What exactly do customers notice when they are discovering a brand for the very first time? Is it its products or services that captivate or repel? Its affability? Its design style?

It’s a question that has continued to intrigue small businesses that want to wade into the vast, expansive world of social media. Social networks are already home to some billion plus potential customers and that in turn is a market that small businesses can’t afford to ignore. And a major part of how they can capture a slice of the online retail pie, boils down to one simple aspect; i.e. design and branding.

Let’s face it folks. Nothing attracts (or detracts) people as much as the sense of style and substance that your brand exudes – like the gravitas, the pomp, the sleekness, the boldness, the clarity. All this made possible thanks to some stellar design chops and super-strategic importance of a brand. For online businesses, design is all the more crucial since visibility is their greatest selling point. Considering the fact that they don’t operate like the traditional brick-and-mortar stores of the yester years, how they present themselves on social media and how they conduct their business online, all these aspects have a direct bearing on their business bottom line.

So where do these up-and-coming social media businesses come from with design ideas for their brands? We only need to look up to Pablo Picasso, the master artist himself, who famously remarked that ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’

Mr. Picasso lived in simpler times when there was no TV or internet. Still, his words continue to resonate with businesses that want to leave their own distinctive and unique mark on social media.

• Becoming A Unique Brand In Your Own Right

Every social media brand starts out with a basic question – how to walk tall amongst all the Toms, Dicks and Harrys that populate the social media landscape screaming “Choose me and leave all the rest” or “I’m the Chosen One!”

Don’t you hate it when these brands use exclamation marks to communicate their point? Whatever happened to subtlety? Whatever happened to emotive messaging? And last but not the least, whatever happened to great design?

But that’s why you are here. You want to develop a vibrant and lively brand on social media that continues to resonate with the target audience and enjoys commercial success from the get go.

You are looking for that attractiveness, sleekness and a design DNA to call your very own. So why not look into some examples from the land that has spawned some of the best designers that this planet has to offer?

Why not look towards….. Europe?

• Why Europe?

Europe has long been a mecca for design, effortlessly blending creative art and commercial considerations into one cohesive package. Minimalism, reductionism, eclecticism – these are some of the designing principles that Europeans have incorporated to market themselves better and stand out from the rest.

Let us take a look at some of the most amazing European brands and the design trends that they employ in web and social media. They can serve as an inspiration for small businesses that are looking to find a style that just suits them perfectly:

United Kingdom

There’s more to UK than the Big Ben, its English weather, and tea as the following brands would show you:

– Goodman Masson

The first time you see the Goodman Masson website, you can’t help but notice how minimalist and reductionist the whole experience is for the visitors; especially, considering the fact that this is a full-fledged web portal for recruiters and job seekers.

This UK-based website makes a good argument for reductionism in web design, letting a visitor sink their teeth right in and take advantage of the online job seeking portal. There’s no deluge of a million text fields or a zillion images competing for the user’s attention. On the contrary, it has a simple yet clean user interface that prioritizes function. Even the subdued color palette choice presents a somber and no-nonsense image of the brand.

No Rest Is Worth Anything Except The Rest That Is Earned.

– Brand Learning

Not all brands need to be minimal with their design and imagery. Take Brand Learning, a consultancy firm with a proven track record in sales, marketing, leadership and HR. From the first impression, it is apparent that this brand is flamboyant and playful with its liberal use of colors.

From the get go, it is evident that this UK-based brand isn’t afraid of taking risks.

Ireland

Ireland is famous for more than just that myth about leprechaun gold. Pubs and the green shamrock aside, Irish brands serve as beacons of sustainability and well-being. Irish designers rely on relatability as their guiding plank as these examples will illustrate:

– Core Media

Core Media makes use of calm and serene colors and design elements. Be it the aqua-infused hues, the white typography or the seamless aqua-white iconography that accompanies the website design, one can get a sense that this brand wants to articulate its message with crystal clarity.

After all, this is a brand that wants to demonstrate its focus on advertising and brand building in a hyper competitive digital media landscape. It’s fitting for a brand that is considered Ireland’s largest media communication group.

– GloboForce

GloboForce is a brand that prides itself on its expertise to make businesses more social and better performing. As a business brand, the GloboForce website takes full advantage of the parallax design scrolling technique, communicating the core of its message and services at the landing page.

With just a scroll, any visitor to their website can become acquainted with the company’s Social Recognition platform, mobile app, and more. The design of the website reflects seriousness, with their choice of prominent black, white and grey color palette. Since the audience for this brand is predominantly other corporate businesses, Globoforce is primarily concerned with communicating its advantages without resorting to flashy design elements.

Sweden

Trendy yet functional – that’s how you could categorize design from the Scandinavians responsible for giving the world ABBA. Swedish design is increasingly democratic and practical as these smorgasbord of brands will demonstrate:

– Stretch

The first thing that you notice when visiting Stretch website for the first time is how the brand gives out an adventurous and homely vibe at the same time. That is thanks to the prominent yet artful choice of banner images that greet you as you first visit their site, something that very much informs the rest of your visit there.

This Swedish-based IT consultancy firm puts personality in the driving seat, and that too very much by design. The combination of textual elements and attractive images are carefully interspersed with facts and statistics that can win over the most skeptical of customers.

– Centiro

Centiro’s website features an attractive color palette for each one of its services, serving to highlight each and every one of them to business customers. The spartan design works in its favor as the benefits that it can offer to its customers are perfectly articulated and communicated.

In a world where people want information and they want it fast, Centiro’s website design takes full advantage of clear typography and flat design elements to convey the prerequisite information at a glance.

As you may have seen from these examples, design can be a very subjective thing. If a social media business wants to operate successfully, it agrees to invest in great design. Reputations are created and destroyed in a manner of seconds, thanks to the always-on-the-move nature of today’s social audience. Design can go a long way in ensuring that your brand inspires trust, credibility and value. It’s the age when a superimposed clipart or two just won’t do. It’s the age when a brand image is very much the product or service that people buy into. So don’t forget folks, hire the services of a custom design firm as you want your brand to get off to a winning start.