Brand Design: How It Works

A professional appearance is not just a "nice to have" for your company, it is an absolute "must-have“. It draws the attention of potential customers to itself, builds trust and allows a brand to stand out from the competition. An effective visual identity is the key to building a strong brand positioning - and that's where the brand design comes into play.

Brand design is much more than a logo and a few colours. It is a strategic process that embodies the values, personality and mission of a company and translates it into visual elements. From choosing the right fonts to designing promotional materials, brand design plays a crucial role in creating a consistent and appealing brand identity,

In this article, we will dive deep into the topic of brand design, its components and its importance for businesses. We will explain the difference between brand design and corporate design, provide valuable tips for developing a successful brand design strategy, and show how companies can effectively implement their brand design.

Definition: What is brand design?

In order to understand why brand design is so important, we must be clear about what it is. A strong brand is essentially a brand that conveys a clear message and has a consistent and memorable brand image in the minds of its customers.

Brand design is the process of designing and developing a consistent visual identity that achieves this goal. It includes all visual elements that shape a brand's appearance, such as logos, colours, fonts, imagery and visual guidelines.

The design is the face of your brand. It's the first thing your customers see when they visit your website, your app or your social media pages. Therefore, it needs to convey the core message of your brand, show what makes it unique and ensure that your brand is easily recognizable.

The goal of brand design is to capture the essence of the brand and present it in a consistent and appealing manner. Through the careful selection and design of these visual elements, a strong brand personality is created that sets the brand apart from others and leaves a lasting impression – internally and externally.

Developing an effective brand design requires a thorough analysis of the brand, its target audience and its competitive environment. It requires creativity, strategic thinking and an understanding of how visual elements work in various communication channels. A well-thought-out brand design can significantly influence a company's success by establishing an emotional bond with customers and positioning the company as a trustworthy and unique brand.

What is the difference between brand design and corporate design?

Brand design and corporate design are two terms often used in the context of designing identities for companies and brands. While they are related, they have different emphases and objectives.

Brand Design refers to the visual elements, which represent a brand, such as the logo, colour palette, typography and visual appearance. It focuses on creating a positive perception and recognition of a particular brand. Brand design aims to create a strong emotional connection between the brand and its target audience and to visually communicate the unique values and personality of the brand.

Corporate Design however, refers to the overall appearance of a company, and includes both visual and non-visual elements, such as the tonality, customer approach and communication guidelines of the company. The aim is a uniform and consistent appearance of the company, both internally and externally. Corporate design often includes guidelines for using the logo, designing print materials, web design and other communication tools.

The main difference between brand design and corporate design is that brand design focuses on the specific brand and its representation, while corporate design concerns the overall appearance of the company and ensures that all aspects of corporate communication are consistent.

Brand design and corporate design are closely interconnected, and critical aspects for companies in building their brand identity and optimizing their communication both internally and with customers and other stakeholders. 

Consistent and appealing design can build trust, increase brand awareness and achieve differentiation from the competition.

Why is brand design important to businesses?

Brand design is of great importance to businesses as it directly influences the perception and image of a brand. Here are some key points that emphasize the relevance of brand design for businesses:

1. Brand Identity: Brand design serves as the visual expression of a company's brand identity. It helps communicate the personality, values and character of a brand. A strong and consistent brand identity builds trust and an emotional connection to the customers.
2. Recognition value: Well-designed brand design enables a brand to stand out in an often-crowded market environment from its competitors and to take a unique positioning. It achieves recognition by anchoring itself in the memory of customers.
3. Brand Loyalty: Attractive and consistent brand design not only attracts customers. It also binds them. Once a brand is established, people will always come back. Branding creates a tunnel vision. Brand loyalty develops and alternatives are not even considered. If you are seen as the only option, it makes it harder for competitors to "steal" customers.
4. Brand value and turnover: According to an article in Forbes, good brand design is a clear competitive advantage: Consistent branding across all platforms can boost turnover by up to 23%.
5. Employer Branding and Employee Retention: Who wants to work for an unattractive company? Branding increases loyalty among employees and retention of talent. A strong brand may even have a positive impact on recruitment and training costs. In one study, these costs dropped by up to 50 %.

Overall, a thoughtful and effective brand design helps to win consumer trust, increase brand awareness and strengthen a company's image. It is an important aspect of brand building and long-term success for a company.

The psychology behind brand design

Psychology plays an important role in brand design as it deepens understanding of how people perceive brands and how they respond to visual stimuli. Successful use of psychology in brand design can build a stronger emotional connection with the target audience and increase brand loyalty. Some psychological aspects to consider when designing a brand include:

• Colour Psychology: Colours have a big impact on human perception and emotions. Choosing the right colour palette for the brand design can help evoke certain emotions or associations that should be associated with the brand. For example, blue is often associated with trust and professionalism, while red conveys energy and passion.

• Emotional Design: Emotions are a key part of brand bonding and can be influenced through targeted design elements. Emotional design appeals to the feelings of the target audience and conveys a certain "feeling" or "mood" that is associated with the brand. For example, a playful typography and cheerful colouring can convey a sense of joy and ease.

• Storytelling: Stories are a powerful tool for building emotional bonds and conveying complex information. By integrating storytelling elements into the brand design, such as illustrations or animations that tell a story, the brand message can be communicated more effectively and a stronger emotional connection can be built with the target audience.

• Cognitive Processing: The way people process information is important for brand design. A clear and easy-to-process design allows the target audience to grasp and understand the brand message faster. Therefore, ensure clarity and simplicity when designing design elements like text, images and layout.

