Step 2: Designing the Visual Identity

We are trucking along now!

If you missed last week’s email, go back and read it here as we’ll be building from it in this week’s deep dive: Designing a visual identity!

We will use the research and insights we’ve gathered understanding who your various audiences are, how we want them to feel when they think about your brand, and your unique positioning opportunities to develop various visual directions for your brand.

Brand Design for Bold Businesses: Designing a distinct visual identity.

At this stage, we are building the core of how you look and feel — the clothes and voice of your company, if you will.

For a bold business, we want to get as specific and granular as possible. We are also looking for contradictory feelings that allow us to build nuance into your brand. You’re not just another workout brand that is clean and powerful. You are powerful and playful. You’re clean and chaotic. These tensions give us unique spaces to play, and offer opportunities for unique brand positionings.

The goal is to create a distinct look, one that will clearly differentiate you from the competitive landscape while also saying something about you to your core audience. Without knowing anything about your business, can you audience catch a vibe for who you are and what you are about?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words which makes your visual identity worth, well, a lot.

What is developed at this step:

• Logo system

• Fonts

• Color palette

• Tone of Voice

• Mascot/s

• Iconography

• Photo direction

• Brand pattern/s

Story Time from TLC Art Director, Liz Wisden

Since childhood, I’ve always been drawn to consumer goods that stand out. As a kid, I was often playfully mocked for “only having bought that because it looks cool.” I can’t put my finger on just one product specifically, but still, I distinctly remember the feeling of being captivated by creative design, and not wanting to say no to a product that looked different. So at the time when I’d hear this remark, I’d think to myself defensively, “yeah, so what?” not realizing that one day I’d turn it into my job. And turns out, that draw towards interesting design lives in all of us. I just embraced it at 12, not knowing why.

Today, while it’s now widely accepted to buy things just because they look cool, I’m well aware that my draw towards these products was never an accident. Even all those years ago there were people behind those visuals. Thought, intention, deliberation, research. All of it. But now, we’re in a time like no other where we are flooded with options, making your visual identity more important than ever.

TLC Brand Bites: Things to think about while Designing Your Visual Identity

• There are going to be a many routes that could be the right one for you. At the end of the day, you have to choose the one that feels the most right for you and your team.

• Your visual identity is going to need to be maintained. Just like everything we talk about, this is not a one-and-done. Your visual identity needs to evolve as your business does.

• That being said! That doesn’t mean you need to rebrand with every evolution. Your visual identity can and should be tweaked over time. Think about the Apple logo and visual identity. It’s been updated over the decades but still has the core brand values — think different.

• Colors make a bigger impact that you would expect.

• Same goes with fonts.

• Trust the process. As much as all designers would love to nail it on the first draft, that almost never happens. So enjoy the process of experimenting with your designers and be sure to provide direct feedback.

• A concise brand book is better than a 40+ page brand book. You want it to be practical — it needs to be understood by designers and non-designers alike.

Final Tips

When you’re looking for a designer to help you create your visual identity there are a few things to look for!

First, do you like their portfolio? This is not the same as recognizing the brands — but do you like their previous work? Design is subjective so if you aren’t inspired by their previous work, you most likely won’t like what they do for you.

Second, do you enjoy them? This I would say this is almost as important as the first tip. Getting the design right is going to take a decent amount of communication so if you don’t enjoy your design team, it is going to be really challenging to have open communication.

Finally, it is totally okay if they don’t have a 1:1 example in their portfolio. This can even be a benefit if you are looking to buck industry trends. Lack of experience in your industry or not having a brand in your exact style just means they haven’t had YOU as a client before.

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Next week we are diving into how we take everything from the Research + Discovery phase and use your newly designed Visual Identity to develop all of your customer touch points in Implementing Your Brand.