Surf City Lawyers - April 2018

EXPANDING BEYOND YOUR LOGO

VISUAL BRANDING

simple yet eye-catching logo. It’s usually the first interaction someone has with your company, so make it memorable. However, it’s important not to let your logo carry everything else. Saul Bass, logo designer for United Airlines and the Girl Scouts of the USA, states, “Logos are a great extension of the internal realities of a company.” A logo is representative and gives your customers something easy to remember, but it doesn’t encapsulate your whole business. THEMES When you make promotional materials or certain merchandise, such as business cards or gift cards, the design should relate to your company. This doesn’t mean you should slap the logo on every item. The theme or design that you chose to represent in your logo should be present in your merchandise and promotional media.

This helps associate the product with your company without printing the same thing over and over. When your visual brands match, it creates a bridge to your company. CONSISTENCY When your theme is inconsistent, you create mistrust between you and your customers. A changing logo or style will create a sense of uneasiness or suspicion that your company might not be authentic or reputable. Any visual element that you design to represent your company should remain the same. If it’s unavoidable, change it as minimally as possible. Consistency in visual branding builds trust and helps customers recognize you. Incorporating visual branding beyond your logo will bring more positive recognition to your company. Follow these tips to create great visual branding.

When you think of visual brands, an iconic logo might pop into your mind. But logos are only the beginning of visual branding. While a strong logo is a terrific start, there are many other aspects that you should dedicate your time and money to. Here are a couple of tips you can follow to ensure successful visual branding. THE LOGO Start with your logo. You want your customers to notice you, and one way to do that is with a

Keep the same color schemes and style for everything, but vary the imagery and design.

Approximately 52 percent of first marriages end in divorce, and 70 percent of second marriages follow suit. It can be a bitter process, and if you don’t divorce-proof your business, it can become a casualty, as well. That’s why we’ve provided four ways to keep your business out of the crossfire if you find yourself at the bargaining table. PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENTS “Prenups” can often be muddy waters to navigate in any premarital process. The common view of these agreements is they are preparing your marriage for divorce. But it’s really just defining ownership of assets. A prenup states that as long as a written contract is voluntarily signed by both parties at least seven days before the marriage license is signed, the named assets in that document will maintain their original ownership. This means if you put your business in a prenup, you can keep it out of an ownership argument during a divorce. POSTNUPTIAL AGREEMENTS These are basically prenups that are signed and agreed upon after the wedding. They are generally harder to defend because they are done after marriage, but they can still keep your business out of a divorce. DIVORCE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS Strategies to Keep Your Hard Work off the Bargaining Table

TRUST Another way to divorce-proof your business is by placing it in a non- revocable trust. Since you technically don’t own the business — the trust does — the business is no longer a marital asset. This means that if you go to mediation, any asset placed in that trust is off the table. BUY-SELL AGREEMENTS These agreements document what the line of succession should be if the business owner goes through a triggering event, like divorce, death, disability, or retirement. By setting up a clear line of succession in a buy- sell agreement, you can help your business avoid getting caught in the muck of divorce settlements. The best way to divorce-proof your business is to prevent divorce altogether. The cost of finding a mutual solution is far less than what a divorce could end up costing you — both financially and emotionally. We aren’t psychologists or family therapists, but we are experts in business law. If you want the safety blanket of divorce-proofing your business, contact us today and let Anna take care of you.

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