Digital Marketing
Just like your personal identity makes you uniquely you, your brand identity is the special sauce of your business that sets you apart from every other in your industry. But what exactly is brand identity? How do you design one?
Brand Identity
A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.
 Identity
The visual devices used to represent the company. Identity systems are outlined in company “style guidelines”, which serve as a framework to ensure their corporate image is consistent.
Logo
The central, identifiable visual element that helps customers discover, share and remember a company’s brand. Usually it’s in the form of an icon or logotype.
Research, Vision & Design Brief
Seven fundamental questions to help you towards a killer design brief:
How is the brand perceived against competitors?
What is the positioning statement of your brand?
What is the heritage of your product type and the origins of it’s ingredients and fabrication?
Who is your audience? Where will the company have contact with them?
What values & beliefs should the brand have about the business and it’s mission in the world?
What benefits do you want customers to associate with your brand?
Include Summaries from the research phase:
- Target audiences
- Messaging Onjectives
- Values and Mission of the brand
- The brand’s products/services offering
- Budget
- Project Schedule
- File formats for delivery
- Other practical needs
Logo, Identity & Guidelines
The logo
Many designers start by sketching out dozens, even hundreds of iterations on paper. After selecting your best sketched concepts, start iterating on them digitally.
The Identity System
Purpose: Form a systematic visual language around the logo, including a family of flexible elements that will help you to design future design assets.
The style Guidelines
Purpose: Help others create materials that will cohesive look and voice. They prescribe the logo usage rules, typeface system, color palette, layout guidelines and more.
Monitoring and Rebranding
Brand identity is a living, breathing thing that might need to evolve as it interacts with consumers. The challenge with rebranding is to maintain familiarity and consistency so that your customers remember you.
Resources for Brand Identity Design
If your are starting a new brand identity or rebrand project, you can find many resources in Creative Market that might help get you started.
Conclusion
Your brand identity is what sets you apart from the endless sea of competitors and shows your customers who you are and what they can expect from working with you. And if you want your brand to be perceived in a positive light, it’s crucial that you nail your brand identity and create designs that accurately portray who you are to your customers. And now that you know how to nail that identity, it’s time to start designing.
