Your brand identity, which distinguishes your company from every other Tom, Dick, and Harry, Inc. on the block, makes you unique, just as your uniqueness makes you who you are. And the design of your brand identity? It is what molds your business.
What, though, is brand identity? What is it related to design? And how can you create a powerful brand identity that helps your company grow?
What is brand identity?
We’ll start by providing a definition. What is meant by the phrase “brand identity”?
A company’s brand identity is the culmination of all the elements it develops to communicate the appropriate message to its customers. Even though the terms “brand identity,” “brand image,” and “branding” are commonly used interchangeably, they are not the same thing.
The marketing strategy of actively creating a distinctive brand is called branding. The brand represents how the public sees the business.
Let’s delve a bit more deeply.
Consider that you are a middle schooler. You want to appear cool and be invited to eat at the nicest table in the cafeteria as an awkward pre-adolescent. However, you cannot compel others to perceive you in that way. You must put in some effort if you want to grow this brand.
Watch the appropriate YouTube channels to be aware of the most recent meme. You might begin practising your free throws. Developing a favourable opinion of your science teacher, Mr Archibald. These are the steps to build the image you want to project; they are your branding.
Last but not least, you must look at the part. You put money aside to get the brand-new Adidas shoes that everyone wants. Your hair is freshly cut. You put in an application to join the basketball squad.
Brand identity refers to those observable components, such as footwear, hairstyles, and team affiliation.
What makes you instantly recognisable to your customers is your brand identity. The connection between you and your customers, the development of customer loyalty, and how your customers will view your brand are all shaped by the brand identity that your audience will associate with your good or service.
How to develop a strong brand identity
Identify yourself.
You must first understand who you are as a brand before deciding what concrete components you wish to comprise your brand identity:
- Several essential components make up who you are as a brand:
- Your purpose (what motivates you?
- Your values (what principles underpin your business?
- Your brand’s personality (what kind of personality would they have if your brand were a person?)
- How you stand out from the competitors with your distinctive positioning
Your brand’s tone of speech (how would it speak if it were a person?
These components combine to form your brand; therefore, it’s critical to grasp them before creating your brand identity.
Don’t worry if you’re having problems defining your identity. Sometimes all it takes to clarify who you are as a brand is a quick brainstorm.
Think about it:
- Why did we launch this company?
- What principles and values are crucial to our business?
- What can we provide that others can’t?
- Why are we unique?
- What would be the three terms we would use to sum up our brand?
- What are the top three terms our clients should use to characterise us?
- Check out this fantastic branding workbook from consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers as well. Although the methods in this workbook are aimed toward personal branding, they may be applied to any kind of business model.
- It’s time to create the identification that will bring your brand to life and reveal who you are to the people who matter once you’ve decided on your brand’s identity.
The cornerstone of your brand identity designs
Your design will create the brand identification of your business, much as your Adidas helped to create the image of the star athlete you were in middle school.
Your corporate design assets are the components that will impact how people view your brand. Things like your company’s logo, packaging, website design, social media visuals, business cards, and employee uniforms.
In other words, a successful company that accurately represents your brand requires nailing your design and identity.
So how can you master your design and create a brand identity that will propel your company forward?
Developing your brand design
You must start from scratch and establish the fundamentals of your design structure—the cornerstones of your brand identity—before you begin producing your design assets.
The following are the foundational elements you should decide before producing your design assets:
Typography
You guessed it: typography is the typeface (or type) you select for your branding materials. Making informed decisions when selecting brand and logo fonts is crucial. There are four main typographic styles:
- Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman and Garamond, have what some people mistake for an anchor (or tiny feet). This classic typography gives the impression that your brand is reliable, established, and dated.
- “Sans serif” means without the foot if “serif” is the foot. Sans serif typefaces (such as Helvetica or Franklin Gothic) use letters without the anchors or “feet” found in serif fonts. Sans serif typefaces give brands a more streamlined, contemporary feel.
- Cursive handwriting is simulated using script typography (damn those cursive courses in elementary school!). These fonts, such as Allura or Pacifico, might be a great approach to give your business an opulent or feminine air.
- In a way, display fonts are in a different league. Every display typeface has a unique feature, such as an odd letter form, an outline, shadowing, or a more creative, hand-drawn edge (like the lightning bolt font used by Metallica). Want to make a big impression and establish a memorable brand identity? A display font is a fantastic tool for this.
Logo
The core of your brand identity is your logo design. You should strive to have your logo check off all of the following boxes when working with your designer:
- conveys your brand’s identity and core values;
- is aesthetically pleasing: simplicity, cleanliness, and orderliness go a great way;
- is timeless and unfashionable since the last thing you want is for your logo to become outdated in six months;
- follows the norms of your sector, and if you stray, do so on purpose;
- creates an impact that stays with your audience.
To guarantee that you always have the logo you need—and that each is consistent with your brand identity—you also want to ensure that your design partner produces your logo in numerous formats, such as a black-and-white version or multiple sizes.
Find out more about creating the ideal logo.
Website
One of the most defining features of your brand identity is your website. Customers will undoubtedly visit your website before doing business with you, especially if you operate an online business or sell digital goods. Your website is the place where your brand identity should be visible.
Discover the foundational elements of robust web design.
Product packaging
Product packaging is essential for drawing in the correct clients if you sell a tangible product. Don’t undervalue the importance of good design in enhancing the experience and encouraging loyalty and repeat business, whether you’re thinking about the bottle of a cold-brew beverage or the mail you’ll send to clients who bought clothes from your e-commerce shop. Your design has a fantastic opportunity to stand out on the packaging.
Business cards
You should have plenty of business cards on hand if you’re doing business development—and who isn’t? A professionally made card gives you the ability to solidify a favourable impression of oneself in the eyes of prospective clients or consumers. Keep your business card design straightforward by placing your company logo on one side and your most important personal information on the other.
Find out how to create the ideal business card.
Email Format
An email is a fantastic tool for interacting with clients and generating sales. However, most people have overloaded inboxes, so if you want to expand your business via email, you need the right design plan to stand out. Think about the email’s intended use. Are you attempting to establish a personal relationship? Then make it brief, sweet, and straightforward. Are you trying to instruct? After that, format it correctly for easy reading and scanning, and then add a few photographs to make it stand out. Are you attempting to inform your clients about your new apparel line? Make a few eye-catching product photos the centrepiece.
See our best advice for email design.
When you have your design assets, you want to ensure that they are appropriately used, so you should develop a brand style guide. With the help of this document, which specifies your design assets, when and how to use them, and any design dos and don’ts for your brand, you can be sure that all upcoming designs will be consistent with your brand identity properly influence your audience.
Brand identity in a nutshell
Your brand identity distinguishes you from the never-ending field of rivals and reveals to your clients who you are and what they may anticipate from dealing with you. Furthermore, it’s critical to nail your brand identity and produce graphics representing you to your audience if you want your brand to be seen favourably. It’s time to start designing now that you understand how to nail that identity.
Want more branding guidance? We at D’marketing Agency offer other brand identity concepts. Go to our website right away!
