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Here are a few resources to get you started!

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Make the Leap with Adobe Creative Cloud video

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Make the Leap with Adobe Creative Cloud video

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Arts, math, creativity and student agency. Making the world what you make it!

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What's in a Brand? Defining Your Visual Identity

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What's in a Brand? Defining Your Visual Identity

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From Adobe CMO ezine - this article covers how to design your visual identity

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A bad first impression is hard to shake, especially when you're competing against millions of contenders online. Princeton researchers found that within 0.1 seconds, people form judgments about the likeability, trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness, and aggressiveness of faces in photos they were shown. What judgement will people form about your brand in the first 0.1 second of exposure?

"With that reaction time," stated marketing expert Leonard Kim, "you need a clean and crisp visual representation of your brand. Otherwise, people may associate your brand with being cheap, unreliable, or even untrustworthy."

It's clear a strong visual identity is important, but what exactly is a visual identity? And how do you create one?

Understanding Visual Identity
Your visual identity comprises your logo, imagery, typography, colors, and creative design. It's easy enough to list them out, but how do you get to the heart of how these elements communicate to your customers who you are, what you stand for, and why they should be loyal to you?

For answers, we turned to branding experts Kim, of Influence Tree, David Brier, of Rising Above the Noise, and Ben Matthews, director of design at Adobe Spark, a one-stop shop for creating visual stories.

Your brand's visual identity is its style, said Matthews, who has helped translate brands into experiences while at LG, eBay, and, now, Adobe. If brands are people, then visual identity is the walk, the talk, the clothes, and the hair, he told us. Does your brand strut down the street, flinging long blonde hair and rocking a peacock feather jacket, or does it somberly stroll in a well-tailored suit? Maybe you decided-instantly-that the peacock persona was wild and fun, while the well-tailored suit was competent and mature. That's a first impression working its magic.

If you are building your visual identity from the ground up, Matthews recommended collecting inspiration from all over. Take pictures. Gather postcards. Go to Pinterest and make a mood board. There's so much value already out there that you don't have to re-create the wheel. Take notes on what you like about existing brands and what you don't like.

"Knowing your audience is really important," he said. "Decide how you want to resonate with them and continually tie that back to your core values."

The key, he added, is to start from what you know and believe strongly, and let your brand evolve from a core, unwavering understanding of your mission. "Even if it's just your name in a simple typeface, you can build from there," Matthews said. "Your visual identity can mature with a symbol or icon later. And maybe sometimes it's good to give your brand some time to resonate, find its path forward, and understand where your end goal is."

Keep in mind, he added, "It's good to be aspirational and absorb all the intricate and detailed logos out there, but in the end you just need a starting point. That may be a consistent way to represent yourself in a color, a typeface, or even just an icon. Ask yourself, 'How is my brand going to be powerful and effective but still be simple?' And when you're developing your visual identity, always drive what you're doing back to your mission to keep your brand on track."

(For guidance on developing your brand's core identity, read part one of this series: " A Step-by-Step Guide to Defining a Winning Online Identity. ")

As you're developing the components of your visual identity (color, logo, type, and imagery), test the evolving identity against these questions from Kim, who has been recognized by Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur as a top marketing influencer:

Am I portraying a trustworthy environment?

Am I providing immediate value to my customer?

What can I do to get them to want to learn and discover more about my brand?

How can I communicate my message with the least amount of words?

What words can I translate into images?

How minimalistic can I be and still deliver the message that I want to convey?

Define Your Brand Elements
Part of building your brand is learning to convey the values and personality of your business through the visual elements you align with your business. "Visual identity should amplify the intended message of the brand so you want to learn more and follow along with the story. Then the story should sell customers into why they should do business with your brand," Kim said.

At the core of this visual identity are your brand ingredients: logo, colors, type, and imagery.

