Here are some tips and observations to be sure that your event is looking good. We’ve also included some examples of event branding to whet your taste buds, and remember, first impressions are everything – be beautiful.
Step 1: What graphics already exist?
Basically what we’re talking about is branding. Your event should portray the same message through all of its correspondence. It should be coherent, recognizable and easily understood by your target audience. Is the event related to a business? Does the business have a logo? Or is the event itself trying to generate an identity for itself? Is it a one-off event, or will there be more?
Step 2: Who are you communicating with?
Who is your target audience? It’s not the same organizing a biology conference for a group of academics as it is to arrange a birthday party for your granny. You’ve got to think – who we are trying to reach with my event? What is the best way to visually communicate with this type of target?
Step 3: Colors
When considering the color palette for your event, you’ll need to take into consideration any already existing logos, to make sure that they will work with the new tones. There are some great resources on the internet that can help you to come up with a color scheme for your branding. You’ll also need to make sure that the brand colors are visible everywhere, this will help give identity to your event and make it recognizable.
Step 4: Typography
Are you going to be producing a lot of printed material? Will you have elements that are heavy in text content? Remember that if you’re going to be producing a lot of reading material, you may need a font with serifs to improve legibility. Google fonts have a great range of free downloadable fonts to get you started, which are free to use and open source.
Step 5: What printed graphic elements do you actually need?
We use the music festival as an example because we think it’s one of the most complete event categories in terms of possible graphic implementations, but the advice on this post should work for any occasion. If your branding works well, then you will be able to apply it to all of the following supports in one way or another.
Step 6: The printers
This requires the most planning. Don’t underestimate the amount of time it can take to print your designs. If you can organize it well in advance with your printers, you’ll save loads of cash and nerve cells.
