Does your company look professional? by Nishchal Par

a n e s s e n t i a l g u i d e f o r s m a l l a n d m e d i u m s i z e d c o m p a n i e s .
b y N i s h c h a l P a r
Does your company
look professional?
3 critical steps you must take
to create a professional brand
image for your company.

This is eguide can downloaded and shared for FREE.

Which card gives an impression
of a professional company?
Infinity HVAC Spares and Tools Pvt. Ltd., after twenty years of supplying world class
HVAC products, decided to look professional. The company is now called
Infinity HVAC Tools (as seen above). Short. Crisp. Professional.
So, which side are you on right now?

The shape of your sign, your logo, the type style used
on your business cards will have signiﬁcant impact on sales
whether you care to think about it or not!
Michael E Gerber
From The E-Myth Revisited

Each time I’m in conversation with a new
client, I hear the following words:
“Make my company look professional!”
Now they don’t necessarily say this directly,
but whatever the reason
they give me to work on
their company’s brand
image has this
deep-seated need. So
they’ll talk about a new
competitor in the market, or new designs
they’ve seen somewhere, or the work that I
have done for other clients.
But I know what they are trying to say.
“Make my company look professional!”
Now how do I know that’s what they are
“Make my company
look professional!”
looking for? Because after they state their
reasons, I tell them - “basically, you want
your company to look professional and be
taken seriously, right?” And they go -
“YES! That’s exactly what I want!”
Now don’t misunderstand,
looking professional is NOT
the only reason a new brand
identity is needed. But it is the
most important reason why
you will want to redesign your
logo and other visual elements of your brand.
This guide will put forth the steps that you
need to take to ensure that your company
looks a professional.
Let’s look at the 3 steps of transformation.
Let’s just put it this way,
looking professional is
good for business.

If you look at the steps below, you’ll notice that the first and the only step
that most ectrepreneurs want to dive into is Step#2 - Execution.
The steps shared here are not revolutionary they are simple yet going
from step 1 and 2 and then 3 can dramatically impact your
company/product/service’s image and your business.
Following this process itself will help you think like a professional.
1
2
3
Identify
Execute
Standardize
The 3-step transformation!

To change the image of your company you
must first identify what are the elements
that make your brand image. Let’s call
them touchpoints.
A touchpoint is any element of your busi-
ness that comes in contact with your cus-
tomer or prospect. A touchpoint could be
your office signage, your staff uniform,
your stationery, product packaging etc.
anything and everything that interacts
with the world outside.
Why do we need to do this?
Doing this exercise brings an awareness of
where, when and how a brand interacts
with the world, an eye opener for many.
You will now understand that merely
changing a logo doesn’t mean the identity
has changed.
Once you have identified the all the touch-
points, you will get a sense of the scope of
changes to be made in your brand identity.
The next page has a list of touchpoints.
Use it as a guide there may be a lot more
elements in your business beyond what is
given here, so do put in some thought in to
this.
Once you’ve identified all the touchpoints
go to the next step.
1 Identify
To change the image of
your company you must
identify your business’s
touchpoints.

Checklist of elements that make your identity.
Inners
Outer cartons
Labelling
Delivery instructions
Installation instructions
Packaging:
Product design
Product identification
Products:
Buildings
Reception area
Offices
Factories
Shops
Showrooms
Environments
(interiors/exteriors):
Way-finding
Sign system
Signs
Stands, panels
Handouts
Passes
Exhibitions:
Clothing
Badges
Safety hats, overalls, lab coats
Uniforms
Stationery - letterheads, business cards
Meeting notes and agendas
Envelopes
Address labels
Visitor passes
All marketing communication
materials
Communication materials
Digital
Websites
Intranets
Blogs
Screensavers
Promotions
Promotional and
point-of-sale materials
Accounting
Purchasing
Sales
Production
Personnel
Forms
Corporate
Personel/training
Industry Packages
Product
Publications
Road Transport
Factory Transport
Vehicles
Corporate
Recruitment
Product/services
Advertising

