Looking to refresh your knowledge on branding? Totally new to the world of design and development? Given ownership of your company’s brand and at a loss for where to start? Then this post is for you! We cover what branding is, what a visual identity is, the key components of a visual identity, why all this is needed and where to begin.
Ready for your quick lesson?
What is branding?
Put simply, a company's branding is its identity.
However, branding often goes far beyond the visual identity you present to your clients or customers. Branding often encompasses a company’s mission, personality, and messaging. These important aspects of a company’s brand will guide and give purpose to the visual identity, and we know from experience that the most successful brands have taken the time to refine their company’s ethos before they move onto the creation of a visual identity.
What is a visual identity?
A visual identity is what is created to be seen as a representation of the brand, in other words, it’s the physical and digital visuals created with direction from branding. This is what TCS specializes in.
Creating a Visual Identity
The extent to which a company builds out its branding and visual identity can be determined by several factors, the most common being: company size, budget, market, and growth goals. Therefore, we often encourage companies to reach out to us for a brand audit, where we will take full stock of all these factors and make personalized recommendations (more information on that later). However, there are a few components that we know every brand needs regardless of the previous factors. Those components are:
Logo
The face of your business. Composed of text, color, and illustration. A good looking and efficiently designed logo is imperative for brand recognition and customer loyalty.
Brand Guide
A reference guide of a company’s mission statement, core values, and messaging guidelines that also defines the visual identity with a color palette, typography, photography style, illustration and icon style.
Website
A brand’s digital identity. It’s important to have a website that is creatively designed and effectively coded as it’s usually the first place a potential or current customer will go to learn more about a company.
Expanding a Visual Identity
When a company has the three key pieces we described above and the visual identity of its brand is established, there are several additional components that are important if a company wants to be nimble in the many different spaces its brand will be seen when it begins a marketing journey. These will often vary from company to company but as a general rule of thumb, these are the additional components we suggest:
This usually includes templates for business cards and onesheets. Anything print that your brand will be using often enough to need consistent visual styling.
Digital
This usually includes templates for presentations (PPT or Google Slides) and emails. Anything digital that your brand will be using often enough to need consistent visual styling.
Social Media
With our clients, we create a style guide that establishes a company’s visual identity on its social media accounts. This usually takes the visual style defined in the brand guide and employs it in a select number of templates that can be leveraged when messaging needs to be visually communicated via social media.
Where do you start?
To create your visual identity it is important to evaluate your brand as a whole, taking stock of all your visual elements and how effectively they work. What are areas in which your brand is successful? Where is it underperforming? What do you like? What do you dislike? We refer to this process as a brand audit, and it’s where we like to begin with our clients. We work directly with a brand to ask key questions and make assessments based on our experience to determine the best solution. When we finish our audit we have determined whether a brand needs new brand development, a rebrand, or a brand refresh.
What is the difference between a new brand development, a rebrand, and a refresh?
These are slight variations of a very similar concept, they are all the creation of branding and a visual identity but we’ve determined these designations based on a company’s specific needs.
New Brand Development
This is the process of creating branding and a visual identity for a company that has not established a brand presence. This is usually chosen for companies that are new and have no logo or visual identity.
Rebrand
This is the process of rebranding and creating a new visual identity for a company that has an existing brand they want to replace. It will usually include a logo redesign in addition to a completely new visual identity. This is usually chosen for companies that are established but struggling to stay competitive in the market.
Refresh
This is the process of refreshing the branding and visual identity for a company that has an existing brand they do not want to update. The logo will usually be left as-is or given a small uplift, while the visual identity will be refreshed by refining the current visual styling or introducing a selection of new elements (for example, a refreshed color palette, new typography, redesigned illustration/iconographic styling). This is usually chosen for companies who are established but whose visual identity feels overused or stale.
When is the right time?
We believe there’s no wrong time for a company to make its branding and visual identity a priority, and we can provide a solution that will meet your company where it needs us most. There are times though, when we believe time for branding and visual identity prioritization is imperative, those times can be:
1. Launching a new brand
2. Aiming to reach a new target audience
3. Fluctuating market
4. Updating antiquated visuals
5. Rehabilitating company reputation
A strong visual identity is the foundation of an enduring brand.
It may seem like a daunting task to build and maintain a brand presence that feels relevant in today’s world while also standing out in the crowd, but that is where TCS excels. We’ve been in this business for over 20 years and have provided countless branding solutions to our clients. And we’re ready to do the same for you.
Does your brand need an audit?
Reach out to TCS today to start the process of evaluating your brand’s visual identity.
