Brand Building 101: How to Master Your Brand Identity Assets

Your brand has seven seconds to make a first impression. Those seven seconds determine a lot for your brand:

• How people perceive its look and feel

• Do they find it trustworthy and credible?

• Are they willing to pay top bucks for it?

Much of this decision-making is based on visuals. Colors, fonts, design, and graphics play a crucial role. If you get your visuals right, the rest of the branding can follow easily.

Building a brand identity is the process of getting these visuals right. It uses 8 key components as its major players, including:

• Brand name

• Logo design

• Website design

• Brand slogan

• Colors

• Fonts

• Business card design, and

• Business email design

Before discussing these in detail, let’s quickly refresh what a brand is and how it differs from brand identity.

Brand vs. Branding vs. Brand Identity

Modern businesses are more than just companies and commercial entities. They are living things in people’s minds with humanistic qualities and unique characters. It happens thanks to the genius of marketing and modern-day advertising.

• Brand: A brand is the sum of all visual and non-visual expressions an entity (person, business, concept) wants to be identified and remembered by. Brands are built on perceptions and perceptions can always be influenced and maintained.

• Branding: Branding is how you influence a brand’s perception in people’s minds. You have several tools such as design, PR, and marketing. Successful branding never strays from its foundations. Tweaks happen to modify the brand and keep it relevant and refreshed.

• Brand Identity: Brand identity, also known as a brand’s visual identity, refers to the visual look and feel of the brand. As the most obvious and prominent part of the brand, it stands out and plays a major role in successful brand building.

8 Brand Identity Assets to Master

Modern brands are built with eight key assets.

1. Brand Name

A distinct brand name is the most critical element of a brand identity. It identifies a business, sets it apart from the rest, and sets the tone for its overarching identity.

Here’s how you choose the perfect name for your brand:

• Choose a nice-sounding name that rhymes or has a maximum of two syllables as those stick in people’s minds and are easier to remember.

• Avoid overly long or complicated names as they can seem superficial or trying too hard.

• Ensure the name aligns with your brand values so people can instantly understand what else you offer beyond the product. Example: Nike is the name of the Geek goddess of victory. It allows the footwear company to market itself as a brand of athletes and champions.

• Make it strike the right emotional cord. Generic brand names are the worst as they do nothing for the brand’s emotional appeal. Pick evocative names that activate imaginations and motivate consumers to feel and act a certain way. Example: Patagonia is a beautiful mountainous terrain in South America. It is also the name of a clothing brand designed for outdoorsy people into silent sports such as climbing, surfing, trail running, and more.

• Make sure it’s unique so it helps people distinguish you from the competition. Example: Pepsi is vastly different than Coca-Cola even though both sell fuzzy cola drinks.

• Find out if it’s available for trademark as you don’t want a brand name another company is using. Besides the obvious confusion in people’s minds, it exposes you to all sorts of legal troubles. Example: Starbucks once sued an Indian coffee shop chain Sardar Bakhsh for having a similar brand name. The latter had to rebrand itself to Sardarji-Bakhsh.

• Future-proof your brand name by toeing the line between too-general and too-specific. Keep it in the middle so that if your brand grows and you expand your offers or target demographics, the brand name has the space to accommodate your growing company.

• A brand name must look great on a logo design and other branding materials. Long, clunky, or names with weird spellings may get your visual identity into trouble.

Choosing a name that perfectly captures your brand spirit and values, and communicates them clearly to the audience is a great first step. It starts your brand building on a surer footing and simplifies the next step i.e., designing an effective logo.

2. Logo design

A brand’s logo design is one of its most high-valued assets. It’s the first thing people notice about a brand and they take a lot of emotional cues from it.

How a logo is designed can tell people so much about the brand.

Things like:

• Who is the brand’s target audience?

• What is the brand’s core product?

• Does the brand look expensive or affordable?

• What is the brand’s emotional quality? Honesty? Integrity? Charm? Delight? Playfulness?

