8 Stages of Branding Design

A brand is an emotional, sometimes philosophical, and often a theoretical concept. The representation and reinforcement of these emotions exist in both what is spoken and visualised, with branding design being its embodiment.

What is Branding Design

The design of a brand's logo, color scheme, typography, and other design components that make a brand stand out from the market competition and are recognised by customers is referred to as branding design. When we talk about branding design, we're mainly talking about key brand visual elements such as the logo, color scheme, typography, graphic devices and sometimes photography stylisation.

Branding design additionally refers to a brand's approach to visually expressing themselves in both the physical and digital world, whether that's on social media, an in-store retail or office experience, or even products.

Often, it is a brand's design that is the first thing people notice. The visual experience, in the same way as the overall brand strategy, should be consistent, brand-focused and recognizable. In competitive markets, or product segmentations offering increasingly similar goods, branding design may be a key differentiator in distinguishing a brand and connecting with target audiences.

The design of a brand should reflect the personality and values. Branding identity is more than just finding the right logo to place on coffee cup sleeves or mount above your front door. It's about crafting a personality that amplifies the core elements to your brand's DNA

What is Branding?

To understand branding design you first need to understand what is branding. A brand is the perception of a product, service or company which creates expectations. Brands are distinguished from other products by branding involves creating unique names, symbols and imagery.

Successful branding can yield tremendous results for companies like Apple, Starbucks and Nike. According to brandchannel's brand equity database, brand value of these companies are more than $125 billion, $36 billion and $28 billion respectively.

Stage 1. Business Goals, Brand Personality, and Tone of Voice.

Before starting on your brand design it is critical marketers and brand managers understand the brand strategy and business goals. It is important to establish what brand personality they want their brand to represent, its tone of voice, and brand values.

The brand personality refers to how your brand wants customers to perceive you. Is your brand playful, serious, authoritative? Based on this desired perception you will tailor your brand design to align with the brand personality.

To define brand tone of voice you should work out the brand attributes that best describe your brand, this is how your brand makes people feel when they experience it. For example, Google is seen as innovative, playful and smart whereas McDonald's is fun-loving and accessible.

When considering brand values make sure they are consistent with your business goals and brand personality. If your brand values are inconsistent with how you want the brand to be perceived it can damage brand equity.

Stage 2. Market and User Research

If you do not know who is your target audience, what are their desires and fears, including what they need your brand to be, you are not ready for branding design.

Market research should take place during brand strategy development. Brand market research will inform you of your audience and users in depth. It can be conducted by brand managers, brand strategists, professional brand researchers or brand consultants. Knowing all about your target audience and their needs is important for brand designers to make the brand successful.

User research should also take place during brand strategy development. User Experience UX practitioners investigate the behavior, needs and goals of users when interacting with certain brand designs.

Stage 3. Logo Design

All good brands require a strong brand logo and should be effective and memorable. A brand logo design contains brand elements such as brand typeface, brand colorways, and brand signifiers.

With a foundation based on strategy and market insights, branding designers work through a process of design exploration. This process is characterised as a cyclical, iterative and flexible brand design development strategy that allows designers to explore brand logo design ideas from initial concept through to final production.

The final brand logo design needs to work seamlessly across all touchpoints with consistency and quality.

Stage 4. Visual Elements of Brand

Brand visual elements consist of graphic devices that assist with positioning and brand recognition. While branding design is a complex concept, it can be described as the visual expression of a brand's identity, personality and values. All visual elements need to work together in a cohesive visual expression to support brand positioning and brand recognition.

The brand design strategy needs to be developed in such a way that the brand experience is consistent across all brand touchpoints.

The brand's visual elements need to assist with positioning, recognition and differentiation from competitors and other similar brands. A strong brand will differentiate itself not only through its name and logo, but also by leveraging illustration, pattern, photography, typography, composition and colour.

Stage 6. Brand Templates

Brand tempates are frameworks and pre-designed asset files that allow brand designers to create on-brand designed content with ease. Templates include stationery templates, presentation templates and report templates, among others.

Designing with brand templates ensures brand designers maintain brand consistency throughout an entire organisation and across all communication channels such as print, web and social.

Organisations that invest in the creation of brand templates increase efficiency within their design department and/or agency. This in turn allow for a greater ROI for any brand-related activity, freeing up resources for brand campaigns and other marketing activities.

Stage 7. A Brand Style Guide

Consistency is of paramount importance for brand recognition and brand success, which means designers need to create a brand style guide.

The brand style guide will contain a documented overview of all brand elements, including:

  • logo elements
  • logo use, sizing and formats
  • typography
  • colour palettes
  • Approved photography and illustration styles
  • Language, messaging and taglines
  • Brand template and formatting

Stage 8. Brand Design Management

Often overlooked, but essential to the ongoing success of a brand is brand design management. Marketing teams should given the time and resources to manage brand design throughout its lifecycle. This involves controlling brand quality, brand consistency, brand security, and brand integration into all stages of the brand experience including digital layout, print production and advertising campaigns.

Brand design management requires brand research, further brand development and brand integration. However, brand designers should not be overlooked when it comes to brand progression.

Brand evolution and refinement of a brand's design is also part of its ongoing management to ensure the business maintains its competitive advantage and brand integrity. Branding is not a set and forget exercise, it must be nurtured in a healthy ecosystem to flourish.

Final thoughts

Branded design is not just about the logo. Your brand identity extends to everything you do, from how your marketing strategy looks and feels to what new products you release or partnerships you form. Branding can be a long process that requires an investment of time, money, and resources - which makes it all the more essential for businesses to find someone they trust who will guide them through every step of the way. We are here for this!