In a world where image is everything, you’d better believe that businesses need to get their “look” en pointe just as much as any social media muse.
Why? Because honing in your brand identity not only looks better, but attests to your professionalism, wider values and makes you more identifiable to people after your services.
In fact, studies prove that the more a person can easily identify your brand in relation to their issue, the more likely they’ll engage with your particular business for a solution to their quandary.
Keen to achieve this sort of recall? We’ll cover…
How you can create a visual brand identity
One that rivals the likes of big corporations and could potentially serve you more business than you thought possible.
What is a visual brand identity?
In simple terms, visual brand identity is the coherent visual tone, look and feel of your brand. It’s “the vibe” if we may.
In summing up, it’s the vibe of the thing!
Any feature that contributes to the identity of your brand will be a powerful component of its branding – from the name, logo, colour scheme and fonts, to the way you organise layouts. They all play a part in your branding. It’s anything that visually makes you YOU.
Understanding the definition is the easy part, but how on earth do you discover your particular brand, and how can be it expressed aesthetically?
How to create your visual branding…
- Know your audience
- Define your “why”
- Consider your emotional appeal
- Perfect your visuals
- Stay consistent
Know your audience
Before you even consider a logo design, be sure you know who you’re trying to reach and who would be keen to befriend your brand. In order to appeal to your target market, you’ll need to know exactly who they are, and this can be achieved by creating a buyer persona.
Be sure to uncover key demographic details like age, gender, location, values, pain-points etc. You can also gain plenty of valuable insights by studying the audiences following your competitors as a starting point. They’ll most likely be catering to the same crowd your after. Be sure to seek assistance wherever you can find it. This will help you get robust data about your prospective customers.
Define your “why”
Simon Sinek isn’t just a great public speaker. He knows there’s nothing more powerful to drive a company’s vision than knowing its purpose. That’s why knowing your “why” is an absolutely crucial step in perfecting your brand identity. It’ll help guide all your creative decisions and really support your choices, leading to a final image that is cohesive and coherent to your brand.
Simon says start with why!
Your “why” will also help guide future decisions, bringing everything together and eliminating all the guesswork when it comes to your brand.
Some key “why” questions to ask yourself are:
- What are your values?
- Why do you provide your services or products?
- What are you hoping to achieve for your customers?
- What is the overall goal of your business?
Identify your brand personality
Once you’ve defined your group of interest and your “why” for existing. You’ll need to develop a brand personality that’ll reach those individuals and best express your “why.”
A great way of defining your brand personality is by compiling a list of well-known celebrities who would make great spokespeople for your brand.
If your business is targeting an older market in the upper echelons of society, perhaps some dry wit may be a feature of your brand identity. A suitable personality may mimic that of Larry David or Stephen Colbert.
If your brand wishes to appeal to a younger market of teenage girls, a suitable brand identity may couple the sweetness of Selena Gomes with the edge of Bella Hadid.
Perfect your personality and your content output will be easily aligned to your branding.
Consider your emotional appeal
A great way of having all your work culminate into success is by creating an emotional link between your brand and your prospective customers.
Ask yourself:
- What emotions do you want to invoke in your clients through your visuals?
- What emotions do you want to lie at the heart of your story?
Whether it’s something as heart-warming as trust in your brand or something as vain as elitism for your high-profile products, make sure you consider the emotional responses you’re after with your branding.
Perfect your visuals
Now that the foundations have been laid, make sure you only use visuals that align with your brand.
Aesthetic aspects to consider will be:
- Your colour palette – be sure to pick a small collection of shades that work well together and stick to them.
- Typography – choose 2-3 fonts that complement each other and your aesthetic.
- Having a stockpile of image assets that showcase who you are is an excellent way of making sure you keep your identity consistent.
- Finalise your logo and its variations in colour and black and white for official use.
Finally, be sure to finalise all these motifs and parameters in an official style guide. This will ensure that you have a single point of reference whenever you need clarification on the do’s and don’ts of your brand, helping new staff and partners emulate your brand’s visuals without changing a thing. Consistency is the key to ensuring that your brand identity stands, even long after it’s changed hands.
If you’re keen to find out more about how to create a unique brand identity for your business, get in touch with Impressive Digital today. We’ll help you hone in on your message, style, purpose and help you understand how to express these crucial characteristic through effective branding that makes all the difference.
