Visual Consistency.

This means you need limits.

Limit your colors

Established brands have established their colors. The Los Angeles Lakers sport their purple and gold, the Starbucks green and white makes me crave my daily dose, Pepsi has aligned themselves with the ubiquitous Red, White and Blue. Think of holidays as brands. Christmas is Green and Red, Easter is all about pastels. What you want is a strong association between a color combination and your brand. You can’t do this if you switch too often or try on every letter of ROYGBIV. Can you guess what colors I use?

Limit Your Fonts

You cannot have a typeface addiction and hope to establish your brand. Limit yourself to 3 fonts. Yes just three. One for headlines, one for body text, and one for .. err.. “special” uses. That’s it. Also, while you develop your “ear for typography” (because you should “listen” to type) you could start with a free site like Dafont. But later on, you’ll realize that having a not-free font that no one else or much less people use will strengthen your identity. Try a site like Myfonts.

Limit your Imagery

This could be tougher, but try to find a common theme to tie your images. In this site you’ll notice a subdued, faded mood to the photos I use in my posts. When looking through my portfolio I also noticed some palm trees. I realize that it was an unconscious decision, probably because I come from a tropical country. My wife has a thing for swirls. You should embrace these things- your tendencies to use certain themes. It establishes who you are. Just make sure that you’re not blindly following a fad (though there’s a time for that. Thoughts for another post). In the print ads, or images you use on your site try to think of a something that can pull them together. A string. A theme. A mood. Something that represents your brand.

Do You Need a Style Guide?

In big multinational companies, they use a Style Guide. This is a handbook created by the design firm which made their corporate identity in use. It is given to make sure all the branches around the world and all the suppliers/agencies/designers they use stay faithful to the brand. I have mixed feelings about this and they can be a pain in the butt to use.

I love the flexibility that smaller companies/brands have. Their “style guide” is embedded in their deep knowledge of what the brand stands for. It is a dynamic thing. Whether you use an official guide, or have some other way to do it- make sure that your idenity / brand / and its applications are all consistent. And consistent doesn’t mean forcing things to look a certain way. It simply means putting limits. Limits that you love.

Anyone can brand if they understand the principle behind limiting things. Here’s a paradox- these limits are not limiting.

Uniformity is the foundation for “unique”. If everything is the different, it is actually the same.

If you want something to stand out, you need to have a bedrock of “sameness” to make it happen. And that sameness will remind people of you who are.

Also, I just launched a portfolio post for my CI work. Check it out.

Client Name: Alliance Tuna International Inc.

What They’re Known For: They’re one of the leading tuna companies in the WORLD. They produce over 200 metric tons daily, are found in over 50 countries, and carried by over 200 brands around the world. They’re constantly investing and expanding, now entering the Salmon market with acquisitions in New Zealand.

Their Marketing Problem: So far, they’ve hired me for two brochures, a trade show booth, various inserts, and the redesign for their website. They want their brand to reflect their leadership and ability to be dynamic.

My Design Solution: Colors, friendly typography- LIFE! Their material shows energy, and rightfully so with a company that’s growing so fast.

Features: Their website has an awesome sliding feature. View it here: http://alliancetuna.com.ph/

Screenshots

Client Name / Project Date: International School Manila – 2006, 2007
What They’re Known For: IS Manila – International Curriculum, Accreditation, increased ability to enter any school in the world after graduating.
Their Marketing Problem: They wanted an Annual Report that parents would actually want to read! Traditional annual reports were stiff, information overloaded, and distant.
My Design Solution: Space. Lots of it. Breathing room between pages, sections, etc. I used an aggressive grid to make sure there was a lot of space, and that the photos would flow with the text. I also employed the use of photos, which the client collected from students. We used the school colors and fonts that were friendly yet readable.

Screenshots:

What the Client said:

Working with Stefan was a pleasure. He was really easy to get along with and very good at listening and paying attention to what I (the client) wanted. I would highly recommend working with Stefan as he was very easy to work with and communicated well. He also provided timely service and clearly enjoys what he does.

Monica Gutierrez-Estrada
Alumni Coordinator at ISM (back then)

3 Ways Competition Helps

First- competition is proof that a market is profitable.
The problem with the example above- about going to the desert.. is that it’s probably… deserted. Sure you’ll convert 100% of the market.. but why set up shop in a place where there are only a couple of people? There are also many markets that are crowded but can’t sell. Many bloggers online for example have found that it’s easy to drive traffic to an enternainment-oriented niche, but it’s very hard to convert. Why? Because they’re there to have fun. They’re not there to solve an itching need or problem. Pro-blogger David Risley says you have to find a way to take people from where they are to where they want to go, with respect to a certain need or want they have. When you see advertising on a Google search term you just queried, it’s evidence to some degree that there must be some money there.

