Telling Your Brand’s Story With Vinyl Graphics

Every brand has a story to tell. It may be long or short, extravagant or down-to-earth. Whichever applies to your company, it is crucial to share your story. Where and how does your business communicate its story to the world?

A Case Study: Parks College of St. Louis University

Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology is a college within Saint Louis University that was founded in 1927, shortly after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic. It is America's first federally certified school of aviation and has since added programs in Engineering and Technology. The college transformed a main hall within their campus building into an engaging timeline highlighting its many achievements throughout its almost 100-year journey.

Existing students and potential students touring the lecture hall build a sense of pride and a connection with the college as they walk through its story. From training one of every 10 Army Air Corps pilots in the World War II era to now creating aviation and engineering leaders through future-focused programs, the memory of the college lives on within its students. Parks College demonstrates the influence of simple wall décor graphics.

If you’re looking to tell you’re company story, consider these three options:

• A Timeline - It can be as simple as a founded date with a few snapshots of what the business looked like as a newborn project. For longer timelines, hallways and the sides of buildings act as the perfect backdrop. Don’t dismiss the floor of a walkway. Floor graphics are a great way to advertise when wall space is limited.
• Values - Pick a couple of values crucial to you and your team and add them to your building. Over doorways, reception areas, and the outside of buildings are some of the best places for these statements.
• What You Do - It’s essential to focus on what you do differently from competitors. When adding vinyl wall graphics for an office or serving area, attempt to display what you do in photographs only.

Tips for Designing Your Graphic

1. Choose Your Facts Carefully

When it comes to words on wall graphics, designers find that “less is more” is a successful guideline. No matter how important and exciting the facts might be, if you put all of them in one display, none of them will get the attention they deserve. A paragraph of text will be an instant turn-off. It can be difficult to keep your company story short and sweet. Some strategies for avoiding text loading your graphics include:

• Outsourcing as much information as possible to photographs and infographics.
• Carefully choosing what is absolutely necessary in order to convey a brief, coherent narrative.
• Creating multiple graphics to spread the words out.
• Putting more technical or detailed descriptions in small text boxes near the main graphic, giving viewers a choice to quickly or deeply engage with the display.

2. Beware of Blatant Advertising

The best advertising isn’t advertising at all, at least it doesn’t immediately come across as advertising. The truth is most advertising is annoying. It interrupts our favorite television shows, music stations, and YouTube videos while cluttering the sides of websites and freeways. Telling your story in wall graphics is a great way to spread brand awareness without coming across as overly sales-focused. Don’t let the temptation to advertise distract from the equally important task of telling your company’s story.

3. Avoid the Latest Memes

So you’re looking for something bold, humorous, and relatable to tell your company story. What could be better than a silly, sarcastic, or simply hilarious meme, right? Wrong. Meme culture is one of the most transient types of shared media. Over 1 million memes are shared every day on Instagram alone. Like a match, the majority of memes burn fast and die fast.

Because of this rapidly evolving landscape of what is popular and what is “so last year,” pasting a popular meme to the front of your store could spell social ridicule rather than the admiration and brand loyalty you are aiming for. In general, it’s wisest to avoid memes unless you’re willing to order new wall decor graphics every month.

Your Story is Unique

Your brand is unique. How you got to where you are today, what you do for customers, and the culture your worker’s experience stands apart from every other business in the market. Designing and installing graphics that embody your company’s story can be a rewarding experience that brings attention to what you do best.