How to Create a Consistent Brand Identity Through Design
Consistency is not about doing things regularly, it is about doing things correctly. We investigate how design can create a consistent brand identity.
A Brand Is What You Make Of It
A brand identity may be created in a graphic design studio, but it only ever truly exists in the mind of your customers, staff and other stakeholders. The way in which this brand perception is built in their minds is through consistency in communication. Every element of communication from letterheads and emails to social media and websites needs to have the brand identity applied in a consistent manner. The role of design in the shaping of your brand perception is key.
Defining Your Brand Identity
First things first, before you can design or create anything you need to define and agree on the fundamentals. Any time spent to improve your understanding of your brand values, mission, and target audience is of critical value. Only once you gain this understanding can you then consider moving forward to defining the unique selling propositions and key attributes of your brand.
Any market research that you achieve will provide invaluable insight and broaden your understanding of your target audience and market positioning. All of the above can help you develop a brand persona and refine your tone of voice for all communications.
Establishing Design Guidelines
So how do you create and maintain consistency? Have a definitive set of guidelines that cover every aspect of how your brand should be applied, including guidance on colour palette, typography, and imagery style. The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure not only that the basics are applied correctly, such as logo usage and placement, but that your brand style is expressed correctly through the use of visual elements and photography.
Crafting a Memorable Logo
A significant amount of importance should be placed on the correct design and application of your logo. As the masthead of your brand, your logo needs to embody your brand values and reflect your brand’s personality. Through the correct choice of colours, fonts, and shapes your logo should be scalable and adapt across all platforms or channels.
Designing Branded Collateral
Some brand guidelines are quite short documents that focus on just the basics, whilst others go into great detail about how to apply the brand consistently and may even include guidance on the use of templates for marketing materials (e.g., brochures, flyers).
Whilst the shorter form of the brand book may be ideal for the application of a brand identity to stationery (e.g., business cards, letterheads) it may struggle when trying to create a cohesive visual identity across digital platforms.
Implementing Consistent Web Design
As mentioned above, designing a user-friendly and visually cohesive website requires guidance on a brand identity that goes beyond the basics of incorporating consistent branding elements e.g., logos, colours etc. Brand guidelines that provide directions on the tone of voice, preferred CTA’s and use of imagery will ensure a seamless user experience across devices.
Monitoring and Adapting
One of the most significant benefits of a cohesive set of brand identity guidelines is when it comes to reviewing and assessing brand consistency. Regularly monitoring your brand through auditing using your guidelines can make sure your brand stays consistent and not diluted or disjointed.
The other purpose of regularly monitoring and assessing your brand is essential as it will provide critical feedback on how to adapt and evolve in the future. Brands need to maintain relevance and seeking regular feedback from customers and stakeholders can provide relevant and actionable insights. Evolving and adapting the brand identity over time is the only way your brand can
In Conclusion
So when it comes to the subject of how to create a consistent brand identity through design, the key points include:
- Establish your core brand values, mission and goals
- Capture this insight in a definitive set of brand guidelines
- Ensure your Logo embodies your brand
- Use the guidelines you have created across ALL channels
- Monitor your consistency and adapt & evolve if necessary
As you can see there is an ever-present theme when it comes to delivering a consistent brand identity and that is to stick to the rules. A professionally crafted brand identity is only the start, it needs to have the same professional approach to application to ensure it is applied correctly. In doing so any changes will be part of a well-considered design-driven brand evolution for long-term success, rather than short-term misapplication.
