Let’s go!

Christopher Hand

Source: daFont

Wild Script

Source: Fonts 101

Jenna Sue

Source: Font Squirrel

One Starry Night

Source: 1001 Free Fonts

Caitlyn

Source: daFont

2 Peas Scrapbook

Source: Font Space

Joyful Juliana

Source: daFont

Good Dog

Source: Font Squirrel

Mighty to Save

Source: Abstract Fonts

Today’s type faces make up part of the poem “To a Long-Loved Love” from The Ordering of Love by Madeleine L’Engle. Hope you enjoy today’s Typography (+Poetry) Corner! Enjoy!

Enjoy the showcase!

Srdjan Kirtic

Sayed Ariful Haque Danny

Daniel Gilles

Milko Melian

Marco Vergotti

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It may sound silly to some. To others, it’s not news. While you’re working on strategies and analytics, running numbers and developing marketing materials, you need to keep in mind one thing. One very important thing. One thing that will make all the difference in the world in whether your brand succeeds or fails. That one thing?

Feeling.

You aren’t just building your brand on the statistics of your audience or development of your website and products. You are building your brand with emotion. You are building your brand with sweat and tears and smiles and frustration and pride. You are building your brand to succeed and that success depends on YOU. You are putting your heart and soul into this and if that’s not the basis of all brands, I don’t know what is. The thing to remember though is that you need to retain that feeling long after you’ve become a success. Without it, you become just another company filling up the silence behind the businesses that stand out. Feeling is what sets you apart. It’s what makes your company and brand special.

Customers become loyal to the brands that they love. And they love the brands that they build the strongest relationships with. People build strong relationships with the companies and professionals that they connect to, the ones that they relate to. The ones that are the most personable and human. How do you become a brand recognized for its personableness and ability to relate with its customers? You build your brand with feeling.

“Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.” ~Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

We often hide our feelings behind a “professional” mask. But why should we be afraid to get personal with our brand? It is a reflection of all who made it possible right? So allow your customers to get to know who you are and all the emotions that went in to making it. Share the stories of your origin. Write about the journey you went on to build your brand. By building your brand with feeling and honoring the work that went into it, you will build loyal relationships with the customers who feel that they went on this journey with you.

Do you have an experiences or stories you’d like to share about the emotions that went into building your brand and developing your craft? Please share with us. Learning is a journey we should all do together.

Enjoy the showcase!

Marco Vergotti

Jordan Kauffman

We Are Substance

Zorraquino

Christopher Tarampi

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It often surprises me the number of times I get told, “Well my website is branded. Isn’t that all I need?” Even if you have a logo and your website is branded with its colors and style, that’s just ONE place online that you’re located. And location is the difference between just being another website and being a Company worth following. So as you’re growing your business, remember. You’re growing your brand too. And social media is vital to this growth.

Here are a few places to keep in mind as you further your online reach.

Twitter

Twitter might seem like an odd choice for a business when all of your posts have to fit in 140 characters. But it has quickly become one of the favorite ways for consumers to reach out to the customer service of their favorite companies. Instead of waiting on hold for hours or sending in a tedious email, Twitter is real-time, meaning most companies are constantly monitoring Twitter replies and are able to answer within hours, which is ideal for the short question and answer your customers are looking for. Being able to carry on conversations with your clients on Twitter is a great way to build a one-on-one relationship with someone who is willing to give you valuable feedback.

BRANDING ON TWITTER

Twitter is awesome for branding. Once you have an account, you can upload an avatar, write a winning description of yourself, customize the color scheme to match your website, and even change your background to reflect your company. You have a full range of options when it comes to replicating your website branding on your Twitter. Go for it!

Facebook

Everybody and their mother uses Facebook, so what better reason to have your company be there too? Companies are creating Facebook Pages in order to give their clients a place to interact with each other. It’s a way to get feedback and share some of the inner workings of your business. You can use Facebook to create polls, get feedback, host contests and giveaways, post pictures of you and your employees and customers, and build discussion around the needs of your customers. It’s an interactive hub that provides a unique space in which your followers can really gain clarity into your business as well as find each other to build relationships (and how awesome is that these new relationships are being built around their mutual love for you?). Go where your customers are! Facebook is your answer.

BRANDING ON FACEBOOK

The new Facebook Timeline allows for some pretty cool functions when it comes to branding. You now have your profile image as well as a cover photo. And your cover photos can be a great area to brand (check out these awesome branded cover photos). Plus, you can add tabs to your Facebook page and each one can be branded with your look, feel, and voice. Utilize it and take advantage of the branding options you have on Facebook.

LinkedIn

This one should be a no brainer. If you’re trying to grow your company from the inside, LinkedIn is the place to be. It’s a professional’s social media paradise. There are resumes and career groups and places to posts jobs and share news on your company and it’s the best place to recruit new employees AND new customers. Open up your company page and share your latest press releases. Showcase your clients that are doing amazing things. Have discussions! Look for the greatest talent you would love to connect with and CONNECT. LinkedIn gives you an amazing opportunity to really find the people you would love to work with and spark conversation with. On LinkedIn, everyone knows everyone and you can find new connections through the people you already know. It works. Give it a chance and see how much it does for your company.

