Logo, color palette, identity … If you’re a designer and you work with brand identity, these terms are probably as familiar to you as the names of your own family members.
As you well know: creating a style guide, building a brand from scratch, and maintaining it over time calls for a hearty combination of creativity, organization, strategy, and lots and lots (we mean it, it’s a lot) of time.
At Genially, we’re experts in inspiring others and helping designers save time so that a presentation of 4 main ideas doesn’t require 5 hours of design, 4,500 layers, and a unicorn’s horn.
That’s why we’ve come up with this definitive guide of geniallys that you can use for inspiration or to complement your design programs when building brand identity.
Dossiers
In order to be able to define a brand archetype, a corporate dossier is the key. Its mission in this life is to include relevant company information in a clear and concise manner, and its design has an essential role to play in achieving this.
Any effective corporate dossier worth its salt should include information such as a definition of the company, the goods and services, its trajectory and evolution, photographic documentation, contact information and, of course, it must exude visual identity through every pixel.
And yes, you and I both know that corporate dossiers have been said to be the best cure for insomnia. That is why interactivity and animation may just be the topping your creation needs to keep the masses awake. Here’s a template to give you some ideas and inspire you to wage war on apathy.
Microsites
A microsite is like a mini website (bet you’re glad we cleared that one up 😉). It’s an online space that provides specific information that is simple, clean, and comprehensive. Spoiler: if your clients want ‘something different’, you’re going to need this format like you need air, to stun your audience with interactivity and animation.
Using a microsite to build a brand identity and a corporate image has lots of advantages, some of which include: creative freedom for the design team, the ability to include audiovisual material, and even the ability to measure the impact your creation has on those who see it.
Advantages as far as the eye can see … except for one tiny detail: the HTML5 that creating a microsite generally requires and involves hours of writing code. Not with Genially! So take a deep breath and let it all go, because here’s just one of many sleek designs that you can find in the tool that will allow you to maintain the integrity of your keyboard (and your sanity).
Media kits
Would I be so bold as to define a Media Kit as: ‘A brand’s CV’? Yes, I would. This format may be your best ally in getting a client to purchase a service, so you have to make sure to make it as concise, understandable, and attractive as possible.
To do this, it is not enough to merely compile the most important information, highlight what you are best at, or show examples or relevant data. You have to go a step further in the creative process and choose a unique format that identifies your brand and ensures your Media Kit lives rent free in your potential clients’ minds like a Taylor Swift song.
Here’s an awesome, interactive, animated template, complete with the Wow effect … the kind that entertains the brain and achieves the aim of getting that ‘match’ with those who see your work.
Pitch Decks
If your audience is investors, this part is for you: Decks are THE Format. The goal of a Pitch Deck is to get a second meeting, move on to the next level, and pique curiosity.
To design something like this, you have to have skill and know how to capture concepts such as the vision, the value proposition, the target audience, the roadmap, and the business model through the design, and make it look professional while avoiding putting the staff to sleep and without losing an iota of image and corporate identity.
How? Well, you know better than I do, but here’s a template that’s chock-full of animation and interactivity and is bound to inspire you.
Do you know any other design formats that can help you build and maintain your brand identity? Let us know in the comments! I’ll leave you with some more ways in which Genially can be a valuable tool if you work in graphic design.
