Civic Design Honorable Mention:

For Civic Season—a two-week, nationwide event to encourage civic engagement among Generation Z and younger Millennials—we launched a five-page website for their inaugural season, containing links to approximately 100 events and learning sites. In addition, we created a print and digital guidebook entitled “The Story of You,” as both an engagement and retention touch point for 2023.

The 3rd Annual Civic Season begins on Juneteenth. Each year we contribute to its evolution. As our branding created a strong foundation on which to build, both the client and Citizen Best has implemented updates and new elements to the website and brand-new collateral. In other words, Civic Season is a living, breathing creation, and Citizen Best has helped garner the energy of a new generation of civic-minded changemakers. Our collaboration with Made By Us fosters, among Gen Z in particular, curiosity for the past in order to help shape the future.

Civic Season Team Members

• Cherry Lao, Co-founder, Creative Director
• Kris Flint, Co-founder, Account Director
• Brooke Hodess, Copywriter
• Pat Opattarakul, Senior Designer
• Minny Pornprathanwech, Designer
• Megan McAteer, Account Manager
• Gavi Schankerman, Account Coordinator
• Corrina Keeling, illustrator

Client: Made By Us – Caroline Klibanoff, Executive Director; Kate Doak-Keszler, Partnership and Communications Director; Nia Mosby, Program Manager; Cameron Katz, Community Engagement Manager; Kaz Brecher, Innovation Strategist

Social Impact Honorable Mention:

We were recognized for our work with Ritter Center, a non-profit organization serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness and economic instability. We designed Ritter Center’s website, provided ongoing branding and design support, and launched a capital campaign to raise funds for a new home that will expand their medical and mental health services, housing services, food assistance, and seasonal programs.

For Citizen Best, it’s important that we support the people who are doing good work. We believe strongly in the efforts of Ritter Center, and appreciate the opportunity to help the community through collaboration.

Ritter Center Team Members

• Cherry Lao, Co-founder, Creative Director
• Kris Flint, Co-founder, Account Director
• Pat Opattarakul, Senior Designer
• Minny Pornprathanwech, Designer
• Watcharin Yimfueang, UX Designer
• Brooke Hodess, Copywriter
• Megan McAteer, Account Manager
• Kyla Chatterjee, Account Coordinator

Client: Ritter Center – Kate Harle, Marketing Director; Jessica Hansen, Chief Development Officer

A huge thanks to SF Design Week, and congratulations to our teams that worked so hard on each project! Read full press release is here.

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As our creative director, Cherry Lao, sometimes says, “Core values show me who you are as a person. Brand personality shows me what you like to wear and how you like to make people feel.” In an ideal world, you want a company’s internal and external personas to complement and make sense together. Why? Well, let’s start at the beginning.

The fundamentals

You might be wondering why core values and a brand personality matter so much in the first place—let alone why they need to align. For starters, these two things give you an honest sense of what your company is about. In order to succeed and grow, a business must understand who it is. Only then can they offer the best version of itself to customers.

This understanding begins with the core values. A business needs to know what it stands for. If you’re not sure what your company’s core values are, don’t worry—it’s not difficult to discover them. Start with some key questions. What qualities motivate the business? Why do you get up and create every day? What problem(s) are you trying to solve? What are the best values of our top employees? Ask these questions to yourself, to the founder, to the internal team. Assess what people are saying and what is a common theme. There you’ll find your core values.

Next up is your brand personality. This is all about your external perception: How you want customers to remember you and how you stand out. To gain insight into your current brand personality, ask a new round of questions. Ask customers, employees and suppliers what type of animal they imagine the brand is? Or, if the brand was an actor or actress, who would it be? How about a car? A city? A character?

From there, Cherry suggests, “I like to encourage people to think about their experiences and the places they like to visit. What bars or hotels do they find memorable? What experiences have they had that enliven all five senses?” These questions get people thinking about what inspires them and shifts their perspective to the possibilities of what a brand identity can make someone feel like (happy, hopeful, excited, inspired.) When you’re in this frame of mind, it’s easier to understand how your brand makes people feel.

Bringing the two together

Now let’s take a look at what happens when the core values and brand personality are a mismatch. It’s probably simplest to see it in an example. Imagine a company that has a core value of “Making the world a friendlier place.” But their customer service team is known for being unhelpful and borderline rude. You can see how this creates friction both within a company and for customers. Fundamentally, it’s confusing and makes a brand identity feel less credible. It creates a sensation of falsehood and doesn’t give employees and customers a reason to be loyal.

We should pause for a moment and say that the core values and brand personality don’t need to be exactly the same. Returning to our example, it’s not that the company needs to state explicitly in brand marketing, “We’re here to make the world a friendlier place.” (In fact, they probably shouldn’t say that because it feels heavy-handed and probably loftier than the product.) No, instead, the feeling of the brand design should put people in a happy, light, friendly mood. So while the internal and external experiences are different, they still feel complementary and understandable.

This is important because when your core values and brand personality do match up, communications and brand marketing become far less complicated. When you know what your company stands for through and through, it’s clear what your brand story is, how you should look, and what you should say. Your brand identity gains something truly immeasurable: Authenticity. Things become consistent, efficient, and transparent. Employees will get your company and what they’re working for. Customers will get the brand and what feeling they’re buying into. Ultimately, this is how you build brand affinity and loyalty.

This is why taking the time to define your core values and brand personality is worth it. Get them clear and concise and then make sure they’re the two sides of the same coin. As a creative branding agency, we’ve seen it a thousand times—once these characteristics are settled, a brand becomes sharper, more inspiring, and easier to feel attached to.

Parting thought for the day…

“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” – Alexander Hamilton

The post How to align your company’s core values and brand personality appeared first on Citizen Best.

What is brand authenticity? Geoff Beattie, regional executive vp, operations at BCW Global, states when people think of an authentic brand they think of “a brand that has values and morals and stands by them no matter what while honestly divulging its practices, flaws and all.” He continued, “In fact, the thing people most wanted was open and honest communications about products and services. And that finding was consistent around the world.” 