* Color: "Your color palette needs to fit what you are trying to convey," Kim said. "If you're promoting a luxury product, you may want to use blacks, golds, and silvers. If you have a financial product, you may want to incorporate greens and golds."

Research suggests that between 62% to 90% of consumer decisions are based on color, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed-just keep it simple to start. "In Adobe Spark, our tool starts with just one color, detected from your logo or chosen manually," Matthews explained. "Then we apply some similar ranges of color so your content will look consistent for different purposes and across various marketing surfaces and platforms."

* Logo: Your logo needs to convey what you do and have imagery that sticks into the minds of the people who see it, Kim stated. A logo can be a combination of your color palette, type, and design. A logo can also evolve as your identity evolves.

* Type: Beyond what the words say, the scale, font, and arrangement of your text impact your visual identity. A funeral home that uses a playful, hot pink, comic font will confuse potential customers who are grieving. Even the best-known brands out there-such as Facebook and Apple-tend to keep it simple, Matthews said.

"Font decisions are challenging for many," Matthews said. "We like to guide users with suggestions that eliminate some of the guesswork and are based on design intelligence from balance to hierarchy. Of course, you can always decide on your own as well."

Consistency And Velocity Are Key
While visual identity aims to create an emotional connection with a customer, "it's just the initial catch," Matthews said. "Once you've caught the customer's attention, the ability to retain him means being clear on the value you deliver and consistently delivering on your promises."

Value can come in many forms: customer service, the product you deliver, or the content you create that engages your audience.

The next step is to carry the experience from end to end. "We're trying to empower our users to create visual brand consistency," Matthews said. "We know that it can be difficult to keep up with the velocity that today's social media environment demands."

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What's In A Brand? How To Define Your Visual Identity

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Your visual identity comprises your logo, imagery, typography, colors, and creative design. It's easy enough to list them out, but how do you get to the heart of how these elements communicate to your customers who you are, what you stand for, and why they should be loyal to you?

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Pantone.com, Pinterest, Colorlovers.com (Warning: lots of ads!)

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For inspiration later, visit the Spark blog for Branding tips & tricks

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Annie Crawford | by Annie Crawford

A bad first impression is hard to shake, especially when you're competing against millions of contenders online. Princeton researchers found that within 0.1 seconds, people form judgements about the likeability, trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness, and aggressiveness of faces in photos they were shown. What judgement will people form about your brand in the first 0.1 second of exposure?

"With that reaction time," stated marketing expert Leonard Kim, "you need a clean and crisp visual representation of your brand. Otherwise, people may associate your brand with being cheap, unreliable, or even untrustworthy."

It's clear a strong visual identity is important, but what exactly is a visual identity? And how do you create one?

Understanding Visual Identity

Your visual identity comprises your logo, imagery, typography, colors, and creative design. It's easy enough to list them out, but how do you get to the heart of how these elements communicate to your customers who you are, what you stand for, and why they should be loyal to you?

For answers, we turned to branding experts Kim, of Influence Tree, David Brier, of Rising Above the Noise, and Ben Matthews, director of design at Adobe Spark, a one-stop shop for creating visual stories.

Your brand's visual identity is its style, said Matthews, who has helped translate brands into experiences while at LG, eBay, and, now, Adobe. If brands are people, then visual identity is the walk, the talk, the clothes, and the hair, he told us. Does your brand strut down the street, flinging long blonde hair and rocking a peacock feather jacket, or does it somberly stroll in a well-tailored suit? Maybe you decided-instantly-that the peacock persona was wild and fun, while the well-tailored suit was competent and mature. That's a first impression working its magic.

If you are building your visual identity from the ground up, Matthews recommended collecting inspiration from all over. Take pictures. Gather postcards. Go to Pinterest and make a mood board. There's so much value already out there that you don't have to re-create the wheel. Take notes on what you like about existing brands and what you don't like.

"Knowing your audience is really important," he said. "Decide how you want to resonate with them and continually tie that back to your core values."

