Starting a new business and wondering how to develop a brand identity?
Your brand identity is an extremely important tool for establishing who you are and how your customers relate with you.
The more creative and cohesive your brand identity is, the easier it is for people to understand and connect with your company. Graphic design plays a big part in developing your brand identity.
However, many other things come into play that you need to understand before you take the first step to developing yours. Let’s take a look at what these things are.
What Is A Brand?
As competition gives consumers more and more choices, companies are constantly on the lookout for ways to emotionally connect with their target audience and to create lifelong relationships. A strong brand stands out in a crowded marketplace, whether that be on the street or online.
People fall in love with brands they resonate with, trust them and see them as superior.
How a brand is perceived affects how successful it is regardless of whether it’s a start-up, SME or large corporate organization.
What is Brand Identity
Brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. You can see it, touch it and feel it. It helps to fuel recognition and help people access companies.
Brand identity takes some aspects from a company including their beliefs, values and products and brings them together.
What is Branding?
Branding is a process that is used to influence customer loyalty and build brand awareness. Branding is all about seizing every opportunity available and showcasing why people should choose a specific brand over another.
A desire to do things quicker than the competition and take a bigger share of the marketplace is why companies leverage the power of branding.
So, now let’s take a look at what’s involved when it comes to developing a strong brand identity.
Determine Your Brand Name
If you’re starting a new business and essentially creating a brand identity for yourself, you’ll probably end up just using your own name.
However, if your brand has you and a team of employees, you’ll want to come up with an original name and what you want to establish with your brand. It would help if you also thought about how you want your brand name to appear when it’s typed out or designed. Whether you want it to be basic, eye-catching, or creatively descriptive.
You’ll also need to keep website domains and social media profiles in mind because you’ll need to claim your social media handles and buy your website domain, and those will need to align with your brand name.
Designing Your Logo
Your logo is the primary visual element that makes up your brand identity. It’s used on your products, your website, your marketing, your social media profiles; it’s everywhere.
That’s why it’s so important to create one that’s simple, timeless, appropriate and memorable.
Many people think that a logo is the most important part of developing a brand identity.
Yes, it’s important, but it’s only a single piece of the puzzle. For example, think of McDonald’s. Their golden arches logo is the most recognized logo on the planet. But they’ve built more around the logo and developed a fun, engaging brand that people know and love (or hate, depending on your preference for fast food).
Choosing the Right Typography
A lot of people bypass the importance of typography because they don’t understand just how powerful it is. It can also be quite tricky to find a fitting font for a brand. But every single font on the planet has its own personality, even to untrained eyes.
There are many great fonts to choose from, but also a lot of bad ones, so here are some things to keep in mind:
- Typography helps to provide the best user experience possible, so you need to make sure that your font is easily readable to avoid confusion.
- Avoid gimmicky fonts if you want your target audience to take your brand seriously.
- Stick to using 2 or 3 font families for the best look. Use 1 for your primary display font and then another 1 or 2 for the body.
- If you want a timeless lifespan, avoid typefaces that are currently in trend. Instead, stick to clean and classic fonts.
Choosing Your Color Palette
Color plays a huge part in creating a brand identity that resonates with consumers.
We all know that green is associated with health (Wholes Food) while red conveys passion and excitement (McDonald’s and Coca-Cola). Blue portrays calm, reliability and a sense of trust (AT&T).
The colors you choose for your brand reflect on your brand’s values and intent. So, these are some things to consider:
- What shades do you think best represent your company?
- What colors are generally related to the industry you operate within?
- What values do you want your colors to represent?
Go Out There and Standout!
So, here’s the basic process you need to go through when developing a new brand identity.
Once you’ve put in the work to design a brand that stands out, you’ll then need to roll it out on your website and social media channels which is where the real hard work begins.
It doesn’t matter what industry you operate in, you can guarantee that there’s a sea of competition out there, so you’ll need to differentiate yourself as an authoritative company. But, put in all of this hard work and you’ll reap the rewards.
Read more: Action over Activity – 5 Ways to Efficiently Develop Your Brand