When creating a Visual Library for your business, it is important to establish some simple guidelines for how the design elements will be used in all of your marketing materials. Once you have these guides in place for your Visual Library, use these elements consistently throughout your materials. As trends change, you can simply change some or all of these elements to create a new, fresh look, with out changing your logo.

Your Visual Library should include the following:

• Font styles: You should have a small collection (2-4) of typefaces for regular use in your materials. Consider fonts for both print and web use, and specify styles for headlines, subheads, and body copy in each case, at minimum.
• Colors: A color palette adds flexibility to your materials and gives you a guide when choosing colors for illustrations, graphics and other elements for your Visual Library. When you keep your colors consistent and limited, it becomes easier for your audience to separate you from your competition.
• Shapes: The shape that you use for your bullets, callout boxes, color-blocked areas, and even borders in your materials can create a strong visual component that will contribute to your memorability.
• Backgrounds: Using backgrounds or watermarks can give your materials an extra bit of personality.

These additional elements are a great way to flesh out your materials and can be tied to specific products or promotions.  Allowing each item to be separated yet grounded to your branding.

• Photographs: Photos can add a lot of personality to your materials and really help you to make a connection with your target audience. They are a great way to ground your materials as you, while separating out products. Stock photography is reasonably priced; buy a few shots that really communicate your message(s) and match the rest of your Visual Library. Make sure that you buy the highest resolution - you can always make images smaller but you can't make them bigger!
  
  
•  Special textual treatments: For very special text that you want to highlight, such as headlines or taglines that detail your specialties, think about using a special typeface and color. This can add emphasis to select information with out cluttering your materials.
  
  
• Specialty Printing: Specialty paper can take your branding material over the top. Often overlooked, specialty printing makes your materials interesting and unusual. Materials can be as simple as brown paper or as extreme as metal. Another option is metallic inks or die cut shapes.

Once you have your Visual Library in place, using elements consistently throughout your marketing materials will have many benefits, including:

• Increasing your brand's memorability: A Visual Library gives your marketing materials more designed visuals. Adding more visuals makes your materials, and your company, more memorable.
  
  
• Making your brand designs more flexible: A Visual Library provides you with a set of visuals that are loosely tied to your business, which means that you can exchange and recombine these elements for different products, services or marketing campaigns. Your Visual Library can grow as your business grows and needs change.  Allowing you to update and refresh your materials, while still backing them with a solid logo and brand identity base.
  
  
• Adding to the consistency of your marketing & branding materials. Consistency equals recognition.  You want your potential clients to recognize & trust you as an expert in your field.
  
  
• Making your business's materials stand out from the competition: Your personality should show in your Visual Library, differentiating you from your competition. It can also add visual information to your materials, to help tell your business's story.
  
  
• Making a small business look larger: By expanding your brand with surrounding graphics, you'll expand your presence, making your small business look larger and more established.

A Visual Library is a powerful resource that helps you better define the look and feel of your business while presenting in a consistent and professional manner.