[Music] [Anika Aggarwal] Welcome to my session about Launching Your Small Business Online. Hi. My name is Anika Aggarwal, and I'm a brand strategist and designer. In this session, you'll learn how to explore some techniques that may prove useful to accelerate your business launch online using Adobe Express. With brand style kits, power of AI, and translation features, you can now create brands that were not possible before. Today, we'll talk about actionable strategies for your next launch. We'll start with the basics, a consistent branding. Next, we'll talk about using style references to generate brand imagery. Then we'll learn how to use the translation features and schedule our content for aglobal audience. And last, we'll explore the new presentation tools. Let's jump right in starting with the foundation.
Let's dive into the brand identity I created for Belle's Coffee. Here, you'll see the logo lockups for different use cases. The color schemes, fonts in use, and graphics that define the brand. Keeping everything organized in a Creative Cloud Library is such a game changer. It makes accessing and using assets across Creative Cloud apps seamless and efficient.
I've added the fonts, the color palette, and all the logo variations along with some stock imagery in this library.
You can add any graphics to the library by clicking and dragging them in. Like so.
Now let's explore Adobe Express. I'll be using the web version via Google Chrome, although Adobe Express is also available on mobile. The brand style kit plays a crucial role here in ensuring consistency across all black box.
We'll start by creating a new project. Just hit the plus button and select a suggested size. Navigate to Your Stuff, then Libraries where you can easily access all your libraries. For this demonstration, we'll use the Belle's Coffee brand library.
You will find all the groups being retained here.
Let's place a logo lockup in our design.
This is a linked asset from my library, which means if I make any changes in Adobe Illustrator, they will be reflected and updated in my Adobe Express project.
Let's hop back on to Illustrator and make a quick color change in my graphic.
Once you're done, hit Save and head back to Adobe Express to look at our place asset.
And voila, the library tells you that the linked asset was changed. Click on Update to reflect the changes in your project.
Cool. Now, let's create a social media post to promote the brand.
We'll start with a background color from the library.
Add the title and body text to represent what the cafe offers.
Now select the text elements and change the fill color to a brand color and edit the fonts.
Toggle Show Margins on to align your text.
Then, incorporate branded elements like the brand logo and some graphics.
Finish by adding one of the branded images.
Crop it to shape and resize it.
Bring it to back by dragging it down in the Layer panel.
If you wanted to switch up the background color, simply use the dropdown menu for variations.
For this demonstration, I'll stick with a darker color palette.
If you're looking for additional images, you've got options.
You can either pull from your brand library by selecting your image, clicking on the Replace button, and choosing a different photo from your library.
Or explore Adobe Stock through the Media tab. Search for the keyword and license the image to use in your design.
Plus, with Adobe Firefly incorporated into Adobe Express, it is now possible to generate images that are perfectly tailored for your brand. After all, that's what stands out in comparison to a generic stock image. Simply use a style reference or a composition reference to generate something that matches your brand's vibe.
For example, go to Media, Text to Image, and select an image size, and describe what you like to see in the prompt field. Maybe something like bread and pastry assortment perhaps on a wooden background.
You can either get a style or a composition reference. Adding a style reference ensures the final image matches your brand's energy.
I'm using an Adobe Stock image I previously licensed as a style reference. Select the content type as photo and then click on Generate.
Look through the variations and click on Generate More in case you need initial images to find a perfect fit.
And there you have it. Exactly what you imagined. Just crop it to fit your graphic and you're ready to go.
Now while on brand imagery is key, so is staying consistent with your posting schedule. Adobe Express simplifies this process, even while managing your client work. And while posting is important, so is repurposing your content for various social platforms. They go hand in hand. Enter resizing. Just click the Resize button, choose your dimensions, and duplicate the design. Everything stays fully editable.
You can change the background color, reposition the elements so you can tweak the look anytime you want on these pages.
Next, let's schedule content.
Click Share, then Schedule Post.
And select your social media channels.
If it's your first time, connect your accounts, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or TikTok.
Just click on Add New Accounts from any of the listed platforms.
Once connected, you can add or generate captions. Simply type what you'd like to generate. In this case, a caption for a coffee shop called Belle's Coffee encouraging people to come to the cafe.
Hit Generate.
Once the caption is generated, you have the option to either rewrite the caption, shorten, or lengthen the generation.
In this case, I'm happy with the generated text, so I'm going to copy it and paste it in the caption text area.
You can customize your settings for each platforms like toggling features on and off for TikTok or adding a first comment for Instagram.
My favorite part though, the Preview option. It lets you see exactly how your post will look on each platform in real time.
And when you're ready, set the date and time or publish immediately. You can also save as a draft to save an idea for later.
Let's save this one as a draft.
Your post has been scheduled.
To manage your post, return to the home page and click on the Schedule tab.
Here, you can view and organize post by type. Such as draft, scheduled, published, or failed or even channels for any of these combinations.
You are able to switch between the week and month views if you wanted the bigger picture.
You can also store ideas as unscheduled posts to drag into your calendar later.
Another cool feature is translating designs for your global audience. Adobe Express makes this seamless.
Here are some posts I designed for this brand earlier. Just select a graphic.
Click Translate, and choose your languages. Let's go with Hindi and French.
Pick the pages and text you'd like translated.
And click Duplicate and Translate.
And Adobe Express handles the rest.
It's a great starting point and the design remains fully editable for any finetuning.
Finally, let's talk presentations.
Adobe Express now offers tools for creating professional presentations for either internal meetings or pitch decks. You can start from Assembler or build from scratch.
You can easily incorporate your brand elements through Creative Cloud Library.
When starting from a template, hit the plus button and select Presentation.
Type in the type of template you require in the search bar.
In this case, let's look for a Marketing deck.
You have a great starting point here. Simply click on the template and it gets added into your project.
View all pages and template by clicking this button.
Click on the ellipse menu on a slide to insert a page, duplicate, skip a page, delete, or add transition.
You can show margins in blade on the project by clicking on the Margins button and toggling them on. And they turn on for all the pages in the project.
Here's a deck I edited from a template.
What I love about Adobe Express is how quickly everything comes together. All in one place. If you wanted to replace the logo variation here on a slide deck, select the asset, click on Replace, and the brand library opens up. Select the lockup you'd rather prefer for desk usage.
And voila, you're good to go.
As you build your slides, adding presenter notes couldn't be easier.
Click on the presenter notes button and add your speaker notes here.
You can format them with bold, italics, underline, or use bullet points for better readability during your presentation.
Next up, transitions between slides. You can add transitions like dissolve, push, slide, and vibe for a polished flow and customize them to your liking. I'm going to use dissolve here with the default duration and apply to all.
When it's time to present, use presenter mode to manage your presentation seamlessly without revealing your notes. It opens two views, one for your audience and one for you. You can manage everything from your view and even start a stopwatch to keep track of time.
And don't worry. Everything stays editable. So when you exit your presentation, you can go back to refine it anytime.
And just like that, Adobe Express takes care of all the heavy lifting so you can focus on what really matters. Thank you for joining me today. I hope this session helped you explore some cool new features in Adobe Express while also coming up with new ideas for your next brand launch. If you would like to continue the conversation, please reach out to me on my Instagram or email, and I'd be happy to chat with you. Thanks so much, and have a happy MAX. Bye for now.
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