First in our content calendar series is all about the brand board. A brand board showcases all tangible elements that encapsulate a brand’s overall style in one well-planned, brief dossier. It encompasses logo and its variations, typography scheme, color palette, tagline, design system, imagery, and graphic elements.
This document therefore brings together and highlights all visual building blocks and design assets that are essential in establishing a brand’s identity and subsequently, in presenting itself across all online and offline platforms. It serves as a visual presentation of the brand’s touchpoints that convey the essence, core values, attributes, personality, and everything else that a business stands for in one glance.
How is creating a brand board can be beneficial to your business?
With a brand board, creating marketing and advertising materials becomes a breeze and much more efficient by having a quick access to the brand’s visual and graphic elements such as color and typography schemes, etc. More so if you are doing social media for e-commerce where images are very important in showcasing your products.
It ensures the cohesiveness of your brand’s look and feel – from the in-house communications to marketing and advertising, especially when creating social media graphics for your content calendar. This visual reference tool also helps in keeping your style in line and consistent with your brand’s overall visuals regardless of advertising channels.
Check out these brand boards we have created for some of our clients.
As a result, it makes the process of maintaining a cohesive and consistent brand, time-saving and cost-effective. Furthermore, having a well-made and detailed brand board is crucial especially in establishing your brand’s identity that can effectively communicate to its target audience and potential clientele, and ultimately set itself apart from the competition.
To create your own brand board for your content calendar and other marketing assets, here are some important visual brand elements to consider:
Main Logo/ Primary Logo
This visual symbol, which can be a combination of text and imagery, serves as the primary graphic representation of your business, or simply put, the face of your brand. Often imprinted on the products, websites, business cards, social media, and other business and marketing documents, a logo is a central foundation for the branding of your business as well as the point of recognition for clients.
Logo Variations and Submark
These are multiple logo variations created by rearranging the primary logo in different formats or layouts that will suit your different needs (e.g., logo suitable for social media profiles, promotional items, etc.) Having several approved modified versions of your primary logo, essentially in the designated shapes and sizes, ensures flexibility and consistency of your branding across all platforms and media.
Color Palette
This is a set of colors that represents your brand, and which will be used throughout all organizational communications and marketing materials. Included in the brand board are the specific color/hex codes (RGB/ CMYK numbers) to ensure that the correct shades of the brand’s colors are used regardless of the creative team composition.
Typography or Font Scheme
Another important element in the brand board is the typography which is typically a combination of two fonts (maximum three) that pair well together. Similar to the color palette, these fonts are to be used consistently throughout all graphic and marketing materials.
Theme Lines/ Tag Lines
A tag line, which is sometimes called a memory hook, is often included in the brand board as a part of your brand’s identity. This is a brief phrase that captures, projects, and communicates your brand’s persona.
Design Elements and Patterns
These are carefully plotted design elements that were selected to create the brand’s visual representation. Aside from the key colors and typeface, other design elements that need to be consistent in branding are the lines, shapes, texture, space, dominance, and emphasis. Other graphic elements such as icons, illustrations, buttons, dividers, and so on can also be included.
Next up on our content calendar series we will be talking about Creator Studio and how it’s the best thing to happen to social media since Facebook stories!
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