Signage by Iconography for our friends over at Katella Bakery, Deli and Restaurant in Los Alamitos. Katella Deli recently went through a rebranding which involved updating their new graphics onto internal and external signage as well as their fleet of delivery vehicles.
Current, professional signage that emphasizes your brand image is a must for any business to remain competitive. Rebranding is the act of updating, refreshing, or overhauling a company’s existing image, identity and positioning in the market. The process can include changing the brand’s name, logo, tagline, packaging, marketing materials, and messaging to better align with its goals and target audience.
Why Do Companies Rebrand?
Companies rebrand to stay relevant, attract new audiences, or reflect major changes like mergers, new products, or a shift in mission. Other common reasons include improving a poor reputation, modernizing a dated image, differentiating from competitors, and aligning their public identity with their evolving internal purpose or values.
When it comes to re-branding, a critical part of your implementation is creating and installing a whole new graphics package for your businesses signage inside, outside, and on your fleet. It may sound overwhelming, but when you work with a company that expertly manages the entire process for you in-house, from design through production and installation of all of your new signage and fleet graphics, it becomes easy as pie!
While posters and other point-of-sale items can easily be produced in just a few days, other longer-term and more permanent signage can take several weeks or longer depending on city ordinances and manufacturing complexities. Some businesses prefer to wait until all new signage is produced and then install and unveil all of the new graphics at once, while others that we have worked with have rolled the new graphics out gradually. Either way, a knowledgeable and organized project manager will keep track of all of the details and scheduling for you.
During the design phase of your rebranding, it is important to develop a Brand Style Guide. This information in your Style Guide will become the roadmap for any employee or agency who will design and/or produce your new graphics in any and all formats. Having a style guide is beneficial because it promotes consistency in brand identity, messaging, and design, which builds audience recognition and trust. It also improves efficiency by reducing guesswork, saving time, and making it easier for multiple people to produce cohesive content. Finally, it helps avoid errors and ensures a professional, unified experience across all platforms
Critical Components of a Style Guide for Signage
A style guide will have many components including brand identity, voice, messaging, and visual. Below are the key visual components that are required when designing and building your signage to support your brand.
1. LOGO: color, sizing and placement in relation to other text or items. Ideally, a vector artwork file of your logo will be included in your Style Guide.
2. COLOR GUIDE: this will include your primary and secondary colors and combinations, and will specifically call them out in several formats including PMS, CMYK and RGB. These codes are required to produce the correct colors in different mediums such as paint, printing, and on screen.
3. FONT GUIDE: this includes which font styles are to be used and when and in what context.
4. IMAGERY: this provides guidance on selecting and using photography and illustrations that align with the brand’s aesthetic and personality.
5. SIGNAGE AND OTHER TEMPLATES: this will include the layout of your logo, colors and taglines in commonly used arrangements, such as signage, letterhead, business cards, press releases, etc…
Are you in charge of a rebranding effort for a restaurant or other business? We can help with the implementation of updating all of your graphics. Give us a call today at 562-424-4353!
