The brand identity of your company is what represents you and allows you to connect with your audience. Branding is what helps you stand out from the competition, which is why it’s essential that you put some thought into creating your visual identity. Otherwise, you will end up letting others shape your brand for you, and that’s not always a good idea, as nobody can express your values better than you. With all that in mind, here are a few tips that should help you come up with a unique visual identity for your business.
Make it Unique and Memorable
The visual elements you choose need to be memorable. This means that there needs to be something about them that draw attention. Moreover, your visual identity needs to be unique, so you should never try to copy another brand’s logo – that will at first confuse your audience and then make them believe that you lack any creativity. In other words, you should put some effort into designing something that is uniquely yours.
It should be Meaningful
Drawing attention alone is easy – anything that is odd and unique can draw attention. However, you also want your visual identity to be meaningful. It needs to say something about your brand, services, and products. Moreover, it needs to be something that your audience can understand and connect with. This also means that your branding needs to send a clear message through familiar shapes and colors. If you know what you want your visual design to convey but you aren’t sure how to achieve that, you can also check out the Infostarters website where you can find many great examples of logo designs that might inspire you.
Related: Strategic Co-Branding Guide – How to Make Your Co-Branding Partnership Successful
Make Sure it’s Transferable
Before you make your final decision, ask yourself whether the elements you’ve chosen translate well into other languages, mediums, and cultures. Now, of course, this depends on your type of business. If you want your business to stay local, then you have a much smaller field to think about. However, if you want to go global, transferability is something to consider. Moreover, when talking about different mediums, you want all the elements of your brand identity to be able to appear on any medium without getting deformed. So, for instance, if you choose to market your company through promotional items, like coffee mugs, USB drives, keychains, shirts, and other similar items, you will want your logo and name to remain clear on all of them.
You Want to Make it Last
You want your brand identity to last — once it becomes memorable, so changing your logo design too much can harm your business. Therefore, when designing your visual elements, choose those that are less likely to become outdated and boring. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with updating and refreshing some details, but doing it too often and too much means that your audience will have to reconnect with your brand every time.
Related: How to Incorporate Email Marketing and Instagram for Your Brand
The Choice of Colors is Important
Research has shown that it takes people only 90 seconds to decide whether they want to work with your brand or not, and the majority of that interaction is based on colors alone. Also, studies have shown that color is very often the most important factor when buying products. Additionally, you’ve probably heard that colors can affect our mood and emotions. With that in mind, it’s important to choose your colors wisely, as you want them to achieve a positive effect. Some brands, like Tiffany, for example, have even gone as far as creating their own shades and trademarking them. In short, don’t neglect the importance of colors when designing your logo.
Consider the Typography
All communication that is related to your brand will be based on your typographic decisions. So, you can choose something simple, or you can go for something that would spice up your communication. Just keep in mind that it should be connected to the rest of your brand identity in some way. There are a few things you need to know about the psychology of typography before you pick your font. So, make sure to do your research before you start designing your visual identity. Otherwise, you could end up with a logo that will either send a wrong message to your audience or confuse them once they learn more about your brand.
Related: Branding Strategies for Business
Choose the Shape
When you start thinking about your logo design you’ll also have to choose the main shape, so you need to think about which shape matches your brand. There are three major categories to consider – geometric, abstract, and organic shapes. Each has different psychological associations, since they all convey different things. Moreover, with some of them, you also risk looking unoriginal or making your message too vague. Even the thickness of the lines plays a role in how your audience will perceive your brand. All in all, you want to put some thought into this, so don’t hesitate to test a few different ideas until you end up with the branding that you like.
Put it All Together
Finally, once you decide on the shapes, logos, and font, you also need to combine those elements in the best way possible. For example, size usually denotes importance, so think about what you want to emphasize. Additionally, things on the left are usually noticed first, so you want the most important element of your logo design to appear on the left. Also, pay attention to empty spaces, as you want all the elements to be connected. Symmetry and layering is also something that affects your visual identity, so think about how you want to present all the elements.
Your visual identity is an essential part of your brand identity, since it’s the first thing your clients and customers will see, and it may decide whether they choose to work with you or not. Therefore, the first impression is essential, and you want it to be a positive one. With that in mind, pay attention to the listed things above, put some thought and effort into designing all the elements of your visual identity, and your business is more likely to be successful.
