THE QUEST FOR A GREAT BRAND PART THREE
HOW TO CREATE YOUR.UNIQUE
BRAND.IDENTITY
CONTENTS 3 5
PART THREE OF THE QUEST DEFINING BRAND IDENTITY ——Style Ideation ——Mood Boards ——Illustrations, Photos, Icons
13 THE MEANING OF COLOR 16 THE LOGO DESIGN PROCESS TYPOGRAPHY 20 —CHOOSING —Simple Typographic Rules ALIGNMENT 22 —BRAND —The Value of a Consistent Brand
24 BRAND IDENTITY CHECKLIST
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
THE QUEST FOR A GREAT BRAND PART THREE:
Whether your company is a B2B, B2C or combination of the two, jumping into defining a logo, colors, fonts and representative imagery without first determining the company’s positioning and personality, is similar to constructing a building without having plans and laying a foundation. Starting with uncovering the company’s brand position (Part One) and its personality (Part Two) will make the difference between a brand that matters to your customers and a brand that has no substance. Approach brand strategy as an investment. It adds bottom line equity, strengthens your reputation and improves employee performance and company morale. Your company will reap the benefits implementing our three-phrase process.
Companies with highly ranked brands in factors such as authenticity, relevance, consistency, presence and understanding produced over 70% higher returns to shareholders (ROI). —McKinsey & Company, 2014
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
THE FINAL LEG OF THE JOURNEY In this three-part brand journey, our first ebook walked you through the strategy on how to position your company. The second ebook gave you tools to uncover what makes a company unique: core attributes and values, archetypes and how to develop the best messaging and tone to tell the company’s story. This third and final leg of the brand journey is how to create the company’s visual identity. This phase is often the most satisfying—since it’s more tactical than strategic. Now you'll finally see what the brand visually represents.
Br a
Value Prop + Points-ofDifference
Typography
nd Target Market + Stakeholders
Color Palette
Key Products or Services
YOUR BRAND
Style
ing ion sit Po
Bran d Id en tit y
Mission + Vision
Key Competitors Logo
Core Attributes
Tone + Messaging Values
Personality
Brand Personality
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
DEFINING A BRAND IDENTITY So often we hear from clients, “I need to brand my company. We need a logo.” This is a common misconception. Brand identity represents all the visible elements of the brand, not just a logo. After making brand positioning and personality decisions, it is the final step in iconizing a strong brand presence. It is how you want people to perceive the company. Keeping true to the company’s position and values ensures that customers will be drawn to you in the way you intend. Brand identity includes colors, style, imagery, mood, typography and the logo.
Logo mark Logo
Logo type Tagline
Color palette
Color concepts
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
STYLE IDEATION Remember in part two when you chose an archetype to best represent the company’s personality? Well, style and the visuals are derived directly from these archetypes and the descriptive adjectives that describe your brand. In the previous ebook, the archetype helped define the company’s personality. Is it witty, sarcastic, energetic, authoritative, playful or ? The brand’s style informs your customers of the type of personality you want to communicate. Take the examples below. These two websites both use a singular graphic with white backgrounds. However, they give vastly different impressions that aim towards their intended target audiences.
ZBioScience.com
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
LionsHeadStudios.com
A BRAND IS A DESIGN SYSTEM AND A CONSISTENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.
NOT JUST A
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LOGO.
The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
DEVELOPING A UNIQUE STORY:
MOOD BOARDS
One of the best tools to define your brand’s visual style is to create a mood board. There are a number of online tools that you can use to do this— Pinterest for example. Mood boards help form the visual story that represents the look, feel and emotion you want the company to convey.
WHY DO WE MAKE A MOOD BOARD? A mood board is a good place to consolidate all of your visual concepts about your business and to bring focus your ideas. Often, you might not know from the beginning what kind of feeling your business will express or the culture or values you want to illustrate. Mood boards act as inspiration, affirmation and ideation to uncover and focus the visual story. You can glean inspiration from almost anywhere: colors, paintings, furniture, architecture, illustration, textures, nature, shapes, objects, people, fashion. Find those images that best represent the emotional feelings of the brand and what it inspires in your target audience.
The type of feelings your brand communicates will determine how well your target customers relate and remember it.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Mood Board Examples KNA STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
KNA Structural Engineers Mood Board KNA engineering services preserves design aesthetics, reduces construction costs and delivers exceptional service and quality on every project.
