Mr Site community

You might like to hear from other Mr Site users that have become branding experts, so here's some more handy tips from Robin Riddell www.robinriddell.com.

"Branding a business successfully is very important in order to capture your target market. A good brand needs to be complementary and clearly identify to your potential customers what your core service or product area actually is – for example it would be no good using Caterpillar-style branding to sell women's cosmetics!

"A brand is not just about visual identity; it's also about your verbal identity, the people involved, perception, reputation and more...however it helps to start with a good look. It is essential to develop an identity that is honest and true to your business, but that also intrigues and attracts your viewer. This might include creating a strap-line that becomes synonymous with your service or product."

"You may only have a few seconds to make an impression on a visitor when they first enter your site, so you need to make it count."

	Create a strong, simple and recognisable logo. Ensure it is used at a reasonable size, in a well placed position on the page.
	Decide on a simple colour palette and stick to it.
	Choose your font families wisely and sparingly (using only two or possibly three) and use them to differentiate your titles from your main body of text etc. Try utilising different weights or italics within the same families. A good font can make a design piece, but a bad font can ruin it – make sure they suit the tone.
	A good brand is consistent with the placement and scale of their logo and the colour they chose etc.

Remember: keep it simple, keep it attractive & make it bold & you should have a good visual start to a brand that people will remember.