blocks of text in printed materials, opt for serif fonts. It will increase readability of the materials.
• Websites/Blogs- Serif-fonts can be your best option for creating website/blog. They are clean, simple, and easy to read. Additionally, remember that you need to pick out an online font that is automatically installed on PCs of most people. Otherwise, your site will appear in the default font chosen by the browser.

Many people complain that it is difficult to control the size of online fonts. Font tags in HTML do not come with sizing control. This means that you need to use them various times throughout every HTML. This is a time consuming affair.

The best way to deal with this situation is to opt for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for modifying the font size.

• Word Documents- For word documents, stick to fonts that are commonly installed in PCs. These can include Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, and Georgia.

A good way of retaining appearance of information is to convert all the documents into PDF files. They embed fonts into respective documents, and one can view them in their original fonts in any PC.

Technical Information regarding Font File Types

If you are planning to purchase fonts for incorporating in your computer, you may be provided with few options. These can include True Types, Open Type, and Post Script fonts. We discuss each of these options in brief.

• Most professional printers opt for Post Script fonts. One format of Post Script font is available in Windows PC and another available for Macintosh PCs.
• True Types fonts are available in Windows PCs. As compared to Post Script fonts, their print quality is poor.
• Open Type fonts are the latest fonts. Limited fonts are available in this particular format. However, these fonts are cross-platform compatible.

Hope you liked our discussion about fonts!