Glossary

A brand is a comprehensive representation of a company, product, service, or individual, encompassing its identity, values, reputation, and overall perception. It goes beyond just visual elements like logos and colours, extending to encompass the emotions, experiences, and associations that people have with the entity.

Brand guidelines are a bit like user manuals, a document housing all the information about your brand and how to use it according to the rules set in place by you and your designers. They come in all forms from hefty tomes, single page PDFs to fancy-pants produced pieces of art. It really depends on the size of your business, the type of brand you are and how many elements make up your visual identity.

This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black), the primary inks and plates used in traditional colour printing. It’s a scientific colour system originally created for offset printing, more commonly known as ‘four colour printing’(because of the number of ink plates). Pretty much any colour can be made up of these inks and designers set up most print documents in this mode.

Define. Narrate Authenticate - A brand is a collection of many individual assets and promises that you make to the world, from visuals, verbal, values and vision. The DNA of your brand is the distinguishable characteristics that makeup traits of your identity. All of these things are unique to your business or service and form your overall Brand.

Each image is made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny dots (pixels). To determine how high quality your image is, you will need to review the dpi, ‘dots per inch’. The fewer dots that make up an image means the more blurry your image will be. But here’s the bit you really need to get your head around – when designers ask for high resolution images, we are asking for images with a minimum of 300dpi.

Formats pertain to the specific technical specifications and arrangements used to prepare digital designs for physical production. This includes aspects like size, resolution, colour mode, and file type. Ensuring designs are correctly formatted is crucial for accurate and high-quality reproduction during printing, tailored to different materials like brochures, posters, or business cards. Following proper formats guarantees the alignment of the intended design with the final printed outcome.

Is a metric used to measure the weight or thickness of paper, cardstock, fabric, and other materials. It's a standard unit for determining the density of these materials. A higher GSM value indicates a heavier and thicker material, while a lower GSM value signifies a lighter and thinner one. For example, typical copier letterhead paper is usually between 90-150gsm, whereas stock used for business cards would need to be 300gsm plus to be sturdy enough for use.

Image rights refer to the legal ownership and permissions associated with using photographs, illustrations, or any visual content created by someone else. These rights govern how an image can be used, reproduced, distributed, or modified. Obtaining proper image rights is crucial to avoid copyright infringement and legal issues.

A logo is a distinctive visual symbol or design that represents a brand, company, organisation, or individual. It's a concise and recognisable image that encapsulates the essence of the entity it represents. Logos often combine typography, imagery, colours, and shapes to create a unique and memorable identity.

A mood board is a visual tool used in design and creative projects to capture and convey the desired mood, style, and overall aesthetic of a project. It's a collage of images, colours, textures, typography, and other visual elements that serve as a source of inspiration and a reference point for the design direction. Moodboards help to align the creative team, clients, or stakeholders on the project's visual direction early in the process.

Orientation, refers to the arrangement or positioning of an image or document. It's typically categorised as either portrait or landscape. Portrait orientation is when the height of the image or document is greater than its width, resembling the orientation of a portrait painting. Landscape orientation, on the other hand, is when the width is greater than the height, resembling the view of a wide landscape. The choice of orientation impacts how content is presented and perceived.

Pantone Colours, part of the Pantone Matching System (PMS), are a standardised set of colours used in various industries, particularly in printing, design, and branding. Each Pantone colour is assigned a unique code, making it easy to reproduce exact shades consistently across different materials and production processes.

Paper stock refers to the type and quality of paper used for various printing and design purposes. It encompasses factors like weight, texture, finish, and thickness, which collectively influence the appearance and feel of printed materials. Different paper stocks are chosen based on their suitability for specific projects, such as brochures, business cards, posters, and packaging. A huge variety of professional papers are available via paper merchants and mills who design agencies have relationships with.

Pixel is an abbreviated term for ‘Picture Element’ and are the individual dots that make up a computer generated image or photograph. Each image is made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny dots and the size of each pixel really depends on how you have set the screen and image resolution. To determine how high quality your image is, you will need to review the dpi, ‘dots per inch’.

Professional printing term. We name the final print artwork file that has been approved to be print-ready/

Often talked about in conjunction with UX (User Experience - where the aesthetic appearance of a device is the focus). With the increasing amount of online, device and app activity, the more important your user interface is. The sheer volume of tech users now means there are experts who have made a career out of making interfaces efficient and desirable to use - AKA creating ‘optimised user experiences’.

You may here this term in conjunction with UI (User Interface) as the two often go hand in hand - This is used to describe design or testing for the overall experience of a person using a product or a website. It’s a close look at the ‘customer journey’, how easy the product or website is to use/navigate. Is it pleasing, accessible and can improvements be made to enhance or streamline the experience for example.

Spot colour refers to a specific ink colour that is pre-mixed and applied individually during printing. Unlike the traditional four-color (CMYK) process, spot colours are pre-defined and come from a standardised colour system like Pantone. They're used to achieve precise and consistent colours, making them ideal for branding and ensuring accurate replication across different materials.

Trademarks play a crucial role in branding, building consumer trust, and the protection of intellectual property. A trademark is a legally recognised symbol, word, phrase, design, or combination thereof that identifies and distinguishes the source of goods or services offered by a company, organisation, or individual. Trademarks are used to protect the brand identity and reputation of products or services. Trademarks also add value to your business. Trademark registration is not compulsory yet is always professionally advised to protect the business you worked so hard to create. You can find out more on our Trademark resource page.