Over the past several years, people have begun to place a premium on these attributes, with many making the choice to only support brands that they feel are the most authentic.

So what can brand teams do to cultivate this sense of genuine humanity within their own brand? While true brand authenticity looks different for everyone, there are several key themes and practices that emerge when we look at how other companies have set themselves apart in this way. 

Why authenticity is more important than ever 

People today expect more than ever from their favorite brands. And when brands don’t live up to those expectations, trust falls off. Canada’s Gustavson Brand Trust study found that Canadians’ trust in brands in 2020 fell to an all-time low. It’s not a stretch to apply that same sentiment to the United States when you consider the myriad of brand blunders that characterized the first half of 2020.

Thankfully, many companies are learning from these mistakes and taking the time to craft brand strategies that better align with these expectations.

And for good reason. Brand authenticity isn’t just about doing the right thing. Today, the idea of ‘authenticity’ has an incredibly strong business case behind it. Especially for younger consumers, the more transparent and purpose-driven a brand is, the more likely they are to support them.

A 2021 survey conducted by the Org found that 84 percent of millennials say they would be more loyal to a brand that is transparent. What’s more, 60 percent of Gen-Z women think the brands they buy from should support causes that are important to them. (Source: “Transparency Matters in Business and It’s all About Trust” by Christian Wylonis, thehrdirector.com, April 15, 2021)

The key takeaway here is that crafting a resilient, successful brand today means wholeheartedly embracing authenticity. And like we mentioned before, authenticity can look different from brand to brand. Just like how individual people have an infinite number of ways to express themselves, so too do brands. Ultimately though, authenticity can be broken down into three core tenets that strategies can fall under. 

The 3 tenets of authenticity

Bridging the gap between what people expect from your brand and their actual experience with your brand means considering how your strategies can touch on one or more of these core components.

(Image by Fleishman-Hillard)

Transparency

People today are more in control of the brands they shop with than ever before. Of course, this means expectations are higher than ever. And one expectation brands sometimes overlook is trust. People don’t do business with brands they don’t trust, and with an increasingly competitive market, brands who don’t actively earn consumers’ trust can’t expect to stay in business for long. 

Trust starts with transparency. Transparency is about being open and honest with things like your pricing, products, business practices, values, and more. It’s also about owning up to mistakes when they inevitably happen. People understand that brands are made up of human beings, and they want to see the human side come out more often.  

A great example of a brand that has built a reputation through its transparent practices is Patagonia. The company isn’t afraid to show consumers the good and bad about their products and manufacturing processes. What’s more, they welcome feedback from customers on how they can improve upon those processes. 

When thinking about transparency within your brand, don’t be afraid to be 100 percent honest, and even vulnerable. People will remember your brand as one they can trust.

Community

Another big part of brand authenticity is how well you go about building a sense of community between your brand and your audience. With social media, it’s easier than ever to interact with an audience, but the most successful brands feel like genuine, human presences on those platforms. These brands do this by posting user-generated content, showing diversity, asking for feedback, and more. 

Cultivating community goes beyond the digital realm as well. For some brands, organizing in-person events and pop-ups can be a great way to meet your audience, start conversations, and even contribute to causes. At the end of the day, building an authentic community means ensuring your brand is an active and vocal voice in the communities in which it inhabits, whether those are digital, IRL, or both. 

Purpose

Perhaps one of the most important elements of brand authenticity today is how well your brand adheres to its mission or purpose. All brands have a purpose for existing, yet many go one step further, advocating for a specific cause (or set of causes) that align with that purpose. For example, shoe company TOMS, which pioneered in the social impact space through its one-for-one giving model, in which one pair of shoes is donated to children in need for every pair purchased. 

Strengthening your brand authenticity could mean leaning more heavily into an already established brand purpose or mission, or it could mean establishing new initiatives. As the climate crisis becomes more relevant to consumers, many brands are embracing new sustainability initiatives to cut down on their carbon footprint. Some brands also champion certain political or social causes that resonate with their audiences through donations, activism, or volunteering. 

6 ways to build brand authenticity

Here are our top, actionable recommendations on how to create an authentic brand.

1. Practice radical transparency.

The time is over for brands to hold their cards close to their chest. A 2017 study from Label Insight found that 94% of people were more likely to be loyal to a brand that practiced transparency, with 73% willing to pay more for a product that offered complete transparency. Today, a lot of businesses are starting to embrace transparency in some shape or form, but your brand can go further by embracing a mindset of radical transparency. (Source: “How Transparency Became a Top Priority for Businesses, and Why You Should Care” by Larry Alton, Entrepreneur.com, June 14, 2017)

Radical transparency is all about embracing honesty at every level. It could look like breaking down the cost of your product and explaining your markup. Some brands like Lush Cosmetics take a humanized approach to transparency, by incorporating a sticker featuring the name and a portrait of the person who made each product onto packaging. Ultimately, radical transparency is about giving people the information they need to know whether or not your brand aligns with their values on things like ethics, diversity, sustainability, and more. 

2. Leverage user-generated content. 

One of the simplest ways to build brand authenticity, especially on your social channels, is by publishing user-generated content. UGC can come in the form of photos, videos, written testimonials, and more – and when used right, they can be an incredible asset.

In fact, in a survey conducted by commerce experience platform Notso, 60 percent of people see UGC as the most authentic form of content a brand can publish. 

When you give your community a platform to express their ideas and values, you’re letting your audience know that you see them and hear them. 

Consider going above and beyond in how you utilize UGC by highlighting the actual people you’re publishing, like how Warby Parker features a person’s career, passions, and other interesting facts. 

3. Tell real stories.

Stories are at the heart of every successful brand, and great stories go beyond marketing gimmicks to actually help people connect with your brand and your values. Did you face incredible challenges to build your brand? Was there a defining moment that moved your founder to act? What have you learned since building your brand? All of these questions and more can provide jumping-off points for crafting stories that resonate. 

