TUTORIAL | The Secrets of Branding

Since I got some good feedback for my last tutorial, here is a new one on the secrets of branding. I will share with you some of my best methods and tips when it comes to branding a product or website, and also show how easy it can be to create a professional looking logotype in no time!


Let’s start with finding that unique name that will represent your project out there on the worldwide Internets! Go to Thesaurus.com, this is basically a free service that provides synonyms for any word you search for (provided it is a real existing word). For this tutorial let’s pretend that we are about to launch a big gaming network and need a suitable and available (domain free) name. I usually try to find a new angle for the second word meaning that we now search for something gaming___(dot).com or ___gaming(dot).com Enter ‘network’ and make your first search, right away I get a nice list of synonyms which pretty much leaves the rest of the work for your imagination. But since this is supposed to be a tutorial of sorts I’ll show you which synonym I would have selected, how to make sure the .com domain is available and finally I will design a quick logotype.


When deciding on your final name I recommend that you have Namecheap.com open alongside Thesaurus.com to make sure the word-combination is free. Should your project be of the larger scale I also recommend you to check with national and international trademark databases to avoid any future legal hassle. I often use CTM-Online (European) and Madrid Express (International) when searching for existing trademarks. Now be aware that the Internet is crawling with so-called domain snipers which makes the process of finding a good available name more difficult, but be patient and I promise you that there will be a great name just waiting for you (also look into .net, .org, .us, .eu).


I selected ‘plexus’ as a good synonym for ‘network’, make sure to check its definition (always good to know what your project name actually means). There is no cardinal rule stating in which order you put the words, and since the gaming domains are a bit crowded I decided to go with www.plexusgaming.com (AVAILABLE on 2008-01-17). Plexus means “any complex structure containing an intricate network of parts” (Dictionary.com).

Juice up that Photoshop of yours and start designing; for inspiration I usually begin by making a search for the synonym on Google Image Search. Wasn’t much of a help for ‘plexus’ but good to keep in mind for the next project. In this case I will simply go with the obvious; it’s a gaming network, perhaps a gamepad, joystick or some abstract figure alongside a nice typeface (E.g. Calibri, Futura, Arial Round). Make sure you just don’t go with black on white, play around with those colors people! A good start is to use a rounded rectangle or ellipse in the same color as your typeface, then find a nice looking icon (for this example I searched for ’star + png’) which you overlay white or something. The result is at the top, now if you have any questions just post a comment!

http://www.eurogame.se/?p=52

DOWNLOAD MY FINISHED EXAMPLE (PSD) FOR REFERENCE

FOR DP-Users: The domain www.plexusgaming.com should still be available, if you want to register it you are free to use the logotype in any way!

 

Thank you very much for sharing. A great way to find some cool domainnames!
Now all I need is some creativity and some Photoshop knowledge

 

Thanks for sharing. Great tutorial

 

While I already use the 'thesaurus' method of naming, It's a great one by the way , I totally forgot about checking to see if that brand name/ trademark already exists. So, thank you for mentioning Madrid Express, that is exactly what I needed!

 

Very helpful! Thanks for sharing your insight.

 

Awesome tip man, What was your last one you got feedback on?

 

Thanks mate, the last one was this >
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=657522

Also wrote a new one today >
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=659426

Cheers

 

thank you! most interesting