Expert Guide on How to Design a Brand Identity

Created by Depot Branding Agency -

Talking about business and marketing that keep on evolving, one should consider numerous things to compete in the market. Being different and creating a recognizable product is one of the considerations. It is especially true when one is working inside a very competitive brand. But is it enough to only be different? The answer is no. 

In many cases and possibly every kind of business, you will need an identity that makes you unique. The term unique itself is vast and can be translated into creating something different, setting your business apart, or having a certain identity that personally refers to your brand. At some point, your product identity design is what shapes your company. 

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So, what exactly is the point of having such an identity? Was it necessary to have personality in the middle of a competitive market? How to design a brand identity? And what makes your doing considered as a strong brand personality? To help you answer and shape the best branding personality, here are some details that are worth jotting down. 

About The Brand Identity 

Let's start with the definition. One can tell the basic description from the name itself. Brand identity is what you assume. It is one of the fragments that a company or business needs to represent the right image to the consumer. What you need to underline is that the term is not the same with branding or brand image. 

They do correlate to each other and sometimes interchangeable, but they have different descriptions and functions. For instance, you can say that Brand is the public or the people in general's perception toward the company. Meanwhile, the term branding mainly focuses on the practice of actively shaping or developing a unique brand. 

So, you can underline that the activity of branding and brand identity is pretty much on a different road. Any act that heavily focuses on stating or showing your personality is what you call branding. You can take packaging, advertising, and campaign as the example. But what is inside the media that is in the form of tangible elements, is your identity. 

In other words, if one wants to design a brand identity, the focus is to develop values that make the audience associate with your product or service. And this kind of design seamlessly creates a connection between you and your customer. It can be in the form of color, shapes, or impressions. 

A great and perfect identity will also help to state your brand purpose or market. There is also a massive chance to forges customer loyalty. What makes the identity design vital for business is how the design will determine how your customer perceives the product. Is it something worth remembering? Is it authentic? Or is it a big misleading model? 

Created by Luminous Design

How To Develop One Strong Brand Identity

As said in the previous part, that tells how the product identity can shape the audience's impression of your product. You need to make a design that is strong enough to tell who you are, what your brand is, and what you are capable of. All of those points can be obtained as long as you design a brand identity correctly and strongly. 

So, how to develop one? To stand out in the competitive market, you will have some pinpoint about your identity. A unique product is not enough. You will need something more than just being different, which again throws you back into the basic idea of your business, a.k.a grounding. So, know who you are and find some basic ideas for your brand identity. 

Ask yourself some of the basic information that explains your business plan. The first one is what your business values are? It is a question that drives your company to keep on moving in the seamless and never-ending competitive market. You also need to ask why you do the business, then try to find the mission and purposes. 

With those sorts of details, you can grasp some of the information for the brand identity design. Top it up with some other questions, such as what is your unique position? It is a detail that will state how your product sets itself apart from the competition. It also pinpoints the plus point or unique aspect that you will need to accentuate. 

There is also a need for detail about how you communicate as a brand? Consider yourself as the product, and think about how you will speak to people or attract them? This kind of voice or tone will eventually design your brand identity. At some point, it is also a very powerful point that helps bring up such a personality. 

Yes, from the tone, you can design a brand identity that appears flirty, masculine, feminine, playful, or anything. These two considerations go hand in hand, which are later considered as one of the primary key elements in product identity. Those elements also help you define your product. That is why it is vital to have a clear understanding of each for your product identity. 

So, how if you are far too deep in the business that you already forgot all of those details? In this case, simple brainstorming can help you figure out the grounding of your brand identity. Once again, you will need some questions to help you get clarity about your identity as a brand. So, take some of these questions. 

Why did you start the business? What makes you special? What are the values and beliefs that you hold dear for the company? What thing can you do better than anyone else? Can you describe your product in three words? And what are the three words that you want your audience to describe as your brand identity? 

The answer can range very vast according to your business. You might run a delivery food business since you want to cater to people during a lockdown. Your brand design is special due to the organic ingredients. Your company believes in healthy and organic ingredients. And your brand is better at making tasty cuisine with limited ingredients from veggies. 

From those details, you can design a brand identity in three words that consist of healthy, food, and delivery. It can also turn into organic, healthy food or something like diet, healthy, and organic. There are many possibilities to build a strong identity. That is why one needs to make the grounding clear before making your product live and appear in front of your customer.   

Created by Taqnia Creative Agency

The Foundation Of Your Design 

As you already jot down every detail to design a brand identity, now you can start brainstorming on how you will display the idea. Your company design asset will come with a lot of tangible elements, which later determine your product impression. In other words, to nail a strong identity means that you can accurately create a representation. 

So, to do that, there are a lot of things to consider. The logo, packaging, color, social media, uniform, and everything that relates to your brand are what you need to work with. To help you build up your identity, here are the details and some information that you need to digest.  

1. Developing The Identiy 

Starting with the basics. You got three design elements that you need to brainstorm, typography, color, and shapes. The three elements are the primary selection that will help shape your other products and branding uniqueness. In a building structure, imagine the three elements as brick, plaster, and blocks. 

1.1. Color
Consider the sense of color psychology because the color choice can indirectly affect the impression. It also ties with customers and your people psychologically. As one of the brand identity elements, you need a proper strategy and understanding of the symbolic meaning. Since again, it will impact how your design will shape and be perceived by people.

