By recognizing branding trends, you can try new and different ways to get your brand noticed.

Trends are everywhere. They saturate our social media feeds, inform the products we buy, affect how we decorate our homes, influence what we wear, and even affect the way we speak. When absorbing so much information in our day-to-day lives, our brains take mental shortcuts to reduce decision fatigue. That is where trends come in. One of the reasons trends exist at all is because our minds assume things repeatedly seen are good or correct in order to preserve mental energy. However, you can use trends in another way. You can use your awareness of trends to stand out.

And what does this have to do with branding?

Branding trends exist just like fashion trends or social media trends. Brand trends are recognizable elements in branding that change and evolve but tend toward a general direction in a given period of time.

For example:

Over the past few years, monochromatic colors and minimalism have been popular brand attributes for luxury brands, personal branding, and skincare. Similarly in the healthcare field, you will notice a lot of blues and greens in the color palette many companies use for marketing. For restaurants, you will often see a lot of yellow and red. When making branding decisions, it’s our natural tendency to emulate what we have seen.

This presents an opportunity.

By recognizing trends as they develop, you can adopt specific strategies to help your brand stand out. Trendy designs often feel familiar and safe because we see them everywhere. But once we glom onto them, what we’re doing is blending in. While design trends can inform a new logo or set of brand guidelines, they also provide an opportunity to break out of the mold.

• Use what you know about brand trends to identify designs that grab attention in a social media feed and leave a lasting impression. Any brand jump out to you? Write them down!
• Take stock of what other companies in your industry do with their branding. Be BOLD and move in your own way. Something as simple as using a heavier, sans serif font in a world of spindly serif ones can help your brand cut through the competition.
• Identify your own style and voice for your brand messaging. Pay attention to how things in your industry are usually described. Then, think about how you’d put it.
• Combine multiple brand assets. Having a cohesive brand that involves a few elements ups your opportunity to be noticed. Things like colors, shapes, characters, fonts, and taglines can all work together to help you uniquely stand out. The more unique your asset, the less competition it has to fight through in consumer’s minds.

Ultimately your goal should be to create a brand that sets your business apart and helps you to connect with your audience. Resisting your brand bias can infuse your visuals with recognizable brand elements that help you connect with your audience in a unique way.

Need someone to help identify your brand bias and create a distinct brand that stands out? Contact Fuzzy Duck for a free consultation today!