Creating a Visual Identity
Once you have your brand name and slogan, you need to determine how it will be presented to the world. We recommend that you always use a graphic design service to create your visual identity, and preferably one that specializes in graphic design, rather than just offering general marketing consulting services. However, it doesn’t hurt to understand the basic elements of graphic design before you get started.
How People Will See Your Images
Although you probably don’t realize it, your brain breaks down symbols into different parts and then puts them together.
First, your eye sees the general shape:
Then it sees the color:
Finally it adds the content:
Choosing a Color
With today’s technology, you can choose almost any color that you like for your brand.
Here is an overview of the top brands on the Internet and where they fall on the color spectrum:
You can see that blue and red dominate the spectrum. Wired magazine did a similar survey in 2003, focusing on corporate America. The picture was fairly similar, although slightly more conventional:
Keep this in mind when choosing a color: do you want to stand out or blend in with the pack? Pay particularly close attention to the colors that your competitors use
Fonts
As a final note, let’s talk about fonts. Fonts can be divided into two major categories. Serif fonts, with hooks on the ends of letters, are considered easier to read. (They are also known as Roman fonts.) Here are some examples:
Sans serif fonts (AKA Gothic fonts), however, tend to produce a cleaner look:
There are also plenty of specialty and custom fonts out there:
The trick is in finding a font that is easy to read, yet is distinct, and matches your brand’s look. It is important to choose a font that you can use consistently for all of your branding efforts. You also may need to get licensing permissions for some fonts. A graphic designer can help you with this!