The sense of identity of the brand logo is usually not achieved overnight. A high-quality brand logo image can help the product leave a deep impression in the minds of consumers.
So we can't just choose a few colors and then randomly take a logo as a brand mark, but we need to treat your design strategically. This requires deep thinking, a team with strong communication and design skills, and an in-depth understanding of the story behind the brand.
1. What is a brand identity?
The brand logo is actually "the external expression of the brand, including its trademark, name, communication and visual appearance." For us, brand identity is the appearance of the story behind the brand, and the meaning that people feel (sometimes it even includes its sound, taste, feeling and even smell.)
After all, brand identity is a way of communicating with the world, distinguishing yourself from competitors, and creating a brand experience that encourages people to interact with you.
Some brands elevate their brand identity to art (think Apple). Some brands are obscured because they don’t know who they are or how to effectively communicate with consumers through the brand.
If you want to be a competitive and successful company, building a strong brand image is a must. When you can successfully show who you are through branding, you can better communicate with consumers and form the strong relationships needed for long-term success.
2. What does the brand logo include?
Logos and colors alone cannot constitute a brand identity. When designing an identity, a comprehensive visual language needs to be created, which can be applied to everything from the website to the packaging.
Depending on the brand (and the type of content you plan to create), the needs may be broader, but the basic brand identity includes:
- trademark
- colour
- Typography
- Design system
- photography
- illustration
- icon
- data visualization
- Interactive elements
- Video and action
- Web Design
3. The key to a strong brand identity
However, just designing these elements does not mean they are effective. A strong brand identity needs to serve everyone, including internal teams (such as brand ambassadors, content creators) and people with whom they interact (such as customers).
When starting the design process, make sure that the brand positioning is:
- Different: stand out from competitors and attract people's attention;
- Unforgettable: It has a visual impact (consider Apple: the logo is so memorable that they only include the logo on the product, not their name);
- Scalable and flexible: can grow and evolve with the brand;
- Cohesion: Each piece is complementary to the brand identity;
- Easy to apply: intuitive, clear, and easy for designers to use.
4. How to build a brand image?
1. Step 1: Complete your brand strategy
A brand strategy is a detailed plan that accurately outlines what you are trying to achieve and how to achieve it. It consists of:
- The heart of the brand (purpose, vision, mission, values)
- Brand information (brand voice, personality, slogan, value props, brand information pillar)
- Brand identity (logo, color, typography, etc.)
2. Step 2: Exploring your current brand identity
When starting a brand project, treat each stage from a philosophical and highly critical perspective until it reaches the core of the brand. Whether you are building a brand identity from scratch or renewing a stale identity, you need to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the following:
- The current state of brand positioning;
- How to create or adjust the brand identity to align with future goals.
The goal is to understand the internal and external perceptions of the brand. Obtaining honest and accurate reflection can assist us in better design research.
You can start with our brand questionnaire. This survey can explore all aspects of the brand in depth, from values and personality to logos and positioning. Distribute the questionnaire to the internal team.
The following angles may also be required:
- Brand employees
- Stakeholders
- customer
Although filling out this questionnaire may be laborious, laying the foundation for your visual language is essential.
3. Step 3: Know your personality mask
Brand identity is the "face" that interacts with the entire world. No matter what you create, it should accurately convey who you are.
However, a common misunderstanding is that brand identity is completely determined by the information that the brand wants to present. This is not entirely correct. It also provides information through the content that brand customers want to participate in or are accustomed to interacting with. If your identity does not resonate with them, it will be invalid.
This does not necessarily mean that brand customers will choose your logo color, which means that once they understand their needs, needs and values, they will make more effective design choices.
In addition to the main audience (customers), you also need to consider how the second or third level groups (such as other brands or potential employees) view the brand-this information will also affect your design decisions.
4. Step 4: Identify your competitors
Establishing a brand identity is differentiating: making the brand visible, relevant and unique, but without a firm understanding of the competitive environment, it is easy to integrate into it.
Therefore, it is not only necessary to understand who the competitors are, but also to understand how brands compare in perception and display.
5. Step 5: Write your creative brief
After completing the previous steps, you will get the information needed to start the design. However, you shouldn’t jump right in and start with a creative briefing detailing the relevant information needed to keep the team on the same page and ensure the creation of a visual identity consistent with the brand.
