What

is Brand Identity Design?

Brand identity is what makes a company noticeable. Learn how to
develop a top brand identity design for your startup or business.

✨ They Make Design ✨

Mar 18 · 8 min read

When you think of identity, you think about the attributes that make someone the
person they are. The parts of themselves that make them unique. Their identity can
include the sort of person they are — their sense of humor, their personality, the things
they think and believe — as well as the way they present themselves to the world — the
way they dress, their general style, and any other badges they may choose to display.

A brand identity is no different, but instead of pertaining to an individual, a brand

identity describes a company or a product line, or both. A brand identity is the entirety
of a brand’s expression of itself to the world. So how does a brand accomplish this? How
do we think of identity in terms of companies or products? And how can your business
benefit from a comprehensive, cohesive identity?

The Two Facets of Brand Identity

Like a person, a brand’s identity can be defined through internal characteristics, or
features that describe the sort of “person” a brand is on the inside, and external
characteristics, or visual features that describe how the brand looks and presents itself
to the world.

Expanding the analogy, the internal characteristics of a brand — the values it espouses
and the personality it prefers informs its external characteristics. A person that really
enjoys country music is fairly likely to make clothing choices that reflect this preference
as a signal to other people. Same with brands. A brand that considers itself eco-
conscious is fairly likely to make logo choices that reflect this in order to signal
consumers of that particular value.
How these two facets relate to each other can be the deciding factor on whether a
brand’s identity is successfully communicated or not. A brand’s external characteristics
are far more immediate than its internal ones. If these don’t adequately capture the
essence of the brands “inner life” then it becomes much more difficult to convince
consumers that the brand is what it says it is.

What Defines a Brand’s Internal Identity?

A brand’s internal identity can be defined by many of the same characteristics we define
individual identity by. This is because a brand identity is intended to accomplish the
same thing. By defining a brand identity we’re attempting to tell the world what it is
that makes the brand unique. We’re trying to create a robust image in people’s minds of
what the business is all about. What they do, how they do it, and WHY they do it. What
they feel about what they do.

The best way to think about a brand identity is to

imagine the brand as a person and then consider
how that person would express themselves.

Brand Personality
When customers interact with a brand, “who” are they interacting with? If the brand
were a person, what sort of person would it be? Excited and friendly or sophisticated
and reserved? The personality of a brand relates directly to the sort of person your
brand is trying to cater to, and the sort of person they expect the brand to be. A luxury
car brand would have a very different personality than a late-night cookie delivery
service. That’s because they’re catering to different people with different preferences,
and these markets have certain expectations for the types of “people” these brands
should be.

Brand Voice
Related to a brand’s personality is its voice. If it were a person, given its personality,
what sort of things might it say? This is extremely important for marketing purposes,
where the goal is to communicate clearly and consistently with consumers. Just like a
character in a movie, the things a brand says in its ads, on its website, and anywhere
else it shares messages, its voice needs to be consistent. No one would believe the
authenticity of a character that seemed to flip between voices throughout scenes,
saying things that are inconsistent with things it said in the past. Likewise, a brand’s
voice needs to feel appropriate to its personality and remain constant over time.
Otherwise, consumers will have a difficult time believing it and connecting with it.

Brand Values
Like a person, a company can stand for things. It can value certain ideals. These
company values translate directly to brand values and contribute to a brand identity.
According to Harvard Business Review, 64% of people that say they have a relationship
with a given brand give shared values as the main driver of the relationship. People
want to know that the companies they give money to use that money in ways they
would support, so defining your brand values is an important part of brand identity.

Nike values by mrmanwich

Brand Mission
A brand’s mission is related to its values. What a company does is fairly obvious to the
consumer. Why it chooses to do this isn’t. A brand’s mission gives the consumer context
for the products and services it offers. It helps them fit the brand into its competitive
landscape and gives them reasons why they should support it over some other brand.
This is why you see a lot of companies today wrapping social awareness into their brand
identities. It’s important to them that consumers understand they aren’t just doing what
they do for the money but also because they want to affect some sort of good in the
world. A brand’s mission “humanizes” them.