BRANDING ON LINKEDIN

While you’re a little more limited in the branding design of you LinkedIn page, you do have full control of the branding of your content. And content is important – your voice is as much a part of your branding as your logo is. And a consistent voice on LinkedIn is key. You can write about your company, you employees, your products and services. You can post your logo and images of your products and all of those are key to your branding on this social network. Remember, the little things count too.

Other Places

There are SO many other social media networks out there now, it’s pretty insane. So here’s just a short list of other places to research to find out if they’re the right fit for your company.

• Pinterest
• Google+
• SlideShare
• FourSquare
• YouTube

Share!

We would love to hear more thoughts on great places to carry your branding to online. Where is your company on the internet? How do you make sure you branding is consistent across the board? Share with us!

Enjoy the showcase!

Christopher Tarampi

Marco Vergotti

Milko Melian

Jordan Kauffman

Joanna Bickley

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&

So what’s the history behind this often-used symbol? Well let’s see what the fountain of knowledge (Wikipedia) has the say about it.

The Origin of the Ampersand

“The ampersand can be traced back to the 1st century A.D. and the Old Roman cursive, in which the letters E and T occasionally were written together to form a ligature (figure 1). In the later and more flowing New Roman Cursive, ligatures of all kinds were extremely common; figures 2 and 3 from the middle of 5th century are both examples of how the et-ligature could look in this script. However, during the following development of the Latin script that led up to the Carolingian minuscule (8th century), while the use of ligatures in general diminished, the et-ligature continued to be used and gradually became more stylized and less revealing of its origin (figures 4–6).”

While Wikipedia notes that there is a decline in the usage of the ampersand, it’s my opinion that it has made a roaring comeback. As mentioned above, you can find the ampersand all over Twitter become it helps eliminate from the word count. It’s also used in content more for similar reasons of saving space and in trademarked names. Designers and branders alike have embraced the ampersand as a useful and more aesthetically pleasing alternative to the word and. There was a Tumblr blog that dedicated each day in 2010 to showcasing a different ampersand, and even Adobe has jumped on the ampersand wagon by creating a page just for it. And don’t forget to check out awesome infographic about them. The ampersand is everywhere.

Even in logos!

Ampersand in Logos

We all love showcases too! Here are some pretty awesome brands using the ampersand in their logo.

Twine & Twig

A&E

Percy & Reed London

H&M

Dungeons & Dragons

She & Him

What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the ampersand and its use. Comment and let us know what your favorite is and where you use it the most. Happy Saturday!

Enjoy the showcase!

Simon Birky Hartman

Srdjan Kirtic

Sayed Ariful Haque Danny

Epicantus

Milko Melian

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Paws Shelter and Humane Society

The Shelter Pet Project

Austin Pets Alive!

BlogPaws

Tails Inc

Pilots N’ Paws Rescue Services

I Love Dogs, Inc

Furminator

Charity Paws

I Love Rescue Animals

Know of a great logo that utilizes pawprints? Share with us! Who doesn’t love an organization about animals? Enjoy!

Building a branding strategy for Twitter involves more than just sticking a photo of yourself and your dog up and calling it a day (though it’s seriously tempting). I tend to be one of those silly business people who loves using Twitter for all sorts of business things, and I just came back from a social media conference where I talked about building strategies in 140 characters, so I could talk for days about this stuff. But I won’t bore you with all the details. Let’s just talk about some quick tips to brand your Twitter account!

Establish Your Voice

Despite being on the internet, a very visual medium, you are, in fact, speaking to the world. You are using your voice. But stop and think? What kind of voice do you want? Do you want to be informational? Professional? Conversational? Super excited all the time? Whatever tone of voice you decide to use while writing, make it relateable. Make it friendly. And, if you have more than one person using your Twitter account, make sure your followers know who is speaking. Using initials for multiple-tweeters is an important way to build trust so that you are being honest with those you are engaging with. Establishing your voice on Twitter is such an important part of your brand that it can make or break your social media presence.

Develop Your Design

You want your design to be YOU. Too often I see Twitter business accounts with default themes, with lack of avatars, and no colors to make the account stand apart from others. Design is important. You put effort into your website’s design, your logo, your print collateral for your marketing materials. Why not bring that branding that you’ve established into your Twitter account? Give yourself a new background that features your logo and tagline. Update your avatar to reflect who you are within your field. Change the colors to reflect those on your website. Your ultimate goal to branding your Twitter account? When a follower comes to your Twitter account, you want them to instantly recognize the logo and the colors without even having to read your bio. You want folks to know who you are.

Stay Consistent!

By keeping with your already established voice and design, you are keeping consistent. And consistency is everything. It gives you credentials. It keeps you recognizable in a world that is constantly changing. By staying consistent, you are making a name for yourself. Consistently updating your Twitter account is important as well – if you lose momentum and stop updating, people will forget about you. And that’s the last thing you want as you build your brand strategy on Twitter.

Do you have more advice for building a branding strategy using social media? Share with us! We would love to hear your thoughts.

