The Power of Branding in Business

In this solo episode, Angela Lyons emphasises the critical role of branding in business success. She discusses how branding is not just a visual identity but an investment that influences how people perceive and remember a business. What to look for before working with a graphic designer. The conversation also highlights the potential costs associated with neglecting branding, including missed opportunities and a lack of credibility.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Graphic Design
• 6:00 DIY Tools vs. Professional Design
• 9:00 Finding the Right Graphic Designer
• 12:00 Importance of Brand Consistency
• 15:00 Investing in Professional Design

Transcript

Angela Lyons (00:00.963)
Hey, welcome back to Creatives Like Us. And this is a solo episode of me, Angela Lyons, and I'm a graphic designer. And today I wanted to chat to you something that comes up all the time in my world. And that is when should you hire a graphic designer? I say it comes up in my world because I think people Google it and say, I a graphic designer. I've done my keyword research around my website for my SEO. And those are questions that pop up or how do even find one?

because there's a lot of us out there and there might be a bit of confusion around this and I just wanted to clear up some of that for you. I know you're busy, you're running your own business, you've got a million and one things happening and design sometimes feels like one of those things that you can just do it yourself, DIY or put it off till later, you think, it looks okay for now. And I get that. But I also see so many people struggling with this and it's like,

It doesn't have to be that hard, you know, so let's go over a few things and chill out. And if I can have your ear holes for the next few minutes, we can go for it. No pressure. I to say it should be chill. And as you know, well, you might not know, I've been in design for over 30 years and in my own business, Lyons Creative for 13 years.

And as said, one the questions that pop up on the Google keyword research when I've typed in my keywords is why hire a graphic designer? So, okay, first, I'm not going to sit here and say you can't use Canva or Adobe Express or any other tools that are used for creating graphics, which are pretty cool. They have their place and I use them too. I use them for myself and my business and I use them for my clients. And those tools are great and

They're great for getting posts out on social media. You see them over and over again and that's cool too. I mean, if someone's not got actual templates for their business just yet, you start seeing the same type of graphics out there. But obviously I'm not knocking anybody because they have to do what's within their budget. I've seen people and they've shared it online, which is fine. And I've also seen people have their logo created in Canva. Again, do what's okay for you at the time. And they've used it on their business.

Angela Lyons (02:15.532)
And then I've seen somebody else turn up with that same logo and just, or maybe they've changed the color. And I just think that's not quite right. So one of the things also there is that if they go to trademark that logo, actually doesn't belong to them. It belongs to the software that created it. And again, it's not their fault. They might not know. And also design is not, might not be their thing, or they might not want to spend the money on it. And it's, you know, they want to get something out there that's good for their business and just.

to have some representation on something at that point. So again, not knocking it. When I'm working on projects, I'm thinking about so many things at once. And I'm talking about branding projects here and creating brands and logos. I might as say I've created a logo because even though we say branding, when I say I'm a brand designer, people say, what does that do? And I say, if I make logos, they're like, I get that. And that's another thing we've got to educate people too. So I think some people forget about what an actual brand.

designer is, but if you say logo, they get it instantly. And yeah, talking about color and psychology, and we talk about so many things you think about color psychology and how blue makes people feel like they, that can be trusted, but it can also feel cold. You've got to think about how your eye naturally travels across the page, what fonts are used and how that makes you feel, whether it's going to look good on a phone. Is it going to be good for accessibility? Also, is it going to be.

is still going to look good if it's massive on a huge banner. So I think about all these things when I start working together with people and also try and get that across to them and ask them, not just ask them what their favorite color is, actually one my onboarding color is the what color would you absolutely hate seeing. So I don't ask them what their favorite color is because I think we mustn't make it too personal to them. It's about their business. Even though they are the business, we've also got to think about who are the clients they're trying to attract and who's going to be buying from them.

How do they want to feel when they see their brands or their potential clients see their brand? Also, who are they competing with? Another thing is that before even coming to any of all that, you've got to work out your tone of voice and how you want to be perceived by others. What is your actual language that you're using around your website copy, your tone of voice, how you come across on your social media?

Angela Lyons (04:35.194)
So we've got to get all of those things together and connect all those things first before we even start designing. And so then everything fits together because you need more than your logo, right? You need, again, as I mentioned, you've got your website and you need to match it to your business cards, you need to match it to social media. And that is all around the consistency, brand consistency. So I build those systems into everything that feels like it belongs together.