Great stories go back to trust and authenticity by showing the people behind your brand and what they care about. They can also be used to establish your brand as a leader in your field, by educating your audience on topics that matter to you both. 

4. Listen to your audience.

If you want to be seen as authentic, it’s important to listen more than you speak as a brand. Open up channels where your audience can share their ideas, thoughts, concerns, and feedback on your products and processes, and work to thoughtfully respond to and implement those ideas when appropriate. Especially after a potential mishap or mistake, taking the time to listen to what people have to say can set your brand apart from others who might want to simply brush it under the rug. 

5. Put your money where your values are.

Now more than ever, people expect brands to share the wealth. What’s more, it’s not necessarily the dollar amount that people care about, but the proportion of donations to overall profit that makes people see your brand as generous. A great example is this finding from Harvard researchers Elizabeth Keenan and Leslie John where they found in 2015 Walmart donated $301 million, or 2 percent, of its profits, compared with Target’s $111.5 million, or 5 percent. Unsurprisingly, people saw Target as being more generous. (Source: “Giving Back: Consumers Care More About How Companies Donate Than How Much” by Pamela Reynolds, hbswk.hbs.edu, April 7, 2022)

While you don’t have to become a nonprofit, it’s important to choose one or a few causes that align with your mission and purpose to lift up with your donations. It can also be a great idea to donate to causes that your audience cares about. For example, during Earth Month, you could donate time and resources to organizations fighting climate change. 

6. Keep your promises.

Lastly, one of the most important parts of building brand authenticity is following up on your promises as a brand. Whether you promise to change lives and bring about a better world, or simply promise to provide a great product, make sure you’re able to follow through on that. And if along the way a mistake is made, be comfortable owning up to it and trying again. 

While authenticity means everything to consumers, at the end of the day, it can mean a lot of different things to different brands. Working with a brand agency can help you define exactly what authenticity means to your company and team, and what it looks like in practice. Learn more about how we help brands find their authentic voice here.

Parting thought for the day…

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real.” —Brené Brown

The post 6 Ways to Build Brand Authenticity appeared first on Citizen Best.

Think of globally recognizable brands like Coca-Cola and Nike. You probably see their logos in your mind’s eye before you even think of their products. They’re simple but unique, and highly memorable. These are all traits you want your brand’s visual identity to encapsulate. No matter how saturated your market may be, a strong logo and visual strategy can help your brand make its mark. So why do so many brands look similar today? 

In this guide, we’ll explore the trends influencing some brands to give up their signature style, as well as give our recommendations on how to build a cohesive visual identity that capture’s your brand’s personality while still being flexible enough to adapt with the times.

The rise of “blanding”, or why so many brands
look similar today

Let’s jump right into the potential elephant in the room. Just why do so many brands look alike? While it’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason, it’s clear that around 2017, some companies decided to forgo their old logos for something a little more modern. At first, it was fashion brands that led the charge, with brands like Balenciaga and Gucci undergoing a visual rebrand, opting for a sans serif font for their logos.

This proved to be quite the popular change, with several other brands following suit. But the change didn’t stop with the fashion industry. Soon, big tech brands like Spotify, Microsoft, Airbnb, and more followed. Another big visual trend that sprang up around that time was the explosion of “millennial pink” and other soft, muted pastel colors. And while the use of millennial pink has somewhat taken a step back in the last year or so, the sans serif font still stands as a go-to choice for a variety of brands. 

And while it may seem counterintuitive to drop an eye-catching, one-of-a-kind logo for something a little blander, there are a few thought-provoking reasons why these brands may have made the change. 

Simplification

There’s something crisp and modern about a sans serif font. And in a time where minimalism is one of the dominant aesthetics in design, it makes sense some brands would embrace a pared-down logo. There’s also an argument to be made that, as a brand grows larger and seeks to create a broader, wider audience, a simpler logo looks much more trustworthy, reliable, and in some cases, luxurious.

Readability

Another possible reason brands are leaning into the sans serif look is simply due to its readability. Sans serif fonts were created in the early 1800s for this purpose exactly, ensuring clarity and readability in a variety of mediums, sizes, and distances. Today, it’s important that your logo and other text elements are clearly legible wherever your audience may find them, from your mobile site to a huge billboard. 

Leaving behind the era of the logo

Brands will always need a logo, of course, but the utility of a unique logo is diminishing, one could argue. Strong brands like Gucci or Microsoft are overwhelmingly defined by their products today, not their logo. Instead of their logo cluing people in to their personality or concept, the brand itself has become so ubiquitous that that is no longer needed. 

Of course, all of these points have strong counterarguments to be made as well. When it comes to building out your visual branding strategy, it’s important to consider the full picture before deciding on a direction for your brand.

To fit in…or to stand out?

So with that being said, is it better to fit into today’s minimalist, modern branding, or carve out a bolder visual identity? While a great design agency can help guide you through the process to create something that resonates with both you and your target audience, you will need to be the one to chart the initial course, so to speak. 

To help you figure out what path makes the most sense for your brand, we’ve laid out a few key considerations and questions to think about. 

Consider your audience

Who is your audience? Different visual styles resonate with different groups. For example, a no-frills, cut-and-dry look might work with men of a specific demographic, while a trendy brand looking to capture Gen-Z women would be more likely to take a maximalist approach with bold colors and fun fonts. Knowing your target audience – how old they are, where they live, their values, etc can help you hone in on the best strategy for your brand’s visual identity. 

To get a better idea of what’s working well with your ideal cohort, make it a point to see what your competition is doing. What are the top brands in your category doing, and are there any gaps you can exploit? Sometimes it works to simply take a particular design trend and make it your own – other times, in order to stand out, you might have to reinvent the wheel. 

Take your value proposition into account

What do you offer that’s unique from other brands? Maybe it’s the quality and authenticity of your product or service, or perhaps it’s your brand’s purpose-driven values that make you different. When you’re deciding how your brand should look, take into account how your visual design choices can communicate that value proposition intrinsically. 

Or, you can opt for the opposite approach, where a minimalistic design philosophy lets consumers project their own ideals and values onto your brand.