Dr. Pepper

Livestrong

Pedigree

Fanta

Disney

Have some other great examples? Share with us in the comments! We’d love to see what you’ve come up with!

Let’s get on with it!

Freebooter Script

Source: Font Squirrel

Windsong

Source: daFont

Some Weatz

Source: Font Space

Ballpark

Source: Font Squirrel

Marketing Script

Source: daFont

Black Rose

Source: Font Squirrel

VTC Bad Tattoo

Source: daFont

Dancing Script

Source: Impallari

Today’s type faces make up the poem “All That is Gold Does Not Glitter” from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Hope you enjoy today’s Typography (+Poetry) Corner! Enjoy!

Enjoy the showcase!

Jorge Cisterna Avendaño

Ashley Yousling

Substance NYC

Simon Birky Hartmann

DR000

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Building a strategy for your brand can be a long and time-consuming process. And sometimes it’s hard to know where to go for help. Well, welcome to Fuel Your Branding where we have everything you could possibly want! Well, almost everything. Here are four other great resources you can turn to when you need a little more help with building a brand you can be proud of.

Branding Websites and Blogs

Did you know that Fuel Your Branding isn’t the only website out there dedicated to helping you build your brand? Surprise! It isn’t! And while we hope we can give you every single thing you could ever need to build a successful brand, we recognize that there are a lot of other wonderful brand superheroes out there who can help as well. There are some great blogs like The Marketoonist and the Brand Strategy Insider, and websites like Alltop that are full of great resources. All you have to do is jump on your favorite search engine and there are handfulls of awesome websites. And don’t forget folks like Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Seth Godin who can help you define what your brand is and where it’s going and how to establish yourself as a rock star. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Local Business Programs

While it may seem like there is a scarcity of traditional, non-digital resources for brand strategies, you might be surprised. In many cities, you can find some pretty stellar local resources for small businesses who need help building their brands. Here in Austin, Texas, we have the Small Business Development Program that’s run by the city. It gives free resources (from classes to a co-space environment) to those who are wanting to build (or have already built) small businesses. And Austin isn’t the only one; many cities have programs like this to encourage more local business owners to help the economy (Orlando, Chicago, and Columbus just to name a few). Do some research, ask other local entrepreneurs, and you might find a fountain of wealth in your very own town.

Social Media Networks

Social Media isn’t just for staying in touch with your family and friends. These platforms are great ways to connect with other business folks and network about branding. From simply following big name brand strategist to taking part in brand strategy Twitter chats or Facebook discussions, the endless amount of information that is constantly flowing through these real-time platforms can be extremely beneficial. Not only will you find brand resources here, but just having a social media presence for your brand will help build its reach and give you recognition as well. Social Media is a great resource for you to begin building your brand by starting conversations and developing relationships with your customers. By using social media as a marketing tool for your brand, you will soon find yourself becoming the brand resource for others!

Your Customers!

And not just your customers, but employees, old and new clients, anyone you work with can be a great resource! If they have a relationship with you or their business, they will most likely have valuable feedback that will help you grow your brand to the best it could be. Don’t be afraid to ask the folks around you for their opinions. They may see things that you don’t. Not only will asking for feedback give you more ideas for your brand strategy, but it will allow others to feel they can be honest, and this builds a certain level of trust in your company. And trust is always good – trust in a brand is everything. So don’t hesitate about finding out what others want out of your business. They can (and will) influence your voice, your values, and help you to build a great brand.

Know of more resources for building brand strategies? We’d love to hear from you! Comment and share what you know.

Fuelin’ Life

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. For those of you who are familiar with the rest of the Fuel Brand Network, you may already know who I am. My name is Nikki Jeske and I’ve been a part of FUEL since the beginning of 2010. For the last two years I’ve been co-editor of the always colorful Fuel Your Illustration with Rondal Scott of Strange Kids Club. I will continue to make contributions over that way, but when I was asked to become editor of Fuel Your Branding, I saw it as a fabulous opportunity to share a skill and passion close to my heart: building creative branding strategies.

Creatively Strategizing Your Branding

Creative brand strategy, wah? Yeah, I hear you. You think building brand strategies has to be all about graphs and excel sheets and numbers and boring business plans. And while I’ll be blogging about all that, let me tell you, I’ll be adding in just as much color here as I do over at Fuel Your Illustration. With a background in painting and illustrative storytelling (a fancy way to say “I like to draw comics”), I recognize that the best brands are the creative ones. The ones who think outside the box and take risks. So with that in mind, I’ll be doing my very best to bring you innovative, colorful blog posts about everything Branding! From web design to content to digital voice to colorful mascots, we’re going to be bringing you the greatest in branding awesomeness.

If you want to know more about me, you can find my blog at Snailbird.com, my creative brand and design services at Design Coyote, and if that’s not enough, you can always follow my adventures on twitter.

Contribute to Fuel Your Branding

Do you love to write about the art of branding? Love what you see here on FUEL and think you’d fit in? We’re looking for contributors! Contact us above with some ideas on what you’d like to write about and you could be the next contributor to the hottest brand blog online! Come be a part of the Fuel Brand Network! We’d love to have you.