The quality of information should:

/ be useful to your customers
/ be supportive of your website & business objectives
/ meet the business & brand criteria
/ be honest (Depending on the product / market)

The purpose of the website should:

/ have a specific reason (e.g. Drive sales)
/ be supported through the organization of the content

The design conceptualization should:

/ be appropriate to the business & the website objectives.
/ form an interesting presentation of the information
/ be clever (Although this is specific to the market)
/ strive to be created out of original thought
/ have a remarkable impact (e.g. People will talk about it)

The usability & accessablilty of a website should:

/ be supported through a stringently developed navigation
/ include a functional sitemap
/ utilize adverts for pages specific to targetted content
/ encompass a friendly / welcoming organization

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

The look & feel of the website should:

/ have a remarkable impact (e.g. People will talk about it)
/ have consitency in the design & concept
/ not rely on trendiness (unless this is specific to the market / product)
/ strive to be created out of original thought

The development of the website should:

/ work fully
/ include interesting and applicable modules (e.g. Multimedia)
/ ultimately help the website be found easily
/ offer the option for a client to do their own (limited) updates (CMS)

The number one reason for this is that many sites are built without a clear goal in mind.
It may sound ridiculous, but it’s true. It’s time to take a step back and take a holistic look at your website and why it exists.

WHAT IS YOUR WEBSITE’S GOAL?

1. To inform?
2. To build a community?
3. To gain valuable market research?
4. To reduce support and customer service costs?
5. To reach a broad audience with a message?
6. To find sales leads?
7. To sell online?
8. To gain revenue from advertising?
9. To leverage your brand?

These are just some of the questions that you can ask yourself as a company, individual etc. It is important to remember that the web is not just a marketing tool; it’s a business tool as well. While it is fine to just have an Internet Presence that simply contains contact information, you should not just settle for that when your website has the potential to do so much more.

Look at your website as being your 24/7 online business, which has the power to bring you a very good return on investment.

The company personality

Your company’s brand is it’s recognizable personality. This is communicated and enforced through all the collective elements of the company (e.g. visual language) and how it’s customers, or potential customers, receive and interpret these elements.

Elements of a brand

The elements that make up a brand can range from the chosen colours through to the style or visual anchors that have been utilized to accompany it in every application (in different ways).

WHAT IS A LOGO?

A logo is a supportive graphic element that forms part of a brand.

WHAT IS A BRANDMARK?

A brandmark is a logo that has transcended it’s basic function, because we develop our logos with the new brand. This means that we create supportive visual anchors and include specific imagery that could be applied in a fashion separate to just the logo.

Logos should start with a brand idea (applicable to your business) and evolve through the design process to include a full visual language that creates the basis for any future application.

Simple

Simplicity in a logo is extremely important for it to become recognizable and ultimately memorable. This also means that the logo shouldn’t be too illustrative, it should be able to be reduced well and it should work in a single colour.

Memorable

The appropriate imagery that is used in the logo helps people make the right associations with the business. It should create an impact while still communicating the basic concept of the services or products of the company.

Timeless

A logo should not be designed according to current design trends, as this involves the redesigning of the logo at the turn of every trend and in doing so, it ruins the brand memorability.

Versatile

An effective logo should be able to be applied in a number of different mediums and sizes. This means that it should be able to reduce and enlarge well (e.g. stationary & billboards) and it should be able to be inverted, as well as work in a single colour (silkscreen & print costs).

Appropriate

The style of the logo should be applicable to the context in which it will be used (e.g. a toy store / an accounting firm).

WHAT ABOUT THE BRANDMARK?

Logos should be created with a style that we can easily adapt into a visual language that can be applied to stationary, promotional items and advertisements. A ‘brand bible’ should be created to accompany the logo. It includes guidelines on how the logo should be used in whatever medium.

> Light effects
> Clouds
> Tree (High Nodage)
> Grass slopes (High Nodage)
> Windmill
> Buck

This is part 1 of our free South African vector series.

RIGHTS OF USE

You may not resell or redistribute any part of this file. Do not claim this artwork as your own intellectual property.

Feel free to use this file for Commercial or Personal projects.

Download it here: Illustrator CS3 File (*.ai) : 2.3Mb ZIP