12 Tips for Creation of the Visual Identity of Your Brand
The visual identity of a company, as well as the website, are essential for a brand since they can affect its results in every way and at all levels. This is because a brand manages to distinguish itself from the other, position itself in the market, gain ground, and, therefore, sell more through visual identity.
Creating the visual identity and extrapolating it to the website is somewhat challenging but can be done properly with the right guidance. Today I will tell you 12 points that can help you create them.
1. Colors
One of the most important points to consider is the color palette with which you want to associate your brand. Knowing how to create your color palette following guidelines such as what your company sells or the target market is important.
And you should know that color affects people, which is known as color psychology. Taking colors into account is very important to create the best identity for a brand and also, to make the most of all the potential that the company may have.
2. Typography for visual identity
Another important point to consider is typography, that is, the type of font that is used both to create the logo and for the texts. Just as colors affect the brand, typography also has an effect on it and on people’s perceptions.
So once you have determined what colors you will use in your brand, it is important to define what typography you will carry out. Some fonts are simple, and others are more elaborate, fonts are cursive, and fonts are mechanical in style. Each brand can use its own style depending on the personality, the philosophy, the brand’s style, the public it is aimed at, etc.
3. Brand Personality
Brand personality is what you want to communicate and how you want to communicate it through your brand. Basically, it defines your style and how it will behave in the market. Just as people have their own personalities, brands do too.
A brand can be fun, or it can be serious, and it can be cool, formal, traditional, etc. All this will depend on what your brand wants to communicate. It is important to learn how to create a brand personality in order to take full advantage of this concept.
4. Objectives
Every identity must have an objective, as well as the website and channels to be used. It is useless to create something to be created if it does not have a purpose, so you must define the objectives to follow for your company will be.
The first thing you must define is the objectives as a brand since these will allow you to guide its communication. With defined brand objectives, you will know how to execute business objectives and how to meet them. If you don’t, the risk is that you’ll end up shooting blind.
5. Market
The market will be one of the main guides for this process, and this is because the brand must be designed for the market and not vice versa. If you already know the market, then you can think of a free website builder to create your website when you start. But when your business has grown, and you have more resources, the ideal is to hire a professional to develop your website and a copywriter to create persuasive texts to convert. Before doing this, you must know the market.
One of the most serious mistakes is creating a brand without knowing what the market wants, what it needs, or what guides its behavior, habits, needs, and how it consumes content. It’s like selling meat to a vegan. A terrible mistake!
6. Creative team for visual identity
Believe it or not, the creative team is one of the most important parts when creating a company’s identity and website. This is because the creative team will be in charge of gathering all the ideas and values of the brand to ground them in something concrete.
To guarantee the best results, it is very important that you take into account which will be in charge of starting this process. You can always do it yourself, although it is recommended to do it in the hands of experts who know about design and branding.
7. Your turn as a company
You should know that the company’s line of business is another key to consider when creating your brand’s visual identity. If you sell food, then your brand identity should be consistent with the food.
Analyze how brands are currently seen. Food companies have one style, technology companies another, funeral companies, banks, etc. They all have their own styles. This way, you can see how a company’s line of business influences the colors it will choose, the typography, and the personality, among other points.
8. The competition
Although this should not be the main factor when designing your company image or visual identity, it should be taken into account. And it is that the competition can dictate the line that the industry or segment follows, especially if it is the dominant one.
It is enough to see how MasterCard opted for minimalism for a chain of banking and financial companies to opt for this type of design. So knowing how the industry leader is dictating the line is a plus to watch.
9. Legal guidelines
The legal guidelines are essential when evaluating what will be the style that will guide your brand. In Mexico, for example, it is not allowed to use pets or cartoons in your image, so this is very important when choosing which image to project through your visual identity.
So before you sit down and start designing, it is important to check what are the legal guidelines that will affect the design and communication of your brand. In this section, having a lawyer is very important to give you greater precision and details about legal issues and regulations or standards.
10. Psychology in the visual identity of your brand
Contrary to what many might think, psychology is essential when designing. This is because psychology will dictate how that image or identity will affect people and the results it will generate. Using a formal logo is not the same as using a cartoon, for example.
At this point, color and the effects it has on the target audience, as well as fonts, are also taken into account. In this way, it will be possible to control the effect that the identity could have, guaranteeing that it is really useful and profitable.
11. Channels
The channels in which a company’s visual identity will be applied are a factor to keep in mind since each has its own characteristics. Social media, for example, doesn’t work the same as a website or a banner on an outdoor billboard.
It is very important to consider which channels the company is in, to determine how to adapt the visual identity and the channels, making the most of their potential. Similarly, taking into account some digital tools is important to reduce the risk of the visual identity becoming out of phase with the channel.
12. Strategy
Finally, it is important to know and plan what the strategy behind each company is, as this will influence when it comes to the positioning of the image. It is not the same to position the image of your company on social networks as in a newspaper, for example.
So before designing your company’s image and website, you must assess how you will position it or what strategy you will follow. Remember the personality point? All this goes hand in hand since the strategy is also based on personality and undoubtedly affects the moment of creating the visual identity.
