How To Create A Powerful Brand Identity (A Step-by-Step Guide) PDF
How To Create A Powerful Brand Identity (A Step-by-Step Guide) PDF
by Nate Butler
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If you want your brand to succeed and thrive in the future, you need
to build a brand identity that accurately conveys your essence and is
flexible enough to evolve with you. But that doesn’t happen overnight.
It requires deep thinking, a team with strong communication and
design skills, and an intimate understanding of your brand. But it can
be done well, with excellent results—as long as you have the right
guidance. Luckily, you don’t have to go it alone.
To demystify the process for you, we’ve crafted this step-by-step guide
to building a brand identity, focusing specifically on the visual elements
of a brand identity. The process can seem intimidating, but we’ve been
through it many times with our creative partners (and through our own
rebranding), so we know firsthand what mistakes to avoid, and how to
make it easier on everyone.
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seamlessly and build a stronger brand identity that sets you up for
success. Ready?
Your brand identity is a tool to help you execute your brand strategy.
Your strategy is a detailed plan that outlines exactly what you’re trying
to achieve and how you’re going to achieve it. Your brand identity,
along with your content strategy, helps you communicate in ways that
will let you achieve those goals.
As such, before you dive into your brand identity, it’s important to have
a fully fleshed out strategy. As we walk through our creative process,
we’ll cover some brand strategy elements, but in this post we’ll be
mostly focusing on the process of designing your brand identity.
If you don’t have your brand strategy documented (or have never
gone through the exercise), follow our stress-free guide to creating a
brand strategy, and download our free Brand Strategy Toolkit below.
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A logo and a color palette alone do not make a brand identity. When
designing your identity, you need to create a comprehensive visual
language that can be applied to everything from your website to your
packaging. Depending on your brand, your needs may be more
expansive, but a basic brand identity includes:
○ Logo
○ Colors
○ Typography
○ Design System
○ Photography
○ Illustration
○ Iconography
○ Data visualization
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○ Interactive elements
○ Video and motion
○ Web design
That said, just because you design these elements doesn’t mean they’re
effective. A strong brand identity needs to work for everyone, both
your internal team (e.g., brand ambassadors, content creators) and the
people who will interact with it (e.g., customers). As you embark on the
design process, make sure your brand identity is:
When you begin a branding project, you want to approach each phase
from a philosophical and highly critical standpoint—inspect, poke, and
prod until you get to the core of your brand. Only once you have that
intimate knowledge can you translate it into a visual language.
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That means doing a fair amount of research before diving into design.
Yes, this is hands-down the most laborious stage. But it is crucial to
build the foundation upon which your visual language will stand. Here,
your goal is to gather as much information as you can about who
you’re trying to communicate with, who your competition is, and where
your brand currently stands.
Your brand identity is the “face” that interacts with the entire world.
Whatever you create should accurately communicate who you are.
However, one common misconception is that a brand identity is
exclusively informed by what your brand wants to present. This isn’t
entirely true. It’s also informed by what your brand’s customers want to
engage with, or are accustomed to interacting with. If your identity
doesn’t resonate with them, it won’t be effective.
This doesn’t necessarily mean your brand’s customers will choose your
logo color; it means that you will make more effective design choices
once you understand their needs, wants, and values. To understand
who you’re trying to reach, try this easy exercise to create personas
that represent your different target segments. These personas identify
both demographic and psychographic information that gives you
insight into who these people are and what drives them.
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your competitive landscape, it’s easy to blend in. Thus, it’s crucial to
understand not just who your competition is but how your brand
compares, in perception and presentation.
As you move through the process, pay special attention to how your
competitors present themselves in terms of common visual elements,
trends, industry-specific visual themes, brand personalities, etc.
For example, we once did competitive research for a brand and found
that all of their competitors used the exact same four colors. This isn’t
uncommon, as many industries tend to gravitate toward the same
visual elements (think Netflix and YouTube’s red color), but it revealed a
great opportunity to differentiate.
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○ Employees
○ Higher-ups
○ Customers
For your internal team, you should distribute a brand audit survey.
(Here’s how to do one, along with the questions to include.) This survey
is a deep dive into every aspect of your brand, from your values and
personality to logo and positioning. Again, this is why having a fleshed
out brand strategy is so important.
This research helps us view the brand from every angle, including our
own outsider perceptions.
Once you’ve completed your brand audit survey, you can use that info
to inform your creative brief. Things to include in your brief:
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○ Title
○ Overview
○ Objective/focus
○ Why are you rebranding?
○ Budget
○ Deadline
○ Audience
○ Who they are, how this may have
changed over the years
○ Current customers, ideal new customers
○ Brand perception
○ Brand goal
○ Primary message
○ Value proposition
○ Tone/voice/personality
○ Success metrics
○ Competitors
○ Important insights from past experiences
○ Relevant references or inspiration
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You’ll then select specific elements that elicit the strongest emotional
response, trigger additional imagery, and help you build a visual
playground to go nuts in.
Example: Our team at work for the ESPEN (Expanded Special Project
For Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases) brand identity, a Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation project. .
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Logo
Example: Here you can see many iterations of our logo for UCI
Applied Innovation, from the most basic black-and-white sketch to fully
rendered images.
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Colors
Once you have solid visual imagery, you can explore color. Certainly,
emotion plays a huge role in color choice. This is also, as previously
mentioned, a good chance to differentiate.
○ 1 main color
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○ 2 primary colors
○ 3-5 complementary colors
○ 2 accent colors
Typography
Every stage has its own unique challenges, but typography can be
tricky in a visual language. Brands often follow trends (serif vs. non-
serif) that are hot for a second but can quickly become dated or
appear unoriginal. Remember, that your brand identity is a cohesive
language.
