How to create a brand identity
A step-by-step process
What is a brand identity and what does it consist of?
A brand identity is the face of a brand, every visual element you see that makes up the company. It consists of the logo design -and all of its variations-, the colors and the typefaces used, patterns, packaging (although often it’s not included in a brand identity bundle and it’s charged extra), imagery and icons, social media designs, stationary like business cards and flyers, etc.
Now let’s see what the steps to create a brand identity are!
Step 1: Know the brand’s goals, vision, and personality
Step 2: Research the target audience & the competition
Step 3: Start designing the main elements of the brand identity
Step 4: Choose the colors and the type
Step 5: Check for errors and clean up the design
Step 6: Put everything in mockups
Step 7: Create the presentation
1. Know the brand’s goals, vision, and personality
Every brand identity design process should start with this step. Knowing what the brand’s goals, vision, and personality are will help you understand where the brand wants to be in the future and what they want to achieve. Your designs should help that brand reach its goals and not just make it aesthetic.
Any designer who believes that design is there to make a brand pretty and aesthetic is a failed designer. Now, don’t get me wrong, design CAN and SHOULD make a brand aesthetic as well because customer attraction is very important, but that’s not its primary job. As a designer, you are a problem solver.
2. Research the target audience & the competition
Research is a vital step of the process. Knowing who the target audience is will help you understand who you’re creating for, and who the brand wants to attract and please. Knowing who the competition is will help you understand how the brand can differentiate from them and stand out, what strategies work in a certain market, what are the do’s and don’ts, and what mistakes they’ve made that the brand can avoid.
If you want to learn how to do proper research on the target audience and the competition, there are plenty of books and articles online that can help with that.
3. Start designing the main elements of the brand identity
With all the information that you just got from your client, it’s time to put them to good use. I always start with the logo design and that’s what I’d advise you to do as well. It’s easier and more efficient to create the identity around the logo rather than create the logo based on the identity.
Before you start designing the logo you should consider where it will be used. This will dictate how simple it should be.
I always like to sketch concepts before I commit to anything. It gives me a rough idea of what works for this particular brand and what doesn’t. You might prefer sketching the old school way with a pencil on paper or digitally but whatever you choose always remember to start out with black and white. Color will be added later on in the process so as to not affect your decision on the design.
4. Choose the colors and the type
Now’s the time to add colors! Don’t get overly excited though. Yes, this step is fun but it also needs research. Color psychology plays a huge role in how a customer perceives a product, how it affects their mood, and if it makes them want to buy it.
Different colors also have different meanings in certain countries. For example, in France yellow signifies jealousy and weakness, but in China it signifies power and prosperity.
The same thing applies to type. Different cultures give different meanings to typefaces and fonts. That’s why it’s important to create based on facts, research, and logic before emotion.
I would recommend using between 1–4 colors and 1–3 typefaces. If you decide to use more than one color you should know how to combine them effectively so they complement each other. This also applies to typefaces.
5. Check for errors and clean up the design
Before creating the presentation you should always double-check for errors in the designs. You might find errors in the copy or even the design itself. Lines that shouldn’t be there, shapes that might not be exactly how you want them to be, colors might be a bit off, etc.
You should also clean up the design to make it easier to use by either your clients or any other designers that might use it in the future. Name your layers, delete unnecessary anchor points, group things together, etc.
6. Put everything in mockups
Finding the right mockups for your designs can be quite challenging, but it always rewards you well. Now you might be asking: “how can finding the right mockups reward me?”. Well, your reward might be fewer revisions or a happier and more satisfied client which can result in better word-of-mouth recommendations and/or back-to-back projects.
High-quality, industry-specific mockups will always do the job. I always like to do 4–5 industry-specific mockups and 2–3 general mockups like shirts, hats, pins, paper, etc.
7. Create the presentation
The final presentation, the one that you’ll send to the client, needs to have a great flow and present everything well. I always like to start from the main logo and its variations, then add the colors and the type, patterns, icons, and then everything else. I like to add mockups in between every section to show how everything will work in real life.
One thing you’ll need to remember when creating brand identities is that you need to be consistent with the visuals that you use across the brand. For example, your packaging needs to evoke the same feelings as your posters or your social media content.
