Getting your branding sorted either for the first time or as part of a refresh is an important step in making your business look professional. A lot of tradies, especially when first starting out, think all they need is a logo but they usually find that they needed much more down the track when they want to get their website, car decals, signage, business cards etc. sorted.
We’ll go through all of the essential elements that a tradie brand style guide should contain, so when you need to get you’re keen to get your branding sorted you know what you should get.
Logo
A logo is probably the first thing that comes to mind when setting up your business and looking at getting a unique look and feel. Logos these days need to be versatile due to the many different uses. For example, on a mobile phone, your website on a desktop computer, your truck, business card, t-shirt etc. For use across all these formats, simplicity is key.
You also want to make sure that you have different styles of your logo so you can be sure that it will work on dark backgrounds, small screens, fabric etc.
Lastly you need to make sure you have all of the different file versions for different applications so for a website you’d need a png file that isn’t too big in terms of file size and a vector version which you can hand over to a printer so you get the best quality when getting a decal for your truck.
Colour scheme
A colour scheme can be equally as important as a logo so you want to make sure it suits your business with no more than 5 separate colours. For example, it makes sense for a landscaper to use earthy colours like greens and browns and a plumber to use more blues. These are basic principles and all sorts of colours can work for any business, but consider suitability when doing so.
You need to make sure that you get the RBG, CMYK and HEX codes for the separate colours so your colour scheme can be applied across digital and print properly as well.
Fonts
Fonts can be quite subjective, but it’s best to stick to something that’s simple and legible. We recommend sticking to no more than 2 fonts, one to accompany your logo and one font for the website writing. Generally a bold font works well for most trades. You also want to make sure that you get different font weights for each of your fonts for different headings and subheadings.
Any extras
When getting your branding sorted it’s good to make sure you have everything ticked off so you can promote your company in different ways in the future. To do this you will need to make sure you are provided with the right files.
A lot of people will miss some important parts of their branding like quote templates and email signatures so here’s a list of items to consider when getting your branding sorted:
- Business cards
- Signs
- Shirts
- Jackets
- Car decals
- Email signatures
- Quote templates
- Invoice templates
- Website
- App
- Social media accounts
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Stubby holders