Here’s how to create a logo design that communicates your brand successfully to the audience.

• Research your target audience: An insurance company logo will look vastly different from a fitness shop logo. Explore the design features — colors, shapes, fonts — that your consumers respond to the best and use those to build the foundation of your brand identity.

• Choose a logo style: There are six main types of logo styles — logo marks, wordmark logos, alphabet logos, combination logos, brand emblems, and mascot logos. Each style serves a unique demographic and brand emotion. Find the one that fits your needs.

• Pick a color and font palette: Choose colors and fonts that coincide with your brand personality. Don’t use more than two or three fonts and colors in your logo design. Otherwise, you risk creating a cluttered logo design that puts people off.

• Create a responsive logo: Modern logos represent their brands on several marketing platforms. A responsive logo modifies itself as you go from one digital platform to the next or from one screen dimension to another. Adaptable logos are print-ready, too. They ensure your brand appears as flawless on paper as it does on digital.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to make your logo design truly picture-perfect, we recently posted an article on the golden ratio and how it delivers precise logo design every time. Give it a read!

3. Website design

Customers will look for you online and if they can’t find you, you can bid an early farewell to your brand-building efforts. But what happens if your website is there but it looks dated or has a poor user experience?

Remember that customers put a lot of stock in web design and use it to gauge a brand’s legitimacy and credibility. While social profiles are important for marketing, websites are where purchase decisions are finalized.

So build a stellar website for your brand that looks like it belongs, has a great UX, and offers customers a great introduction to your brand.

Here are a few things to take care of:

• Set up an intuitive layout so users can explore the site easily.

• Ensure the site’s colors, fonts, and other visual details align with your brand identity.

• Optimize site visuals so the site is quick to load.

• Use responsive web design so the site can adjust its design and functionality per device changes.

• Establish trust by offering secure and easy payment methods.

• Keep your site updated with the latest information to build consumer trust and offer them a great service.

Check your site’s analytics regularly so you’re always aware of when and how to fix any issues that come up.

4. Tagline/Slogan

Starting a business may be daunting but it’s a lot of fun too, especially when it’s time to give it a great, catchy slogan!

Brand slogans are brilliant catchphrases that encapsulate what a brand is all about. These witty one-liners are sticky, hard to forget, and easy to remember. Bet you know which brands these taglines belong to:

It would be wrong to assume that a brand can’t exist without a tagline. Several brands do and they are running successful businesses. Patagonia is one and so is Facebook — though on the opposite ends of the brand repute spectrum.

So if you are toying with the idea of a brand slogan and want to see if you can live without one, now would be the time to try. Brands are becoming more sustainably-minded and going for leaner brand identities. They are also trying to woo Gen-Z, the generation that views brand slogans as inauthentic signals of self-important brand identities.

So we are likely to see more and more brands stop using their slogans.

Yet, a case can be made for poignant, funny, or evocative one-liners that verbalize an authentic brand promise. Without ‘selling’ your brand, these taglines can give your brand a war cry of sorts. A slogan for the cause your brand believes. Something beyond the profit and loss.

If you feel that’s where you are at, consult this post on how to craft an effective brand slogan and use that to communicate your authentic brand self to the new wave of brand consumers.

5. Brand colors

A brand slogan may not be the most critical brand identity asset, but your brand colors should be your ride-or-die!

Next to logo designs, they are the most visible parts of a brand identity and convey a great deal of information. Pick your logo colors wisely to ensure they send the right message out.

Do you want to portray joy and optimism, or serenity and grace? Learn about color associations to ensure your brand messaging is on point. Go with warm colors if leaning towards a delightful, warm, or energetic brand identity. Cool colors are ideal for the calmer side of branding.

Or you can mix the two for high-tension drama.

Whatever you do, keep things balanced — 3 to 5 colors in the palette are great. You can add a few more if you want more variety and room to express your brand feelings.

• Use one color as your primary brand hue.

• 2-3 colors as secondary shades.

