Startups come in all shapes and sizes, and early stage startups should be focusing on their product. However, once an idea is validated and users are willing pay for the product branding is needed.
Who you are and why your company exists can be displayed very strategically and consistently across your site, social content, and in every outward facing message. Why you are creating a startup can be very relevant, but it is most effective when your appealing “why” is on top of a great product.
There are a lot of smart innovative people solving big problems. Why should anyone care about your idea or solution? Don’t take it personally. Rise to the challenge, and let your passion out in every design choice and communication with the outside world.
You could have the best idea and product ever made but if no one knows about it then it won’t help anyone. How you communicate your solution, and how you present your company to the world is your brand. That means your business card or email signature all the way up to your social media content strategy. Is your message easy to understand and good to look at? And would I care if I came across your message?
We’ve heard the term design systems be used in many different ways, some correct and others not even close. So, we would like to clear up the confusion and shed a light on the benefits of design systems. It’s not icon set building, a style guide, or a simple UI kit.
Many large companies have design systems, but they aren’t just for large companies. Often large companies are just more organized and have long since graduated from the frantic mess of repeating the same steps over and over again. Out of necessity large companies added efficiency and productivity. You should too.
Imagine building something complicated with legos, but every time you need a new piece you have to build it from scratch. Design systems are meant to be like all the lego pieces you will ever need for your specific brand, design, marketing, or anything that is outward facing. Designers who need to create the same button dozens of times will tell you that just plug and play is so much quicker.
Growing startups are full of energetic and busy people usually wearing multiple hats. They often don’t have the luxury of pulling valuable designer time to create proposals for sales or assets for marketing. A design system could empower a marketing intern to create materials that perfectly represent your brand in a consistent and beautiful way. When this occurs everyone has more time to spend on big picture items instead of focusing on getting a logo just right because it already is.
Card sliders are definitely pretty cool (at the time of writing this) but even still it is good to focus on what the situation calls for. Not just the cool mock-up.
Grids are great for adding cohesion to uncategorized items, or making it easy to scan through a bunch of similar items.
Sliders are excellent to use for featured content or categorized content like Spotify which has many categories.