The key, he added, is to start from what you know and believe strongly, and let your brand evolve from a core, unwavering understanding of your mission. "Even if it's just your name in a simple typeface, you can build from there," Matthews said. "Your visual identity can mature with a symbol or icon later. And maybe sometimes it's good to give your brand some time to resonate, find its path forward, and understand where your end goal is."

Keep in mind, he added, "It's good to be aspirational and absorb all the intricate and detailed logos out there, but in the end you just need a starting point. That may be a consistent way to represent yourself in a color, a typeface, or even just an icon. Ask yourself, 'How is my brand going to be powerful and effective but still be simple?' And when you're developing your visual identity, always drive what you're doing back to your mission to keep your brand on track."

(For guidance on developing your brand's core identity, read part one of this series: " A Step-by-Step Guide to Defining a Winning Online Identity.")

As you're developing the components of your visual identity (color, logo, type, and imagery), test the evolving identity against these questions from Kim, who has been recognized by Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur as a top marketing influencer:

Am I portraying a trustworthy environment?

Am I providing immediate value to my customer?

What can I do to get them to want to learn and discover more about my brand?

How can I communicate my message with the least amount of words?

What words can I translate into images?

How minimalistic can I be and still deliver the message that I want to convey?

Define Your Brand Elements

Part of building your brand is learning to convey the values and personality of your business through the visual elements you align with your business. "Visual identity should amplify the intended message of the brand so you want to learn more and follow along with the story. Then the story should sell customers into why they should do business with your brand," Kim said.

At the core of this visual identity are your brand ingredients: logo, colors, type, and imagery.

Color: "Your color palette needs to fit what you are trying to convey," Kim said. "If you're promoting a luxury product, you may want to use blacks, golds, and silvers. If you have a financial product, you may want to incorporate greens and golds."
Research suggests that between 62% to 90% of consumer decisions are based on color, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed-just keep it simple to start. "In Adobe Spark, our tool starts with just one color, detected from your logo or chosen manually," Matthews explained. "Then we apply some similar ranges of color so your content will look consistent for different purposes and across various marketing surfaces and platforms."

Logo: Your logo needs to convey what you do and have imagery that sticks into the minds of the people who see it, Kim stated. A logo can be a combination of your color palette, type, and design. A logo can also evolve as your identity evolves.

Type: Beyond what the words say, the scale, font, and arrangement of your text impact your visual identity. A funeral home that uses a playful, hot pink, comic font will confuse potential customers who are grieving. Even the best-known brands out there-such as Facebook and Apple-tend to keep it simple, Matthews said.
"Font decisions are challenging for many," Matthews said. "We like to guide users with suggestions that eliminate some of the guesswork and are based on design intelligence from balance to hierarchy. Of course, you can always decide on your own as well."

Consistency And Velocity Are Key

While visual identity aims to create an emotional connection with a customer, "it's just the initial catch," Matthews said. "Once you've caught the customer's attention, the ability to retain him means being clear on the value you deliver and consistently delivering on your promises."

Value can come in many forms: customer service, the product you deliver, or the content you create that engages your audience.

The next step is to carry the experience from end to end. "We're trying to empower our users to create visual brand consistency," Matthews said. "We know that it can be difficult to keep up with the velocity that today's social media environment demands."

This article was originally published as part of CMO.com's October series about creativity and design-led thinking. Click here for more.

Set up your brand's with Adobe Spark's premium features!

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What's in a Brand? How to Define Your Visual Identity | Adobe Spark

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Annie Crawford | by Annie Crawford A bad first impression is hard to shake, especially when you're competing against millions of contenders online. Princeton researchers found that within 0.1 seconds, people form judgements about the likeability, trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness, and aggressiveness of faces in photos they were shown.

