What are the best practices for using imagery in your brand guideline? (2024)

Your brand image style is the overall look and feel of your imagery, such as the colors, tones, filters, lighting, composition, and mood. It should reflect your brand voice, message, and values, and be aligned with your logo, fonts, and other visual elements. Your brand image style should also be suitable for your industry, niche, and target market. For example, if you are a luxury brand, you might use high-quality, elegant, and sophisticated imagery, while if you are a fun and playful brand, you might use bright, colorful, and quirky imagery.

Your images should not only match your brand image style, but also be relevant and authentic to your content, context, and audience. They should support your message, tell a story, and convey a benefit or a solution. They should also resonate with your audience, show them who you are, and what you stand for. Avoid using generic, cliché, or stock images that do not add value or meaning to your brand. Instead, use original, custom, or curated images that showcase your unique selling proposition, personality, and culture.

Your image formats and sizes should be consistent across your brand guideline and your marketing channels. This will help you create a cohesive and professional brand image, as well as optimize your images for different platforms and devices. You should define the preferred image formats (such as JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.) and sizes (such as pixels, aspect ratios, resolutions, etc.) for your brand guideline, and use them for your logo, icons, illustrations, photos, and other graphics. You should also consider the best practices and specifications of each platform and device you use, such as social media, website, email, print, etc.

Image optimization is the process of reducing the file size of your images without compromising their quality or appearance. It can help you improve your website speed, performance, and user experience, as well as your SEO ranking and visibility. Some of the image optimization techniques you can use are: compressing your images, using the right image format, resizing your images, using responsive images, using lazy loading, and using a content delivery network (CDN).

Image copyright laws are the rules and regulations that protect the intellectual property rights of the creators and owners of images. They also determine how you can use, modify, share, and distribute images legally and ethically. You should always respect the image copyright laws and avoid using images that you do not have the permission or license to use. You should also credit the source of the images you use, and follow the terms and conditions of the license or agreement. You can find free or low-cost images from reputable sources, such as Creative Commons, Unsplash, Pixabay, etc.

Your image performance is the impact and effectiveness of your images on your brand awareness, recognition, and reputation, as well as your marketing goals, such as traffic, conversions, engagement, and loyalty. You should test and measure your image performance regularly and systematically, using various tools and methods, such as analytics, surveys, feedback, A/B testing, etc. You should also compare your image performance with your competitors and industry benchmarks, and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Based on your results, you should adjust and improve your image strategy and execution, and update your brand guideline accordingly.

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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