Branding in Web Design
Everyone knows what branding is, especially in Texas. It’s been around since ranching began. The brand identifies something as yours. It represents you, your business and the image you want to present to the people who visit your site. Branding isn’t only about displaying your name and logo prominently on your website, though that’s important, it is also about the perception of your brand that people get when they visit your site. Remember, this is your front door, make sure visitors feel welcome.
What Can a Website Design Do to Help My Brand?
When you see a blue and white star somewhere, chances are the Dallas Cowboys immediately come to mind. Why? Because their logo is a blue and white star. Now if you went to their website and their logo and team name were on the top, but the entire rest of the site was colored in red or green, what would you think? What good would the association of blue and white that you just made do for their brand?
If you go to their website right now, you’ll see that even the color of the text is the blue color of their logo and the background is white.
The text color, the background colors, even the tone of the text on the website all work to create associations between your brand and the visitors to your site. By the time they leave, you want them to associate your logo with the feeling they got about you from your site.
If you own a bar and restaurant that attracts young people looking for a night out on the town, you will want colors that excite people like red and pictures that show what a great time people have. But if you have a family restaurant you will want muted colors like tan or yellow that says we are a place to relax. You will want a logo that reflects the image you want to portray and the colors reflect the same.
You want your logo to be one of the first things your visitors notice when they come to your site. A good location is the top left corner. People read from left to right, so they will start there. A short sentence or two about you should be located near the logo to set the tone for your visitors. If you visit websites of businesses you frequent, look at their sites with these ideas in mind and use what you observe to take a critical look at your own site.