Elements Needed for a Comprehensive Brand Identity Design

Every human being is different from the other and everyone has a very unique and distinctive identity. Similarly, each brand is different from the other and the reason why one brand sells more than the other is the ‘Brand Identity.’ It is the most important factor which sets your brand apart from the rest and influences the marketing and the sales of any business or brand. In this article we discuss Elements Needed for a Comprehensive Brand Identity Design.

Brand identity has never mattered more than now when the marketing has spread worldwide. The competition is relentless and the stakes are really high in the brand identity design game.

No matter how wide the whole landscape of designing may seem; everything spirals down to a few basic elements that make up an all-inclusive design that sets a brand apart from its competitors. The most essential elements needed for a comprehensive brand identity design are discussed below:

Table of Contents

Logo

The most important element that is the requirement of a trendy brand identity is the logo. This small graphical image is the cornerstone that communicates to your clients and the world of marketing what your brand is about. It is the display window of your brand as it can be posted anywhere from packaging to a marketing campaign. To understand the power of a logo, just close your eyes and think of ‘Apple Inc.’ instantly a ‘bitten apple’ comes to your mind. Classic brands like Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and Starbucks all exude the powerful impact of a timeless logo. When it comes to the logo of your business, the following checklist should be ticked off.

Coherent Communication: A Logo should express very clearly what your brand means and what it is about.
Simple, Clean and Uncluttered: Clear and precise designs are always eye-catching and remain a classic choice. Uniformity is essential to a logo design
Make a Deep-rooted Impression: Choose the right color combinations, and lines and curves for your logo so that the final piece would leave a deep impression on the audience’s mind.

Wordmark

Whether it is the hocus pocus style ‘HP’, or ‘CNN’, ‘PEPSI’, or ‘FedEx’, or ‘Disney’ all these have one thing in common. They represent their brand’s names. The way these designs are written may seem like a logo but they are actually a Wordmark. Of course, it can be used as a logo too. However, the Wordmark is a unique and professional way to represent the name of your company.

A Woodmark should have the following attributes:

Professionally designed
Professional Typeset
Can stand alone
Be part of the logo

Key Colours

Psychology of colours does not play an important anywhere as much as it does when it comes to brand identity. Colours define your brand. Can you imagine the colour red without thinking of Coca Cola or McDonald’s in any other colour but yellow? Or the multiple colour palette that comes to mind when you think about Google or CNBC. A colour is what attracts you to the brand and represents its psychology as well. To create an impact that will become an unforgettable part of your customer’s memory, use a colour or a palette of colours that truly identifies with your brand.

Some of the basic things you need to remember when it comes to the key colours of your logo:

Simplicity – One to maximum three colours are best. (Google is exceptional)
Primary Colours – It is best if you go for primary colours
Be Unconventional – If you are bold enough, play with some additional colour palette of secondary colours.
Tints and Hues – You can always go for a variety of bold, bright, cool, pastels; whatever complements your brand.

Typographic Faces

Picking the typography that truly resonates with your brand is extremely important. A font that harmonizes with the chosen colour/s and your logo is a very important element when it comes to comprehensive brand identity. The power of fonts cannot be denied when it comes to a brand’s design. It is best to use a single typeface from the primary choices – keeping it simple is the key to really make it all authoritative.

A few things that should be considered where typography of a logo is concerned:

Simple Fonts – Fonts should be simple and readable.
Uncluttered –Stick to two fonts maximum and try mixing contrasting ones.
Size & Alignment – Size matters. Having the right size and length is important for legibility. The text should be aligned to the left for easy reading.
Character Limit & Caps – 60 characters per line without hyphens is great. All-caps is a complete no-no too.

All these rules are important but if you want to break them, you need to learn the ropes first and then beat the system.

Bank on Graphics

A brand identity remains incomplete without the right texture, a-line style, design assets, icons, photographs and usage of white space or colour blocks. All these things are part of your graphics and graphic elements are something that you need to bank on constantly. The multimedia world is nothing without the graphics and thus, the importance of graphics and the visual language becomes ultra-important for the brand identity.

Here are some important tips with regard to graphic elements:

Create a Graphic Bank – Create your own bank of graphic designs, templates, icons, and imagery, etc. Premade Templates and designs are copyrighted and you are not permitted to use their imagery everywhere.
Hire a Professional – The problem arises when you try to design on your own without having ample experience. A professional designer is proficient at what he or she does. They also have the right tools and an aesthetic for design that you may lack.
Cohesive Look – Professional designers can provide you with a cohesive look for your brand identity but don’t compromise until you are truly satisfied with what you are looking at.

Discussed above are all the fundamental elements needed for a comprehensive brand identity design. Of course, there are more factors and they are always evolving but these are the basics that can truly help you create your identity and presence across various platforms including social media.

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Author Bio
Waqas D. is the senior partner and co-founder of FullStop®, a digital design agency and web’s top destination for branding & web services. For more than 10 years, Waqas has successfully helped a wide range of businesses with amazing brand identities.

Also published on Medium.