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3 easy steps to picking your brand colors

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Amy Copperman | by Amy Copperman

Color is a foundational building block of a brand, but with infinite shades, feeling confident in your color choices can seem impossible. If you've ever agonized over paint swatches in a hardware store, you know what we're talking about. To help, we turned to expert brand strategist Josh Martin. to demystify and simplify this important process. Read on for his advice in his own words:

As a branding strategist, I work with entrepreneurs and companies from all kinds of industries. One thing that always comes up is, "How do I choose my brand colors?" Even if you're a color theory pro, it can still be difficult to choose the specific hues that will become synonymous with your brand. Having guided many clients through this decision, I've come up with a simple 3-step process to picking your perfect brand colors.

1. Start with a Neutral Color

Get started by choosing your base. One-to-two neutral covers will act as the canvas on which you'll paint. Neutral colors are generally defined as black, white, ivory, silver, gray, brown, tan, gold, and beige colors. It's helpful to think in terms of warm or cool colors, which can influence your entire palette. Blacks, browns, tans, golds and beige are considered warm, while white, ivory, silver, and gray are cooler in comparison.

Pro-Tip: Get inspiration for neutral colors in Spark Post Color Palette. You can do this by starting from a solid background color. Spark Post Photo Editor will suggest basic colors across the spectrum. Tap into a neutral color you like to explore the shades and grab the hex value. Alternatively you can derive inspiration from a photo-try searching for things like "neutral" or "sand" in Spark Post's free image search, then explore the palettes Spark Post auto-generates.

2. Add Two "Pop" Colors

Next, we need to add some color to the canvas. These are going to be your main colors that represent your brand. This is the color that grabs the attention of your audience and becomes the star of your visual identity. Go for vibrant tones that play well together. Here, it's important to think about what your brand stands for and the mood you want to set. Here's a quick primer on what brands need to know to use color effectively. In its simplest terms, cool colors (blue and green, for example) tend to have a calming effect, while warm colors (reds and oranges) tend to excite. You might choose a cool palette as your main colors and then add a pop of warm colors to liven it up.

This step can be the most intimidating choice. I recommend finding inspiration in your favorite photographs, places, and things. Spark makes this discovery fun and easy because it extracts the colors from your images so you don't have to do any guesswork in color matching or hunt down the hex values. Nature/landscape and cityscape photography is a great place to find color inspiration. If your brand is lively and exciting, you might choose warm, active colors like reds and oranges. If you want to evoke a calming mood, cooler colors are the way to go.

The following slideshow shows how two pop colors and a neutral color work together. These palettes were auto-generated in Spark Post derived from desert vistas as inspiration.

3. Choose One Call-to-Action Color

A call to action is usually a button, or a link, that tells viewers what to do. As such, this color should stand out, but be complementary to your main brand colors, such as a contrasting color on the opposite side of the color wheel. If you have a cool green-blue color scheme going, you might choose an active orange as the CTA color. The key to using this color effectively is to be very strict about where it goes. Use it only as buttons or calls to action so that viewers get accustomed to how and when this color shows up.

Bonus: Rely on Adobe Spark's Color Intelligence

There are a number of ways Adobe Spark helps with choosing brand colors. The first is with professionally designed palettes. Choose from auto-generated palettes in bold, elegant, loud, modern and more to match your color scheme to a mood. Tap a palette to have the colors cycle through your design until you land on a combination you like. Check out some of my favorite palettes that Adobe Spark offers.

If you want more control, you've got it. Spark Post takes the guesswork out of color picking. Control your colors down to the pixel with the eyedropper tool, or lean on Spark's smart recommendations to find the perfect match in a few clicks. If you have a certain shade already in mind, you can get the perfect match by applying the hex value to your designs.
Josh Martin is a Branding Strategist who helps entrepreneurs create a brand that everybody will love. Up-level your branding at JoshMartin.tv.
Explore Color with Us!

We're looking at the fall's top color trends and exploring the ways color influences action, mood, and branding on our Instagram channel this week. Join the color study fun by tagging your designs #adobespark. These templates can get you started:

Bring your brand colors to your Spark projects! Learn how to create branded stories in Adobe Spark!

