What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcedemy.com and in this video, you're
going to learn 10 brand identity design elements that you need to include when designing strategic
brands. So you can design brands that don't just appeal visually, but influence buying decisions.
Now, if you're new to the channel, and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals
using strategy, psychology and creative thinking, then you're in the right place,
hit that subscribe button and the notification bell. If you want to fast track your results,
make sure you grab the pro brand strategy blueprint. It's a free download, and the link
is in the description. Now let's face it, graphic designers are not thin on the ground today,
they're pretty much everywhere. And it's not difficult to find somebody who will put together a
logo for you, you can go on Fiverr, you can go on Upwork, you might find a senior designer and pay
decent money and get a beautifully crafted logo, you might go with a junior designer who may or may
not do a decent job for you. Or you might even go with some 17 year old with a cracked version
of Photoshop, who will put together a logo if you don't really care what it looks like.
Now, the reality is, this isn't really branding. This is not what branding is, it's not just about
going out and getting a logo, the logo is only a very small part of the overall brand. In fact,
the logo is only a very small part of the brand identity system. Within the brand identity system,
you have multiple elements all working together within an ecosystem. And if you know what those
elements are, you're able to design those elements with some strategic thinking involved, then you
can design a brand identity system that will work towards influencing the mind of the audience.
The role of the brand identity system is to appeal visually and quickly assign meaning for
the audience about what the brand is all about. And that visual appeal is at every single touch
point throughout the brand. It's on the website, it's on business cards, it's on the shop front,
it's part of the shop design as part of the interior design. It's also part of any other
collateral any brochures any user experience any kind of interaction that anyone might have,
visually with the brand, if they can see the brand, they can experience that brand.
Visually, that's part of the identity system. And the identity system is part of the overall Brian
experience, which looks to influence and shape the mind of the audience about what the brand actually
means. Now in order for a brand identity system to play its role effectively, then it needs to
communicate certain characteristics. And those characteristics are key, they are determined
within the brand strategy itself as to how the brand is going to appeal and resonate with that
audience. And those characteristics then influence the brand identity system and all of the elements
within it. So in this video, I want to show you 10 brand identity design elements that you need
to be considering within your strategic brands so that your brand identity designs can start playing
the role that they're supposed to be playing as part of an overall brand strategy. Brand identity
element number one is, of course, the logo. Now, the logo has been put on a pedestal in the last
15 to 20 years, and the word logo has become synonymous with the word brand to the point that
a lot of people who don't know too much about branding do believe that a logo is a brand.
But those closer to the profession of branding or those closer to running their own businesses know
that a brand is much bigger than a logo. But the logo itself is still very, very important It plays
a really important role in appealing to who the audience is and that appeal really solidifies how
the brand is going to be experienced and sets the tone for how the brand is going to be experienced
right throughout the customer journey. identity element. Number two is typography. Now typography
plays a really important role in setting the style of the brand. Now, typography
comes with its own predefined characteristics. Now unless of course, you're creating a custom
font from scratch, then, of course, you can design the characteristics into that font. But for the
most part, when you're designing a brand identity, you're using pre-existing fonts. And it's really
a case of the strategic alignment, aligning with the characteristics that have been predetermined
within the brand strategy. So it's a case of matching like for like defining what those
characteristics are and going out and finding a font that displays those characteristics,
so it fits seamlessly into the brand identity system. identity element number three is the color
palette. Now while typography sets the style for the brand identity, the color palette really sets
the mood because color has the ability to influence our mood and that's because we have
a primitive relationship with color. And that's because of our relationship with nature. We Assign
meaning to things based on their color because we associate that meaning with that color. So
we know that water is cool, we know that fire is hot. So there are some psychological connotations
when it comes to color. So it's really important that you use that wisely use that strategically
when selecting a color palette for your brand identity system. identity element number four
are patterns. Now, patterns can be used very effectively throughout a brand identity system.
And they can be used in a variety of different environments, they do provide a bit of texture,
they allow you to fill blank spaces. And they can be used to read the brand experience
as a whole. If you think about department stores or certain types of high street brands that put
their patterns onto their bags or onto their packaging. Then when you see somebody walking
down the street with those bags, you see the pattern, you don't necessarily see the logo.