Second, competition brings the possibilities of alliances.
How ideal is a monopoly? Sure you have total control over the price, and there’s no one around to steal customers from you. But do you have the capacity to serve the entire demand? These days just getting the word out on a new business is tough. You could spend millions on a TVC, and still have to cross your fingers because people are so tired of being interrupted. You could spend on online advertising and deal with the fact that click-through percentages are at an all-time-low. The only resource left, really- is the trust and authority that your own competition has. Turn them into an ally. Use them as a channel. Cross promote your products and services. Think of a way to serve them, and then get them to serve you. Together you can corner your market (if you’re still coming from the monopoly perspective).. or better, you can serve them in a greater way.

Third, your competition helps you with your own positioning.
There are so many ways to skin the cat. If you’re doing too many things you probably suck at most or all of them. The idea is to focus. Yesterday we talked about focusing on a target market- to target so precisely that you cannot miss. Similarly you have to focus your endeavors- to service that target so well that you will be the go-to-guy for something. When people encounter the need for that “something” they think of you. And then you can always grow from there. So how do you know what to focus on? Surveying the competition helps. What are they doing well? What are they not doing well? What can you do better? And because you’ll probably focus on something the competition has neglected, you’ve effectively turned them from competition into a complementary service. Let me share to you something I’ve learned from an unexpected place…

Lessons from a Board Game

I love playing Monopoly. I grew up playing it, and still play it with my dad and siblings. It’s always a fun, heated, emotional and educational experience. Here’s my mantra when it comes to that game: “He who trades first wins first”. What I noticed is that the first two players to strike a deal together will most likely be the last two standing. Why? Because they reap from their partnership immediately and for a few rounds, milk the rest of the players dry. By the time the others form their own alliances, they one who did it first have accumulated more cash, more property, more opportunity. How does that apply to real business?

Partnerships Don’t Exist in a Vacuum

In real life you need partners. The best place to look? Competition. This is true for: Internet Marketers, Pro Bloggers, People who are looking to take their offline business online. Surveying the competition is as easy as running a Google search on a particular set of keywords. Don’t target an empty desert. When promoting yourself with Social Media, who else is talking about what you’re talking about? Get to know them. Partner. And then focus on what that person is neglecting. Together you can dominate. Refer people to each other. This works offline as well. Team up to conquer a territory.

Small Thinkers Fight over Slices

We’ve been trained in school to see the Market as a pie, and we’re wired to fight over the slices. Didn’t you think perhaps that you can grow that pie? You can grow your market! Increase awareness, demand, service level! Make people think of ways to use that thing you’re selling that haven’t been done before! Don’t fight with your competition. Ally with them to find a way to grow your market. Together you can be assured of a piece in a bigger pie. Decide on which thing you want to focus on. Then refer customers to each other when they want what the other guy is offering. Don’t be a small thinker. Think instead of the possibilities in your market. Where do you want to take it?

Remember, the world is getting smaller and more crowded. “He who trades first wins first.” Begin to see your competition as blessings in disguise.

Everything is divided into genres. Blessed is he who knows what genre he is in, for he stands a chance to conquer it.

When choosing your target market remember this- “aim small, miss small”. I stole that from Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot” when he was training his sons how to use a rifle. Many times when I ask a client “who’s your target market” and I hear answers like “well when you think about it, everyone”.

No. That’s impossible. You said “everyone” precisely because you didn’t think about it. It’s called “Target Market” for a reason. You’re holding a rifle, not an A-Bomb (especially today in the age of the Long Tail). Don’t be afraid to narrow your aim. It doesn’t decrease your chances of reaching people you didn’t aim for. On the other hand, you’ll have a better chance of reaching exactly who you had in mind- the perfect client, at the perfect budget, asking you for the perfect requirement. Chances are, you would have hit that target so well, you’ll also hit those you didn’t aim for as precisely.

Be disciplined. Learn to target. Aim small, miss small.

Suppose you needed a website today, or a redesign. And you liked my portfolio, you like my style, and you asked me to make a website for you. Then I throw you the question- “who exactly is your target market?”. Do you have a ready answer?

Every day that you don’t answer that question is another day that you’re throwing hail mary’s hoping someone will catch it. And before you start your next promotional or marketing campaign, have that answer ready. Answer these as well:

• Who is your ideal client?
• What niche (genre) are you in?
• What do they want from you?
• How can you best serve them?
• How can you present your products/services to them with their needs and wants in mind?

Be specific. Be very specific. Aim small. Miss small.