Corporate visual identity expresses the values and ambitions of an organisation, its business, and its characteristics – so ask yourself, can your company do without it?
Branding is what communicates your values, it is your promises to the consumer and so much of communicating this comes down to visual identity.
But a strong brand identity doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t just pick a few colours and cobble together a logo.
You need to approach your design strategically, which requires a team with strong communication and design skills, and an intimate understanding of your brand.
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity is a way to communicate with the world, differentiate yourself from your competition, and create a brand experience that encourages people to engage with you.
This can be in the form of your logo, your colour scheme or even the font you use on your website.
When designing your identity, you need to create a comprehensive visual language that can be applied to everything you and your business stand for.
One thing is sure – if you want to be a competitive and successful company, crafting a strong brand identity is an absolute must.
How to build a strong visual brand
Brand identity is more than just your logo. It’s more than style guides, marketing materials, or colour palettes.
Your brand identity is a combination of how your brand looks, feels, and what it says to your customers.
It can influence the entire experience for your clients or customers while ultimately affecting how others view your business.
So here are just a few things you can do to build a strong brand and visual identity.
Do Your Homework
You can’t create a brand identity that resonates with your customers if you don’t understand your customers to begin with.
So, first take the time to truly learn about your audience and the personas that define their likes and dislikes, hobbies, and values.
Essentially, you must uncover what is most important for driving growth and how you product is seen by consumers – otherwise you could be targeting completely the wrong audience.
Additionally, an in-depth competitor analysis – including a review of competitor websites, search engine optimization, brand identities and advertising – can tell you who you are competing as well as, how to differentiate, and what strategies to employ.
Create assets
Once the research phase is done, you can start to put your hard work into action.
This can come in many forms, from tweaking your logo to updating the design of your website.
Whether it’s choosing a new font, colour scheme or layout, the visual element of your brand is key to sprucing up your image and telling the world about what you do.
Here’s a quick list of some of the brand assets that you should consider.
The Logo
A logo is a critical asset for your brand as it’s normally the first visual representation that an individual experiences with your company.
The Colour
Colour is essential to differentiating your brand from your competitors. Do you lean towards the vibrant and brighter side of things to attract attention or maybe you’d rather go for something a little more conservative? The choice is yours.
The Typography
Typography is key to your message being delivered; from a distinctive approach to using type, right through to a fully bespoke typeface.
Talk to a Branding Expert
You can’t do all of this by yourself, so why not employ the services of a branding agency who are passionate about building and developing brands.
They can help refresh your image, developing your established brand into something that feels exciting and new.
Whether it’s graphic design or digital marketing, a branding agency the expertise to grow your brand and take it to wherever you want it to go next.
At Studio Coact we support businesses from the very beginning as well as ones looking to grow thanks to our strategy-led campaigns.