And you remember you recall that brand. So they are a very effective and a very flexible tool for
brands to use throughout the brand identity system. And using that throughout the brand
experience can be very effective in helping your audience to recall your brand, rather
than to the element number five is image and photography style. Now imagery is very good way
to engage your audience because it does have that ability to set the mood and set the tone and evoke
an emotion, the right image in the right place at the right time can really evoke the emotions
of your audience. Now, of course, if you have a big budget, you can go ahead and get yourself a
photographer to create a completely new image style for your brand. But even with that a big
budget, the right designer can help you to come up with an image style that is aligned with your
brand strategy is aligned with the characteristics and the emotions that you want your audience to
feel. So really think about what emotions you want your audience to feel, what characteristics
you want aligned with your brand. And then make sure that they are designed into your photography
or image style, rather than to the element number six are graphics, and iconography. Now,
these are probably one of the most flexible tools within the brand identity system, because
you can use them pretty much anywhere from your website, to your packaging, to graphics on the
Wayfinding. Within a building anywhere where there is visual engagement is a place that you
can use graphics or iconography. And again, this all contributes to the overall brand experience.
If you're in a building and you see a sign and has a generic icon on there telling you where to go,
then it's less effective, it's less cohesive than an icon that is part of an overall brand
identity system. So this is really getting down into attention to detail. And really going down
to the deepest level in terms of making sure that the consistency is there that the brand experience
is cohesive, and it's absolutely everywhere on every single touchpoint. Rounded entity
element number seven are illustrations. Now illustrations are not for every brand. And
you tend to have brands that will either go with a unique image style or unique illustration style,
you don't have many brands that will go with both. That's not to say it doesn't happen. But
it tends to be either a unique image style or an illustration style. Now this has been a growing
trend, certainly within the tech sector, over the last five years or so is having
a unique illustration style, but it's not. As I said, for every brand, you really need to consider
what image your audience should have about your brand. And if illustrations align with that image,
then by all means use illustrations within your brand identity design. But again,
consider who the audience is consider the image that you want to own in their
mind. And use that when deciding whether or not illustrations are for your brand identity system.
Rondo identity element number eight is grid style. Now grid-style allows you to have a consistency to
the information that you're displaying across all touchpoints. If you think about some modern
brands today have upwards of 100 touchpoints. And every single touchpoint has different information,
different kinds of information. And if there is no cohesiveness, if there's no consistency to
how the information is displayed, then it can seem a little bit haphazard. So a grid-style
will help with consistency, it will help will that with that information flow. And again,
just add to the brand experience and the consistency of that brand experience brought
identity element number nine is audio. Now audio is becoming increasingly important because we're
experiencing brands in a different way. today. We're experiencing brands more audibly today than
we ever have before. brands have podcasts today. They have YouTube channels. They've got videos
on their website. And if you look at Google Trends, and the increase of search through voice,
you can see where it's all going you can see the amount of devices that are coming out now that
will allow us to experience brands audibly. So this is becoming an increasingly important it's
only going to get more and more important It's important as well, that you consider your strategy
when deciding how to use audio within your brand identity system. Within your brand experience,
really think about what experience you want your audience to have, what image they want to have
of your brand to make sure that your audio is aligned with those characteristics with those
images. So if you want your brand's experience to be fun and happy and bright, then your audio
should align with those feelings. So again, thinking strategically about who the audience is,
and the image that you want to have in their mind, and make sure that you use that strategically
within your decisions. And brand identity element number 10 is motion and animation. Now again,
this comes back to the evolution of brands and the evolution of our experiences with brands,
it is evolving, and we are experiencing brands in many different ways. And if you think about
how we might engage a brand through their app, or through their website, or through an interactive
billboard, there are many opportunities for a brand to have animations in there to add to the
overall brand experience. So you might have an animated logo at the beginning of your video,
or you might have animated characters through at some kind of interactive experience. But again,
this all plays into the overall brand experience and that cohesiveness and that consistency. So
thinking about the experience that you want your audience to have, the image you want them to have
of your brand, and using that with motion animation through add that brand experience.
Now I don't know how many times I use the word brand experience throughout that
video. But that is the crux of the message here every single brand identity element
within your brand identity system is part of an ecosystem that works toward that brand experience.
And the brand identity itself plays a dovetail role with the brand strategy and again,
every single element within the brand strategy adds to that overall Brian experience on both
work together as a team to provide that experience to the audience and shape their mind about what
the brand should mean. Now you know the brand identity elements and the role that they play
within the overall brand experience. If you want to understand and learn about the brand strategy
elements and the role that they play. Well then This video will show you how. Until next time,
Brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video.