Once you have identified all your
touchpoints you’ll get a picture of how
deep and wide a transformation your
company will go through.
Also, looking at all the touchpoints it
will seem like there is a lot to do, and
you may decide to focus on just one
thing like maybe for now you only want
to design a new logo, however, I would
advise you against it purely because
your logo is a mark of identification of
your company it is not your identity.
Your company cannot look professional
with a great logo in a poorly designed
context.
Your identity is a sum of all parts, and
not just about your logo, so you need to
be wise about your decision.
Think long term about your identity,
the life of your brand identity can be a
decade. Even a century.
Let’s look at the 4 ways you can get
your identity designed.
2 Execute
Think long term about
your identity, the life of
your brand identity can be
a decade. Even a century.

1. Do-It-Yourself
D-I-Y can be great way to go about design-
ing your identity if you feel passionately
about it. There are two problems I foresee
in this option. One is putting too much of
your precious time into something that
someone else can do better than you and
two, being too attached to your own busi-
ness and thus not having the objectivity
that is needed to design your identity.
In case you still wish to D-I-Y please read
this guide I wrote - 3 simple steps to create
your company logo* - to give you the
instructions to design your logo.
2. Online design contests:
There are many online sites+
that have a
platform where you can post your require-
ment and budget and designers from vari-
ous countries will share their designs for
you to choose from. There are also options
to buy stock logos, logos that are created in
advance that that you can select for your
company. My advice is only go for this
option if time is a constraint for you and so
is money.
4 ways to get your identity executed!

3. Advertising agency:
This is one of the quick fixes that client’s
implement, getting their advertising agency
to design their identity. Now having worked
in an advertising agency myself I will not
doubt the talent of art directors as some of
them are brilliant. But the idea of time and
focus is highly skewed in an advertising
agency, there is a lot more work and very
short deadlines, with changes happening
often and papers flying everywhere. In such
an environment the single minded focus
that identity design demands will always be,
in some way, compromised.
4. Design Studio/Freelance:
The best way to get your identity designed is
to seek professionals who focus on creating
brand identities for clients.
Now there are big design studios who have a
huge team where multiple projects could be
happening at the same time, there are two
man studios and then there are freelancers
who will work on your identity on a freelance
basis.
Big design studios do not always gurantee
great designs and a freelance doesn’t always
mean that the design will be poor.
So look around, look at past work and make
an informed decision.Be comfortable with
whom you are working with, as the process of
designing your identity takes time. And
patience.

Whatever way you decide to get your
design executed, it is very important for
you create a design map for your identity.
In other words, a brief.
The purpose of a brief is to guide you or
the designer in the proces of designing
your brand identity, so as not to go astray.
Answering the questions below will form
the design brief:
1. What is your company’s mission
and vision?
2. What are the challenges
of your business?
3. Who are your competitors?
4. What does your customer care about?
5. How do people learn about your
product, organization, or service?
8 questions you must ask yourself!
6. Why does your company / product /
service need a new
brand identity?
7. What words do you want people to
associate with your company?
8. How many people are responsible for
use of the brand identity?
As you may have noticed, none of the
questions above have anything to do with
design really. And why is that? Because
these questions lay the facts on the table
about where you are and where you want
to go, making the role of designing a new
identity very clear.
This I must clarify is only the starting
point, a good designer will drown you with
questions. Which, by the way, is always a
good thing.

A logo is a mark of identification of a
company/ product/ service.
Over time a mark (logo) forms an
unconscious association with the customer.
Which means that your logo could either
forme a positive association or negative one.
So when you change your logo your
customers don’t look at your brand the
same way they did before, now they start
to wonder what to expect from your brand.
Which is precisely why classic brands like
Coca-cola, Kellogg’s, Ford etc who have
gathered a lot of brand equity over time will
tread very delicately before changing their
logo.
The way to handle a situation where
changing your identity can harm your
customer’s loyalty, then you should look at
refining your identity.
When do you need a new identity?
So when do you need a new identity?
If you are launching a new brand or relaunching
a brand and want to totally create a new appeal
for your brand then go for a new identity.
On the other hand if customers identify very
intrinsically with your brand such that changing
your logo can harm your business go for design
refinement of your logo rather than changing it.
Let’s see some examples of that were made new
vs. logos that were refined.
When you change your
logo your customers start
to wonder what to expect
from your brand now.

