“Branding is more than just a logo” – I say that over and over again on the blog. We already discussed the reasons why, but today I wanted to talk about the 9 essential elements of one-of-a-kind brand design, so all design items that make a brand.
Having more than just a main logo for your brand identity, helps you stand out, it differentiates you from your competitors and make sure that your brand is memorable.
Let’s dive in shall, we?!
9 essential components of one-of-a-kind brand design:
1. MAIN LOGO
When I work with my brand design or brand & website design clients, the first step of my design process is coming up with three distinctive logo design concepts. The primary logo is an essential component of a one-of-a-kind brand identity and it’s a symbol of your brand.
As I’ve mentioned in the post about the five types of logos, your brand needs more than one version of your logo – it needs alternative logos and submarks. The reason behind having more than one version of your logo it’s that your main logo might not work well in certain situations.
I recommend choosing from 5 to 8 colours, which you will use over and over again for your brand – in other words, your brand colours/colour scheme. When you create a colour palette for your business, have your audience in mind, along with the ways you’re going to use those colours on your website and in graphics.
Similar to the colours, pick 2-3 fonts (brand fonts) to use them all over your website and in any graphics, you create for social media and so on. For the website fonts, I highly recommend using sans-serif fonts (Google fonts are my favourite) and if you like script/handwritten fonts, use them as accent fonts.
Have design elements that fit your brand like icons, illustrations, dividers, signatures, image holders, buttons and so on. Some brands use textures and/or patterns on their website and graphics. Again, consistency is the key!
This one depends on your business type/model. Not every business uses photos, but there are businesses where photos are crucial, like fashion bloggers, food bloggers. Make sure to take high-quality pictures in a similar style and then edit your pictures with the same filters over and over again (just like using the same colours and fonts).
This one is, unfortunately, often forgotten, but it’s super important. Having a brand collaterals (for print like business cards, note cards etc. and/or for digital/social use like blog post graphics, icons, social media covers) is as much as important as having a logo, colour palette and so on. You need to use the design elements, colours and fonts on your brand collaterals to create a streamlined experience for your audience. Take a look at the brand collaterals examples I did for my clients by clicking the button below:
Once you design your brand design, you need to make sure that your new brand identity shines through your website. Both brand and website design work together as a whole, so make sure to upload all the design elements you’ve got from your designer once you finish working together. Make sure to set the correct brand fonts and colours (the ones from your designer, not some random/default ones) and constantly use the same call to action button styles, dividers or any other UI elements.
As I mentioned in the post about 6 reasons why your business needs a website, you don’t own your social media profiles. Nonetheless to say, even though you can’t control the look of Instagram or Facebook (like you can control the way your website or blog look like), you can make sure that your brand design is incorporated on your social media profiles.
You can do that by uploading your logo as a profile picture (though I recommend using your photo if you’re a solopreneur) and using branded social media graphics (I always create three square graphics styles for my clients). I always advise using text overlays on your social media graphics (with the use of your brand fonts – of course!) and incorporating your colours, website URL or other design elements.
It’s important to have to use the brand design elements mentioned above, but what is even more important is to use the same elements over and over again to have a cohesive brand design for your blog & business. I strongly believe that cohesive, streamlined and one-of-a-kind brand design is a key to blog and business success.
How many of these 9 components of one-of-a-kind brand does your business have?
