HOW TO CREATE A FRIENDLY BRAND?
Remember that your brand is not just an impressive logo but encompasses everything related to your business or product. Analyzing the needs of your future customers is very important. An accessible and friendly brand will generate many opportunities for you.
WHAT IS ACCESSIBILITY IN A BRAND?
It means making your brand available and enjoyable for all people with both physical and psychological disabilities. What's the importance? You will attract potential customers with visual, auditory, physical, or psychological disabilities.
You might think it's difficult to design an inclusive brand and that all the work won't be worth it since you would only reach a handful of people, but you're wrong.
Did you know that approximately 12 million men living in the United States are colorblind? You can't afford to ignore these potential customers.
If you already have a brand, there are many changes you can apply to improve its accessibility. In most cases, it is not necessary to start from scratch.
TEXT AND LEGIBILITY ARE IMPORTANT
With something as simple as increasing the text size on your website, logo, or any printed document, you will improve your accessibility. This will help older customers or people with visual disabilities access your messages easily.
Having text of at least 16 pixels on your website is recommended. Once you have an ideal size, it's time to choose the font that identifies your brand.
Making this selection is complicated since it must represent your business and its values very specifically, but without being common. Unfortunately, many business owners choose their fonts incorrectly. Sometimes, in trying to differentiate ourselves, we choose typography that is difficult to read.
Using simple serif fonts like Arial, Verdana, or Calibri helps to be friendly to people with dyslexia, for example. It is estimated that 33 million people in the United States have this condition.
COLORS THAT HELP BE MORE INCLUSIVE
It is important to choose the right colors for your brand. These have meanings that, when used well, will help you reach your target audience.
Another way to increase legibility is to have sufficient color contrast between the text and the background. There are online color contrast checkers that can help you with this. Having a ratio of at least 4.5:1 is recommended. Feel free to try different color combinations to find the best results.
However, you also need to think about colorblind people. Red and green are often the colors that are hardest for them to see. In contrast, blue and yellow are the easiest to see. There are tools and filters that can help you with this.
SEEK ADVICE
It is important to be informed when working on your brand's accessibility. Look for the most common disabilities among the people your business or product targets.
You should also seek help from professionals or experts in these areas. They can better refine your ideas. Simple things like including braille on business cards or placing subtitles on a promotional video can have a big impact. It's just a matter of deciding to do it.
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