a solopreneur's guide to creating a
Branded Watermark
Gone are the days that watermarks are only for photographers protecting their images. These days knowing how to watermark your images is crucial for anyone creating visual content. If you're creating content, you need watermarks like I need an ice cube in my Pinot Noir. Why is that? Not the ice cubes, the watermarking. 😉Belly up to my visual bar and I'll tell ya all 'bout it!
THERE ARE 3 MAJOR BENEFITS OF WATERMARKING BLOG IMAGES:
The easy {but incredibly stale} way of watermarking a photo is simply adding your url or brand name via text somewhere on your image.
The problem with that is that you don’t foster brand recognition OR elevate the perceived quality of your content.
And let’s be honest, it’s really easy to crop out a line of text from an image, so the watermark is easy to eliminate.
Rather than wasting your time with stale and ineffective ways of watermarking, I want to show you 5 ways you can create a branded watermark for your images so you’ll get all the benefits mentioned above.
Here are 5 effective styles of branded watermarks along with some real-world examples to get your creative juices of flowing.
style no. 1
USE YOUR FULL LOGO
One of the easiest ways to brand your watermark is by using the most identifying element in your branding…your logo.
This strategy is only effective for text based, simple and flat logos. If your logo is busy, has more than 3 colors, or is 3D, I would avoid using strategy for your watermark.
Here are some real-world example of effective full logo watermarks.
BlogPhoto.tv
Take care to note how the following 4 brands change the color of their logo to achieve complementary contrast between the watermark and the image.
Don’t feel restricted by the color of your logo when it comes to using it as a watermark. That doesn’t mean you should haphazardly use any color of the rainbow. Instead, stick with neutral colors, primarily black, white and grays, when it comes to color options for your logo watermark.
Daniela Uslan
style no. 2
USE A SYMBOL OR ELEMENT FROM YOUR LOGO
If your full logo falls into any of the ‘not effective’ categories mentioned in #1, a great solution is to use a single element from your full logo. This is an especially effective strategy if you have any flat icons in your logo.
Take a look at how these brands use icon elements from their full logo to create a seamlessly branded watermark.
style no. 3
CREATE A BRANDED SUBMARK
A submark is an alternative brand element that is pulled from and inspired from a full logo. In short, it’s a variation of your logo.
Creating a branded submark is a great strategy for brands with long brand names, and any brand with a more involved logo design. Beside simplifying full logos, submarks are extremely effective as watermarks because they are circular in shape and fit nicely in the corner of images.
Take a look at how these brands have used a branded submark as their watermark:
Carrie-Anne Foster
style no. 4
A BRANDING BAR (OR IMAGE FOOTER)
A branding bar is a really simple way to create a watermark that unifies a brands visual content. Think of a branding bar as a footer for images as it typically appears at the very bottom of images. It consists of nothing more than text {in a branded typeface} with or without other elements pulled from branding guidelines.
Take a look at two highly effective versions of a watermark branding bar.
style no. 5
SHOWCASE A PHOTOGRAPH (OR BRANDED SELFIE)
An incredibly unique and personalized way to create a highly memorable and effective branded watermark is to use a photograph of the individual behind the brand. One of the pioneers of this strategy is Anna Bennett, who was etched into my memory almost instantaneously after I discovered her content on Pinterest. I call that brand recognition at it’s finest!
Take a look at her photograph based watermark.
taking the
NEXT steps
There you have it!
5 ways to watermark your images that will ensure you’re fostering brand recognition, elevating the perception of your images and getting the credit you deserve for your visual content.
Remember, watermarking isn’t reserved for photographers anymore. It’s something you MUST add to your visual content creation checklist or you’re going to be missing out on some serious branding power.
If you want to pair an equally delicious branded blog image with your new branded watermark check out my post, ‘A Blogger’s Guide To Branding Images’ and find out how to create a highly effective branded blog image.
Watermark on, Buttercup!
ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU GO...
say hello to your
BRANDING bug out bag
Your very own branding survival kit, fully stocked with everything you need to create a handcrafted brand identity that's as original as a fingerprint and addictive as a two for one happy hour, so you have peace of mind knowing that the only buzz you're creating is the kind that's contagious.