Find inspiration from your own favorite brands

What are your favorite brands (from any category), and what do they do well in terms of design? Studying up on brands that have made an impact on you and your team can help reveal potential patterns and shared ideas around what makes a great brand design. The end goal being not to copy what made those other brands successful, but to potentially apply any lessons you’ve learned from them into your own strategy. 

What goes into creating a unique visual brand identity

Once you’ve taken the time to consider what general path you want your brand’s visual identity to follow, you can then explore each of the specific elements that will make up your branding in greater detail. 

Your agency partner will work closely with you to develop a variety of key visual branding elements, including: 

Naming

What’s in a name? Everything. As we like to say, naming your brand is on the same level as naming a baby. A great name distills the essence of your brand down to just a few words or less. It should be easy to read, easy to remember, and most importantly, it should immediately evoke a feeling within your audience. The feeling could be warmth, trust, competence, or any number of emotions. Your name just needs to be able to communicate that feeling. We’ll help you craft a name that speaks to your brand on a soul-level, and take care of all the technical logistics that go with naming as well. 

Logo

A great brand name and a well-designed logo are like peanut butter and jelly – on their own they’re fine, but the real magic happens when they’re put together. The best logos take whatever feeling your brand name evokes, and translates that into something people can experience visually. As such, it’s important to get your logo exactly right. You don’t want it to clash tonally or emotionally with your brand name, and you don’t want it to be overly complex as well. 

Another consideration up and coming brands should make in today’s world is the versatility of their logo. Could the color(s) of your logo be swapped around based on a predetermined brand color palette for different occasions? Is your logo crisp and clear enough to look good on the smallest of social media posts? Your brand agency will help you address these questions and more as you move forward in the logo design process. 

Visual direction

Your visual identity goes far beyond your logo. Your art direction is the umbrella under which all other visual assets for your brand will live. These include graphics and illustrations, as well as photography. The goal is to create a library of visual assets that complement your logo, and can be mixed and matched to create different branding materials, from email headers to social media templates. 

Brand voice

What you say as a brand, and how you say it matters. Getting your tone of voice just right is key to not only resonating with your target audience, but making sure your messaging comes across exactly how you want it to. Visually, you want to complement your voice with the right choice of fonts, letter casing, color, and more. Your visual assets help communicate your brand voice as well. For example, using photography of young, smiling people could help communicate that your brand is youthful, cheery, and friendly. 

Brand style guide

Think of your brand style guide as the backbone that holds up each of the other elements we just discussed. A style guide outlines exactly where, how, and when different aspects of your visual identity should be used. It lets your entire team know what’s on-brand, and what’s not. For instance, it can help your social media team create Instagram templates that align with your brand’s color palette and approved fonts to create a beautifully consistent feed. 

How we can help 

If you think of brand strategy as the blueprint for your brand, then brand creative – or brand identity – is the foundational design and messaging elements of your brand. As a creative marketing agency, we love working with businesses big and small to help define the look and feel of key brand elements. 

When it comes to the look of your brand, we start with a logo design, then move on to a color palette and other elements like typography and iconography. These visual aspects are applied across the board for brand consistency and recognition, for both internal and consumer-facing deliverables, including your website, business cards, letterhead, social media channels, trade show elements, digital ads, and so on. In addition, we help you set the tone and voice of any copy for your consumers. This way, when consumers engage with your website, a social media post or sales brochure, your consumers will connect with your brand because you are consistent with your look and messaging, which ultimately fosters brand recognition.

Ready to take your brand design from concept to reality? Get in touch with the Citizen Best team today. We can’t wait to meet your brand.

The post Does Your Brand Look Like Everyone Else? How to Build a Unique Visual Identity appeared first on Citizen Best.

The thing is, reaching that goal is only possible when your brand team has the right tools at their disposal. This leads us to the essential foundation of any successful brand – the brand toolkit. Keep reading for an in-depth guide to building a brand identity toolkit and how it can help propel your brand growth forward.

What is a brand toolkit, and why are they helpful?

If your brand is a cell, your brand toolkit is the nucleus at its heart. A brand strategy toolkit is the ultimate compilation of everything your brand is, from your voice to your visual identity, to your point-of-purchase experience, and more. It encapsulates everything that sets your brand apart from the competition. It should be a thoughtful, well-designed resource that anyone from your CMO to your freelance team can reference at any point.

Your brand toolkit is also the jumping-off point for any piece of content you create or any new campaign you envision. Following it will ensure that anything you put out to the public will feel authentic to your brand. Depending on your brand’s identity and goals, your toolkit can also be as rigid or flexible as you want it to be, with plenty of room for experimentation too. 

At Citizen Best, we have plenty of experience creating well-crafted brand toolkits for our clients. If you’re looking for a few examples, check out our brand design portfolio But first, let’s dive into the top 7 reasons why your brand needs a toolkit.

7 reasons why you need a brand strategy toolkit

Laying the proper groundwork is incredibly important if you want to fuel your brand’s growth over time. A well-thought-out brand strategy toolkit can do exactly that and provide several other key benefits too. 

1. It keeps your brand identity cohesive

Successful brands are instantly recognizable. As soon as you see their logo, or perhaps even a certain set of colors, you automatically make the connection. And while recognizability and consistency may seem like simple asks, it can get pretty murky pretty quick. This is why it’s so important to have every piece of your brand’s visual identity represented within your brand toolkit. Wherever your brand may appear, from larger-than-life billboards to tiny social media posts, sticking to your brand toolkit will help your brand stay true to itself visually.

2. It gives your content a clear ‘why’ behind it

A great brand identity toolkit will include resources on the ‘why’ behind your brand. Anything from your purpose statement, to your target audience, and more will help weave together that bigger vision for why your brand exists in the first place. 

A big part of effective content marketing is having a clear ‘why’ behind everything your team creates. In today’s saturated world of blog posts, social media channels, and YouTube videos, being able to reference back to your brand toolkit can help you conceptualize content that will stand out and bring true value to your audience.

