Do you like sandwiches? I do. My death row meal would likely involve a sandwich of some kind. Not that I’m worried about making it easy on the prison kitchen, I just really, really like a good sammy.
Sandwiches are easy. My toddler could make a sandwich if we gave him all the ingredients. There’s a simple order to making a sandwich:
- Spread the peanut butter
- Slice the tomatoes
- Scramble an egg
- Open the bread
- Slap it all together
- Serve
- Think about what kind of sandwich you want
Huh? This makes no sense whatsoever. Though it’s a great recipe for Disaster Sandwich. Interestingly, many new business people kick things off with a Disaster Sandwich. Why do they do that?
Create visuals, start business
Creating specialized graphics around a business is kind of like making a sandwich. It’s tons of fun. I should know, I do it on a regular basis. It’s so much fun that it’s often the first priority for new businesses. I totally get it. Every other business out there has a shiny logo and slick business cards. It must be vitally important to their success.
It’s not.
When you’re just hanging out your shingle, it makes sense that you want more than your name on it in plain Helvetica. It’s natural to get excited about creating this beautiful baby business (jeez, I would hope you’re excited). You have this vision that you want to convert to reality as soon as possible. I’m with ya. I get excited about that stuff, too.
Step back a sec. Let’s talk about Branding, baby. Let’s talk about You and Me.
Branding is not a logo. It’s not the graphics on your web site. Branding is the consistent way you deliver your products and services. It’s you. It’s how you relate to other people. It can take years to develop consistent branding.
That’s okay. Take your time. It’s not a race.
The more you work with clients or customers, the deeper feel you get for your brand.
Bread then peanut butter = Brand then visuals
Just like you wouldn’t build a sandwich without first asking yourself what kind of sandwich you’re hungry for, you shouldn’t create visuals without knowing your brand.
Once you’ve done this internal branding work, determining the look of your web site, logo, and business cards will actually be fun. Not to mention more effective and longer-lasting. You’ll also save a ton of cash, which I imagine is something you don’t have a lot of when you’re just starting out.
This is exactly why I created the Get Great Design Guide. It wasn’t so I could finance a home, that’s for sure. I have this branding conversation at least once a week. Clearly there’s confusion about what is branding and what is a logo. When to hire a designer and when to do it yourself. I don’t blame you. I see a lot of misinformation online and it almost confuses me, too (then I do one of those cartoon jowl-shimmies and clear my head). So before you spend $3,000 on a groovy set of graphics, please get informed.
When you slow down and take the time to create a strategy to develop your visuals, you will save money. There’s no hurry, Murray. You’re in this for the long haul, aren’t you?
“Branding is you.” That's golden David. I just put my 1st website up a couple of days ago after years of reading about branding and internet marketing. It was very confusing trying to determine if I should do it myself or hire a web designer. Should I be on facebook, do i need a twitter acct, should my blog link to these sites? How do I do all this? Should the site be perfect b4 I write my 1st post? What should the website logo look like?
I guess none of that matters if nobody is visiting your site. So I just started writing and I guess the rest will fall into place as needed.
Thx for great post.