Or if I don't build it myself, I'll give them a guide to say if they want to go away and do it for themselves. You can do that too. You want to try and create what makes people remember you by. Okay, let's get to a bit of technical stuff. Might sound boring, but I don't know. Maybe it might, might not. But make sure your logo prints correctly in this day of digital. Everyone always wants everything online. So also make sure that it comes out online correctly. How to optimize your image for websites so they load fast.

So when should you do all this branding? And again, even this week, somebody asked me, I just want a logo, just want it out there. Should I wait until I get some making more money or should I just like start scrappy and upgrade later? And honestly, I would say if you can afford a designer from day one, do it. You'll save yourself hassle so much later. But as I mentioned before, get those other things in place first before coming to design up. And of course, I mean, I can help you that. I'll put in a direction of people. Do you want to work on your tone of voice, for example? But also.

You've got to understand that you are just starting out and you might not have that kind of money. And that kind of money isn't just sitting around, you're working hard for your money. You know what? I've been there. So it's really what matters to you here. In fact, a little story here. When I started my business, I created my own logo, of course. And then I had it on my website for ages. And then I thought, I'll do a rebrand and work got busy. I didn't actually get time to the rebrand, but instead I had a logo that said.

Lions Creative and it was just black, Lato font and it was just black. That was it, Lions Creative on my website and my letterheads and my invoices, business cards for about, gosh, I feel embarrassed even saying this for about five years, I think. So yeah, even though work came in still, which was great. I don't think I was taken seriously maybe because it did look very creative and it was just a plain text, black logo again.

Angela Lyons (06:55.298)
nothing wrong in that if that's what you want. And if that's what you can afford at the time or have time for. Again, as I said, I got work in, so it wasn't too bad. But you know, there are times when you do need to be taken seriously and it's maybe when you're trying to pitch for a big client or you're trying to get maybe investors in your company or you're trying to get people to come and work with you. And also you might be in a space where it's really competitive and you want to have your brand to back up what you're saying. And if your brand looks amateur.

or people have seen it elsewhere. As I said, remember those logos that you find on camera and if it's been repeated 50 million times, people are going to notice it. And if it looks too amateur, people can assume that your business is amateur too. So if it looks like it's an amateur logo, it looks like people are going to assume that or might assume that your business is amateur too. Funny things, I've actually had clients tell me they didn't apply for some opportunities or even hand out anything or go to networking events because they were little bit embarrassed about.

I've actually had people come up to me and say they didn't actually hand out any business cards or go to networking events because they were embarrassed by the branding, which is really sad. mean, I know we've been branding is important, but it's sad to think that you didn't go and do that. So that's kind of a little bit of a problem there because that could be costing you money and also meeting new people. You might have outgrown what you have now. You might be in that space and you might have started, you know, as I said, on those DIY sites and where you design your own logo and maybe your branding should reflect where you are now.

Because that's big moments and why not celebrate that fact and get something new for your business and make it look professional, especially if you've got product launches, you've got campaigns, you've got events. Why don't you invest in design and it will pay off. I mean, even like having banners and having posters and flyers out there that represent you and having them look all on brands and all consistent and spend that money.

Make it look good for you and your business. Okay, so finding the right designer. So you've decided, right, I'm going to hire someone. You start Googling. Although I have been found on chat GPT, which is cool, suppose. Anyway, because obviously that's a bit of SEO that's been put into the system somewhere along the line. Now how these things work, you've decided that you're going to hire someone and that is really cool. And you think, how am going to choose? Do I go to Google and type in certain words? Finding a designer. I've actually been found on chat GPT.

Angela Lyons (09:20.944)
But one of the things you can do when you actually get their profiles is look at their portfolio. Maybe ask around you who is a designer in your world that somebody might have used. Look at their past work. Do you like it? Do they have the experience that you're after? Every designer has their own style. Make sure that you vibe with it too. Ask how they work. When you first reach out, they should be asking you quite a lot of questions.

