There are many factors that make up branding, but for the purposes of this article, when we refer to the word we are talking specifically about a brand's visual identity — the overall first impression of a company as expressed through its logo, color, typography, photography, graphic, and/or illustrations used. An excellent visual system that's aligned with your brand positioning sets your company up for success. Not only does a strong brand identity help differentiate your company from your competition and ensure healthy longevity, but it can even establish trust and loyalty.
Figuring out how much time, effort, and budget to dedicate to your initial visuals is tricky — it's a bit of a Goldilocks situation, you want to get the timing just right. Spending on brand visual design too early during the startup stage will most likely add strain on top of the initial investments you're making to kickstart the company, without offering many immediate returns. On the other hand, investing late means you may be missing out on the benefits a strong visual system brings, which may cost you down the road. This article will help you find a great balance and discover resources that can help you get from 0 to 1 without breaking the bank.
Defining a few of the basics is really important to understand what stylistic directions make sense for your brand. It's pretty important to establish and align on these early, as they will make stylistic decisions a lot easier when they invariably come. We recommend you jot down answers to these fundamental questions and keep them in mind as you go through making style choices. Actively ask yourself at each visual choice if it makes sense based on your answers to these fundamental questions:
Now that you have more clarity around your brand fundamentals, the DNA so-to-speak, search for reference examples to give you an idea of directions that may make sense for your initial visual identity. Here are a few of our go-to favorites for inspiration:
There are hundreds of resources available online, and they vary in quality and price. We have compiled a list of really great (mostly free) options categorized by the main visual identity choices you will need to make related to your logo, color, typography, photography, graphics, and illustrations. Hopefully you will find these resources useful in your quest to get your visual identity set up and rolling.
Often perceived as the most daunting part of the process is creating a logo. It should serve its role as an identifier for your brand — it is not meant to explain what your business does. You want a logo that is recognizable, clear, aligns with your positioning, tone and manner, and is ideally memorable. Believe it or not, when your brand is just getting started and you have relatively low awareness, don't overthink this part. There are many other parts of your overall visual identity that will account for your first impression and are actually more important. Pick something that is pretty good and you think will resonate well with your target audience — you can (and should) always redesign it later when you've gained traction and experience running the business. Here are some great resources to get you going:
Color is key for establishing a cohesive look and feel for your brand, and its use should reflect the personality of your company. Are you going for a more minimalistic feel? You might want to stick to a neutral palette with an accent color or two. Is your company friendly and brimming with energy? Then you might want to opt for bold and bright colors. There is an entire field of color psychology that shows how people subconsciously respond to color — for example, blue conveys trust, which is why many health or finance companies use it in marketing. Keeping your brand definitions and relevant industry in mind, you can generate a color palette with the following resources:
All of your company's copy will be displayed through your chosen typeface(s), so it's hard to overstate its importance. We recommend determining a maximum of two different typefaces to start off: one for headings and titles, another for body text. Another option is to use one typeface and increase the size and weight of it to create visual hierarchy. It might be a little overwhelming to jump straight into browsing one of the font databases linked below. Instead, by going into the search knowing what style of typeface you want will help narrow options down considerably. The two most common styles are serif and sans serif. Serif types convey a sense of tradition, respectability, and elegance. Sans serif types are modern and clean, these styles are best for web use because of their readability. Other styles include script and decorative typefaces — while these will certainly add a unique look, these are best limited to main headings and logos.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Photos make everything more engaging — our eyes are automatically drawn to images. Just as with colors or tone of voice, you want the photos that are being used to be cohesive. This doesn't necessarily mean that all the photos need to have a certain hue or be black and white, though those are certainly options for guaranteeing consistency. Cohesion can also be achieved through utilizing photos that have a similar feel and/or that adhere to a certain theme. If you aren't a photography aficionado yourself, here are some handy places where you can find great images for free.
Pro Tip: if you don't want to be limited in your search by the lighting or editing style, you can create a filter (a certain way of editing photos) that you apply to all images, which is a hack for ensuring consistency.
Graphics and illustrations are a great alternative to photos. They provide the same hook to viewers and are sometimes better at conveying more abstract ideas. There are many styles to choose from, ranging from flat illustrations to 3D. Choosing consistent images might be a little easier, as oftentimes using the work from the same artist, or sticking to a style of illustration, pretty much guarantees consistency. Some illustration sets also allow customization of colors used, which means greater overall cohesion with the rest of the brand.
You can do a lot on your own, and on-the-cheap. It will of course take a bit of time and effort, but it definitely can be done. When the time is right, after your business model has proven the market and you've acquired initial customers, you may need to rethink and retune your brand visual system to be more well-positioned for your growth. Things you will likely need once you begin to 'do it proper' are:
There are many resources to help you do it right, which require hiring professionals. Here are a few:
Getting set up with your initial brand look and feel doesn't need to be perfect. Do it to the best of your ability, and make running adjustments as you prove the market, grow, and acquire additional funding and support — fake it 'till you make it! If you have any questions about the branding process, we would love to speak to you. You can reach us at hello@thelevel.io.