3. Your brand strategy toolkit sets clear standards

Nobody likes rules, but when it comes to crafting your brand identity, it’s important to set at least a few in place. No matter how large or small your team is, it’s more than likely that multiple people will be involved in creating and publishing content. Setting clear rules and standards can help ensure consistency across all your materials and make sure each of your design elements are used appropriately.

A few examples of common standards are: how to space your logo, the hierarchy of brand colors, and when to use your logo vs. a watermark.

4. It can help your audience connect with your brand

Your ultimate goal as a brand is to create a lasting connection with your audience. It’s not just the first impression that’s important, but the second, third, and onwards. Building a solid brand identity that’s reflected in a toolkit makes it easy to telegraph exactly who your brand is and what makes it stand out each time someone encounters it.

And it’s not just about helping your target audience connect with you. You want to be able to showcase a consistent idea of what your brand is all about among your employees, your investors, and your vendors as well.

5. You can use it as a jumping-off point for testing

Earlier we mentioned how important it is to set standards and rules within your brand identity toolkit. But sometimes, rules are meant to be bent and broken, especially when your content isn’t quite working. If people aren’t reacting to your brand the way you’d like them to, going back to your toolkit can help you pinpoint what elements might not be working, and offer you a consolidated space in which to experiment with alternatives.

6. It makes materials easily accessible

Another big perk of having an easily accessible brand toolkit is that everyone can reference it whenever working on brand materials. Having things like logos, icons, and fonts easily copy and pasteable can save your team a lot of time and effort. Instead of letting everything get disorganized and buried in a Google Drive or email chain, an interactive brand toolkit can simply live in one accessible place.

7. It keeps your content on-task, on-topic, and on-brand

Especially if you publish a lot of written or video materials meant for an audience, it’s helpful to have guidelines on things like formatting, length, potential topics, and keywords. Instead of running wild with content that might not end up resonating, tying everything aligned to your toolkit can help your content have a better chance of landing.

The essential elements of a brand toolkit

While every brand toolkit is different, there are a number of common elements that should go into each one. Here’s a quick breakdown of what we recommend including.

Your visual identity

One of the most important components of your brand toolkit is your visual identity. This includes things like: 

• Logo(s) and wordmarks
• Branded graphics and icons
• Any brand photography
• Color palette
• Fonts

Along with these items, you’ll also want to include use cases and any acceptable variations. It’s also not a bad idea to take things a step further, putting together examples of what bad usage looks like. Showing distorted logos or wrong color pairings can help drive home the message of how important it is to get it right.

A style guide

Along with the visual side of your brand, your brand identity toolkit should also include anything and everything to do with your brand voice and style. Considerations for your tone of voice (and how they may vary across certain channels), along with your brand purpose statement, key personality traits, and content pacing are all key here. 

Like with your visual elements, you’ll also want to include examples of how not to present your brand in written communications.

Social media considerations

Social media is rapidly evolving, with new platforms seemingly joining the fray every year. And each platform has its own unique culture, which makes it important for your brand to be able to create a compatible but true-to-brand presence on each. Within your brand toolkit, you’ll want to include guidelines for the social media platforms you plan to be on. Include sizing requirements, post-frequency, times of posting, and even post templates and graphics that your social media team can plug and play with.

Influencer guidelines

More and more brands are leveraging influencer power to forge connections with their audiences. Even B2B brands are getting in on the action. And while influencer marketing was considered the “Wild West” of marketing back in the early 2010s, working with influencers has now become a standard for many brands. 

Even if your brand isn’t currently working with any influencers, you should include influencer guidelines in your toolkit. Include information on what kind of influencers you’d prefer to work with, the size of their following, and what kind of content they produce. Or if you already have an extensive influencer network, your brand toolkit is a great place to keep your influencer rules and all of their contact info.

Community engagement guidelines

Does your brand like to take an active, hands-on approach when it comes to communicating with your followers/audience? Or is it more subdued? There’s no one right way to engage with your community, but it is important that your approach stays consistent across social media and your physical stores or offices. Adding guides for how brand representatives and community management teams should communicate with your audience can help maintain a sense of continuity and ensure every person has a similarly (positive!) experience.

Also, include scripts or guides on how to respond to commonly asked questions and negative comments, and include links to resources or the contact info of subject matter experts within your company who can answer more technical questions.

Whether you need help revamping your old brand toolkit or are starting completely from scratch, we can help synthesize everything that makes your brand unique into one master resource. Learn more about how Citizen Best can help you craft the perfect brand toolkit.

The post Do you need a brand toolkit? appeared first on Citizen Best.

It cannot be overstated how important a first impression is for a brand. It’s crucial for explaining your product or services, building credibility, and standing out in a crowded marketplace. Whether or not we want to admit it, we all have a tendency to make a gut-level assessment when we walk into a store, open an email, or visit a new website. We decide quickly whether or not the brand identity resonates and if it’s worth the time to explore further. It happens subconsciously very quickly — and it’s in that split-second that your brand needs to make a case for itself.

We know. That sounds daunting. But, it’s actually not as difficult as you’d think. It all comes down to three rules for mastering the first impression. Follow these guidelines and your brand design is on the right track to wowing potential customers.

RULE #1: IT’S ALL ABOUT CLARITY

If your customer doesn’t know what your brand is about, there’s no saving the first impression. It doesn’t matter how pretty the brand creative looks, how clever the copy, how flashy the experience. All that matters at the beginning is answering a few simple questions: Why does your brand exist? What are you offering? Can the customer trust what they see?

Clarity doesn’t mean being boring, however.  In fact, here’s a little secret: You can be obvious while being creative.

To build credibility, it’s important for your brand design to match the product or service. If you’re a landscape design company dedicated to building beautiful spaces, your website better reveal an eye for design. Similarly, if you’re a software company with a product that promises ease-of-use, your website better be simple to navigate. All the brand design decisions you make should ladder up to your brand’s overall service and build customer confidence. They should work in the service of clarity, not as a roadblock to it.

