Branding 101

Submitted by Leslie Marinelli

Next up in the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) series where I attempt to teach or recap something in as few words as possible: FCPL branding! 

If you missed the Branding 101 breakout session I presented at Staff Day, or would like a refresher, this one's for you!

The full presentation including my speaker notes can be found in the Staff Day 2022 folder, but here are the key points presented two ways: 

TL;DR Version:

• Put our logo on everything. There are several logo variations. Choose the one that fits best with your design and your marketing goal. 
  
  
• Put our logo in a prominent location on everything you make so people will connect the wonderful things we do with the FCPL brand. 
  
  
• These three fonts appear frequently in branded FCPL content: Century Gothic, Montserrat, and Arial. 

More Detailed Version: 

1. A brand is the way a product, company, or individual is perceived by those who experience it.

2. Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company throughout all marketing communications. 

3. Visual branding assets are the building blocks of how customers and audiences recognize a brand. This includes everything from key colors, to logos, and even typography.

4. Consistent use of visual branding assets builds customer trust and makes an organization more memorable (think Coke, Target, Apple.) Consistency is critical. Every successful brand is easily recognizable because of the consistent use of their visual branding assets.  

5. These are our two primary logos with wordmark (that's the fancy name for the text on a logo). 

    

The one on the left fits best in horizontal, rectangular spaces. The one on the right fits best in vertical or square spaces. 

Think of our logo like putting your name on your homework when you were in school. A prominently placed logo on everything we make helps people connect the wonderful things we do with the FCPL brand. 

6. We also have two different 4 branch logo boilerplates (left and center justified) that were updated this year to reflect that all our social media handles are now @forsythpl. (The old boilerplate only had our Facebook URL on it.) 

The originals of all of these official FCPL logos can be found in the Google Drive and in the FCPL Brand Logos Kit in our Canva Team account.  

7. Speaking of social media... this is not our logo: 

This is our social media handle. It is best used in conjunction with one of our primary logos.  

8. Our brand colors are blue #2A55A0 and green #6FA84C. 

9. The following fonts are used frequently in branded FCPL content: 

• Century Gothic - A preferred decorative font for most applications. Not available in Canva or some web apps. 
• Montserrat - A good substitute for Century Gothic. We use this a lot on our website. 
• Arial - Also known as “Sans Serif” in Gmail. This is the default Gmail font. It is web safe, widely available, compatible with most applications, and easy to read.

I also mentioned Tahoma in the Staff Day presentation because it is referenced a number of times in our 2012 Graphic Standards Guide. This is outdated information that will be updated in the new Branding and Style Guide (coming soon).  

10. The #WeKnowBooks logo is a brand extension. It was created for a specific marketing campaign in 2019 to bolster the community's perception that our staff are experts at matching readers with books they will enjoy. It was designed to be used on promotions or displays that promote items in the collection or the Library's expertise in selecting and recommending reading material. (UPDATE: we are retiring this campaign.) 

For a deeper dive with examples, please do check out the original presentation to see lots of photos of how and why to incorporate our logo in your designs, which one to use where, and where not to put our logo.

If you have questions or need clarification about any of this information, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Leave a question below, email me at marinellil@forsythpl.org, or call me at x9392 if I can answer any questions.