VitalDigital Mood Board VitalDigital is a San Diego-based SEO and digital marketing agency that specializes in lead generation and all aspects of online advertising.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
ILLUSTRATION PHOTOGRAPHY & ICONOGRAPHY The variety and style of images you choose and how they are treated will express a lot about your company. Use the visual story created from the mood board to guide the selection of your imagery.
WHEN SHOULD WE USE PHOTOGRAPHY OR ILLUSTRATION? Since 90% of the information coming to the brain is visual, the image choices you make are extremely important in translating the right tone, emotion and ideas. Photography is often used to help the viewer relate to real, tangible ideas, like fashion, rental locations and travel. Alternatively, illustration is often used for digital product companies where the style gives the them a set of personality traits to set it apart from the vast number of competitors.
Luxury travel photography entices vacationing at the Four Seasons Residence Club.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Original illustration for computer hardware consultants, INTEGRIV, Inc.
WHAT DOES YOUR IMAGERY COMMUNICATE? When a company uses images filled with humor and irreverence, they are telling customers that they are a young-atheart brand targeting buyers who relate to being a rebel. When a company applies pastel-like filters or sepia overlays, they are showing a nostalgia for the past and appealing to customers who relate to vintage styling.
Dollar Shave Club (humor) advertising. Click to view.
Tesco Christmas (vintage) advertising. Click to view.
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE? Brand Positioning (Part One) helps you discover the demographic and psychographic of your ideal audience. Ask yourself: What is important to your ideal client? What are their hobbies? Where do they live and vacation? What are their personalities? What matters to them the most? Then you'll know how to tailor your visuals to match those personnas.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Flat icon appicns.com
Skeuomorphic icon Apple Inc.
WHAT TYPE OF ICONS SHOULD YOU USE? Icons are a simple and effective way to draw your audience into your brand. They are instantaneously recognizable and enhance communication of ideas, products or services. There are two types of icons: flat and skeuomorphic. Flat: Minimalist design that is simple, clean, colorful and modern. Microsoft was one of the first to apply this design style. Skeuomorphic: Realism design that uses imitation of real objects, shadows, shapes, shades and details from the physical world. Apple was one of the first to apply this design style.
Flat design is used to supplement typography and other content, while skeuomorphic design puts the emphasis on the icon or design itself.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
THE MEANING OF
COLOR
You undoubtly observed a number of recurring themes in terms of color, composition and emotions from the mood board. Now’s the time to use those themes as a jumping off point to define the color palette that best represents your brand. Research proves that people make judgments about a company, its products and services, within the first 90 seconds. The psychology of color dominates this judgment.
Colors have a visceral effect and trigger our emotions and attitudes towards a brand. Where hospitals always use soft, healing colors such as light blue and eggshell tints, McDonald's uses bright yellows and reds that indicate buy, eat and leave quickly. While color is but one component of your brand’s visual identity, studies have shown that color increases brand recognition up to 80%. For both emotional and practical reasons, color can influence how customers feel when they interact with your brand.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Visual and Emotional Effects of Color This chart shows the general meanings for each major color. However, these can change depending on context and market approach. Choosing the right color will differentiate your brand from others (think of Tiffany blue).