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3 Easy Steps to Picking Your Brand Colors | Adobe Spark

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Amy Copperman | by Amy Copperman Color is a foundational building block of a brand, but with infinite shades, feeling confident in your color choices can seem impossible. If you've ever agonized over paint swatches in a hardware store, you know what we're talking about. To help, we turned to expert brand strategist Josh Martin.

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'Got Spark! Now What?': Making Thinking Visible Student/Teacher Lesson Plans 

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'Got Spark! Now What?': Making Thinking Visible Student/Teacher Lesson Plans 

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This unit covers getting started using Spark with student and teacher lesson outlines . There is also a unit extension on using Spark to create a brand and portfolio.

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Got Creative Cloud Express? Now What...Teacher Lesson Plans

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vinnygreco.com

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Here's a great step by step on Branding

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Credit: Jackie Dove

Any Creative Cloud subscription - from the $50-monthly package to the $10-monthly Photography plan - offers free access to the Spark brand manager. Non-subscribers can now get in on the deal for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.

Spark launched last year as a free offshoot of Creative Cloud, but it took the liberty of adding its own branding to each project that could only be removed by Creative Cloud subscribers or via the web app as a free user preview of the premium services. The update introduces a subscription fee specifically for Spark that lets users access Spark's brand management functionality, as well as features such as theme and template creation or customization, with click-based automatic style linking for colors, fonts, and logos across themes and templates.

Spark iOS apps are still available free of charge and without subscription for anyone not interested in the custom branding features. Free users of Spark Video get eight new themes with fresh designs and motions, new layouts such as split view, and the ability to drag text to various points on their slides. Free users will no longer be able to remove the Adobe watermark from their projects.

With the new version of Spark, you can use your own logo or create an original one. Just upload your current logo into the Spark system and then pick elements such as colors, fonts and a brand name. Spark uses Adobe's artificial intelligence engine to generate complementary color palettes and pair curated fonts to create personalized templates and themes so that your look is polished and professional.

Spark then generates a host of branded templates, themes and surfaces, including business cards, stationery, social media covers, fliers, page headers and footers, video stamps, and outros. Changes you make are universal across templates. You can also create specific variations so that different logos or themes can represent different aspects of your business or seasonal messages.

1. Launch Spark on the web, and you will see a new Add Brand button. Click it to open an interface that lets you start creating your brand identity.

Credit: Jackie Dove

Credit: Jackie Dove

2. If you already have a logo design, you can upload the art in PNG format, which gets added to the Spark system. Otherwise, you can use the tool to help you build a text-based logo - either using your own name or initials or your company moniker. A transparent PNG assures that your logo can be used with any color or patterned background.

Credit: Jackie Dove

3. Spark takes your primary color and generates a palette of complementary colors. You can experiment with the colors and add different ones until you're pleased with the result.

Credit: Jackie Dove

4. Most non-designers are not font experts. That's why Spark lets you select from a slate of curated fonts to find the one that best represents your company.

Credit: Jackie Dove

5. Name your brand, using either your own name or the name of your company.

Credit: Jackie Dove

6. Spark takes the anxiety out of font pairings. After you choose a main font - from categories such as Classic, Loud, Clean and Natural - Spark automatically pairs it with a companion secondary font that goes well with it.

Credit: Jackie Dove

7. Spark takes the elements you choose and generates templates for numerous types of documents, including business cards, social media covers, fliers, stationery and video stamps.

Credit: Jackie Dove

8. Choose from video and graphic themes to use with Spark Video and Spark Pages so that all your business communications have a common logo, color and font set.

Credit: Jackie Dove

9. Feel free to experiment with variations on the theme - your initial choices are not set in stone. Spark makes it easy to alter the look and feel of your branding at any time. If you choose a new font or color setting, the app's style-linking feature automatically updates all the document types and themes it appears on.