Brand Positioning
This characteristic is, in some ways, a summation of all the other internal
characteristics we’ve discussed. It’s trying to communicate what makes the brand
unique. However, it does this from the perspective of the competition. Instead of being
purely descriptive, a brand’s unique positioning is also comparative. It looks at the
competition — their identities and offerings and then contrasts the brand against these.
Whereas everything before has simply said, “this is who were are”, brand positioning
discusses this but also talks more about the competition, and then reflects on their
undesirable characteristics the brand doesn’t share.

Brand positioning graph by Hubspot

With all of these internal characteristics, it’s important that a brand’s handlers deeply
understand exactly who the brand is and what motivates it. Otherwise, the brand won’t
feel like a complete “person” to consumers, and consumers are less likely to accept it.
Plus a poor understanding of who your brand is on the inside will make it very difficult
to translate that to believable external characteristics that will resonate with the public.

What Defines a Brand’s External Identity?

Ultimately a brand’s external identity, or visual identity, is defined by its internal
identity. The visual cues a brand uses to create its visual identity should be formulated
with care to communicate the core of the brand’s internal identity quickly and clearly,
as these visual cues are the most obvious facet of the brand’s identity. It’s the visual
identity, paired with the brand’s voice, that people come into contact with before
anything else, so it’s important that they complement each other.

Brand Logo
A brand’s logo is a single visual symbol tasked with communicating as much as possible
about the brand’s internal identity. Designing a great logo is no easy task. It involves
distilling a brand’s identity down to its essence in order to create a single visual
statement that immediately conveys the intended message.

Volusion logo by Ramotion

The logo also sets the tone for all of the rest of the visual collateral that is created in the
process of marketing a brand, so if a brand’s handlers get the logo wrong it’s possible
the brand’s entire visual identity will inadequately express its internal identity, or
worse, conflict with or confuse it, with dire consequences.

It’s critical that designers give careful, reasoned, and

extended thought to a brand’s logo design.
The following factors should always be included in logo discussions, and in discussions
for any complementary collateral, as these are the features that create the subtext for a
brand’s visual identity.

Icons from Slack marketing website

Iconography
This is the single largest consideration when creating a brand’s visual identity. In order
to properly convey who/what it is, a brand needs icons and artwork, both in its logo, on
its website, and elsewhere that instantly capture the flavor of who that brand is. It’s not
just the chosen art, but also the style that matters. A more buttoned-up, corporate
identity might require solid, imposing icons that convey strength, whereas a creative
company might choose a quirkier, edgier style that screams, “We don’t subscribe to your
corporate dogma…we do our own thing.” Art choices are critical for creating a visual
language that agrees with and quickly conveys a brand’s internal identity.

Color code by Net ix

Color
Color choices have an effect on how a brand’s visual identity is read. If you’re
attempting to convey eco-consciousness and you don’t integrate green across your
visual collateral you’ve missed a huge opportunity to instantly convey that information.
If your brand is feisty and gregarious and you choose mostly cool colors like blues,
you’re likely not conveying your personality as readily as you might by choosing warm,
active colors like reds and oranges.

Typography
Your typographical choices convey a huge amount of information about your brand’s
identity. If you’re a tech company you might want to choose sparse, sleek, modern fonts
that convey a sense of looking to the future. However, that’s probably a poor choice of
font for a home improvement company that’s more concerned with conveying
trustworthiness and craftsmanship.

Each font family has its own in-built connotations that can amplify and clarify a brand’s
identity when used properly, or confuse and muddle the message when employed
poorly. Typography is an extremely useful tool for conveying a visual identity.

Imagery
It’s important that the imagery a brand uses in its website, ads, billboards, and other
visual mediums are consistent and convey useful information about the brand. A line of
childcare products would likely employ an imagery strategy that focuses on happy
families, with bright, beaming children. This imagery provides a quick snapshot of who
the brand is and what they care about. The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand
words applies here. You can convey as much information with the image you select for
an ad as you can with the copy that accompanies it.

In Your Customer’s Eyes Your Brand Identity is You

How you convey who you are is critical, because if your customers get mixed messages,
or misread the message entirely you’ll have a much harder time in the marketplace. Just
like with individual identities, people are friends with people they like. People they
understand. Authentic people whose inner identities match what they show the world.
If you get brand identity right you’ll find it much easier to grab customers. But it’s a
process, so get started!

. . .
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