RULE #2: LESS IS MORE

It’s a classic saying because it’s true. Control your brand story and stop yourself from giving too much information upfront. After all, you don’t spill your entire life history when you first meet a stranger. It’s the same thing with a brand identity. Yes, customers want to know the inspiration behind your vision. But, not before they want to know the basic facts of what you can offer them.

Here’s an example: You’re visiting a new website and, bam, within seconds you’re hit with too many interstitials. You’re asked to accept cookies, to sign up for a newsletter, to remember a promo code, to use the chatbot… It can quickly become overwhelming, even if each piece is well-designed and on-brand. Too much visual clutter easily creates confusion and frustration.

There’s a time and place for every piece of information. (And if you need help placing the parts of your brand story, it might be time to chat with a branding agency.) But when it comes to the first interaction, go for less and leave your audience wanting more.

RULE #3: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Here’s a simple question that is often overlooked: Who is getting the first impression? Every decision you make needs to be with a specific audience in mind. How do they want to be communicated with? What terms do they understand? What do they want to know? (Be careful, this is different than: What do you want to tell them?) If you’re talking to a different audience than who is actually visiting your website, your first impression will likely fall flat.

Once you’ve determined who your audience is, you need to think about where they’re at. Are they on their phone or on a desktop?  Is the first impression in a store or online? If it’s in a physical space, every sense is important, and every interaction crucial. Sights, sounds, smells, textures — they either work together to draw a customer in or to push a customer out. If you’re meeting your audience online, there’s a series of first impressions: a digital ad leads to a landing page, a product page leads to a checkout experience. When assessing how your brand meets its customers, you need to look at the web of interconnected touchpoints to understand which moments are the make-or-break first impressions.

Simple. Concise. Knowledgeable. These are the characteristics that make a customer sit up and think, Finally! Exactly what I’ve been looking for. So go ahead and take a look at how your brand identity presents itself. If it doesn’t follow the three rules above, it might be time to do some extra thinking around the impression you’re trying to make.

Parting thought for the day…

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” – Will Rogers

The post Mastering the first impression appeared first on Citizen Best.

Smart brands see an agency partnership as exactly that – a partnership. The best agency relationships take a collaborative approach, allowing open communication and ideas to flow both ways. However, many brands might not realize how much preparation and work goes into cultivating a productive agency partnership. In this guide, we’ll dive a little deeper into how a brand design agency can serve your brand, along with 10 tried and true tips that will help you get the most out of your partnership.

The biggest benefits of working with a branding agency

Deciding to work with a full-service creative agency can be a big step for your team – and one that can ultimately propel your brand forward in exciting ways. Here are just a few of the top benefits brands can expect when partnering with an agency.

Access to niche expertise

A lot goes into planning and executing a great marketing campaign or brand strategy. And while your in-house team might have an incredible amount of experience and know-how, we’ve often found that in-house teams lack the full amount of resources they need to successfully move forward on projects of this scope. 

When you work with a full-service creative agency, you have access to niche expertise and skills that might not be represented in your in-house team. From graphic designers to professional photographers, SEO experts, copywriters, and more, creative agencies employ the best of the best, leaving no creative stone unturned. And when your project hits a snag or needs a new direction, your agency team can connect you with the talent needed to push that project forward. 

You and your team can focus on what you do best

When you’re working on a project with a lot of moving parts, it’s important to not stretch you or your team too thin. A brand agency can give you more people to work with, giving your team the space to focus on what you do best. Whether that’s overall ideation, strategy, or something else, your agency team will take care of anything that’s not currently in your wheelhouse. 

A brand design agency can give you a new perspective on your brand 

You already know your brand inside and out. Still, it’s always helpful to bring fresh eyes to a project or idea. Sometimes when you’ve been immersed in a brand for a long time, it can be difficult to look beyond what that brand has done in the past. Your agency team will undoubtedly bring a new perspective on your brand to the table, opening up the door to a whole host of new and exciting creative insights you can weave into your strategy. 

There are even more benefits to working with a brand design agency. The catch is, if you want to reap these benefits, you’ll need a strategic approach and vision. In our experience, brands that come in prepared tend to get the most out of their project (and often end up coming back for more). We’ve put together a few guidelines and recommendations to help set your brand/agency partnership up for success from day one.  

10 tips to get the most out of your agency partnership

Teaming up with a branding agency can add incredible value to your operations and help differentiate your brand from the competition. Here’s our advice on how to make that happen:

Choose the right SOW 

When you first approach an agency, you’ll likely bring a clear idea of what you’re looking to accomplish. Or, if you need extra help ideating, you’ll at least know where you want to end up. Your agency can help synthesize any of these ideas into clear, actionable tasks and goals. But before launching your project, you’ll want to work together with your agency to define a clear statement of work (SOW).  

Lack of clarity can kill your project before it even leaves the ground. To ensure both parties are on the same page, make sure both your SOW and brief(s) include a detailed account of the scope of work you’re expecting. Outline roles, responsibilities, and make sure they are ultimately aligned with your overall brand goals and vision. 

This period is also a great opportunity to refine and clarify your SOW. For example, if your agency has recommended SEO guidance but you’d rather them handle SEO completely, you can redefine your SOW to reflect that. Or if there’s something that doesn’t make sense or is too vague, you can ask for more detail. 

Establish a clear point of contact

Too often, brands have too many points of contact from their agency, which can lead to confusion, miscommunications, or worse – things falling through the cracks. From day one, both you and the branding agency you’re working with should establish a clear point of contact for each side. Someone who you can go to for clarity, updates, and help. And if you need to have more than one point of contact, make sure to create a proper protocol for sharing information (for example, when/who to CC on email correspondence). 

Set your agency up for success 

Your full-service creative agency of choice can do incredible work, but only if you set them up to. Before your agency partners can move forward with their SOW, your in-house team will want to share any and all relevant materials you have on hand. This could include everything from social media logins to established brand guidelines or playbooks. If you have big ‘nos’ or things you want to avoid, you’ll also want to share these.

