Crafting Unique and Memorable Brand Identities
It’s easy to understand the importance of having a good product or service but it’s just as easy to overlook the importance of branding.
Branding is what sets you apart from your competitors and builds customer loyalty, helping you to grow your business faster.
“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.”
Steve Forbes
Understanding Brand Identity: Beyond Logos and Colours
What is branding?
Branding is what makes your business unique, it identifies and differentiates you from your competitors. It’s your company’s personality and how your customers perceive you. It’s not just your name and logo, but also your brand Branding voice, tagline, and messaging.
Why is branding important?
Branding is important because it can make or break your business. Customers are more likely to purchase from businesses that they recognize and trust. A strong brand creates a connection with customers and helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace. It also helps you communicate your message more effectively and builds customer loyalty.
How do you create a strong brand?
Creating a strong brand takes time and effort, but it’s worth it for the long-term success of your business. Start by defining your brand’s purpose, values, and target audience. Create a visual identity that aligns with your brand’s personality and voice. Develop a tagline and messaging that resonates with your customers. And then consistently use your branding across all marketing channels, from your website to your social media profiles.
“Design is the silent ambassador of your brand ”
Paul Rand
Defining Your Brand's Core Values: A Foundation for Identity
To build a strong brand you need strong foundations. The core values of your business, what your business stands for, are what provide the foundations for your brand. Understanding these core values of your business ensures that the rest of your branding makes sense. Each element from your logo to your brand messaging are building blocks, that will build your brand.
Visual Branding Elements: Creating a Striking Visual Language
Brand messaging and brand visuals need to work hand in hand so that your customers can identify your brand immediately. Working in partnership with your internal design team or a specialist agency can make sure you communicate the values of your business effectively. Strong visual branding gives you a real competitive advantage. A set of brand guidelines for logos, colours and visual style help provide consistency across your business.
- Logo: It’s useful to have versions of your logo that can be used for different applications. This can include reversed and mono versions, different sizes and layouts and even responsive logos for mobile and tablet. A logo asset pack means that there’ll be a branding option that fits, whatever the scenario.
- Tone of voice & Typography: It can help to choose 3-5 adjectives to underline your core values. There should be guidelines for the logo, headings and paragraphs or the main body of text. The font should match the tone of voice; Depending on your brand you might specify a family of fonts or choose a mix to create a contrast.
- Physical vs digital channels: Whether your business is primarily offline or online will have an impact on the size, layout, and design of your assets and even the colours you use. Colours render differently in digital to the way ink is printed on the page compared to how pixels appear on the screen, so it’s useful to consider this when defining your branding.
- Colour palette: Choosing a few key signature colours can help create a unified visual identity. Up to three or four primary colours in a variety of hues can work well. It is useful to select, a lighter colour for backgrounds, a darker shade for texts, a neutral hue and a bright colour that stands out.
Consistency across Touchpoints: Building Recognition and Trust
Familiarity breeds trust. If your customer sees the same logos and colours every time they order from your website, browse social media or see your magazine ad it builds familiarity and therefore trust in your business.
Typically a customer needs 7 brand touchpoints before making a purchase. This customer journey could involve seeing a social media post, viewing a pop-up advert, or glancing an advert on the side of a bus. This marketing rule of 7 dates back to the golden days of cinema in the 1930s when studio bosses realised that a cinemagoer needed to be exposed to marketing 7 times before they’d buy that film ticket. But it’s a rule that still holds good today and it’s why consistency of brand is so important.
Every point of the customer journey is an opportunity to reinforce your brand and the all-important business-customer relationship. A consistent brand feel will resonate more powerfully, building customer loyalty and amplifying your business.
But how do you ensure brand consistency? Sharing your brand guidelines across your marketing team as well as with outside agencies is an important first step to ensuring a consistent brand image. Taking a holistic approach and having brand meetings across departments can help ensure every time a customer is contacted or views your business they receive a consistent message.
It’s also important to take regular overviews of your online and offline media, including external emails, webpages, social media posts and printed materials to catch any anomalies.
Logo Evolution: Reflecting Growth While Maintaining Identity
Logos are often the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of a brand. A good logo is the fastest way for people to identify your company. Done well, a logo means your business can be identified at a glance.
A good logo communicates the essence of a company visually. A unique and memorable symbol can distinguish a brand from its competitors and create a lasting impression in the minds of consumers. Several key factors contribute to making a great logo:
Simple: A good logo is simple and easily recognizable. It should be able to convey the core message of the brand in a clear and concise manner. Simple logos are more versatile, adaptable, and memorable, allowing for better brand recognition across various mediums.
Relevant: Your logo should be closely aligned with your brand’s identity, values, and target audience and should reflect the nature of your business. When a logo is relevant, it helps consumers connect with the brand on a deeper level and builds trust and credibility.
Memorable: Memorable logos often have a strong visual impact, clever use of colour, and well-balanced elements that make them stand out from the crowd. A distinctive, unique, and instantly recognizable logo will leave a lasting impression and make it easy for your customers to recognise your brand..
Versatile: In today’s digital era, a logo must be more adaptable and versatile than ever. It should work well across different mediums, such as print, digital platforms, signage, merchandise, and packaging. A versatile logo maintains its integrity and legibility regardless of its size or application.
Timeless: A good logo stands the test of time and remains relevant even as trends come and go. While it’s important to consider contemporary design elements, a logo should also have a timeless quality that ensures its longevity and avoids the need for frequent and costly rebranding.