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Design System
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together any which way. Since brand identity is all about introducing
yourself to people, it’s important to make it an enjoyable experience. In
information design, that means providing a truly consistent and
cohesive presentation.
Photography
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Illustration
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Iconography
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Data Visualization
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Additional Elements
○ Interactive elements
○ Motion graphics
○ Video
○ Web design
For more, check out our checklist of everything to include in your visual
identity, featuring additional tips for designing each element.
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incorrectly. A brand style guide is the savior here—if it’s crafted the
right way.
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Comments
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COMMENTS (59)
Chante'nevi Smith
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Katy French
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Osorio
great post – very informative – Thanks for Sharing – it was a great help how you broke
each section down … Thanks again
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Stephany ben
Great post! Developing a strong brand strategy enables you to identify and refine your
core client profiles, then target marketing to the appropriate niche markets. Knowing
your target markets also allows you to hone key messaging that strikes a cord with
their specific needs. When we talk about ‘brand’ we aren’t just talking about your
logo. Your brand is the sum of all your business represents. It’s your logo, tagline,
photography, font, colours, language, and your business’s general vibe. It’s how your
business as a whole is presented to your target market. At Chilli, we are incredibly
invested in building our client’s brands, as this is the ONLY single asset that will carry
it’s worth across platforms and tactics.
Reply
Katy French
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Donny
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Katy French
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Herries
Great and complete discussion. It guides a good design direction for many new
brands.
Reply
Katy French
Thanks, Herries!
Reply
Marlene
Reply
Katy French
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Reply
MARY MAGDALENE
Katy French!!!
This is so perfect. Thanks a lot.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Sarah
Thank you for this! Such a great place for me to start with my small business.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Creative logo
I truly love this article for the direct yet supportive guide on visual character! Very
straightforward however brimming with astonishing and valuable data. Much obliged!
Feel free to visit here:
Creative Logo Design
Reply
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Katy French
Happy to help!
Reply
Simisola Omotoso
This was very detailed and informational. Now, I couldn’t wait to get started on this.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
joshua ibemgbo
What an intriguing read. Amazing content for a Graphic designer looking to initiate a
brand identity. Thank you
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Deepa Joshi
Deepa Joshi
Reply
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Katy French
Reply
william
Well done.
What a great read – thanks for making it clear and simple and powerful. I’ve had to try
and explain this so many times and this article has been a huge relief and will also
serve as a great tool for other.
Thanks!
Reply
Katy French
Thanks, William! The same goes for us. (Hence, we decided to get it out there
once and for all.)
Reply
bRUNA
I really appreciate every article on this web page. It helps a lot and it’s written in the
language that anyone can understand. Thanks for your effort and time.
Reply
John
P.S I have noticed a spelling error within the first paragraph of the Typography section.
Should it be ‘your brand identity…’ instead of ‘you brand identity…’? Sorry. It’s the
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designer in me.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
I genuinely love this article for the straightforward but helpful guide on visual identity!
Quite simple but full of amazing and useful information. Thanks!
Reply
Katy French
Reply
benjamín conde
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Kay
Hello Nate & Column5 folks, I represent a tiny (but impactful !!!) Aussie NFP and we
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are working with some special young people to create a social food enterprise. We are
starting with purpose and brand development (as you do). This content is so amazing,
I was hoping to gain permission to use it (with due accreditation of course), for
educational purposes only. You can check us out @BigFeedAU on Twitter & Insty to
see how we roll. Our mothership charity is http://www.childrensfoodeducation.org.au,
looking forward to your thoughts.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Simeon Taiwo
This is a great content. I’ve learned so much. Thanks a great deal for sharing.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
anNa
What an ass! To use someone else’s blog to sell your company services. Great job on
your article, by the way. I always knew there was a lot to branding (much more than I’d
care to do), but you guys mad so many of the parts easy to comprehend. Thank you
for the step-by-step. And, I’ve bookmarked you guys. I can’t wait to work with you.
Reply
Katy French
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Reply
chris daniells
Great blog. However, I’d like to mention that once your brand identity has been
created, you should always analyze and refine the brand identity accordingly. Track,
target and test new strategies and tactics to know what works best. At Om
Infosolutions, we have a number of clients that have approached us for revamping
their brand identity, which has proven to work really well then.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
Tasha
This is a great, very comprehensive and perfect in volume piece of content. Not to
mention it’s providing so much value with only the lightest of implications of selling
the service. Loved it!
Reply
Katy French
Thanks, Tasha. We’re just trying help people build better brands and great
content.
Reply
Wes williams
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All I would add is to consider size and simplicity in logo design. A company logo may
be used in ways you can foresee — signs in offices and on letterhead are a given, but
they may also be printed on small give-away items at conventions or as a tiny icon
next to a browser’s URL. The larger or more complicated a logo, the worse it can look
in those situations.
Reply
Katy French
Reply
effangwa
very resourceful
Reply
Katy French
Glad to help!
Reply
helen Arias
Reply
Aayam Agency
Very useful guide to create a power brand identity. Fantastic and informative article. I
appreciate it.
Reply
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Chris
is there a way to choose a good color palette? i always find myself stuck when picking
color combinations
Reply
Nate Butler
It’s always good to consider what message you are trying to convey visually, but
if you ever want to chat, we’re here to help.
Reply
Kelly
the images for each step are super helpful. i work visually so they’re always
appreciated
Reply
Nate Butler
Reply
Joe
there’s so many things to consider that I’ve never even thought about. there’s a lot I
guess I still need to learn
Reply
Nate Butler
Reply
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Tina
thank you for always putting together fantastic guides. they’re invaluable to me
Reply
Nate Butler
Reply
Jeff
this is a great article. i’ll be using this in the future as a quick guide
Reply
Nate Butler
Thanks, Jeff!
Reply
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