If you’ve worked with another agency in the past, it can also be helpful to provide any materials (reports, marketing materials, etc) from that past relationship. Especially if you’re looking to compare past performance or measure up current projects against previously set benchmarks, these resources can come in handy.

Get your agency excited about what you’re doing

The most inspired ideas come from people who are truly passionate about what they’re working on. It’s a given that you and your in-house team are inspired by or passionate about your brand – but what about your agency? Agencies work with multiple brands, often at the same time, which means it’s important to make a point of getting your agency team stoked to work with your brand. 

There are a few ways you can go about this. It should go without saying that your initial meeting with an agency should inform them about exactly who your brand is. Take this opportunity to not just inform, but tell a story. Share how your brand came to be, how it’s different from competitors, and how it makes an impact on the communities or audiences it serves. 

If your brand is product-based, consider getting that product in the hands of your agency team. Trust us – it’s much easier to approach creative projects when you have actually used the product. And, if your team loves the product, they’ll be much more engaged in their work with you. 

Approach your relationship with your branding agency as a partnership

We’ve mentioned this several times already, but brands should always approach an agency relationship as a true partnership. What do we mean by partnership? To us, a partnership happens when both parties respect each other, prioritize communication, and see each other as creative equals. 

Instead of thinking of your agency as just another vendor, treat them as a true ally. Instead of telling them what to do, allow room for collaboration and co-ideation. Embracing this idea of partnership is key to building trust between both teams, and will ultimately result in a better relationship, and better work. 

Create a clear approval and feedback process

This goes back to setting up a clear SOW. Before you give the green light on any new project, outline a step-by-step approval and revision process, and make sure everyone involved is briefed on it. If you want to give your agency full creative control and would rather take a hands-off approach, great – but make sure that’s clear upfront. The same goes if you would rather have a more active hand in each step of the process. Outlining how many rounds of revisions are standard, along with agreeing on a clear format for giving and receiving feedback will ensure everyone is aligned and no one feels micromanaged.

Make sure to have a clear timeline on projects 

Oftentimes, brands don’t realize just how long a given project can take from start to finish. This then leads them to rush their agency team, eliminating much-needed time for creative thinking and experimentation. If you’re working on a tight schedule, let your agency know. That way, they can allocate their time and resources in a way that gets the most productive work done in the timeframe you have allotted. 

On the other hand, if you’re not racing to the finish line, it can be easy for certain projects and tasks to fall through the cracks. This is where regular communication is key. Don’t let weeks or even months go by without making a decision or providing feedback. This regular communication is key to keeping your partnership running like a well-oiled machine. 

Communicate regularly 

Any great relationship needs consistent, honest communication, and your relationship with your agency is no different. Don’t be afraid to share the good, bad, and ugly. If you like where things are going, tell them! A little praise and positive reinforcement can go a long way. Of course, if you’re not as happy with where things are headed, don’t wait to provide that much-needed feedback. Stay honest and clear in your communication, and your agency partners will do the same for you.

Also consider meeting face-to-face regularly, whether that’s in person or virtually. A lot can get missed through email. In our experience, the best ideas come from intentionally putting heads together and talking things out.

Go deeper with your feedback

We’ve all had someone say, “I don’t like it” in reference to something without providing any explanation of why. It feels frustrating, and can make it hard to chart a different path forward. When providing feedback to the team, go into as much detail as possible. Explain what’s working and why, along with what’s not working and why. When possible, tie this back to your business or project’s overarching objectives. This kind of actionable feedback is much more helpful to teams and can give them a clear direction of where to go from there. 

Whether you want help with all the parts of your brand strategy or just one piece, a great creative agency can help you strengthen your brand and turn your audience into advocates. Learn more about how we create citizens for your brand here.

The post 10 tips to work more efficiently with a branding agency appeared first on Citizen Best.

Question #1: Do you have the ability to meet our timeline?

In some ways, this is the most important question because it sets expectations for the entire brand design experience. Getting the timing right and knowing the agency has the creative muscle to execute your project is the foundation of a strong working relationship. You can also go a step further and ask these follow-up questions: How much time do we have to give feedback? How much time do we have to give approval? How much time do you need to do your best work? The answers will help you assess if both teams can keep the project moving forward and toward your shared goal.

Question #2: What information do you need from me?

Assets, content, backstory, market research, bios…there’s a lot of information that an agency will need to effectively tell your brand story. It’s in the best interest of everyone to know these details ahead of time. The more information you can provide, the more a branding agency can get an inside look at what makes the brand tick (and, also, what’s missing the mark.) By knowing what’s expected on your end, you’re making it easier to hit the ground running and avoid any time consuming hiccups along the way.

Question #3: Can I see brand creative examples?

Now’s the time to see an agency’s work and ask questions about how the agency arrived at the final brand creative. This is also an opportunity to gain some deeper knowledge on brand storytelling and identity design. Learn about the rounds of work, how the creative process is iterative, and how the agency expands a brand’s language (beyond a logo.) You can also take this moment to show inspiration and explain what success would look like for you. Everyone loves a good benchmark!

One insider tip is to avoid asking for your brand to look like someone else’s. (Aka: Can you make the design look like this example?) Part of the reason you’re hiring a creative agency is to make you stand out — not blend in.

Question #4: What experience do you have with my industry and demographic?

Different industries have different needs, which is why it’s important to fully understand a creative agency’s experience, past client work, and plan of action. If the agency doesn’t have the specific industry and demographic experience, then ask what strategic and creative process they follow to gain insight. There’s a possibility that they will offer a completely unique perspective and will find a novel direction for your brand identity.

You also want to find out if the creative agency has a background in the specific marketing services you’re interested in. If you mainly want web development, and that’s not the agency’s strong suit — you want to discover that now. Part of this conversation can be talking about market and demographic research and competitive analysis. Give details and make sure the agency has a game plan to appeal to your industry and audience.

How a creative agency answers the above questions will reveal their competency, creativity and personality. These questions are the very beginning of achieving an exceptional final product. So start asking the questions and keep an open mind to the discoveries ahead.

