Nowadays there is sharp competition between businesses and as such, it is necessary to develop a strong brand identity so that your business can stand out from rest of the competition. Unique brand identity also helps customers easily recognize your business and helps your achieve success. A Nielsen survey reveals the fact that almost 58% of consumers like to purchase new products from businesses or brands they are familiar with.
We will explore the creative stages of brand identity design so that it becomes easier for your business to develop a strong brand identity.
Creative Stages of Brand Identity Design
Branding design should be such that it works like a visual representation of your business and helps in augmenting credibility of your company.
During brand identity design an agency/designer has to improve aesthetic aspects of branding elements and focus on message your brand delivers. The Agency would also needs to analyze your business goals, analyze your target audience and streamline the task of branding design with your business goals.
Stage 1: Analysis of Goals and Personality
Understanding the goals of a business is the first thing that a agency/designer does when it starts working on designing your brand's image. This way they have clear knowledge of path they have to take while developing brand identity for your business.
With understanding of your business goals, the designers try to comprehend likely reaction consumers will have to branding design. For this purpose they make use of psychology in design and analyze user behavior. By using different psychology principles they are able to create brand identity that will be able to communicate with your prospective customers.
Stage 2: Market Research
The second stage of brand identity design consist of proper market research. The market research is done to understand the peculiarities and complexities that can play a role in success or failure of the branding initiatives that are been taken for your business.
You could also look at your competitor(s) and research to better understand how they have developed their brand identity so that all the information can be used to develop a strong brand identity can be developed for your business that will help you stand out from the rest.
Stage 3: Logo Design
An important part of brand identity design is logo design. Your logo stands for your brand's image and helps customers easily recognize your business. The agency or designer selects the color palette and style direction that will be appropriate for your company.
Designers focus on different tasks such as creative research, and preparation of style guide so that everyone knows the right as well as wrong cases of use of logo.
After the logo is designed, the agency carries out necessary testing to make sure the logo looks good when used on different surfaces and environments. It is not enough for the logo to look proper only on digital platforms. As such, they check whether logo will work in all types of placements and situations to avoid unpleasant surprises later on.
Stage 4: Development of Visual Elements
Apart from logo, the agency/designer will concentrate on other visual elements of your brand identity, which include typography and imagery.
Another aspect that designers pay attention to is the typography. Oftentimes, logos are developed by using typography or have certain fonts in it. By using custom fonts they bring in uniqueness for your brand and help users easily identify your business.
The agency/designer also ensures that business cards, banners, correspondences, and similar other medium of communication carries the same branding initiatives to deliver consistent message across different channels.
Stage 5: Creation of Style Guide
This step is necessary to ensure branding efforts deliver expected results and the assets are utilized properly. The agency/designer creates the style guide consisting of instructions on how to properly use the branding elements developed for your business. The style guide also provides details of concept that has been used for creation of the logo and how the color palette is to be used. It also includes examples of wrong application of brand identity elements so that incorrect usage can be avoided.
Stage 6: Develop Harmony of Style
The final task involves development of harmony of style. There are many branded items that a business uses and it is the task of designers that there is harmony of style in each of these branded items so that same branding message is delivered by these items.
Some of these branding items include:
Business Card: A part of business communication, the business card should have all the branding elements to represent your business in right manner.
Correspondences: Envelopes, letterheads, and similar other means of correspondence should carry similar branding style to make them more professional.
Outdoor Adverts: These outdoor adverts such as banners are often the primary touch-points with prospective customers and as such, they must utilize branding message to make it easier to customers to identify your business.
Accessories: Clothing accessories such as hats and other items can be used by employees and help to deliver your marketing message. When these accessories carry your brand identity elements, they help in spreading the word about your brand.
As we can see, brand identity development is a complex task where you will have to consider different aspects to achieve desired results. If you want to make your brand stand out, then give us a call or email us, and we will develop a strong brand identity strategy that perfectly matches your business objectives.