Visual Identity Design

When you create a brand identity, you're essentially applying your brand values to any visual elements that will be used to promote your business. This means that a brand identity is more than just a logo, and consists of a variety of marketing materials.

Brand development might include:

• Business cards

• Stationary

• Print materials (e.g., brochures, reports, flyers, etc.)

• Signage

• Product packaging

• Apparel

• Website

Developing a cohesive and professional brand identity is an important part of any effective branding strategy. Creating a brand identity requires research and attention to detail in order to develop a style that successfully meets the goals of a business and gives off the appropriate message. Once a brand identity is created, many companies provide guidelines for how their brand should be represented on various mediums to ensure consistency.

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1. Personality: A brand identity is the visual representation of the values and “personality” of your brand. Identity design essentially sets the tone of your brand, and it can be used to evoke specific feelings in your audience. Your brand identity should be designed to communicate your company’s overall message and promote your business goals.

2. Consistency: Developing a brand identity allows you to create a consistent message across all marketing materials. Each piece should have the same basic styles and design elements, creating a cohesive branding package.

3. Differentiation: A brand identity helps you to differentiate your business from the competition and appropriately position your brand. Developing a professional, creative identity design can help you to stand out to potential customers in your market.

4. Awareness: Creating a brand identity package ensures that your brand is at the forefront of all your marketing materials, which helps to increase brand awareness. The more places your brand is featured, the more contact it will make with consumers, and the more memorable it will be.

5. Loyalty: An effective brand identity can help to build customer loyalty and trust in a brand, since it allows customers to make a connection between a product and the company.

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Cambridge Dictionary defines branding as “the act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services.” Not so long ago, this was a pretty accurate description of branding – at least, what the general consensus was at the time.

Branding was (and still is) misunderstood by being reduced to its aesthetic component: visual identity. For many, whether specialists or not, branding is still just about the visual identity – name, logo, design, packaging, etc. Even more so, while the concept of branding and its understanding have evolved enormously over the years, the same old vision of branding is being preached, even by high-level marketers.

Branding is important because not only is it what makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company. It is a way of distinguishing yourself from the competitors and clarifying what it is you offer that makes you the better choice. Your brand is built to be a true representation of who you are as a business, and how you wish to be perceived.

There are many areas that are used to develop a brand including advertising, customer service, social responsibility, reputation, and visuals. All of these elements (and many more) work together to create one unique and (hopefully) attention-grabbing profile.

What is branding?

If the explanation of branding was simple, there would not be so much ambiguity and dissonance regarding the concept. Still, for the most part, a strong understanding of branding requires a decent grasp of business, marketing, and even (human) relational basics. Branding is such a vast concept that a correct definition that truly encompasses everything that it represents would not bring too much clarity to the subject just by itself. But, for the sake of lowering the propagation of obsolete, incorrect, and incomplete information about branding, we offer a more complete definition:

Branding is the perpetual process of identifying, creating, and managing the cumulative assets and actions that shape the perception of a brand in stakeholders’ minds.

If you compare this definition to the official Cambridge definition, you can clearly see that the latter (Cambridge) offers more surface-level information, giving a false sense of understanding to the reader. This might be one of the reasons why most people think that definition is correct and choose it as the foundation of their knowledge-building on the subject. In truth, basing your learning about branding on a definition that reduces it to only one element (visual identity) makes every other branding-related concept fall short when trying to connect the dots.

Our definition of branding, even if seemingly more ambiguous than the other, gives much more sense to the concept when diving deeper into its meaning. Here is a rough breakdown:

1. Perpetual process

Branding is a perpetual process because it never stops. People, markets, and businesses are constantly changing and the brand must evolve in order to keep pace.

2. Identify, create, manage

There is a structured process to branding, one where you must first identify who/what you want to be to your stakeholders, create your brand strategy to position yourself accordingly, and then constantly manage everything that influences your positioning.

3. Cumulative assets and actions

Your positioning must be translated into assets (e.g., visual identity, content, products, ads) and actions (e.g., services, customer support, human relations, experiences) that project it into your stakeholders’ minds, slowly building up that perception.

4. Perception of a brand

Also known as reputation. This is the association that an individual (customer or not) has in their mind regarding your brand. This perception is the result of the branding process (or lack thereof).

5. Stakeholders

Clients are not the only ones that build a perception of your brand in their minds. Stakeholders include possible clients, existing customers, employees, shareholders, and business partners. Each one builds up their own perception and interacts with the brand accordingly.

Why is branding important?

Branding is absolutely critical to a business because of the overall impact it makes on your company. Branding can change how people perceive your brand, it can drive new business, and increase brand value – but it can also do the opposite if done wrongly or not at all.

Let’s set something straight: Reputation builds up whether the business does something about it or not. The result can be a good or bad reputation. Understanding and using branding only means that you take the reins and try to control what that reputation looks like. This is why it is recommended to consider branding from the very beginning of your business.

Contrary to popular belief, branding is not an “expensive marketing tactic that only big brands use”. On the contrary – branding has a lot to do with common sense and is heavily influenced by the market you’re in and the level you want to play at. Branding involves a consistent mix of different competencies and activities, so its cost can wildly differ from case to case. High-level consultants and flawless implementation will, of course, be more expensive than anything below it. Likewise, branding an international, multi-product business will be much more challenging and resource-heavy than a local business, for example. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Branding increases business value

Branding is important when trying to generate future business, and a strongly established brand can increase a business’ value by giving the company more leverage in the industry. This makes it a more appealing investment opportunity because of its firmly established place in the marketplace.

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