How a Rug Saved a Client
No, not the magic carpet from Aladdin, but stay with me here the story gets good.
One of the projects I was assigned to recently was updating the brand guideline for one of our existing clients. Brand guidelines help you create a consistent look for your brand. They include things like the colors you should use, the fonts you should use, and how to use your logo.
Your branding is like your phone. You need to update it every now and then. There are a few ways to figure out if it’s time for a brand refresh.
- Is your branding the same everywhere?
- Can you use your logo in different ways?
- How old is your branding? Does it need to be updated?
- Does your branding match what your business is doing now?
My focus for this assignment was to tweak our client’s color palette to reflect their business better! Here’s a little background on our client, they’re an advocate for children's literature, and they focus on building confidence in children through reading. I kept this in mind while trying not to be too intimidated by the infinite combinations on the color wheel.
I had a few palettes in mind, and I was excited to present these options to the rest of the team during our weekly standup. Our standups aren't as intense as it sounds. In a nutshell, the team gets together to talk about ongoing projects and new ideas, and in my case, I would be sharing our client's new style guide.
It turns out the colors I had in mind definitely didn’t win a standing ovation, but what took the Oscar was the freakin rug. Yup, the rug. It was suggested by one of my colleagues to take a photo of our conference room rug and color drop from the vibrant pattern. Sure enough, the color palette was a perfect match for our client's brand. We definitely all agreed that the new colors for our client better reflect the brand's overall personality and business goals.
My biggest takeaway from this experience is that you'd be surprised what could be a source of inspiration. I hope your takeaway is to remember your brand's style guide helps build visual consistency, and it should reflect the values you want to communicate to your audience!
- Sabrina Roldan