Branding Your Site
Episode #9 of the course Build a website and online brand quickly and cheaply by Rob Cubbon
A business’ website is the hub of that business’ online brand. A brand should be visually recognizable in terms of consistent use of colors and a logo.
It shouldn’t be too expensive to get this sort of customization done to a Genesis child theme like Magazine Pro (minus a new logo). I would head over to Upwork or any other third-party freelancer site and find a developer with Genesis experience and good ratings for $9-$19/hour.
Getting a logo designed
An inexpensive premium theme coupled with a well-designed logo would really make your website look amazing and unique.
You could look for a designer on Upwork or on 99designs, though I would advise against running contests on 99designs—it’s never worked for me.
Require that the logo be provided in high resolution format, preferably as an Adobe Illustrator AI; if not, get it as a PSD on a transparent background. The logo should go on a white background. It should not include any photographic imagery and should be made up of shapes, colors, or gradients only.
If your chosen premium theme has an optimum size for the logo, make sure you communicate that specific size to the logo designer. Using my Genesis Magazine Pro child theme as an example, images of exactly 380×90 pixels will give the best results.
Make sure you also communicate the look and feel you want to the designer. You can do this by explaining the purpose of the website, the target audience of the website, and examples of other websites and logos you like and think are right for your brand.
If you go down this route, the logo decision is one of the most important design decisions you’ll ever make.
Remember, keep it simple and make sure it’s on a white background.
Colors
Your logo should consist of one main color and, ideally, a secondary color. These colors are extremely important, as they will be the colors that represent your brand.
At the end of the design process, you should ask your designer for the hexadecimal reference for the primary and secondary colors in your logo. This is a numerical code (sometimes with an alphabetical letter) preceded by the # sign.
You will use these colors elsewhere on your site and in your design collateral (books, leaflets, business cards, etc.). This is why you need the color reference from the designer—so that you can accurately recreate it.
Later on, you will use these colors on your social media platforms so that your whole output has the same consistent branding.
Step by step
I used to be a graphic designer, so that maybe explains why I’ve gone overboard in this section.
WordPress design is all about themes, and as long as you choose a well-established theme that is used by websites you like, then you’ll be OK.
Remember: all design decisions can be rectified. It’s an ongoing process. You improve the design and content of your site as you go along.
In the next email, we’re going to leave the design and branding and concentrate on how the website performs.
Recommended book by Highbrow
“Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
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