Credit: Jackie Dove

10. If you want to change a single template for a special or seasonal promotion, click on the one you want to use, and the Create From control lets you change only that item without applying changes to other templates.

Credit: Jackie Dove

11. You can get pretty granular in choosing different layouts, color schemes, backgrounds, text and even swapping out logos, keeping all changes confined to one or chosen templates. Use template elements to change and "brandify" design, layout, palette, background and text.

Credit: Jackie Dove

12. Spark Video lets you choose how to brand your videos in much the same manner as Page and Post, by first adjusting colors and fonts.

Credit: Jackie Dove

13. You can adjust many different aspects of Page themes.

Credit: Jackie Dove

14. Work on the go. Everything you can do from the web app can also be accomplished on mobile apps for iPhone and iPad. When you enable syncing, all changes automatically appear in all locations.

Credit: Jackie Dove

If you're looking for a polished online presence with content that spans graphics, video and web, Adobe Spark may be your answer to design school. Adobe offers plenty of help on the Spark website on how to get started and best practices for using its Spark apps. If you are already a Creative Cloud subscriber, Spark is a no-brainer. If you're not, you don't have to plunk down cash right away. You can start using Adobe Spark apps online or via iOS free of charge to get a feel for what the service offers. If you don't mind Adobe Spark branding, you never have to pay a dime. However, if you want to push own brand, Spark makes it easy for $99 per year.

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How to Use Adobe Spark's Best Branding Features

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Credit: Jackie Dove Any Creative Cloud subscription - from the $50-monthly package to the $10-monthly Photography plan - offers free access to the Spark brand manager. Non-subscribers can now get in on the deal for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.

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This is real! Use this link to create a logo!

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Free Logo Maker: Design Custom Logos | Adobe Spark

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Follow this link to see Spark templates created by featured artists

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Collage Art for Social Media Posts | Adobe Spark

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Bring funky collage art to your social media posts, posters, event fliers,  or ads with the help of Adobe Spark. Artist Matt Phillips provides his collage art layers that you can add to your projects with ease.

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"Got Spark! Now What?": Unit on using Spark with Student & Teacher lesson plans

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"Got Spark! Now What?": Unit on using Spark with Student & Teacher lesson plans

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This unit covers getting started to creating a brand and portfolio using Spark

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Got Creative Cloud Express? Now What...Teacher Lesson Plans

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Using Spark to showcase students that have made an impact with their voices

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You're Never Too Young To Make A Difference - Wakelet

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Young people who are changing the world told by young people sharing their stories.

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Great templates for video projects

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Production Roles, Pre-Planning sheet, storyboard template, script template, and shot list templates: There are tons of different versions that you can download for free after a quick Google search, but I wanted a version that I could share with students via Google Docs. We use the Gsuite religiously in my class to collaborate on projects, so I wanted a template that my students could use to work together on their planning and all be engaged in the process.

Below are links to the Google Doc templates that I created, as well as PDF versions just in case you would prefer something printable. When you open the Google Doc, you can create a copy for yourself by going to File > Make a Copy. (Note: that's File in the Google Docs menu, not your browser menu.)

If you have any issues with the links below, please feel free to email me at campbellj@gm.sbac.edu.

I set up my Production Roles to work with groups of 3 to 4 students in a middle school setting. I decided I wanted to have each member responsible for submitting one document during pre-production, and outlined each member's responsibilities throughout the project. At the end, this list of responsibilities becomes an individual grading rubric for a final personal grade. The grade on the overall video is shared by the entire group.

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Video Production Documents - Storyboard Template and more, with Google Docs!

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Production Roles, Pre-Planning sheet, storyboard template, script template, and shot list templates: There are tons of different versions that you can download for free after a quick Google search, but I wanted a version that I could share with students via Google Docs.

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Go here for ideas on Visible Thinking routines you can use in your classes