So, what kind of color do you have to choose? It depends on your design ideas and brand grounding. Red, orange, and yellow can help you create a sense of high-energy impression. Blue and green are the more versatile colors that exude a wide range of identities, such as nature, money, stability, and trustworthiness. 

Some colors speak royal identity, such as purple. You can also use black for a modern and sophisticated atmosphere. Or you got the color that helps identify the market, such as brown for rugged or masculine men and pink for feminine women. That is why you need to choose the perfect color that represents your brand design and purpose.  

Created by Antonay

1.2. Typeface
Serif, sans serif, script, and display font exude different feelings. At the same time, it also makes a great grounding to design a brand identity. So, what kind of impression that are you looking for? A classic, traditional, formal, or professional model can use serif fonts. The typeface might look basic, but it is a perfect and ideal model for the brand project. 

Giving a slight difference from the lack of foot in the font, sans serif appears more modern and sleeker. This sort of typeface is the most appropriate one for youngsters and casual identity. The same impression goes for the script typography that exudes elegance, casual, and fancy design. 

However, the script typeface is also a very common decision to make feminine or luxurious logo designs. Compared with other models, this font might come with more possibilities. Lastly is the display font. If you are looking for a specialized element for your design, you can choose this one. There are endless models on the internet that have unusual ideas. 

You can choose the one that suits your product identity the best. It is especially helpful for a design that needs something more artistic, such as unique shadows, shapes, artistic, or outlines. When it comes to fonts, you also need to remember that you will use them for many other aspects, including your logo design, packaging, and others.  

Created by Julia Masalska

1.3. Shapes 
The shapes and forms are not only applied to your logo. At some point, you can design a brand identity with a unique form or shape for your packaging and pattern. The pinpoint is your shape choice needs to explain your brand personality. For example, you got round (ellipses, ovals, circles, etc.) that represent love, unity, community, fuzzies, warmth, and femininity.  

You can also use straight lines that suggest a more masculine and strong implication. But at the same time, it also suggests mellowness and tranquility. If you want an identity that exudes strength, trustworthiness, stability, and efficiency, try to use straight-edged shapes. When using shapes, try to balance them with dynamic color to avoid a dull appearance.  

Created by Giovanni Bordé

2. Designing The Essential Brand Collaterals

With some elements from the previous part, you are ready to build the brand identity. In this case, you will take care of some of the tangible design elements that are directly in contact with your audience. But again, the amount of the element will depend on the nature of your brand. Such as culinary businesses that focus on menu and spaces. 

2.1. Logo 
Your logo design will be the first thing that the customer sees. It is the highlight of the identity, which is why you cannot make a reckless design for it. To make a perfect and strong logo, make sure you pinpoint some considerations. The first one is the ability to communicate your value, business, and who you are. 

You can also make sure that the logo design will tag along with the industry standards. At the same time, you have to design a brand identity with an appealing logo. The term appealing can be translated into a simple, clean, and uncluttered look. Lastly, is a logo design that makes an impression and lasts for at least 6 months. 

To make a compiling design, of course, you need to try to incorporate every detail you have in the previous part. From the typography, shapes, and colors, at least try to deliver every single element to represent your brand. It is also recommended to ask your design partner to make different logo versions, such as black and white plus different scales.  

Created by King Arthur

If your line of job is something related to development, then make sure you have some print designs available. Print designs include business cards, posters, brochures, company profiles, and more. Print designs will work as the perfect weapons to tell your identity as well as broaden your market. The pinpoint is not only attractive but also communicative.

Created by Cansu Merdamert

2.3. Website 
If your market or work field relies heavily on online presence, make sure you got some of the character elements splashed around your website or social media. A website is also a great medium to reach a more modern audience. So, no matter what your business is, make sure you got some website going. It would help you design a brand identity easier as well. 

In this case, you can play around with the elements according to your need. You can use typography, shades and sow some shapes or forms in the web design. At some point, you need to understand that people are starting to go online. Thus, you have to go full force when telling your brand identity in the form of an online business or digital products.  

Created by Bettr Studio

If you are selling a physical product, your packaging also needs to convey the same synergy. However, if you are selling a service or digital product, you will also need a design to visualize what you are selling. Use the key elements to design your packaging. It is also worth mentioning that your product visual is integral to attract customers. So, make sure the design is shining, communicative, and states the real business or product identity. 

Created by Frost*collective Sydney

2.5. Email Design  
Email is gradually used as a great medium where you can communicate with audiences that already know the brand. If you want to upscale a larger audience through email, make sure you are good at designing the method. One of the reasons goes to the fact that many audiences have overloaded inboxes. Thus, make the email strategy get side kicked. In this case, you can keep the design short, simple, and straightforward. Make it readable and scannable, so people will find your email worth reading.   

Created by Silver Stag

3. Creating The Brand Identity Guideline 

Have you made and planned all the elements for your product identity? In this case, you will have some media that blatantly produce detail that shout out your brand. Your job is not finished yet. It is because you will need to consider the future steps and plan for your design. An updated product is better than one that is old-fashioned. 

So, to make sure you design a brand identity that has great consistency, you need a brand style guide. This sort of document jots down every detail that helps create an outline of information about your design assets. It tells about the color, the design preferences, identity impression, perception, and many more. Thus, your design will always be consistent.  

Created by Cubex Design Agency

Final Words

In a nutshell, it is safe to say that brand identity is what shapes your company and product. At the same time, it also builds an understanding that helps set your brand apart from the massive sea of competitive markets. You need to nail and create a design that portrays your product. Thus, it helps accentuate your difference in a positive light.