Ask how they work and when you reach out, they should be asking you questions. Questions about your business, your customers, what you're trying to do. If they're like, cool, just send me your ideas. Maybe that's not a good sign. I think I mentioned it earlier. I've had someone this week actually call me and I asked her a lot of questions before I even sent her a quote or even engaged with talking to her a bit further because I really need to find out what she was about.

and what her business is about and what she wanted to achieve. And yeah, it was a 15 minute free introduction call, which is fine. I can do that because that also can save a lot of hassle or non hassle along the way. Good designers want to understand your business. And also you've got to see if you're going to click and gel and work together because you've got to have that feeling about them. You're going to be talking to this person a lot. You need to see if you are both the right fit for each other. Communication matters. Are they easy to talk to? Do they respond to emails?

explain things without making you feel silly or not know what they're talking about. All of that matters. Another thing, always have a contract to say whatever that I'm delivering, how many revisions you get once, you know, put all the payment stuff in there too. It just protects both parties and normally if no contracts, it's kind of a no-no because that's not great to work along those. Again, years ago, I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that. But you learn along the way. You don't want to get burnt.

Get your contracts in place and also unlimited revisions. That sounds absolutely amazing, but those things can drag on forever. If you're a designer, don't do that. And if you're a client, you'll mostly love it, but also you might get frustrated and say, I just want this thing done. So have some limitations in place of how many revisions you're going to do. Honestly, if you, I would suggest two or three revision rounds.

Angela Lyons (11:45.444)
because honestly, clear feedback works better that way as I said, instead of just endlessly tweaking stuff and then you end up totally diluting the brand, which is not great. Okay, so you hire someone and maybe that's me, that'd be great. Hello. I'll leave my details in the show notes. Now what? I will send them some questions. I will send them onboarding questions that I send out to my clients and I need to get more information up.

front, the more you tell me, the better it is for both of us. Tell me what you love, what you hate. Maybe even send some screenshots of things that you like. It gets me to understand your taste and then also, it also gets me to understand your vibe and what you're around. And then I also tie that all into your, your branding and your tone of voice. Good design doesn't happen overnight. If I say it'll take two weeks, I'm not.

actually I'm working for your projects and trying different things and risk finding stuff before I show you anything. And revisions are for tweaking, not starting over again. We've done the logos, we've done the branding, we've worked out the colors. You should get all the file types. You need to get your PNGs for digital, JPEGs, I suppose general stuff and vector files for print. And yeah, you need to put your logo everywhere. So you need to work out, they need to give, the designer needs to give you all the different file formats.

and even work out some that can be monotone, black and white, if there's horizontal versions, if there's vertical versions, also, is there a logo mark that goes with it? Then when you've got all these things, put it in your brand guidelines. This is like your brand instruction manual for your business. That's where you keep all your colors, your fonts, how to use the logo, the spacing and all of that. Maybe even some applications that you can put it onto. Maybe, I don't know if you've got some branded, if you've got some merch, put it on some mugs or tees.

If you hire someone else later on down the line, you can give them this brand guideline to keep everything consistent and also put your source files somewhere that you know you can access them really easily. Wrapping things up here, your brand is an investment and is how people remember you and how you stand out, how you communicate with people and sometimes that's even before you even say anything. So yeah, it costs money.

Angela Lyons (14:06.197)
But think about what it's going to cost you not doing it right and missed opportunities, people not taking you seriously or having to do it all again, which will take time and you don't want to do that. You want to be working on other parts of your business. And again, I always reiterate, don't have to wait for everything to be perfect. Just be ready to take your business seriously and work with someone who gets it. I genuinely love what I do. Helping businesses find their visible. Helping businesses

look good. Oh, it's brilliant. It's so satisfying, especially when you get comments back from clients, they've seen their brands. Do know what I sent one out to the client the other day, I just got a a message back on the email saying, oh my God, I love it. And it was just like, oh wow, that just, that was it. Then I was, you know, that makes your day. Obviously I'll get some more quantitative testimonials for social proof, but even that when you send off the client.

You know what it's like when you're sending off work and you're waiting for that to come back in. But when you get that right, it's so great. That's it for today. I hope you've got a few tips out of that and thank you for letting me be in your ear holes today or if you're reading me online. That's it for today. Thank you so much for hanging around with me and giving me a few minutes of your day. If this was helpful, please do send it to a friend or a business who's thinking about their brand. If you know of anyone and if you want to see my work.

or just chat, can find me at lyonscreative.co.uk and you can also find me on LinkedIn and Instagram. I look forward to connecting. All right, talk soon and keep being creative like us. Bye for now.