How to translate a client’s brand into creative that performs 

How do we implement a client’s brand into their ad creative to ensure that it translates properly and their voice is heard effectively? Furthermore, how do we do this while demanding the attention of their current audience and prospective new customers?

There are several methods that reach far beyond simply slapping a logo on something. By using a client’s brand smartly, we can make the creative convey the brand in a way that naturally feels familiar to their audience, or give off a “vibe” that subconsciously makes you aware that you’re viewing content from a brand in particular.

Brand Book

The first method we’re going to explore is a client’s brand book. A brand book will tell you much of what you need to know in order to design in their voice. You will often be able to absorb a client’s “why” and “what”, their brand mission, ways to display their logo and ways not to, and gather important intel on what colors and fonts to use in order to align your work with their vision. 

In other words, deep diving into your client’s brand book is almost a cheat code. You’ll get a massive head start on portraying their brand properly, simply by examining their brand book from start to finish. Below are some hard hitting items to be aware of:

COLOR – A brand book will present a page of color swatches your client uses consistently. These are the colors you’ll want to design with. If using textures, backgrounds or lifestyle images, you’ll want to make selections based on these color swatches so a design can live harmoniously in complementary colors. 

The goal here is to make everything in your ad creative correspond with these swatches, from font colors to any shapes you use, etc. These are the colors your client has selected to represent their brand.

FONTS – Now that you have the color swatches selected, let’s talk fonts. Font use is another must have to design in your client’s brand voice. A brand book will tell you what typefaces to use in a very specific manner, right down to text tracking, kearning and font weights to establish a font hierarchy in their voice.

LOGO – Slapping a logo on an ad creative is a sure fire way to establish brand. However, there are often many minor details in showing a logo that add up in a big way. You should find a page or two dedicated to how to display a brand logo. This is specific to logo colors, different ways to break the logo into other display variables and ways to properly pad the logo with an appropriate amount of space.

Bonus tip, closely examine the section that shows you how NOT to display the logo.

BRAND IDENTITY ELEMENTS – Sometimes a client will employ the use of brand elements all throughout their brand book. Small insignias, fun shapes, backgrounds or illustrations that give a direct nod to their brand identity. Dragging the entire brand book into photoshop will give you the opportunity to open every image, shape, background and identity element separately, allowing you to harvest bits and pieces in your design journey.

Your client will recognize this finesse in your work and so will their audience!

Instagram

Another method that has proven itself time and time again is lurking the brand’s Instagram profile! You will notice their use of fonts, shapes, brand colors and post layout will strongly adhere to what you’ve seen in their brand book. There is no better way to learn how to implement a brand than reviewing their instagram profile, heavily. You will instantly gain some powerful insight in how they communicate with design, visual hierarchy and how they expect their brand to be portrayed.

Try picking up on how they consistently use their brand voice by examining their posts, see how they lay out any text with their “on-image” messaging and see what brand elements they use in posts that you can either re-create or pull from their brand book. Take note on how they use them and where they place them so you can follow suit. This will tie things together nicely for someone that’s already a patron of the brand, and at the same time, make the ad creative a solid intro to the company for someone who may not be familiar with them.

Little. Subtle. Nods.

Website

A final tactic we use to implement a brand is a good educational scrub of the client’s website. Like the brand book, a website can be chock full of small details that voice the brand in a strong way. Read the company’s “About Us” page, learn every small detail you can about the brand, this will subconsciously give your ad creative more meaning.

Take note on how they display their logo on their site. Pay attention to how they layout their product images on color blocks. Read the copy, is their voice playful, serious, or direct? Bring that into your designs and have fun with it! 

In the example below, we can pick up on several high level nods that can lend a hand in following their existing voice.

Note the logo size and the spacing between it and the following messaging. Notice the color of the CTA button and the space they give the text around it. See the typefaces employed, they’re more than likely mentioned in their brand guide and used to design their social media posts.

One last item to consider while researching your client is audio. Absorb everything you can while examining sources like instagram profiles and websites, pay attention to music and sound effects that your client uses. If they don’t have a direct, established audible identity, you can bet their music and sound selections land in a very specific vein that you can follow. You want to make certain that the audio in your ad creatives feels like the audio your client has previously selected.

Try these methods next time you on-board a new client! You’ll find that you get to know them and their voice rapidly, making your creative perform as if it came directly from their camp.