Do you know the difference between brand design, branding, and corporate design? And what exactly is corporate identity again? In our globalized world, it’s easy to get lost in the jungle of different, especially English-language terminologies.
This post serves as your “digital guide” to this – at least at first glance – very opaque subject area. It also deals with the question of what exactly brand design is and what it has to do with your company.
Brand Design – The Foundation of Branding
If you paid attention in English class, you could derive this much, but you’re still not really much wiser. Brand design and corporate design form the foundation for creating an identity for a company or one of its brands through externally perceivable attributes. Branding, on the other hand, is generally understood as the creation or development of a brand in relation to the underlying personality and how it is meant to be perceived from the outside (reception).
So, strong branding needs good brand design. Because before a brand can be developed, it must first be perceivable. The sum of the values and attributes embodied by a company is referred to as corporate identity. It represents the self-image of a company or individual or how they wish to be seen. This should be distinguished from corporate image, which is how outsiders actually perceive the brand.
Although this is only a brief overview of a very complex subject, it is important to have at least superficially defined the key terms before delving deeper into the topic.
Brand Design Helps to Evoke the Right Associations with the Right People
Simply put: brand design is the visual and verbal aspect of actively building a brand (branding) and forms the basis for creating a unique brand identity. This includes, in particular, key elements such as logo, color and font, visual language, and iconography style. Through these elements, a wealth of information about the brand and its self-understanding can be conveyed with a single glance. This all works without a single word being spoken or read. And in today’s information age, that’s often all we can manage. Every day, our brains are flooded with so much information in the form of videos, images, sounds, and text that we no longer want – or can – absorb most of it.
This is where good brand design comes into play: it gives a brand the “second glance” or (fans of popular TV shows might recognize this) brings us into “recall.” Because a good logo with an interesting color choice, for example, already reveals so much about a brand that we stop in our hectic everyday lives and want to learn more. Is the brand design subtle or intrusive? Does it appear modern or conservative? If the exterior design of a brand appeals to the viewer, it increases recognition value, making it easier for them to identify with it. In the end, a connection between people – whether in a bar, at a private barbecue, or between producers and consumers – is always made through emotions.
Many Minds, One Message – How Brand Books Help Preserve Brand Identity
Even in small businesses, building a unified brand identity can become a challenge when highly individual people work together. While no one should be deprived of their individuality, and in many areas, this is very beneficial, a too heterogeneous company appearance can create the wrong associations for customers and business partners. This is referred to as cognitive dissonance. A brand book helps even a small business stay true to its corporate identity as it grows. It defines which design system is used within the company for various communication interfaces. This prevents a team or field representative from presenting a different appearance than their colleague across the office. How the logo should be placed, the appearance of business cards, or which letterheads to use: all of this must be standardized and documented. Brand books also make it easier for new employees to integrate, as they serve as a reference guide for future projects and save a lot of communication effort.
Best practice – Brand Design
Do you remember the Apple logo from the 90s? While it may no longer meet today’s standards, you can quickly recognize how a small, bold tech company with its first office in a garage has become one of the world’s largest and most successful corporations. This is reflected in their new logo. Whether through product design, visual language, store layout, or even the launch of new products: a unique brand identity can be shaped in many ways and flows into all business areas.
But what does a brand need to do right to be successful in the long term? First, it must work across multiple channels (multichanneling), meaning it should be able to express its color power both on print products and digital screens without losing consistency or unity. On the other hand, the use of dynamic design elements is indispensable, which is why design frameworks (grids) are used. This ensures that your brand identity remains recognizable in every form and on every projection surface.
However, the most important factor remains that your design aligns with your true company identity, especially your business model and the consumer base you want to reach. Using the CEO’s favorite color palette without considering the target audience may win points with the boss but could contribute to an unwanted perception in the long run.
With Branding Agencies to Your Own Brand Identity
Now that you know everything important about brand identity, you should be equipped with the right tools to handle your branding yourself. This might work, but it’s probably just as successful as defending yourself in court. Hiring a professional branding or design agency with experts in each field is definitely the best and safest way to succeed. This post has only scratched the surface of this complex and essential topic, and much of what seems obvious at first is anything but self-explanatory in the details.
In conclusion, one thing remains clear: in today’s battle for your target audience’s attention, strong branding gives you a decisive competitive advantage and provides your brand with an identity.