In the context of FRC the team’s brand can include its name, logo, and other visual elements. These elements are used to create a consistent look and feel for the team. By planning ahead, creating styling guides and more, the team can create a brand that is easily recognizable and memorable. It’s also easy to create new content that fits within the brand.
New members to your business and marketing team can make new content Day one and already have their templates and branding guidelines to follow. The rest of the sections will help you achieve this for your team.
Figuring out a core theme, ideology and more is a big task. Thankfully, if you already have a business & marketing plan you can use that to help. If you don’t have these or want to brainstorm new ideas then this can be done by asking the following questions:
Branding guides are a set of guidelines that are used to create new content and other visual elements. They are used to ensure that everything is consistent. Branding guides can include things like:
FIRST made a guide for their branding in 2015 that is a phenomenal resource for teams to use. You can find it below:
While a logo is part of an overall brand, the logo is just one small part of the brand. The brand is the overall look and feel of the team. It’s the colors, fonts, and other visual elements that are used to create a consistent look and feel for the team. While the logo will be used over and over again, the branding guides will be used to create new content and other visual elements and to ensure that everything is consistent.
Their can be several version of your team’s logo. There can be a logo for print, a logo for web, a logo for social media, etc. There are also different file types, color variants and more. This can all get really messy and confusing. By making a Logo Usage Guide you can specify which logo to use, how to use it, and where to use it. This will help ensure that the logo is used correctly.
The logo is the most recognizable part of the team’s brand. It’s the part that people will remember the most. It’s also the part that will be used the most. If the logo is used incorrectly it can cause confusion and make the team look unprofessional.
Sponsor logos are a big part of the team’s brand. They are used to show that the team has sponsors and to show that the team is supported by those sponsors. If the sponsor logos are used incorrectly sponsors will be upset and thats not good for anyone. Sponsors also could sometimes benefit from knowing what type of logo files the team needs for banners, shirts, and other items that feature the sponsors logos.
Color palettes are used to create a consistent look and feel for the team. The colors that are used should be consistent across all of the team’s branding. This applies to powerpoint slides, word documents, social media posts, and more. Whenever the question comes up of “what color should I use?” the answer should be “use the colors from the branding guide”. You can even specify dark and light variants of the colors to use for different backgrounds and more.
For a color pallete tool you can visit canva’s color wheel tool.
To learn more about color theory you can visit W3 Schools Colors section.
Slogans and verbiage are critical because every word counts. The words that are used to describe the team should be consistent across all of the team’s branding. This applies to everything and whenever writing new content this can be referred to. Many teams will have slogans, mission statements, and more. These should be included in the branding guide.
Fonts can vary greatly. Theres also variants of those font styles. For example, there is a difference between Arial and Arial Bold. There is also a difference between Arial and Arial Black. Sometimes a font should be “X size and Y color”, but other times it should be “X size and Y color and Z weight”. Writing all of this out can be a pain, but it’s worth it. By specifying the fonts that should be used, the size, color, weight, and more, it will help ensure that everything is consistent.
To learn about fonts you can visit W3 Schools Fonts section.
To learn about specifically web safe fonts you can visit W3 Schools Web Safe Fonts section.
While FRC teams don’t have products to sell (usually), they do have robots, designs, swag, and more than is photographed and shared. By specifying the product images that should be used you can make sure unedited photos aren’t used. This will help ensure that the team looks professional. This also is handy for making brochures, posters, and more. All of the good usable photos can be found in one place.
Social media images are used by the teams various social media accounts. There are standard file sizes, dimensions, and more that should be used. Tools like Canva will help make these for you and have the sizing rules built in. Some of the various types of common social media images and their dimensions are:
| Type | Dimensions (px) |
|---|---|
| Banner | 1500 x 500 |
| Profile | 400 x 400 |
| Post | 1200 x 630 |
| Story | 1080 x 1920 |
| Thumbnail | 1280 x 720 |
| Cover | 820 x 312 |
| Header | 1500 x 500 |
| Logo | 400 x 400 |
| Icon | 512 x 512 |
| Avatar | 512 x 512 |
| Favicon | 32 x 32 |
Templates for letters, powerpoint slides, word documents, and more are a great way to ensure that everything is consistent. Whenever a new document is created it can include the logo, address, colors, fonts and more. Software like Word, Docs, and the generic office suites support custom theme templates. Even things like the header font, footer font, and more can be specified. This will speed up the time it takes to create new documents and will mean you can focus on the content instead of the formatting.
A good resource about making themes for Google Slides can be found here.
A resource for making document templates (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, or Sites) can be found here.