Why Your Brand Needs More than Just a Logo

Branding 101

What’s in a Brand?

Brand identity design serves a purpose beyond just looking pretty. There is strategy behind the appealing visuals that serves your business in the best way possible. A brand is more than just a logo. The main logo mark is what sets up the rest of the design elements which stem from the original logo, but the reason behind the logo design comes from the business’ purpose, goal and story. Branding tells a story and is consistent across all platforms. This way your brand becomes familiar, trustworthy and recognizable. You want people to think and feel a specific way or emotion when they see or interact with your brand, which is the visual representation of the meaning behind your business.

Branding should be seen as a very worthwhile and important investment. You are investing in the visuals of your business which will represent what your business is about and showcase how it is presented to everyone who sees it. Having more than just a logo will serve your business better in the long run because you’ll have everything you need in order to expand your brand identity to any medium, application or product you would need! Good brand design focuses on your business’ strategy and telling your story. That can’t be achieved with a quickly made logo in only one version. There are several main components that make up a well formed brand.

The visual aspects that make up brand identity design are:

Primary Logo
Secondary Logo
Submark Logo
Color Palette
Fonts
Elements/Icons/Patterns/Illustrations

Branding Tells a Story

Think of your favorite brand. See an image come to mind? A certain feeling? Emotion? Why do you like this brand? What’s the purpose behind the business? How do you feel when you interact with the brand or buy their products? You know that feeling you get when you enter a store, restaurant, etc. and it just feels exactly like what the business is about? That’s good branding ;) The meaning behind the business needs to be represented though visual identity and those visuals help spark the feeling people get when they think or interact with your brand. The story behind a brand is what makes each business unique and therefore the branding unique. Good storytelling is achieved through graphics and visuals and sets the scene for the WHY behind the business.

Consistency is Key

You know the phrase “on brand”? Sticking to the essence + vibe of the brand is very important when building a brand identity and having it be carried throughout all aspects overtime. That’s why a color palette, fonts, illustrations and the overall design aesthetic is carefully curated in the beginning of the design process so it becomes the blue print for all future brand applications. Good brand design is always consistent. The vibe and look of the brand should be the same on the website as it is on social media and paper collateral. The business card needs to match, print mailers and email marketing need to look like it belongs to the same brand too! This is probably the most important reason why your brand needs more than just a logo, because how else would you expand the brand to all applications you would need and still have people recognize it as the same brand? Consistency is the key to building customer awareness, trust and recognizability. Which is everything you could ever want!

Logo Variations

The main logo is needed in a variety of different sizes and variations for different applications. Sometimes a horizontal version of the logo is needed (like for a website landing page banner) compared to a stacked vertical version (which would be good for stationery) and vice versa. A submark logo is great for an Instagram profile and to decorate throughout a website and to use on marketing materials.

Primary Logo - The main mark/logo for your brand that best represents your business.
Secondary Logo - Supporting logos that are based off the primary logo and are a variety of different layout orientations to fit a variety of applications where the primary logo may not be the best fit.
Submark Logo - A condensed version of the logo as an illustration or typographic mark that represents the primary logo. Gives variety to the brand when displayed across different platforms.

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