How to create a brand identity

In the world of marketing, branding is king. It is everything from your logo, to the images and language you use to communicate with your audience.

Your brand identity helps you to stand out from the crowd and helps to improve brand awareness and loyalty.

But, how do you create a brand identity? We will show you how.

What makes a strong brand identity?

There are many factors that make up a brand identity. But to make a good brand great, it’s important that can be:

• Scalable – ensure your branding can be applied not only across all platforms but also can be scaled up or down when needed. 
• Consistent – consistency is key to ensure your consumers see the same branding everywhere.
• Memorable – you want your audience to remember you.
• Attention grabbing– make your branding stand out and grab their attention.
• Cohesive – you want all aspects of your brand to piece together neatly to form your overall identity.

How do I create a brand identity?

Before you start creating your visual identity, you need to think about all the smaller aspects of your brand, such as your values, your audience, and what are you are looking to achieve as a business.

All the little details are important as they form a bigger picture of your brand and will help your consumers recognise your organisation.

Remember, whatever you do, always ensure you’re consistent across all your platforms. This can increase sales revenue by 23%. So make sure all those little details are repeated across every platform you use from social media to newsletters to your website.

Finish your strategy first to create a strong brand identity

Before you consider any visual elements of your branding make sure you write up a brand strategy including a vision statement. This should clearly express who you are, what you do, what your values are and what you bring to consumers. Include as much information as possible into this such as your buyer persona, your proposition and your goals.

By creating a brand strategy first, you will have a strong foundation to build upon. This will be immensely helpful throughout the creation of your brand identity.

Once, you have completed this as thoroughly as possible you can then look at the smaller details.

Colours are important

Choosing the colours not only your logo but your site is a vital part of your brand identity. This should be decided before you start creating any assets or branding items as you will want to use your new colours throughout.

The use of colour can evoke many different emotions in consumers, so think carefully about how you want your consumers to feel when they see your brand. Also, do you want to use a bright, vivid colour palette, or something more muted and pastel?

We wrote a great post on choosing a colour palette for your brand which goes deeper into the meanings of many of the popular primary (and some secondary) colours.

Consider your typography

The next item you should consider is the font families you want to use. Think about whether you want the font on your logo to be different to your main text font or whether you want them to match.

Try to stick to a maximum of 2-3 font styles to help with a consistent brand identity.

Choosing the right font pairings for your site and company is vital as each font can have a different impact on your target market. It can be the difference between looking professional and casual.

Think about how you want your company to be seen by your potential consumers. Do you want them to see you as an expert in the field? Or do you want to appear laid back, relatable and fun?

Take your time and browse through all the options before deciding which one you want to go for to ensure you make the right choice. Remember, this is the font that will be used throughout your site and assets so make sure you are 100% happy with it.

Carefully select your imagery

Just like your colour palette, you need to consider the style of imaging you want to use for your branding.

Do you want to go for bright, vivid images or something more muted or faded to enable the addition of text on top? Consider the types of images you want to use as well; do you see your brand utilising more stunning landscapes? Or perhaps images of workers in an office?

If you have a good idea of the style and colours of the images you will use for your branding it makes creating your brand identity a lot easier.

Decide how you will communicate

This will be heavily influenced by your target market, but what language does your brand use? Use your buyer persona (if you have one) to help with this. Consider how your target audience speak, and how they communicate. Do they use jargon? Are they more likely to speak formally or in a more relaxed manner?

Use this information to help decide on the tone, formality, and style of the language you will use across all platforms.

Time to consider the logo

Your logo may feel like the smallest thing to worry about when creating a brand identity, but it is actually a very important part of your overall brand identity.

Your logo is the image many consumers are likely to see first. It needs to be memorable but also reflective of your company. Think carefully about all aspects from the colour to the font using the decisions you have already made.

Creating the logo is unlikely to be a quick progress, take your time and consider what you want your logo to say to your consumers and how you want them to react when they see it. If you look into other companies you can see many different hidden meanings in famous logos that you didn’t know. This adds that extra level to the logo, so you may want to consider this in your own logo creation stage.

After this you can start to consider creating your overall image to bring together all the elements of your branding to create a brand identity.

There are so many aspects to consider when creating a brand identity it can both confusing and complex. However, with over 12 years’ worth of experience we are perfectly placed to help you create and build upon your brand to help you stand out.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you create your perfect brand identity.