6. Step 6: Brainstorming
At this point, you already have a lot of information that can help inform ideas between competitive analysis, brand audits, personas, and briefings.
At this stage, you want to transform text-based information into visual concepts. The information you have is usually full of emotional language about brand personality, goals, and values. The challenge now is to figure out how to visually convey and enhance these emotions.
First, let the team brainstorm to describe the brand (or you can start with 5-7 descriptors). The point is not to associate words with other words. The goal is to bring these words to life through visual effects.
Think about what these words make you imagine. These connections may be abstract, but it's important to take everything out.
For example: if the brand service is "fast", please don't talk about other "fast" words, think about what comes to mind in a fast pace, fast> lightning bullet> Zeus.
Think about what concepts you can imagine, professional tips: usually these elements will trigger the strongest emotional response, trigger additional images, and help build a visual playground to go crazy.
7. Step 7: Design your personal elements
Here comes the fun (and challenging) part. You want to design each element in the order specified here, because each element affects another element.
1) Trademark
Brand identity is a complex design system. Each element affects another element, but it starts with your logo. You can be old school here and take out a pencil to sketch freely.
When iterating, flesh out the logo mark, core shape, and complementary images—all in black and white. When receiving feedback and iterating, you need to ensure that the core image is strong enough to deliver messages on its own, without the need to enhance colors.
All marked drafts start with black and white drafts
final effect
2) Color
Once you have a solid logo, you can explore your swatches. Color is a great tool for distinguishing a brand from its competitors, but know that color can also inspire strong emotions, so choose wisely.
A good color is clean and flexible. It provides designers with enough creative choices, but not enough to overwhelm everything. This includes:
- 1 main color
- 2 primary colors
- 3-5 complementary colors
- 2 accent colors
3) Typography
Each visual element should contribute to a cohesive visual language, so each element should be complementary. This is especially true for typography, which should be understood based on the shape of the logo.
Each stage has its own unique challenges, but in visual language, typography can be tricky, especially when brands follow trends (serif vs. sans serif), which are hot for a second, but soon Will be outdated or appear unoriginal.
To keep things simple, please limit the number of fonts to 2-3. This generally includes primary and secondary brand fonts for specific purposes, such as text copy fonts, UI fonts, etc.
4) Design system
This is often the weakness of visual language. Brands believe that because they have logos, colors, and typography, they can combine them at will.
But since brand identity is about introducing yourself to people effectively, it is important to make it a pleasant experience. In information design, this means providing a truly consistent and cohesive ppt.
The goal is to design an intuitive hierarchy and layout to make it easy to navigate visual communication. Consider the proper order of content, including title, subtitle, body copy, image, introduction, etc.
5) Photography
Photography plays a huge role in brand image, from product image to advertising. It is important to determine clear guidelines regarding suitable and unsuitable image types (and vision treatments).
6) Illustration
When it comes to illustrations, a cohesive and unified language is needed. Don't over-illustrate or use conflicting styles. Instead, think about how your illustration will be combined with other visual elements.
7) Icon
Good portraits are not only influenced by creative visual language, but also by the application of the work. It depends on what the product or service is, as well as the industry and media (for example, only web and UI and sales brochures).
In addition to aesthetic appeal, the design of the data should also be clear and easy to understand. Therefore, it is important to design visualizations that follow data visualization best practices.
9) Additional elements
Similarly, depending on industry, content, etc., brands may have unique communication needs. Make sure that the brand identity contains the following elements, such as:
- Interactive elements
- Motion graphics
- video
- Web Design
8. Step 8: Build your brand style guide
The only thing more heartbreaking than a poorly designed brand logo is a beautifully designed logo that has never been used or misused. The brand style guide is the savior here-if it is made the right way.
Provide clear, easy-to-follow guidelines for each part of the brand identity, including examples and use cases. It also includes practical details, indicating the amount of information needed to help the designer successfully replicate the brand identity
5. How to maintain a strong brand image?
Designing a successful brand image requires a lot of work and collaboration. To keep the team on the same level and empower them to do the best possible work, make sure they are:
- Educated: Know the brand recognition mistakes to avoid at each stage.
- Inspiration: Take a look at examples of stunning visual brands on the market.