By now, “branding” has become a household term. You don’t have to be in business to understand that brand matters, not only from the standpoint of public perce ...
3 Essential Elements to Build Strong Brand Identity
Your brand’s identity is the tangible, visually recognizable, piece of your brand – your logo, typeface, color palette, and shape elements of your brand. It’s not uncommon for people to confuse “brand identity” with “branding” generally, but branding encompasses much more than just your logo and your tag line.
Your company’s brand is the sum total of all of the interactions and touch points you have with the marketplace. It’s the perception of your company in the eyes of the world. Your brand identity is comprised of the visual elements that make you instantly recognizable to consumers.
Brand Identity
Say you ride the train to work every day with a friendly and helpful woman who wears bright red glasses and always carries a yellow backpack. You know the woman is friendly because she regularly smiles and waves at other passengers, and you know she’s helpful because you’ve watched her go out of her way to assist other passengers when they need it. That’s her brand – the sum total of her behaviors, attitudes, and conversations you have regularly observed over time.
You can spot this exact woman from 3 blocks away thanks to her ever-present red glasses and yellow backpack – that’s her brand identity. Developing a strong brand identity is essential if you want to stand out in a crowded market place – but it’s not as simple as getting a designer to make you a pretty logo.
Before you can develop your brand’s identity, you need to make sure you have some strategic questions answered like:
– What are your company’s vision and mission statements?
– What are the core values that drive your organization?
– What are your brand’s personality and archetype?
– Who are your main competitors? How will you stand out?
Having the answers to these big-picture strategic questions is essential to creating a brand identity that is aligned with your overall strategic goals. If you need help fleshing out the answers, a brand discovery workshop with Ideation Coaching and Consulting can help! Once you’re ready to start developing your brand identity, there are three main components: color, typography, and shape.
Color
Up to 90% of our judgment of a brand can be based on color alone?! Our brains naturally connect certain colors with certain emotions, and the colors you chose to represent your brand should be reflective of the emotions you want to evoke.
Red: Red is the color of passion, strength, and vibrancy. It’s a bold color that makes a statement to the world.
Orange: Orange conveys energy, youth, and excitement. Orange can evoke some of the same energy as red, but it feels younger and more playful.
Yellow: Yellow is bright and friendly, like a beautiful sunny day. Brands that use yellow are likely to want to be perceived as fun-loving, cheerful, assessable, and friendly. 
Green: Green is fresh, bright, and exceptionally versatile. In general, green makes people think of health, nature, or growth which makes it a particularly good choice for healthcare companies, foundations, or environmental companies. 
Blue: Blue is universally appealing and conveys feelings of peace, stability, and trustworthiness. One of the most widely-used colors for brands, blue is perfect if you want a color with broad public appeal.
Purple: Purple is the color of royalty, so it works well with luxury brands – but it’s also unique and eye-catching. Purple can help your brand stand out from the crowd and gives you a fun, youthful vibe. 
Black: Like the LBD (little black dress), black is classic and effortlessly sophisticated – but be careful, too much black can easily overwhelm. Consider pairing with white or a bright accent color to and elegance or create contrast.
For more information about the way color, brands, and psychology are inner-connected check out this cool infographic. Working with a brand identity expert to develop your logo and create a professional color palate will ensure your brand visuals are extra stunning.
Typefont
This type font is an example of a Serif font. Serif fonts have little type-print lines on the edges of the letters. Serif fonts are great if you want your brand type visual to feel traditional, old school, knowledgeable, or smart.
This font is a Sans Serif font – you’ll notice the lines are gone, which gives the letters a fresher and more modern look. Sans Serif fonts are sleek, sophisticated, and vibrant.
This is a Handwritten/Script font – Script fonts should be used when you need to create emotion and add an element of personal appeal. In short, when we see script type, our brains connect a shortcut that allows us to see not just words, but to envision the person that wrote them. Script fonts are a great way to bring emotional appeal to your brand.
Specialized fonts – Sometimes when you really want to make a visual statement with your fonts, you need to get creative – like with this font, aptly titled “metal Mania.” Specialized fonts should be used sparingly – but can be really effective when done right.
For your brand, you should choose no more than 3 type fonts and you should use those three type fonts for everything. You’ll need one font for your headings, one font for your copy, and if desired, either a script font or a special font as an accent font.
As a final note, when you’re selecting your brand’s typeface, consider selecting fonts that are easy to keep consistent on both digital and print collateral. That is to say, if you find the perfect font for your print brochures, make sure the same font is available for your website as well. The more consistent you keep your brand look and feel, the more effective your brand becomes.
Shape
One final element to take into consideration when it comes to your brand’s visual identity is how/if you will use shape elements. The shapes you choose as your design element can help you convey specific emotions to your audience – squares, hexagons, triangles, and pillars convey strength and trust, whereas circles evoke feelings of unity and harmony. Check out the two designs below to see how basic shapes can be incorporated into your brand elements and help you evoke emotion.
Your brand’s visual identity is too important not to use a design professional to help you select the right colors, fonts, and shapes to build a visually appealing identity that aligns with your business strategy and goals. As a bonus, once you have a consistent brand identity guide to and template to work from, keeping your brand visuals consistent is so much easier and less time-consuming. If you’re looking for a branding and design company to help you bring your brand to life, reach out to us. We’d love to chat!
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