If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of building a brand for your side hustle, you’re not alone. Even big brands have entire teams dedicated to branding, but what if you could achieve similar results using AI?
For side hustlers, time and resources are always tight. Creating a strong brand identity can seem daunting, but AI can make it a breeze. With AI tools at your disposal, you can effortlessly design logos, choose the perfect color palette, and establish consistent brand guidelines—all without spending a fortune or countless hours.
By leveraging AI, you can streamline the branding process, making it more efficient and cost-effective. There are AI tools available that can handle the heavy lifting for you, from logo design apps like Looka to color palette generators like Coolors.
This week’s newsletter brings you:
- Strategies – We show you how AI can help you create a strong brand identity, even if you’re strapped for time and resources.
- Tool of the Week – A deep dive into Visme, an AI-powered tool that simplifies brand design.
Strategies
A strong brand identity makes your business memorable and builds trust with your audience. Think of it as the secret sauce that turns casual customers into loyal fans. And with AI, you can streamline the entire branding process and focus on growing your business.
Designing Logos with AI
Let’s jump into one of the coolest parts of branding: designing your logo. Your logo is your brand’s face, and it needs to woo people right from the start. Looka is a top AI tool that can help you create an awesome logo.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Logo Using Looka
1. Enter Your Brand Name: Go to Looka’s website and type in your brand name. Looka will ask you a few questions to understand your style and preferences.
2. Pick Your Style: Looka offers a range of styles—classic, modern, minimalist, bold. Choose the one that matches your brand’s vibe.
3. Select Your Colors: Looka shows different color schemes. Pick your favorites or let Looka suggest based on your industry and style.
4. Choose Icons and Layouts: Looka generates several logo options with various icons and layouts. Scroll through and pick the one you like best.
5. Customize Your Logo: Adjust the colors, fonts, and icons to get the perfect look. Looka’s interface is super user-friendly, so no design skills are needed.
6. Preview and Download: Preview your logo on business cards, websites, and social media profiles. Once you’re satisfied, download your logo in multiple formats, ready to use anywhere.
Selecting Color Palettes with AI
Colors evoke emotions and can really influence how people see your brand. Thankfully, AI tools like Coolors and Adobe Color make picking the perfect colors a breeze. Let’s see how they work and how you can use them to find colors that resonate with your brand.
How to use Coolors
Coolors is an AI-powered color palette generator that helps you find beautiful color combinations easily. Whether you’re starting fresh or need some inspiration, Coolors can generate endless color schemes tailored to your needs.
1. Start the Generator: Visit the Coolors website and click “Start the Generator.” You’ll get a random color palette instantly.
2. Lock Your Base Color: If you have a main brand color, click on it and press the lock icon. This keeps your base color fixed while Coolors suggests complementary colors.
3. Generate New Palettes: Press the spacebar to create new color combinations that work with your locked color. Lock additional colors as you find ones you like.
4. Adjust and Refine: Use the sliders to tweak the hue, saturation, and brightness of each color. Explore different shades and tints to find the perfect match.
5. Save and Export: Once you’re happy with your palette, save it to your account, export it as a PDF, or share it directly to your design software.
How to use Adobe Color
Adobe Color is a powerful AI tool from Adobe that helps you create, explore, and share color palettes. It works seamlessly with Adobe Creative Cloud, making it perfect if you use Adobe design software.
1. Create a New Palette: Go to the Adobe Color website and click on “Create.” You can start with a base color or upload an image to extract colors.
2. Explore Harmony Rules: Adobe Color offers harmony rules (like analogous, complementary, triadic) to help you create balanced color schemes. Pick one that fits your brand’s look.
3. Adjust Colors: Use the color wheel to tweak individual colors. Adobe Color provides precise controls for hue, saturation, and brightness, so you can fine-tune each shade.
4. View Properties: Check color properties and accessibility options to make sure your palette is appealing and functional. Adobe Color can simulate color blindness to help you design inclusive palettes.
5. Save and Sync: Save your palette to your Adobe Creative Cloud library, making it accessible across all Adobe apps. Download it as a file or share it with collaborators.
