Before implementing a brand identity design for any company, we have to ask ourselves some questions, especially that you will create something from scratch. The identity that you will create will be the main identifier for the brand for decades to come. Perhaps the designer will leave our world and the identity will remain. The brand identity can be described as exclusivity, you have to make something unique, learn from everyone who has designed before you, and eventually create a better design than them.
The branding design reflects the company’s culture and approach, reflects its values and philosophy at work, tells its story and predicts its future, all without any texts in the matter, through colors, illustrations, symbols and graphics, you can establish a brand in the minds of its customers, and make it more vibrant, and now we will define The meaning of brand identity and what is the importance of brand design for your business, then we talk about the questions that the designer should ask before starting work.
What is meant by brand identity?
Before we get into the details of brand identity design, we must first ask ourselves, what is a brand identity?
Very briefly, it is a set of elements that put the company in the right position in which it wants the world to see it. Through it, the brand image may be the result of the brand design process, and the brand identity may be the same as the visual identity, but the former may be more comprehensive, the brand identity also combines the tone of voice, and the formal, fun or friendly way in which you speak.
The term brand identity refers to the visually harmonious and highly compatible visual products that establish their position in the minds of their customers, and make them create a mental association between your products and your brand, that is, it is the visual embodiment of the form of your relationship with your customers.
The importance of creating a brand identity design
The function of the commercial identity or its fundamental importance is to distinguish the brand from the rest of the competitors, highlight it among them, impose it on the market, and raise it in the field in which it operates, in addition to enhancing the positive perspective if it exists, or creating this positive perspective from the beginning, these may be unimportant matters For most business owners who are interested in pure trade and focus on the products and services they provide, but unless you are a monopoly on these services and products, and there is no one to provide them in the market but you, creating a brand design is not a luxury.
4 Questions a Designer Should Ask Before Designing a Brand Identity
Now… the client asked you to design a unique identity for his business, and you probably only know the name of the company for which you will design the identity, and you do not know where to start. What kind of questions should you ask yourself and the client before starting the design?
1- What is the unique value of this brand?
Creating a branding identity design starts with an understanding of the unique value you provide and that can be integrated into the business identity in a way that depends on indirectness, we do not say highlighting it, but integrating it so that the customer can feel it indirectly.
2- What is the company’s philosophy?
The business identity must embody the company’s philosophy and values. If you open the company profile, you will find that there are values based on it, and there is a philosophy that the workflow follows, and the skill of a great designer is how he can embody these texts, which depend on illustrations, icons and colors.
3- Who is the target audience?
The decisions that you will make in designing the identity of the brand are determined by the target audience, meaning that any business that offers products or services has a target segment to which it is directed, what colors and symbols it attracts, and what kind of messages it should convey to it, through this it is possible to form an idea of how You can design a business identity for a company.
4- What is the identity of the competitors?
If there are no competitors, you do not need a unique identity, as long as you alone provide the service or products that people need, they will search for you and you do not need to search for them, but by 99% you provide products or services that you have a lot of competitors for, and if not Now, tomorrow you will find someone to compete with you, so you should study the identities of the successful competitors, and how they were able to attract the audience, to know more about the attractive elements in this field.
5 Steps to Create a Brand Identity Design
After you have done your research and studied your competitors, studied the brand well, and prepared a comprehensive file for everything related to it, now we move on to the main points that we must recognize when designing a corporate brand identity, these steps are an arrangement of the elements that must form the identity body.
1- Start with pencil and paper
First start experimenting on paper, use paper and pencil to help you visualize, you can start with the design program at first but to make the work look more original, start by pouring out your ideas and imaginations on paper, put everything in your head first on paper, make notes about the reason you prefer this idea over others, do not tire yourself with thinking about one idea for more than 5 minutes, the importance here is to empty what is in your head completely … Then, choose the most appropriate to try it on the design program.
2- Select 3 colors
Design is a game of elimination, after you have completely emptied everything in your head, you will find that you have 3 ideas, put them with a pin on the wall in front of you, and start by identifying 3 colors, 3 specific degrees that you will follow in logo design, you will stick to them in all design products, colors are the most important element It is visible in the identity, because it conveys certain psychological effects to customers, and according to the field in which the company operates, and according to the target group of products or services, and according to the messages that the brand wants to convey to its customers, it chooses colors.
3- Design the logo
The logo is the crown jewel in any brand identity design process. It is a very important point in the design. The first thing that your customer’s eye will see is the logo. When he hears about your company, services or products, he will enter to look for you, and most likely he will encounter you for the first time with your brand logo and most likely it will be the most thing that will become It stuck in his mind, so you should embody the values and mission of the brand in this logo.
4- Choose Fonts
Many brands choose two fonts mostly, to write the texts of the brand. These fonts are chosen according to the nature of the business, and the tone of voice directed to the customers. With a specific typography, which is the artistic way in which fonts are designed
5- Apply your designs
Now you have an opportunity to apply the branding identity design to the things that are used as a medium to display your identity, for example, you can apply it on a banner, on a cup, on a folder, on social media designs, to test whether it is appropriate or not, as the identity must be suitable for all company products, and their colors It is expressive, because it will appear even in internal correspondence and invoices, and therefore it must be attractive and unforgettable.
In order to create a brand identity design for your company or your brand, you can now contact Ocoda Design, because we have a selection of the best designers who are experts in corporate brand design, feel free to contact us and let us discuss your upcoming attractive designs.