Parting thought for the day…

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Eugene Ionesco

The post Set yourself up for success: four questions to ask a creative agency appeared first on Citizen Best.

We love explaining why a brand design refresh makes all the difference, but it’s also something you have to witness. That’s why we’re starting a Before and After Series on the blog. We want you to experience what happens to a brand when it’s been reconsidered, reworked, and reimagined.

As our creative director and co-founder, Cherry Lao, says, “When a brand is refreshed, it lives up to a fuller extent of its potential. It can be difficult to grasp what a transformation a brand story can take. In some ways, you need to see it to believe it.”

Meet the Brand

Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC) is a nonprofit that makes outdoor adventures accessible to people with disabilities and under-resourced youth. When ETC first came to Citizen Best, they were concerned their website felt outdated and was difficult to maintain. We instantly wanted to help. Not only could we address their pain points, but we also saw that their brand story and the look and feel of their website didn’t represent the incredible work they did. 

Before

When we looked at the ETC website, we saw a big problem: It didn’t pop. It was overwhelmed by messaging and didn’t highlight the role of nature in the nonprofit’s mission. In short, the key brand story was getting lost.

During

To get ETC right, we needed to return to the basics and understand every aspect of the ETC brand. Working with their team, we dove into brand strategy, creative design, and the website design and development process. We didn’t leave any stone unturned. We considered various looks and feels through mood boards; we modernized their brand logo; and we landed on a brand statement that better encapsulated the ETC mission.

As part of this process, Cherry collaborated very closely with the client. She explains, “This period of work is really exciting. It’s like a puzzle that we’re trying to work out together. Yes, it’s about storytelling and branding, but it’s also about good old-fashioned creativity and exploration. I was endlessly inspired by ETC and the work they did, so I wanted to make their brand design as meaningful as their mission.”

After

By putting in the work, the ETC website transformed. It went from flat to rich with meaning.

Starting with colors, we landed on a color-palette that speaks to colors found in nature. We used shades that evoke water sports, kayaking, mountain ranges, and even trips to the Grand Canyon. We then developed a color system that applied the palette in a systematic way, using colors to create flow and hierarchy throughout the website. The result was a refined toolkit that’s easy for ETC to use and that feels harmonious in any asset. 

We were similarly inspired in our use of graphic elements. We found a circular shape to be a nice fit for ETC as it communicates a sense of community and camaraderie—the feeling of finding  your place. It also echoes through nature in the rise of waves and the concentric circles found in trees. The tone-on-tone line elements play a similar role for the background pattern, representing terrain and mimicking wood. These graphic elements are used throughout the brand experience to call attention to certain imagery, to elevate calls to action, and to add dimensionality. 

An additional piece of this project was making sure the website was accessible and easy to update. For that reason, we designed with accessibility in mind—for instance, creating a high contrast design system and large font size for people with visual impairments. To keep the website maintenance simple for the ETC team, we built a content management system (CMS) on the backend. At the end of the project, we provided the team with a website training, giving them the tools to update assets going forward. 

The ultimate result was a brand story that used color, graphics, photography and messaging to evoke environmental settings and to speak to the importance of community and a connection with nature. And a website that will help ETC continue their inspiring work for years to come.

The end result was a website that all parties were thrilled with, and one that will help ETC continue their inspiring work for years to come.

Parting thought for the day…

“Leave the roads; take the trails.” – Pythagoras

The post Before and after case study: ETC appeared first on Citizen Best.

Sign #1: The brand doesn’t feel cohesive.

If you look at your brand creative across channels, what message do you receive? Is it the same or does it shift? (If it’s hard to tell, ask friends or colleagues — they’ll be able to see it.) For many brands, something breaks down — the look, the feel, the messaging. We’ve seen it all. A strong brand statement on the homepage gets watered down in an email campaign; standout visuals are only found in print collateral and abandoned online; what feels fresh in store is completely missing from the app. Whatever it is, the brand story should feel the same from end to end. If it doesn’t, we’ve got a problem.

Sign #2: Things are confusing.

A common result of inconsistent branding is confusion. Clients and customers can’t quite put their finger on which version of the brand is the “real” one. Even worse, a prospective client can’t figure out what exactly the brand does. This confusion leads to companies needing to explain itself more and putting a lot of effort into clarifying how it can serve its clients. When this begins to happen, there’s really only one solution: Work with a branding agency to make the experience clear and consistent.

Sign #3: The brand stays the same despite changes to the company.

When something big happens (a new marketing push, a merger, an app launch, a reorganization), this can mean there’s been a shift in your brand’s strategy or foundation. It’s important to ask some key questions. Does your brand identity need fresh messaging and design to successfully launch a new product? Is it a stretch for your internal team to develop brand creative for the updated business? Is your audience going to be the same after these developments? Business changes usually mean changes to the brand story — and you want things buttoned-up for the future ahead.

Sign #4: The brand stays the same despite changes to the world.

Technology innovations, consumer habits, the social climate…there are many reasons that brands need to adapt. You want your customer experience to feel current — not outdated, and certainly not tone-deaf. When the world shifts, so must companies. This doesn’t mean the core business needs to change, but it’s likely that the brand story could benefit from refreshed messaging and design.

Sign #5: You have a gut feeling.

This is a common scenario — you can’t figure out what exactly isn’t working, but you know it’s not right. Maybe the foundation of the brand is too limiting or broad; maybe you worked with a branding agency and don’t love the results; maybe things feel stale or the message has been drifting; or maybe you just sense your audience doesn’t connect with the brand story. Whatever the reason, if looking at your homepage makes you go, “Meh,” it’s time to mix it up and try a new angle.

If any of the above sounds familiar, don’t stress. A brand identity refresh is an exciting process and one that has benefits for years to come. If you’re interested in doing a brand assessment, let’s chat. We’re a full service creative agency that has found solutions to every branding problem.

Parting thought for the day…

“We don’t know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don’t always appreciate their fragility.” – Malcolm Gladwell

The post Five signs you need to refresh your brand identity appeared first on Citizen Best.