imagine that you want to build a website for your brand
what do you fill out the empty web pages with to make this website YOUR website whatever you
end up putting there is the basic set of brand assets you need to build your brand
hey you guys welcome back to our channel the number one place for people who love design
art and all things creative you are watching Dantier and Balogh's channel my name is Laszlo
and in this video i want to talk about the brand design elements you need as a designer creative
an entrepreneur of any kind to be able to brand yourself or your business i already have made a
video in which i gave you some generic conceptual branding tips but this time i want to cut through
the noise and give you a very simple no-nonsense list of 5 brand assets you need to build your
brand identity system in 2021 let's jump straight in first of all you're going to need a logo
obviously a logo is the visual focal point of any brand you already know that but what you might not
know is having one logo in 2021 is not necessarily enough there are way too many platforms out there
each doing their own thing and every single one of them has their own restrictive formats and visual
systems in place so what you'll find is sometimes your logo just won't work within a given space
a logo that looks good on a big screen might not look good on an apple watch and vice versa
now big brands noticed this and they reacted to this phenomenon by putting scalable responsive
logo systems in place if you have no idea what i'm talking about here let's look at this image brands
like chanel or disney have their basic logos on the left and then they have all these simplified
variations giving them the option to scale their logo marks down whenever a specific platform
requires it or they just feel like it's needed and i do the same thing here i start every video with
this nicely typed out dantier and volog logo but wherever i feel like it wouldn't be legible to use
this big one i use this little monogram version instead this is something i feel like you should
definitely keep in mind if you are designing a logo for yourself or if you are commissioning
a logo designer scalability is the way forward assets number two colors now colors in my opinion
are the most important visual assets you can use in your brand more important than the logo
i probably don't even have to show you the logo but if i just put this little color swatch here
you know exactly which brand i'm thinking about right now aren't you that's the power of color
in terms of advice i would say most brands can and should be boiled down to two maybe three different
color shades so try to build up a palette like this whenever i design a brand i start off with
a main color which we usually end up using for the logo then we're going to need a background
color which complements this logo design and after that usually i put in one more shade in
place a somewhat secondary color which helps me to fill out the visual gaps between my main two color
shades whenever it's needed we associate certain colors with certain emotions and moods which is
something you should be playing with and also use them to create a concept and further tell your
brand story when i built the dmb brand for example i very consciously went with this monochrome
gray and white color scheme because i know that both jaclyn's and my creative design style when
it comes to client projects is very rich crazy color for sometimes selling very outdoor ideas
so when it comes to client presentations and showcasing projects we will want the client
work to shine through our presentation slides while the dmb branding itself should be very
tame very subtle in the background complementing and professionally packaging up all the proposed
craziness we do this for our videos as well by the way dark air muted down background
richer more colorful foreground i don't know how much of that comes across the camera but you get
the gist try to build a concept with color okay branding is at number three is phones
and typography now in 2021 if you look at how most brands approach type and fonts it is quite
uninspiring we are getting less and less experimental with the fonts we use for two main
reasons which i already kind of touched on one of them is legibility the screens are getting smaller
so we have to adapt and two all these restrictions introduced on all the different platforms we are
using for branding on instagram for example if you want to put text onto a story there is only so
much fonts that you can choose from now this has led to this weird situation that seemingly all the
brands are using the same five six fonts in their branding so if you're ever in doubt just use one
of these two fonts are usually enough for a brand one for headlines and one for body copy and to
be honest since this is the brand asset which is the easiest to replace and change later on
i wouldn't sweat too much on it when you are just creating your brand i think typography is
like fashion going around in circle like trends so i hope i don't hurt any typographer's feelings
when i say i don't think this is where most people should get creative within their branding in 2021.
by the way i don't mean to disregard designers and brands which are using typography in a very clever
way in terms of design elements because on that front there is amazing work being done i'm talking
about strictly body copy here which leads me to my fourth asset which i just going to call the
visuals because what secondary visuals you need is very subjective let's say you are going for a very
corporate professional looking identity in which case you can look into different photographic
style or icon design while if you are going for a more youthful edgier kind of brand you might
consider using illustration as part of your visual branding if you are selling physical products you
might need packaging in which case you can look into different textures or better design for your
products if you feel like you've been restricting yourself in terms of the fonts and typography
this is the category when you can get really creative two things to bear in mind whatever you
create should be a combination of however you want to appear in your market and two what your target
audience expect a brand like yours to look and feel like like since i do digital illustration and
icon design it makes sense that dantier and balogh as a brand has its own custom icon set but i think
you can really bend the rules to your way here like let's say you're a one-man operation having
a little etsy shop selling handmade goods in which case it would make sense if your brand itself
would have a handmade craftsy personalized fear to it as well if you need a starting point for this
visual as i always tell people just think of what are you going to use as instagram highlight covers
you know besides your logo what are you planning to put on your facebook banner or the back of your
business card those are the type of supporting visuals i'm talking about here yeah and last but
not least the be-all and end-all your website do you need it yes of course you need it why
though well because on social media sites you are never fully in control of your content everything
is up to their rules and their algorithms and since social media sites can come and go
carving your own little space on the interwebs in the form of a website is always going to be a good
idea now this is the point where you would think this video is being sponsored by squarespace i
promise you it is not in fact this video might be the only video you watch today which has not been
sponsored by squarespace but it is what i happen to be using for the dancer anabolic website and it
does a pretty decent job to be honest with you but then again, so would wordpress i also used weebly
in the past wix i can't comment on i never used it although jacqueline did and she didn't like it
that was years ago though and i think in 2021 these website making websites are growing out to
be able to give you very similar results for very similar monthly pricing so just choose whichever
now since squarespace does seem to be blowing all their money on influencer marketing use that to
your advantage i guarantee some of your favorite youtubers will be able to sort you out with some
squarespace discount code if you want to build a website there again we don't have one of those
but yeah pretty much all the big youtubers are being paid by squarespace now so you'll find one
the other way you can go on about this is hiring a web developer if you're not into this whole
web design thing they will be able to provide something much much better and more customized
than one of these template based website making solutions but on the flip side it's going to cost
you and again i wanted to start and end this video talking about websites because i think when you're
building a website you're going to need all these previously mentioned assets you're going to need a
logo you're going to need some colors you're going to need text images icons in order to package your
whole brand off and put it online for the word to see so thinking about what makes a well-designed
website is a really good indication of what brand assets you need and how to build your brand
identity system yeah guys there is so much more we could be talking about there is sound design
there is animation there is motion graphics but we're not describing some global brands
extensive style guide here which i kid you not could easily be a couple hundred pages long
you know what that's a really good tip as well if you do a quick google search you will be able
to find style guides for the biggest brands of the world if you ever feel like you could use
some branding inspiration but these five simple assets should be enough to get you started with
your brand really guys if you enjoy this kind of content join our creative crew so you are always
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you enjoyed this video and i hope to see you this time next week bye
you