Launch day is brilliant. Everyone's excited, the new logo's up, the website looks lovely. And then Monday comes round, someone needs a poster for Thursday, and they grab whatever font is nearest.
Small teams are busy, new staff and volunteers join, and nobody quite knows where the logo files live. Nobody's doing anything wrong. It's just that the brand needs to be the thing people reach for without thinking.
Here's what we've found helps small teams keep their brand consistent after launch.
Get the team involved from the start
People look after things they helped make. If your staff or volunteers have had a say in shaping the brand, it feels like theirs, not something that's been dropped on them from above.
Ditch the massive brand book
Nobody's reading 60 pages. A one or two page cheat sheet will do far more good. Which logo goes where, your main colours, your fonts, and a few "we'd say this, not that" examples for how you sound.
Make it easier to do it right than to do it wrong
If using the brand is a faff, people won't bother. Put your colours, fonts and logos into whatever tools your team already uses (Canva, Google Slides, Word templates) and make a few ready-to-go templates for things like social posts, decks and newsletters.
Appoint a brand manager
A friendly go-to person who people can check with, and who notices when a template needs a tweak.
Book a review for 6 months after launch
Look at what's been going out, and see if people are working around the brand. That's usually a sign a template needs fixing or there needs to be more communication about how to use it.
A brand isn't just the logo. It's all the things you put out into the world every week. Make those easy for your team, and the rest takes care of itself.
