Establishing a business is the ultimate juggling game. Between planning out finances, selecting a business structure, acquiring licenses and permits, and choosing and registering a company name, there are balls aplenty in the air – sometimes so many that it’s easy for one to fall by the wayside, unnoticed in the moment, yet critically affecting the balance of the overall endeavour. For many enterprises, this problem arises when they neglect to give proper attention to the aesthetic, or "look," of their new baby – and, in this the age of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, when the importance of aesthetics in the creation of a brand can make or break its potential to garner a fan following, it’s an issue that shouldn’t be ignored.
Brandmark, a service that promises to take the pain out of choosing color schemes, fonts, and icons, was established to reduce the need for new companies to spend their already-scarce early day funds on the expertise of a graphic designer, freeing them up to invest their time and finances elsewhere in their busy fledgling state. Brandmark’s design system operates via artificial intelligence, or AI, which is trained to be intimately familiar with a library of millions of images. The AI’s studies allow it to act as a brand’s personal artistic genius, combining the perfect colors, fonts and icons to give it a look that says everything it wants to communicate at a glance.
Brandmark’s layout engine is a fantastic choice of any up-and-coming business that wants to stand out from the crowd, as its designs are completely unique from those found on any other platform. Its popularity speaks for itself: the Brandmark website proudly gives users insight into the creations of other Brandmark-loving companies – which, at the time of the writing of this article, numbered an immensely impressive 108,704. And since no account registration is required to take this exciting new system for a test run, it’s all too easy to see why.
To use Brandmark, all the information that’s required is the name of the brand in question, as well as its tagline, if one is applicable. Brandmark makes a point of peppering its aesthetic design process with helpful tips to build a brand as memorable as it is successful, such as this note about brand names: "The ideal brand name is short, memorable, and easy to pronounce. A unique name is also easier to search on Google." After entering this information, the AI asks the user to think of a few keywords that encompass what their brand is all about. These words can be as literal or abstract as is desired – everything from "platypus" and "popcorn" to "artisan" and "vintage." Then, a series of logos is curated in a variety of colors and styles to allow business owners to have their pick of aspects that will make their brand material fit their ideas to a tee.
The website also provides an innovative service that it calls Logo Rank. Logo Rank is an artificial intelligence system that’s less of a designer, like the Brandmark AI itself, and more of a consultant – by uploading any logo they’ve designed with the help of Brandmark to Logo Rank, business owners can see where their logo ranks against millions of others based on a vast array of carefully-considered criteria. The system provides ample tips and ideas to help any brand develop a logo that’s worth its salt, and gets their message across loud and clear.
Logo Rank can also double as a kind of plagiarism-detector for visual images, checking to see if the designer of a logo got a little bit too deriviative in their creative process, to the potential detriment of the company it represents. Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but in the dog-eat-dog world of the startup, failing to strive for uniqueness isn’t a mistake from which one can easily recover.
The Brandmark website comes fully equipped with a Crisp chat engine, enabling users to compose messages to the Brandmark team to provide feedback and get any questions they may have answered to their satisfaction. It’s this kind of accessibility and openness that flags Brandmark as a truly special service – and, as ports of call go, a no-brainer for anyone committed to nailing every aspect of the set-up of their burgeoning business.
