In our personal lives, we always desire to be unique and different from the rest. To accomplish that, we depend on our identity and character. The same applies to your brand. To stand out, you need a unique brand identity to set yourself apart from everyone else on the market. Brand and identity design are crucial components of any successful product. A strong brand and well-designed identity can help a product stand out in a crowded marketplace and establish a unique and memorable presence in the minds of consumers. In this article, we will explore five key elements of brand identity and design and how they work together to create a cohesive and effective brand strategy.
Before diving into the five key elements of brand identity and design that will make your brand stand out, we must define some key concepts first. So, let’s start with…
What Is a Brand?
A brand is a combination of a company’s name, logo, and other visual elements that help to identify and differentiate it from its competitors. It represents the company’s identity and values and communicates its message and mission to consumers. A strong brand can establish trust and credibility and create a loyal customer base.
In addition to visual elements, a brand encompasses the company’s reputation and the emotions and experiences associated with its products or services. A company’s brand is often a reflection of its culture and how it does business and can influence consumer perception and purchasing decisions.
As per Seth Godin, a marketing genius, “brand” refers to:
Building a strong brand requires careful planning and strategic execution. It involves conducting market research to understand the target audience, defining the brand’s mission and values, and developing a unique and consistent visual identity. This identity is then implemented across all touchpoints, including the company’s website, packaging, advertising, and social media presence.
Overall, a brand is more than just a logo or color scheme – it is the sum of all the experiences and interactions a consumer has with a company and its products. When effectively executed, a strong brand can differentiate a company in the marketplace and build a loyal customer base.
What Is Brand Identity?
Brand identity refers to the unique personality and characteristics of a brand. It includes elements such as a brand’s name, logo, tagline, and color scheme, as well as the tone and messaging used in marketing and advertising materials.
The goal of a brand’s identity is to create a distinctive and memorable impression on consumers and set the brand apart from its competitors. A strong brand identity gives a business an edge over its competitors and establishes a loyal customer base.
In addition, brand identity should be more unified because it represents and reinforces a brand’s emotions. Also, the message conveyed by the brand identity elements must be clear and consistent across all platforms.
The Process of Designing The Brand Identity of a Product
By now, I hope you’ve understood that Brand identity is more than just a marketing campaign or a logo; in other words, it’s how a brand communicates with its target audience through all marketing efforts. It encompasses the entire product development process, from product designing to targeting the right audiences, employee relations, and providing customer service.
So, the process of designing a strong brand identity for a product is simple. All you need is to follow these five key elements to create a powerful brand identity design for a product.
An Exceptional Brand Name
A name is an essential part of a brand’s identity. It is the word or phrase that represents a company, product, or service. You have to be extremely cautious when choosing a brand name, as it will be associated with the brand and its products or services.
Here are a few key points to consider when choosing a brand name:
- Memorable: A brand name should be easy to remember and distinctive from others in the same industry. A memorable name can help customers easily recall the brand and its products or services. For instance, Land Rover conveys the notion of adventure and exploration.
- Meaningful: A brand name should have some meaning or significance to the brand and its target audience. Think of Google, Slack, WhatsApp, etc. Most of the time, you use them as verbs.
- Relevant: A brand name should be relevant to the products or services the brand offers. A relevant brand name can help customers understand what the brand is about and what it offers—for example, Dunkin’ Donuts and Xerox.
- Versatile: A brand name should be versatile enough to be used across various channels and media. A versatile name can help maintain a consistent brand identity and message across all platforms. i.e., Google, Apple, Meta
- Original: The name of your band must be unique, which is a challenging task with a saturated market today. Even so, you can convey originality in many ways. For example, IKEA is the abbreviation for the founder’s name and its hometown.
In summary, the brand’s name is a crucial part of a brand’s identity, and it has to be memorable, meaningful, relevant, versatile, and original.
Memorable Logo
According to the research of the department of neurology at MIT, the human brain can recognize images within 13 milliseconds, which makes logos useful for identifying brands immediately. Most of the famous brands in the world have recognizable logos. Because of this, companies invest a lot of time and resources into developing their logos. Despite its controversy, BP spent over $211 Millions on the design of the company’s logo in 2008.