REPRESENTS: royalty, majesty, nobility, glamour, luxury, sophistication, wisdom STIMULATES: sentimentality, nostalgia, creativity, introspection BRANDS: Yahoo!, Hallmark, Cadbury, Taco Bell
RED
BROWN
REPRESENTS: fire, danger, desire, love, strength, confidence, power
REPRESENTS: wholesome, organic, simplicity, approachable, honest, rugged, tough, dependable
STIMULATES: increased heartrate, appetite, sense of urgency, impulsiveness
STIMULATES: heaviness, homeliness, dullness, conservativeness,
BRANDS: Netflix, Target, Coca-Cola, Nintendo
BRANDS: UPS, Hershey, Cotton, JP Morgan
ORANGE
MAGENTA (PINK)
REPRESENTS: excitement, enthusiasm, warmth, confidence, friendliness, youth, fun
REPRESENTS: sweetness, romance, youth, excitement, trendiness, modernness
STIMULATES: aggression, call-to-action, impulsiveness
STIMULATES: energy, flippancy, impulsiveness
BRANDS: Hooters, Amazon, Harley-Davidson, Fanta, Nickelodeon
BRANDS: T-Mobile, Lyft, Cosmopolitan, LG, Baskin Robbins, Johnson & Johnson
YELLOW
BLACK
REPRESENTS: cheerfulness, optimism, joy, energy, communication, clarity, caution
REPRESENTS: formal, mysterious, bold, sophistication, luxury, power, death, exclusivity
STIMULATES: nervous system, mental clarity, eye fatigue/eye-strain, visibility
STIMULATES: sorrow, seriousness, oppression
BRANDS: Shell, IMDb, McDonald’s, BestBuy, IKEA
BRANDS: Nike, Cartoon Network, BMW, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Guinness, Zara, WWF
GREEN
WHITE
REPRESENTS: health, tranquility, nature, growth organic, environmentalism, money, stability
REPRESENTS: purity, simplicity, innocence, minimalism, perfection, transparency
STIMULATES: positivity, relaxation
STIMULATES: coldness, sterility, cleanness
BRANDS: Android, Whole Foods, Tropicana, Starbucks, BP, Spotify
BRANDS: Apple, Tile, Orto Botanico, Handvaerk
BLUE (most used in businesses)
MIXED
REPRESENTS: water, peace, communication, honesty, sincerity, security, authority, technology
REPRESENTS: variety, diversity, playfulness, youth
STIMULATES: loss of appetite, trust, calmness BRANDS: Chase, Intel, Skype, Walmart, Vimeo, Pepsi, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GE, Disney
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PURPLE
The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
STIMULATES: energy, excitement, openness BRANDS: Google, Ebay, Olympics, NBC, Toys “R” Us
THE MEANING OF
COLOR
Using one specific color does not pigeonhole your brand into a certain emotion. There are many nuances and tints to a single color. For example, a dark navy blue will have a very different impact compared to baby blue. Choose a minimum of three colors in the palette and be sure they are compatible when used together and separately. Adobe Kuler offers millions of color combinations and minimizes the guess work.
Blue
Baby blue
Navy
Colors also have cultural context. A color that provides comfort in Belgium might not have the same welcoming feeling for people in Indonesia. Whether for domestic or international brands, market research will test if the color choices for your brand are culturally appropriate for your buyer.
Uber Mexico and Uber Ireland color palettes. Uber Technologies Inc.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
THE LOGO The most recognized branding element is arguably the logo. Often considered the bane of branding experts everywhere, the logo and logo mark tend to hold an exaggerated weight among potential clients and company leadership.
“A new logo should be a symbol of change, not a change of symbol.” —Simon Manchipp Many of our clients have learned that their logo is actually a culmination of extensive color, typography, brand personality and positioning research. It is not just a stamp to represent the face of the company. After you read all three of our ebooks, you will have a deep understanding how each of the three parts support one another. What makes a logo long-lasting and meaningful depends upon the amount of research, information and self-discovery that a company undertakes in the branding process.
Logo
Logo mark
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Logo type
LOGO DESIGN PROCESS BEGINNING THE DESIGN All great design starts with putting pen (or pencil) to paper and sketching all of our ideas and concepts. There’s a freedom and fluidity with using hands to quickly express ideas and build upon them. Don't expect your first ideas to be the best. Focus on the exploration of multiple ideas and symbolic imagery. Use techniques like mindmapping, word to imagery connections and semiotics to brainstorm all of your ideas. Sometimes the littlest mark on the paper can turn into the biggest idea.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
LOGO DESIGN PROCESS 1. Creative Team Meeting Brainstorm concepts and themes based on Brand Profile and Mood Board and start sketching! 2. Sketching Concepts Produce dozens of hand-sketched concepts for creative team review and critique. 3. Digital Refinement Select best 4-7 concepts to vectorize in black and white only. 4. Color Exploration Narrow selection to best 2-3 concepts to explore in full color. 5. Final Choice Refinements Perfect the final design in full color. 6. Final Logo Package Common Variants: full color, black only, reverse, grayscale Standard formats: EPS, PNG, JPEG, TIFF 7. Brand Style Guide Logo extensions, business cards, letterheds, website, ads, other collateral
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
A LOGO THAT STAYS AND GROWS Some people are tempted by more affordable and convenient logo design solutions, such as hiring a freelancer on Fiverr to make a 10-minute logo. For a small personal store on Etsy, such a out-of-the-box logo may not be a bad idea. However, for growing companies, a logo without any thoughtful research will be just like thousands of others having no originality. It won't do its job connecting customers to the company so it provides no differentiation. The more tailored the logo, the more brand equity and value it will hold. Many of our clients have also experienced having to invest more money to rebrand after purchasing an ineffectual logo.