If you incorporate these psychological aspects into your brand design, you can build a deeper connection to your target audience and maximize the impact of your visual appearance.

What elements need to be considered in brand design?

There are a few key elements to consider in brand design:

• Logo: The logo is the heart of your brand. It should be memorable and versatile and work well on different media.

• Colour Palette: Choose colours that reflect the personality of your brand and build an emotional connection with your audience.

• Typography: Fonts should be easily readable and match the message of your brand. Use a limited number of fonts to ensure consistency.

• Imagery: The choice of images and graphics should be consistent and appealing to support the brand message.

• Tonality: The tone in which communication takes place also needs to match the brand personality and appeal to the target group.

How can companies develop a brand design strategy?

Before you start designing, you should develop a solid strategy based on the following steps:

1. Define your brand identity: Think about what values, visions and personalities your brand embodies.

2. Look at the competition: Analyze what your competitors are doing and look for ways to differentiate yourself.

3. Know your audience: Understand who your potential customers are and develop design elements that appeal to them.

4. Create design guidelines: Set out how the various design elements should be used in different media and applications.

5. Review and update: Brand design is a continuous process. Regularly check in brand monitoring, whether your design elements are still relevant and effective.

These steps should be an integral part of brand management, and form the blueprint for sustainable brand development.

But remember: The only constant is change. The market and your target audience's preferences can change at any time. Your strategy should therefore be flexible enough to respond to these changes.

How and with which tools can companies implement their brand design?

There are two options for developing your brand design. You can either commission an agency or external designers to develop your brand design. Or, you can handle the design work internally.

Which option is better for you depends on factors like your budget, the stage of your business journey you are in and whether you have design expertise in your company.

If you want to develop your brand design without an agency or external designers, tools can provide a lot of inspiration and help.

If you have the necessary skills, Adobe Creative Cloud is the best choice. The market leaders in design software like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are an integral part of any ambitious design project.

For those who find this too complex, Canva Pro Canva could be the answer: It is a user-friendly graphic design tool that can create appealing and consistent design elements for your brand. The countless templates can provide initial ideas and inspirations.

For the collaborative creation of mood boards and design drafts, Miro or Figma are excellent tools for working together on design projects and exchanging ideas in real time.

5 helpful tips for your brand design

To create an authentic and effective brand design, you should adhere to these indispensable principles:

1. Know your audience: Ensure your brand design meets the needs, expectations and preferences of your audience. By considering your audience's perspective, you can develop a design that is truly appealing and relevant. Conduct research and create detailed customer profiles to better understand who your audience is and what appeals to them.

2. Keep it simple: An effective brand design should be simple and easy to understand. Avoid complicated or confusing design elements that dilute the brand message or distract the audience. The design should be clear and to the point. This can achieve a stronger impact.

3. Stay consistent: Ensure that your brand design is consistent, both within individual design elements and across all channels, including online and offline. Consistency helps build trust and increase brand recognition. Create a brand style guide that defines colours, typography, image styles and other design elements to be used for your brand.

4. Ensure flexibility: Your brand design needs to work well on various platforms and devices. Make sure your design is optimized for both large and small applications across all media. This keeps the brand consistent and attractive in all environments.

5. Keep it authentic: Develop a brand design that reflects your unique personality and values. Authenticity is the key to building a deep emotional connection with your audience and differentiating your business from the competition.

Checklist of brand design considerations for companies

You are now full of drive and raring to start your brand design? Great! Here's a comprehensive checklist to get you started:

1. Analyze target audience and competition: What are the needs, preferences, and expectations of your audience? What are your competitors doing? What is working well in your industry and how can you differentiate yourself?
2. Define brand identity: What values, vision, mission, and personality make up your brand? These elements form the foundation for all brand design and help you develop a suitable and consistent brand.
3. Choose colour palette: Choose a colour palette that matches your brand identity. Make sure you choose a balanced palette of colours and consider how they work in different applications.
4. Set typography: Determine the fonts that will be used for your brand. Make sure they are easily readable and fit well with your brand identity and colour palette.
5. Create logo: Consider whether you want to design a pure text logo or a word-image mark. Make sure your logo works well in different sizes and on different media.
6. Determine imagery and tonality: Distant or friendly? Abstract or realistic? Images with or without people? Determine the style and tonality of images and texts used in your brand design. This can help ensure consistent visual and verbal communication and clearly and consistently communicate your brand message.
7. Create design guidelines: Create a brand guideline that sets the rules and guidelines for the use of logos, colours, typography, images and other design elements. This ensures that everyone involved applies a consistent brand design across all media and channels.
8. Test design elements on various media and applications: Check how your brand design works in different sizes and on different devices and media. Is it recognizable and consistent everywhere?
9. Collect feedback and make optimizations: How does your design affect colleagues, customers and other stakeholders? Gather feedback to find out how well your brand design works and what improvements can be made.
10. Regularly review and update design elements: Brand design and done? Not really. A brand is a living being. Regularly review your brand design to ensure it delivers the desired results and contributes to achieving your business goals.

Conclusion: The long-term effect and why it's worth investing in brand design

Brand design is a topic that all brands should be concerned with, especially in our digital world. Competition is getting tougher and customers are becoming increasingly selective. To be successful, you need a strong brand image and a unique perception of your brand.

Don't forget that branding and brand design contribute to the long-term success of your business. You may not see the results of your branding immediately, but believe me, it's worth it.