At first glance the title of this article sounds obvious -
that your website would look like all your other marketing
materials. Of course that's just something that would have
to happen, right? But I run into more and more
entrepreneurs who want to break this rule. Creating a
website that looks significantly different from all of your
other marketing materials just tends to be a bad idea. I'm
going to review the most common reasons I hear for breaking
this cardinal rule. Then I'll tell you exactly why doing so
would hurt your brand rather than help it.
The 4 reasons that I hear most often from entrepreneurs are:
- The web allows you to use as many colors as you want,
without paying extra. Many forms of printing still charge
per color of ink used and using more than 2 or 3 colors can
get very expensive for small businesses. However the web
allows you to use all the colors that you want, for free!
Many entrepreneurs get very excited about this. They use
every color they can think of throughout the site. And
sometimes, they choose not to use the 2 or 3 colors that
they've used in their print materials because they're sick
of them. This results in a website that doesn't look
anything like their other designed materials. This creates
a "disconnect" for clients who come to your site from a
reference of another piece. For example imagine someone's
looking at your business card designed in black and red.
Then they go to your website where there's some black and
red, but also bright blue, gold, green and a touch of
purple. They may think that the website belongs to a
different company! It makes your visitor wonder if they're
in the right place. And that can make you lose their trust.
A better way to use color online is to use the wider
palette of colors available as secondary colors. If your
printed materials are mostly blue and gold, that doesn't
mean that you have to use only blue and gold in your
website - but they should be the main colors used. Adding
in highlights of khaki or green can look very nice and add
more visual interest to your website. But if you choose
green to be your main color for your website, it will be
confusing.
Also, make sure that the extra colors you choose fit in
with your brand. Make sure they communicate the messages
you want to send out about your business. In other words,
don't choose more colors just because you can. Make sure
that there's a solid design reason and the psychology
behind the colors you're adding to your palette makes sense.
Another way to add more color online is full-color
photography. Stock photography is quite cheap and
accessible to even the smallest businesses and can add a
lot of pep and pizzazz to your tired color palette.
- Many entrepreneurs get bored with their designs, and use
the web as an excuse to "mix it up". If you've had your
materials designed for a while, it's not uncommon for you
to be bored with them. No matter how innovative the design
or how excited you were about it when it was created, this
can happen. This boredom comes because you see your own
marketing materials almost every day. Whether it comes from
printing letters on your letterhead, handing out your cards
at a networking event, looking at proposals with your brand
on them, walking into your office and seeing your logo on
the same old sign every day, or giving presentations off of
your PowerPoint template - you see the same thing over and
over. And it's natural. But I can almost guarantee you that
unless you've been in business a very long time or you've
been harassing your clients with constant marketing
mailings, you're the only one who's bored of it.
Deciding to take a different design direction on your
website is bad for your brand. It is bad because you need
your site to be instantly recognizable as yours. Web
surfers have notoriously short attention spans - if they
click to your site, and it doesn't look right, they'll be
off and away to another site in the blink of an eye. They
won't stick around to read your copy, look at your logo, or
to spend the time to figure out whether they are, in fact,
in the right place.
- Some entrepreneurs don't have files of their logo! If you
designed your materials a long time ago, and only got
printed materials as a deliverable, this is certainly a
valid problem. Your designer may also have gone out of
business or changed their contact information. Or maybe you
can't remember their name or number because it was so long
ago! I've seen many entrepreneurs to create a different
logo or masthead for their websites because they don't have
the file for their logo close at hand.
If you still know who your designer is, I recommend
contacting them and asking for a complete set of digital
files of your logo.
It's a better solution and better for your brand, to look
up your designer (even if it takes a bit of searching), or
to have another designer re-create your logo as a digital
vector artwork file, and to use that on your website.
- Some entrepreneurs think that websites must have a
certain type of design element to look up-to-date and
modern. It's true that your site does have to look clean,
professional and well-designed. But it's not true that your
website has to have one particular type of design to look
current. Your site doesn't have to have textures, rounded
corners, drop shadows, 3-dimensional styling or animated
motion effects. Only use those effects if they reinforce
and communicate your Brand Definition to your audience and
are a part of your Visual Vocabulary.
Just using these elements because it's cool and
"of-the-moment" isn't something that I recommend. It will
dilute your brand and move your website away from the rest
of your Visual Vocabulary.
If you're thinking of creating a website that looks
drastically different from your other designed materials
for any of these reasons, consider the consequences before
moving ahead with a different design. It's often more
valuable to have a matching website that extends and
reinforces your brand than to create a design that looks
too different.
----------------------------------------------------
Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. Her workbook, "Design a
Website That Works", will walk you through all of the
questions that you need to answer in order to create the
best possible website.
http://www.elf-design.com/http://www.elf-design.com/products
-webWorkbook.html
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