The current FedEx logo was designed in 1974 by Lindon Leader. Lindon reviewed and discarded 200 other designs. Do you detect the famous subliminal mark in the negative space? Now that’s truly a logo that stays relevant.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
CHOOSING THE RIGHT TYPOGRAPHY Last but not least, fonts are some of the most delicate and important parts of your brand’s visuals. The wrong (or right) font(s) can completely change the style, mood or emotional appeal of your brand. When choosing font families, keep in mind that they will be used throughout the company’s marketing materials—for both on- and off-line use. Consider the following taglines:
Think different. Think different. Think different. Think different. It’s clear that each of these fonts evoke a different feeling. Developing type studies of 10-20 different fonts will help guide your decision on what looks and feels closest to the company’s personality.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
TYPOGRAPHIC RULES Some time-tested rules to follow when picking fonts are: ☑
Pick no more than TWO different typefaces (at most a third, less is more!)
☑ Pair a serif and a sans serif font, one for use in titles/subtitles, and one for use in body paragraphs ☑
Typefaces with different weights (aka, thickness) provide good contrast and interest
A Bodoni, Book, 100pt. Serif.
A Source Sans, Regular, 100pt. Sans serif.
Designmantic created this infographic showing the “Ten Commandments of Type” that provide some additional tips.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
VISUAL BRAND CONSISTENCY More than anything, consistency in presentation is fundemental to having your brand’s visuals stick in customers’ minds.
A brand is a design system: it should give a consistent experience to your customers no matter the platform or media device. Your brand style, color, imagery, typography and logo all combine to form a single brand identity. This means a clearly linked visual presentation for every format, from web to apps, posters to letterheads. The composition, colors, iconography, order of content and even margin size all affect the visual coherency of your brand. Any large differences will dilute the power of your brand and reflect negatively on the company’s attention to quality. Designing a comprehensive Branding Style Guide will dictate the guidelines on logo use, fonts, colors and a host of other necessary instructions to keep the visual brand intact.
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
BRAND ALIGNMENT IS EVERYTHING A strong and clear brand program does not only mean a consistent experience for your clients, but also a consistent experience for your employees, partners and associates.
“All employees are brand ambassadors, even the ones customers don’t see.” –Susan Sorenson & Keri Garman Combining your single brand identity with all the other aspects of our ebooks—your company’s personality, mission, values, goals—and executing it throughout your organization is the definition of brand alignment. A consistent implementation of your brand program throughout the entire company will only strengthen the company’s growth, reputation and morale:
A Gallup research study showed that customers rewarded brand alignment with more than double their wallet share compared to unaligned brands. —Gallup, 2012
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
BRAND IDENTITY CHECKLIST Be sure your visual brand identity... ☐ Represents core concepts of your brand’s position and values ☐ Resonates with your ideal customers and their personas ☐ Is immediately recognizable ☐ Evokes desired emotions from your ideal audience Visual identity components: ☐ Logo varients (full color, black only, reverse, grayscale) ☐ Logo file formats for print and digital (EPS, PNG, JPEG) ☐ Color palette (CMYK, RGB, Hexidecimal) ☐ Typography (1 or 2 font families) ☐ Photography (stock, custom, both) ☐ Illustration, iconography ☐ Textures and patterns ☐ Brand Style Guide: to define consistent treatment across all media:
☐ Marketing materials for web, print, apps etc.
☐ Internal communications (reports, slideshows,
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forms, letters, memos)
☐ Material for resellers, associates, affiliates
The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
THE QUEST FOR A GREAT BRAND THANK YOU
for joining us on this three-part series The Quest for a Great Brand. By implementing these steps, we are confident that you’ve take away something valuable for your company’s Brand Journey. If you have questions about this ebook, or would like us to collaborate with you, please contact us.
You can receive a complimentary consultation from our branding experts: please call us at: 760-729-8205 or click:
Contact Us
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The Quest for a Great Brand Part 3: Brand Identity
Our success is built upon a foundation of brand strategy, marketing and creative design that helps B2B companies reach their business goals. Located near the Pacific Ocean, we stand as a beacon of intelligent design, where creativity is right at home.
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