Creating a visual brand identity

What is a visual identity?

When trying to find how to create your company logo, you have probably entered the phrase “company logo” in an internet search engine, or some similar formulation, at least once. But even if you haven’t, you understand that we are talking about creating a logo that represents your business.

Basically, the overall brand identity includes its visual and verbal components. As the word implies, the visual element includes everything that is “visible” in the brand identity system.

The logo may be the most well-known and prominent part of visual identity, but it’s definitely not its only aspect. Specifically, visual identity encompasses the basic graphic standards of a brand, which include:

Brand-specific colours
Specific typography or type font
Characteristic shapes
Accompanying elements of visual identification

Why is visual identity important?

Simply put, because it represents the first touchpoint between a potential customer and your brand. Visual identity is created and built up in “the head and the heart” of customers, which is why it is necessary to create an emotional connection between people and your brand.

There are six components to creating visual identity that also reveal its importance.

/ The “face” of your brand

How your brand appears should go beyond a simple aesthetic component. It should be connected to the essence of your product or service and associated with an emotion that you want your brand to evoke in the prospect.

/ Credibility and trust

An established brand that is recognizable on the market is only half-way to the finish line. It is necessary to establish consistency, with the same visuals and same brand experience across all touch points with the brand, as this is the basis for developing customer trust. Therefore, all visual elements should perform like a well-played orchestra.

/ Recognition in advertising

The brand’s visual identity should always have the same look and feel across all promotional channels, be it print, online, TV, video commercials, and such. The customer must undoubtedly recognize your brand on all communication platforms, across all channels.

/ Attracting new buyers and customer retention

A trusted brand attracts new potential customers, who seek and identify with the emotions and values that the brand represents. Once such individuals become customers of the brand, the same visual identity helps to give them an additional sense of belonging to certain values, transforming them into brand ambassadors. Their value is of utmost importance for business growth and market expansion, but it all starts with a well-crafted visual identity.

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How to create a visual identity?

In our design studio, visual identity is often the result of a well-thought-out brand strategy. That includes market research, a detailed analysis of potential customers, studying of the founders’ motives for starting a company, as well as its business goals and plans, brand personality, and creation of a specific brand experience and emotional connection with customers.

There are three basic premises that we keep in mind when creating a new visual identity; it needs to be:

Unique and original – a creative solution must first and foremost be tailored to the client, creating differentiation from competitors.
Memorable – to make a brand identity easily memorable and recognizable, we are always guided by the idea of simplifying the business concept. The goal is to create brand identity recognition in an instant.
Consistent through different elements – every marketing and brand touchpoint needs to be aligned in its visuals, to have a streamlined appearance across different media, again creating a recognizable image.

Elements of visual identity

The logo

The most important part of visual identity needs to be carefully thought out, because it is an element that will be present virtually everywhere – from business cards, envelopes, documents and brochures, to website, advertisements or huge billboards on urban surfaces.

It should have several variants, so that it can be adjusted to both horizontal and vertical compositions, and be adaptable to different needs and platforms.

Take a look at the logo we created for the Croatian Institute of Public Health in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.

Colour palette

The most important entity when choosing a colour palette is that the colours selected are consistent and well-matched. The colours that accompany your visual identity will also determine the much wider use of colours, such as in website design, office decoration, etc. The colour choices must match the brand personality, just as…

Typography (font)

The font of type that will be used in all your materials is also an important element of your visual identity; certainly, something that also must be aligned with the brand personality. For example, choosing a font type for a law firm probably won’t be the same as that for a kindergarten.

The Ludwig Dental Clinic, for which we did visual identity, chose royal blue shades as opposed to gold and pearl shades, woven into every promotional asset, from the name plate to the decorative bag. The typography is also elegant, aligning with the brand and the target audience.

Accompanying elements

What are accompanying elements of visual identity? They are, for example, textures used on envelopes or forms, business cards, or on a website. They can also be photos, carefully aligned with the entire style of your chosen brand identity. This section may also include illustrations and symbols.

The visual identity we developed for a franchise business featuring imaginative beverages, Bora Bora from Kuwait, included a series of cute symbols and illustrations, reminiscent of the “candy store” aesthetic, which is aligned with that particular brand.

Once the visual identity has been established, we document all its elements in a book of graphic standards, which is a set of “rules” for all current and future branding implementations that aim to display the same brand identity.