How to Create a Brand Design Identity
If you are looking for help creating a brand identity or if your company is in need of a rebrand, you’re in the right place. We’re here to guide you through creating a brand design identity, what it is, the creation process, some relevant guidelines and examples of some of our brand identity work. Let us help you make this journey easy and pain free.
What is a Brand Design Identity
A brand identity describes a company. It represents internal characteristics about “who” the brand is, its essence and personality, plus external characteristics, which are the visual elements bringing the internal traits to life through design.
A brand’s visual characteristics are far more immediate than its internal ones, that’s why design is so relevant. If the external doesn’t capture the essence of the brand, it becomes much more difficult to convince consumers that the brand is authentic.
Creating a Brand Design Identity - The Process
Appetite Creative has worked with several brands in rebranding, which entails creating new brand identities. Through these projects, we have developed tried and tested processes to create strong brand identities.
Branding Workshop
Creating a brand identity that is strong and effective requires a few steps. The success of your brand will rely on well-defined values from the start. A key first step in creating a brand identity is running a branding workshop.
A branding workshop will give you the opportunity to define your brand's vision (how you see yourself in the future), voice (how you communicate with your audience) and values (what you stand for, your essence). These core values will be the ground level foundations to develop your brand.
Language
Then, we develop a strong consistent visual language that connects and engages your target audience, making the brand stand out among competitors by reflecting your USPs. We work on connecting specific words, ideas to your company or product. The right word choice and tone of voice are fundamental to developing a language for a brand.
Brand Book
Here we are able to build the brand book, the set of rules for the band. Finally, when it all comes together, we roll out the new brand across all owned assets including digital and non-digital platforms to ensure the brand has a consistent look and feel across print materials and digital media.
Brand Design Identity Guidelines
Brand design identity guidelines are in essence an instruction manual and rule book, also called “brand book”, focusing on how to communicate your brand. The guidelines include all the visual details and important aspects about the company’s voice, tone, and messaging. They can come in the form of a physical or digital booklet showcasing examples of what to do and what not to do.
In the brand book, you will generally find the company’s logos, color palette, typography, imagery, and tone of voice. Having brand design identity guidelines are extremely important to ensure that the company’s brand image stays consistent across all existing channels no matter which member of the team or external agency is creating assets for you. In the long run, this will allow your company to create an authentic and reliable image, generating brand loyalty.
Examples of Strong Brand Design Identity for Business
For example, our client Hitachi wanted to display their internal manifesto in a new and cool way. To achieve that, we designed and created a comic book taking the reader through their manifesto, what they do, and how they can help.
MeMo2 needed a refreshed and modern update of their brand. We decided to play with the existing colours and change the font into a bolder one. The business cards needed stand out and reflect seriousness, yet with a modern approach to the brand. For that, we went for a classy, minimal look and combined the new colours into a gradient for the background.
The DMA Institute was looking for a full rebrand aiming to enter new markets and generate sales. We sought a non-aggressive color contrast for its brand image, to distinguish both the human and technology elements of the brand and represent these two facets while differentiating from the competition in a clear and positive way.
We took on the challenge and reinvigorated the logo, created a tag line, and devised the brand-book, a beautifully cohesive set of strong materials reflecting the personality and professionalism of the brand.
Hire the Brand Design Identity Experts
Let our team of branding specialists elevate your brand’s look and feel while distinguishing you in the market from your competitors.