Finding the Perfect Color Palette
1. Understand Your Brand’s Personality: Before you start, know your brand’s personality. Are you bold and energetic, or calm and sophisticated? Your colors should reflect that. A tech startup might go for sleek, modern colors, while a bakery might choose warm, inviting hues.
2. Consider Your Audience: Think about the emotions you want to evoke. Colors can have different meanings and impacts depending on cultural and personal associations. Blue often conveys trust and professionalism, while red can evoke excitement and urgency.
3. Test and Iterate: Don’t settle on the first palette you create. Use tools like Coolors and Adobe Color to experiment with different combinations. Test them on your website, social media, and marketing materials to see how they look. Get feedback from peers or your audience for valuable insights.
4. Ensure Consistency: Consistency is key. Once you pick your palette, use it consistently across all branding materials. This reinforces your brand and makes it easily recognizable.
Using AI tools like Coolors and Adobe Color makes selecting a color palette easy, even if you’re not a designer. With these tools, you can create a professional and cohesive color scheme that truly resonates with your brand.
Developing Brand Guidelines with AI
Brand guidelines are the backbone of a strong brand identity. They keep your branding consistent, making your brand instantly recognizable and professional. Creating comprehensive guidelines can be daunting, but AI tools like Frontify can simplify the process.
Frontify
Frontify is an AI-powered brand management platform that makes creating, managing, and sharing brand guidelines easy. It provides a central hub for all your brand assets, ensuring consistency across your brand.
How to Use Frontify
1. Create a New Project: Start a new project in Frontify. Choose from templates covering logo usage, typography, and color palettes.
2. Upload Brand Assets: Upload your logos, fonts, color palettes, and images. Frontify organizes these assets neatly, making them easily accessible.
3. Define Brand Elements: Use Frontify’s intuitive interface to define key brand elements like mission, vision, tone of voice, and visual identity. Add detailed descriptions and usage rules for each element.
4. Collaborate and Share: Frontify makes it easy to collaborate and share guidelines with your team. Set permissions to control who can view or edit the guidelines.
Ensuring Consistency Across All Branding Materials
1. Automate Repetitive Tasks
AI can automate many repetitive tasks to keep your brand consistent. Tools like Looka and Tailor Brands offer brand kits with predefined templates, ensuring your visual elements are used consistently.
2. Centralize Your Brand Assets
Use platforms like Frontify or Canva’s Brand Kit to centralize all your brand assets in one place. This makes it easy for everyone to access the correct logos, colors, fonts, and images, reducing inconsistencies.
3. Regularly Update and Review Guidelines
Brand guidelines should evolve with your brand. Use AI tools to review and update your guidelines regularly. Tools like Frontify allow real-time updates, keeping everyone on the same page. Schedule periodic reviews to ensure your guidelines reflect any changes in your brand’s direction.
4. Provide Clear Examples
Ensure consistency by providing clear examples of how to use your brand elements correctly. AI tools like Canva let you create and share templates that demonstrate proper logo usage, color applications, and typography settings.
5. Monitor Brand Consistency
AI tools can help monitor brand consistency across various platforms. Social media management tools like Hootsuite can track how your brand is represented online. Set up alerts and monitor mentions to ensure your guidelines are followed and address any inconsistencies promptly.
Tool of the Week
Our tool of the week is: Visme, an all-in-one AI-powered content creation tool perfect for side hustlers. It helps you create visually appealing graphics, presentations, infographics, and more, ensuring your brand stands out across all platforms.
Visme’s drag-and-drop interface is super user-friendly, making it easy to create professional visuals even without design experience. It offers a vast library of templates for presentations, social media graphics, infographics, and more, ensuring all your brand materials look polished and consistent.
You can set up a branding kit within Visme, including your logos, fonts, color palettes, and other brand assets, making it easy to apply your brand’s visual identity to all your projects.
Visme also offers AI-powered design suggestions and tools that help you create stunning visuals that align with your brand guidelines. Plus, you can collaborate with your team in real-time, share feedback, and make edits on the fly, ensuring everyone is on the same page.