A good logo is simple, relevant, memorable, versatile, and timeless. The right logo can effectively represent a brand, leave a lasting impression, and build consumer recognition and trust.
Coca-Cola
The early days of Coca-Cola saw the company experiment with a few different logos, but by 1891 they had settled on the famous script logo that they still use today. Its timeless look is recognised all over the world and has helped the brand dominate the global soft drinks market for decades.
Coca-Cola’s typography IS the logo, but even if that’s not the case for your business what your words say and how they look should work together.
Typography as a Design Signature: Conveying Tone and Identity
Typography, the font style and text layout, is a key part of branding. The right font can effectively reinforce your brand message. Consider your brand values and choose a font that reflects them. Whether your brand is professional, fun, modern or traditional there will be a typeface to suit.
Professional fonts are typically clean, minimalist, and easily legible. These fonts convey a sense of seriousness, authority and formality. Examples of this style are Helvetica and Times New Roman.
Fun fonts are more playful, friendly and expressive. Comic Sans is the much-mocked most popular example of this style, whilst other like Curlz MT incorporate stylized elements.
Modern fonts are sleek and stripped-back. They feature clean lines, and minimalist aesthetics, reflecting current design trends.
Traditional fonts are classic, timeless, and often inspired by historical typography. They can provide a sense of heritage and sophistication. Examples include Garamond and Baskerville.
Whichever font you choose you’ll need a set of guidelines defining which typeface should be used for both web and print to make sure your brand visuals are consistent across all platforms. Keep in mind that fonts look different on the printed page compared to the digital screen. Serifs were designed to make the printed word easier to read, conversely, they are harder to read in a digital format. This is why Times New Roman was used for newspapers whilst Arial is commonly used for word documents.
Colour Psychology in Branding: Eliciting Desired Emotions
Colours have a powerful impact and can evoke certain emotions and feelings. This is why it’s not surprising that businesses put a lot of thought into the colours they choose for their branding. Colour theory is the science behind how colours work together and how we perceive them. This can help you strategically use colours in your branding.
There are three main components to colour theory: hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue is the actual colour, such as red or blue. Saturation refers to the intensity of the colour and how vibrant or muted it is. Brightness, also known as value, is how light or dark a colour is. Understanding these components can help you create harmonious colour themes that convey the right message to your audience.
Different colours can also evoke different emotions and moods. For example, red is often associated with passion and energy, while blue is associated with calmness and trust. Yellow can evoke feelings of happiness and optimism, while green is often associated with growth. Consider the emotions and personality traits that are associated with your brand and choose colours that align with them.
Colour psychology is another important aspect of colour theory to consider when it comes to branding. Certain colours can have specific meanings and associations that can influence how people perceive your brand. For example, black can be seen as sophisticated and luxurious, while green is often associated with nature. Understanding the psychology behind colours can help you use them to your advantage in your branding strategy.
When it comes to using colours in branding, there are several ways to incorporate them effectively. One approach is to use a monochromatic colour scheme, which involves using different shades of the same colour. This can create a cohesive and sophisticated look. Another approach is to use complementary colours opposite each other on the colour wheel. This can create a high-contrast, visually striking effect.
Colour theory is a valuable tool that can help you create a strong and effective branding strategy. By understanding the basics of hue, saturation, and brightness, as well as the psychology behind different colours, you can choose colours that align with your brand’s personality. By incorporating colours strategically and considering the context in which your branding will be seen, you can create a cohesive and impactful brand that resonates with your audience.
Digital and Print Harmony: Consistent Branding Across Mediums
Physical vs Digital Channels
It’s also important to consider the context in which your visuals will be seen when building a brand identity. It’s useful to identify all the channels your brand utilises so that your assets will match, whether that’s social media, email campaigns, paid advertising, or a motorway billboard.
If your brand primarily exists online, you’ll want to make sure that the logo, fonts, and colours, translate well on screen. If you have a physical storefront, you’ll want to consider how your branding will look in the physical space. Lighting, background colours, and other factors can all impact how your branding is perceived in different contexts.
Creating a brand identity takes time. Making sure your digital and print assets are aligned and working together helps your brand build momentum, to reach more customers with more impact.
“A product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless”
Stephen King, author
Brand Guidelines: Ensuring Design Consistency and Flexibility
Brand guidelines set out all the key elements of your brand’s visual identity. They must be clear and prescriptive and leave no room for misunderstanding.
Brand guidelines should include detailed information about everything from the primary and secondary font styles, to brand colours, to the size and shape of the logo. Including examples of how the branding should be used as well as the exact colour codes, and even paragraph spacing can all help ensure brand consistency.
Large consumer brands, such as the camera maker Leica, may also include lists of Don’ts as well as Dos. The example below goes as far as to describe ways in which the logo should not be displayed, such is the seriousness with which the company protects their unique brand.
Conclusion: Elevate Your Brand Identity with Invo-Design's Expertise
Branding is an essential part of building a successful business, it sets you apart from your competitors, builds customer loyalty, and helps you communicate your message more effectively. By defining your brand’s purpose and values, creating a strong visual identity, and consistently using your branding across all marketing channels, you can create a memorable brand that resonates with your customers and grows your business for years to come.
Invo Design has years of experience creating brand identities. We take the time to get to know your business and can create a look for you that communicates your brand vision. Creating branding can be difficult, so whether you need a logo refresh or a complete branding service we can help.
Wondering how to create a brand identity? Why not schedule a call today and supercharge your brand?
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