• And the rest can be complementary tones.

Remember that we use hues, shades, and tones as synonyms for colors here. They all mean different things when discussing color theory. Read about that here.

6. Brand typography

Distinct fonts create distinct brand identities.

Think of the loopy swirls of the Coca-Cola logo or the imposing serif of Rolex. Each typeface is unique and communicates distinctly different feelings. You can do a lot of magic with your brand identity when you understand how fonts work.

Sans serif fonts are great for digital mediums as they ensure maximum readability. Serif fonts are perfect for brand identities that want to convey legacy, tradition, and prestige. Thin fonts look sleek whereas curves show comfort and charm.

Go back to your branding basics and consider your brand personality. Is it loud and bold? Or casual and fun? Then find the right font pairs that personify your brand identity.

Be smart about collecting fonts in your font palette. Go with 2 to 3 typefaces:

• 1 for your titles/logo design

• 1 for subheadings/summaries

• 1 for body copy

Choose the simplest font for your body copy across all your brand identity assets including logo design, web design, business cards, and emails. Avoid fancy fonts in smaller spaces as they can ruin the visual experience.

7. Business card

Most people don’t deem business cards a critical brand identity asset, but consider this:

You’re meeting a business prospect for the first time and it’s a chance encounter. You want to impress them and introduce them to your brand. What will you use? You can’t carry your brand logo around nor can you force them to look at your website in a 10-minute conversation.

Your business card can be the tool to break the ice and show them you’re always prepared!

Designing a business card a business card with a few tips in mind to maximize its impact and kept it as close as possible to your brand identity:

• Stick to a standard business card size, 3.5 x 2 inches, so it’s easy to carry.

• Add all the necessary details: name, company name, logo (on the back and front), email, and relevant social handles.

• The heading font size should be 12pts and for the body 8pt.

• Design the card in the CMYK color space so the colors come off perfectly in print.

• 300 dpi pixel resolution keeps the design clean and sharp.

• Choose your business card paper and finish with your brand in mind. Exclusive target markets may prefer a glossy, embossed finish. To convey approachability, go with paper but with sturdy, premium quality.

Your logo design must feature prominently on your business card as the face of your brand, but otherwise keep the design simple. It is a compact space so keep it open and airy.

8. Email Signature

Last, but far from least, your email signature design! This design carries your brand’s visual identity PLUS impacts the overall look of your marketing emails.

Considering the high ROI of marketing emails — $36 for every $1 spent — you have to make sure they are designed flawlessly and represent your brand perfectly to a T.

Our email signature design tool lets you take care of this important job in no time. Within minutes you can create a custom email signature per your brand style. You have tons of free design templates to customize and modify following an intuitive process.

A branded email signature instantly elevates your brand perception among your audience and helps you convey a professional identity. It also builds trust and improves brand recognition. Your email open rates may also see an instant bump when you swap a casual email signature with a branded one.

When customers see an email from a trusted source i.e., your brand, they will more likely open it than an email with a non-branded domain. So use our email signature tool and create a cohesive brand identity that spans all customer touchpoints and allows you to put a confident foot forward.

Create your brand with our all-inclusive brand identity kit!

Building a brand from scratch is immense fun but can be demanding too!

For busy startup founders and SME owners who rather pay attention to their business expansion than worry about color-matching their logo and business card, our brand identity kit is an easy tool to balance both jobs.

Powered by AI and built with human intuition, our brand kit removes design technicality from the equation and slashes the work into half. You can now have fun creating logos, matching fonts, and designing email signatures. With simple and easy clicks and press of a button, you can build entire websites from scratch in just a couple of hours, complete with SEO and analytics!

Creating logos, business cards, flyers, social headers, and more is now a matter of minutes instead of months! Plus, our one-stop-shop brand kit ensures all your designs remain consistent throughout. The kit stores your logo design and places it automatically where it should be on your business card, website banner, email signature, etc.

So take advantage of this cohesion and create strong brand identities that propel your brand forward into success.