No two businesses, no matter how similar both might seem, are ever the same. Your business is no exception and your corporate identity is supposed to reflect that fact ─ be unique, original, and be the perfect fit for your business.
Getting such an identity design is never easy, however, and could even be impossible without professional help. Thankfully, that is exactly what we are here to offer you ─ professional help on building the perfect corporate identity for your business.
Without wasting any time, let’s get to it.
How to Succeed at Corporate Identity Design
Building a successful corporate identity is not something that just happens. It has little to do with luck either. Check out any successful brand on the planet today, and you would find a lot of planning, research, and work that went into building that world-recognized brand. You would have to do the same to reach this level with your business’s corporate identity.
Not sure where to start from? Start by incorporating these 5 essential elements into your corporate identity design.
5 Essential Elements of Corporate Identity Design
- Logo
Here’s an unspoken rule to always remember ─ no business is considered a concrete business without a logo. Think about it for a bit. Every business needs a face ─ something customers can attach the business’s identity to. And what can do that better than a professional logo?
And notice I said professional. You don’t want to have just any logo representing your business or brand. Instead, you want something the customers can recognize immediately. Something they would NOT mistake for something else. It’s just like I like to say ─ if your customers see it and can’t associate it with your brand, then it is not working.
- Color Palette
Remember what you are trying to create ─ an identity for your business. Something customers can see and immediately associate with your brand. To achieve this, your brand identity must be consistent. One of the things that could ruin this consistency is color, and this is where color pilates come in.
Here is a quick test for you. When you think of Facebook, what colors come to mind? How about YouTube? Apple? Instagram?
A specific color or group of colors comes to mind when you think of these brands, right? Exactly. That is because these colors are part of their brand identity.
Still find it hard to believe? Well ask yourself this, would it be Facebook without the iconic blue? Would it be Coca-Cola without the red?
No!
Why do you think this is the case? Because these companies have strict rules guiding their use of colors. They have used these specific colors for so long, it has become part of their identity.
And I say specific colors because that is what it is ─ specific. Facebook doesn’t just use any blue, there are specific shades. The same with YouTube, and FedEx, and all the other big names in the industry.
This is where a color palette comes in. It shows the list of specific colors your brand would be associated with your brand. These colors would dictate what colors would feature in your branding efforts, from what colors you’d have on your website to your business cards and letterhead; everything. If a color or shade is not in your color palette, it should NOT be in your design.
- Typography
Here’s another vital element many brands often forget to take seriously. Just like colors, typography seems so basic, many businesses forget to incorporate a solid plan for it in their corporate identity. This is one mistake you want to avoid.
The content you dish out is how your business interacts with your customers. You want a bit of consistency there as well. As a human, consistency in content comes from your lettering ─ one look at it, and people who know you can easily tell it was written by you. Typography brings a similar level of identity to your brand.
When we say typography, though, we aren’t talking just the fonts you use, but also how you use them. It’s no good if you just use fonts randomly. As with colors, you want to have a system for how you use your fonts. Remember, it’s not just about the fonts you use. It’s about how you use them.
Maybe you want a specific font for your headings and a different one for the body of your content. Perhaps you want your heading to be written in a specific way too, all-caps, for example. Make your decision and then stick to it.
- Graphic Elements
Graphic elements make designs better. This is a tested fact. Whether it is photographs, illustrations, or other such visuals, simply having these graphic elements in your design puts it on a whole different level. Not only do they make your design more visually appealing, but they also add some extra storytelling to your design.
You want to be consistent with your visual elements as well. This doesn’t mean using the same image or illustrations, it just means using the same TYPE.
Take images for example. What type do you think fits your brand? Light and cheery, bright and colorful, or dark and solemn.
How about your illustrations? Professional and crisp? Playful and expressive? You would want to choose a style that fits your brand and use that consistently.
- Layout
Now that you have all the other elements down, here’s the last thing you need to incorporate ─ Layouts. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it is less important than the others, though. In fact, in some ways, it’s more critical.
Know how you can recognize a friend just from their build? Layouts do the same to a brand. It’s why, just from seeing a phone’s screenshot, you can tell the brand.
Putting the other elements in this list together in a cohesive and effective way can help you build a perfect layout for your brand. Maybe you want your brand to use more visual elements than texts. Possibly you want more texts than visuals. Perhaps you want more whitespace.
And how about shapes? Do you want your images and content to be all squares and rectangles? Would you prefer some circles and triangles mixed in? How about some more complex shapes and patterns? Get a preferred layout and be consistent with it, and it would do wonders for your corporate identity design.
So there you have it; the top 5 elements you need to include in your corporate identity strategy if your brand is to stand out and be relevant in the industry. And remember it doesn’t matter how well you follow these tips, if there is no consistency, your corporate identity would never be as good as it could be. Are you looking for a professional company to design your brand identity? Get in touch with us today or click here to learn more.