Examples of logos re-designed.
CRD
Old New
The above logos were designed as the client’s needed to totally redefine their brand image. Which is
why they are drastically different. Let’s take a look at some examples of logos that were refined.

Old Refined
Examples of logos that have been refined.
If you look at Instagram and Continental the changes are very subtle, and may go unnoticed to the untrained
eye. But if you look closely there are changes. The changes are made with care so that the existing customer
can still relate with his brand, whom he has consumed for years. If you look at HP’s logo it has become sim-
pler and further refined. As of now remember, if your brand has been etched in your customer’s mind for
years, make changes with care and consideration.

The biggest challenge you will face
now, or in due course of time, is how
your company’s identity will be treated
by your stakeholders (employees, cus-
tomers & suppliers). If you do not set a
clear do’s and don’ts with respect to
your brand’s identity, each of these
stakeholders will use (and in most
cases abuse) your logo to their indi-
vidual liking and create such disparity
of your identity across media and geog-
raphy, that your brand won’t really
have an identity.
So, what do you do?
Create a Brand Manual.
A brand manual is a document that
instructs the users of your brand iden-
tity on how to use and how not to use
your logo, what exact colors and fonts
that must be used and what are com-
plete no nos. It sets the standard for
your identity.
A brand manual is what makes a Star-
bucks look like Starbucks anywhere
you go, or an Apple store look like an
Apple store anywhere you see it.
Let’s look at the elements that make
such a document.
3 Standardize
If you do not set guidelines
for the usage of your logo,
it will be abused with good
intentions.

• Logo - size, spacing, the background upon which it can and cannot be used
• Color - primary and secondary color palettes
• Typefaces - the fonts that will used for the brand
• Tone of voice - casual, friendly, formal etc
• Imagery - the type of visuals that create the brands imagery
• Stationery - the business cards, letterheads, envelopes etc
• Power point templates
• Website and online application templates
• Office environment
• Signages - directions and information
• Proposals and other key documents
What makes a Brand Manual?

Brand Manual
Sample The sample here is what was made for
a client - First Rain Exhibits.
Most of clients don’t want a brand manual
because they feel it is too complicated and
a needless requirement. This is exactly
where professional brands differ from the
unprofessional ones.
Frankly, more than anything else this
step requires discipline

First identify the things that make up your brand’s
identity, and only then execute.
No matter who executes, have clarity by asking
yourself the 8 key questions.
Ask yourself, do we really need a new logo or
should we refine it?
Standardize, standardize, standardize. A brand is
built through consistency, do not cut corners there.
Let’s summarize:
1
2
3
4

Nishchal Par
Fo, deepfriedcolors designs
I believe in the power of marketing and passionately use my
expertise in this field to help small and medium sized enterprises
take their brand to the next level.
My experience in sales and advertising help me in approaching
each project by strategically understanding the business
problems of the client, something most of my contemporaries are
very uncomfortable with, thus creating design solutions that
address those very challenges.
If you want us to work together write to me at
nishchal@deepfriedcolors.com
Thanks for reading!
nishchal@deepfriedcolors.com
www.deepfriedcolors.com
AboutME

www.deepfriedcolors.com
Your second chance to make a
ﬁrst impression.

ImageCredits:
Suit by Jono Mueller
www.flickr.com/photos/jonomueller
Execution Chamber by Nick J Webb
www.flickr.com/photos/nickwebb/9071432932
Odd one out by Sy Clark
www.flickr.com/photos/sybot/205781781
Red Purple Green and Glass - like Surfaces by Mike Baird
www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4569689420

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