Your visual brand identity is everything that makes your business stand out and recognisable; a combination of your visual elements, such as logos, colours, fonts and design that’s used to communicate your brand’s purpose, mission and values.
A clear and well-designed visual identity should communicate your brand to your ideal target audience, be easily recognisable and consistent across all touchpoints (every time someone comes into contact with your company).
In this quick guide, we share our top tips for getting started on creating a killer visual brand identity.
Take a target audience deep dive.
You may think you know your ideal customer, but it’s more than knowing that they’re “small business owners” or “women aged 35+”.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and start thinking about their challenges, behaviours, frustrations, wants and desires.
What motivates them to make a purchase in your industry? What types of brands do they love and engage with? How do these brands make their customers feel?
Not only will this help you begin to craft the perfect visual identity, but it’ll also serve as a base for other areas of your business, such as marketing, customer service and product development.
Find the why.
What’s the reason behind your company? Is there a compelling story that could be told to resonate with your customers?
Finding the purpose behind what you do as a business is a brilliant starting point to uncovering what makes your company stand out.
Once you have a clear idea of this in mind, you can begin to weave it through your branding and marketing.
KISS (Keep it simple, stupid).
Some of the most recognisable brand identities are simple when it comes to colours, fonts and designs.
Think of your favourite brand. Think of their logo design and how they use colours to convey a certain feel or emotion.
Your visual brand identity doesn’t have to be super complicated – it’s often better to keep things minimal and clean as that way it can be more memorable and versatile.
Is your brand identity versatile?
There’s no point in having a stunning visual brand identity if it doesn’t translate well when used on certain channels or platforms.
For example, your logo, fonts and colours must be able to translate well from digital to print and vice versa.
Your brand needs to be recognisable whether it’s on a small phone screen or a huge billboard.
Another error we see all the time is logos and branding not translating well to black and white. Sometimes publications and printed media is only printed in black and white so you need to be able to create a brand identity that’s still visually striking in monochrome.
Is your brand identity versatile?
Design trends come and go and while incorporating them can bring a modern feel to your business, it’s important to strike a balance.
On the one hand, it’s good to have a brand that feels current and fresh, but on the other hand, if you constantly chase trends you’ll end up having a weak identity that feels dated if it’s not refreshed every few years.
If you’re not sure how to tell the difference between timeless design and trends then we’d recommend talking with a designer.
Want to speak to a member of our team about your next project? Contact us today.