The logo of your brand/product should be unique, relevant, simple, and memorable so that anyone can recognize it quickly. Moreover, it should precisely reflect the brand’s message. You should also consider the various sizes and shapes of your brand’s logo, such as those used on websites, products, and stationery. Ensure that the logo is either easily scalable or comes with different variations that will fit a variety of shapes and media.
Professional Typefaces (Fonts)
Stressing over picking the perfect font might make you look like a “typography freak,” however, you’ll be better off if you choose a font that complements the colors and logo of your brand.
The typeface, aka font, plays a crucial role in establishing a brand’s overall tone and personality. Many famous fonts are easily recognizable regardless of context. The primary typeface for your brand should be simple and match your brand’s color scheme and logo. The best practices for choosing the right typeface for your brand are as follows:
- It is advisable to avoid using fancy fonts (particularly if you are not skilled enough to utilize them correctly).
- You shouldn’t avoid using default fonts because they are easy to read and allow you to change the typeface in different ways to make it more noticeable.
- Don’t use over two font families simultaneously.
- Avoid mixing fonts with contrasting styles (for example, a sans-serif and a serif).
- For legibility, select the appropriate line spacing and size of the font.
- Make sure your text is left-aligned.
- You can justify lines with more than 60 characters. But don’t use hyphens.
- Avoid using all caps when emphasizing text.
In addition to choosing the right typeface (font), it’s also essential to use it consistently across all branding materials, such as business cards, marketing materials, and the company website. It helps to create a cohesive and memorable brand identity.
A Pleasing Color Scheme
Emotions are the most powerful thing that influences people’s decisions. By using the right colors, you can gain direct access to the hearts and minds of your customers. Also, your brand’s color scheme can influence how your audience feels and thinks about your brand.
There are different emotions associated with different colors. Warm colors such as yellow, red, and orange – trigger a wide range of emotions, including warmth, anger, dislike, and comfort. Cool colors – for instance, blue, green, and purple – can evoke feelings of peace and despair.
Process To Select The Right Color Scheme For Your Brand
Initially, selecting colors for your brand may seem challenging. Every brand is different, so there is no exact formula for choosing colors. But to simplify the process, I recommend using at least three colors (base color, accent color, and last neutral color.
- Choose the base colors first; it represents your brand’s personality with all its dominant characteristics.
- Now, choose an accent color for your brand identity. It should also be consistent with your brand’s characteristics and complement the base colors perfectly.
- Lastly, choose a neutral color. It is mostly used in the background, such as white, black, or gray.
To sum it up, you only need a handful of primary colors. However, if you want to use secondary and primary colors in some of your product designs, you can do so. Most importantly, adding a few colors helps keep your brand exciting and relevant while staying true to its identity.
A Branded Set of Supporting Graphics
As multimedia becomes more prevalent, brands must develop a comprehensive visual language incorporating icons, design assets, illustrations, and photography.
Check out the Visual Assets Guidelines of Google for a detailed explanation of their icon design process. They include various aspects of brand design, including;
- A reductive approach, also known as a flat approach
- An emphasis on geometrical shapes
- Front facing icons
- Straight and hard shadows instead of curved, soft shadows
- The standard colors for the background
- Creating pixel-perfect product icons
- Icon sizing following the logo’s shape
As Google has keenly developed its unique visual language, by looking at its icons, you instantly recognize it as a Google icon.
Creating a set of supporting graphics for your band can simplify the creation of future marketing materials. By doing so, you can ensure consistency across email newsletters, promotional materials (such as banner/display ads), social media posts, etc.
The Bottom Line
In Summary, your unique brand identity and design make you stand out from the competition. It’s likely that you aren’t the only company in your market. So, to engage with consumers positively, you must show them who you are and what unique value proposition you are offering.
By incorporating all the key elements of a product’s branding and identity design and a systematic approach to branding and identity design, you can stand out and build a lasting connection with your target audience.
