November 23, 2020 Antonio Aguirre, Jr. BRAND VISUAL GUIDELINES

Here’s a simple guide to build your brand visuals to making a memorable first impression to people. You should take time needed to fine-tune what your customers see first and how they interact with your brand. I’ll break it down to 3 parts: 1 Brand Logo, 2 Corporate Colors Breakdown and 3 Typography. If you want more visual guidelines on terms that I use here, feel free to google the foreign words to you like CMYK, RGB and Font Weights. This is the best time to work with a graphic artist in this point in your fashion brand journey.

1. BRAND LOGO – Let’s start with logo variations. There are 3 types, Logo Mark (your logo in the middle of a 1×1 space), Horizontal Lockup (your logo on your left to right like a rectangle), and Vertical Lockup (your logo starting from the top to the bottom). These should contain the name of your brand and any symbol that represents it if any. The easier it is to read and understand, the better.
   
   Your logo should be scalable and looks good at any size plus it should be recognizable when mirrored also. 2 examples of it are logos with color on either a white or black background and reverse logo on a dark background or it’s secondary colors.
   
   For ISOLATION AREAS, make sure there is a “bleed” or enough spacing from the edge of the space used to display your logo (at least 0.5x) from the top, side and bottom. If you have the intention of having it bleed to the full edge, make sure your logo is still readable.
   
   For SIZE SPECIFICATIONS, a print’s minimum size should be at least 5mm and for digital print size, it should be a minimum of 20px. These are important so your logos do not get distorted.
   
   Unacceptable logo usages are the following:
   – DISTORTED LOGO or stretched out logos unproportional
   – Rotated logos or quarter sideways
   – Recreated symbols of your logo
   – Adding a drop shadow (no no)
   
   Take note: Your brand name and logo doesn’t need to relate to what your business should offer. Making it general means that it doesn’t limit your market and potential growth.

2. CORPORATE COLORS BREAKDOWN – It’s good to have 2 primary colors for your brand that represents it. Choose the 2 best colors that rep your brand and stick with them. Let’s say white and black are your 2 primary colors.
Primary 1 Colors – PMS 1, CMYK for Printing and RGB for Web
Primary 2 Colors – PMS 3 , CMYK for Printing and RGB for Web

Secondary Colors are the 3rd, 4th and 5th colors that help distinguish your brand even further. Let’s say Flesh, Bronze and Silver are your secondary colors here.
Secondary Colors 1 – PMS 3, CMYK and RGB
Secondary Colors 2 – PMS 4, CMYK and RGB
Secondary Colors 3 – PMS 5, CMYK and RGB

It’s important to note that color proportion is key here! Although colors used across individual pieces of branding might vary, the cumulation of color proportions across your entire brand should be evenly balanced.

3. TYPOGRAPHY – The consistent use of typography enhances the strength of the brand identity.
PRIMARY/MAIN USAGE – Font Weights, big and small Letterings.
WEIGHTS: Bold for titles and headings
CASES: Uppercase, lowercase, all caps, sentence case or title case

COMPLEMENTARY – Alternative Option for universal usage
WEIGHTS: Regular or medium for body copy
CASES: Uppercase, lowercase, all caps, sentence case or title case.

For examples of these, follow me on Instagram.com/AntonioAguirre.Jr

Question of the day: What’s the brand name that you’re looking to put up?