How to Create a Strong Brand Identity Without a Designer
What? A designer writing a blog on how to build a brand WITHOUT a designer… yes this is true and no I haven’t lost the plot and here’s why…
As much as I love bringing brands to life not everyone has the budget for professional help and I see many start-ups, small businesses and even established independent businesses with very poor or all-over-the-show attempts at branding.
To help you wonderful small business owners start on the right foot, I have put together this blog to give you a list of things to consider when building a brand or refreshing your current brand with the right personality for your business and reaching your dream customers.
What to consider first
You don’t need to hire a designer to start creating a great brand presence, you just need the essentials to make smart choices about key design elements such as colours, fonts, logos, and overall visuals. These choices will help set the tone for your brand and influence how your audience perceives you. I tell my clients to think of their business as a person as it helps to visualise your business better, here is where to start:
1. Logo
Imagine the logo as the face of your business, its what people recognise straight away and what gives a face to the name.
2.The visual identity
This is what clothes your business wears, how they style their hair, the way they hold themselves. Does your business wear a smart suit with polished brogues or a baggy tee shirt with flip-flops?
3. Copy
The tone of voice of your business comes from your copy or in simple terms, how your business speaks. Before writing any social media, blogs or website copy, think about how your target audience would talk. Would they slang, crack jokes and have a sense of humour or would they speak conservatively, professionally, assertively? You can read more about the power of copy in this blog.
4. Morals and goals
Just like a real person, a business becomes relatable or admirable from its values, core beliefs and ambitions. So it’s important to consider how your business is going to serve your customers.
Hopefully, these have given you some food for thought to get started. Now for creating the visuals…
Colour: The Psychology behind your brand’s choice of colour.
Colour is one of the first things people notice about your brand. It’s more than just aesthetics and pretty palettes, it’s a powerful tool for communicating your brand’s personality and values. Here’s what to think about when choosing your brand colours:
- Mood and Emotion: Think about the mood you want to create for your audience. Do you want your brand to feel calm and trustworthy (blues, greens) or energetic and bold (reds, yellows)? Colour can have a huge impact on how people feel when they interact with your brand.
- Colour Psychology: Different colours evoke different emotions and associations. For example, blue can signify professionalism and trust, while red can create a sense of urgency or excitement.
- Contrasting Colours for Better Usability: Make sure your colour palette offers good contrast. This is crucial for visibility and accessibility as a pop of a contrasting colour can help people navigate your website and give you more flexibility with its usage. Think about how your colours will appear across your website, social media, and printed materials and how you plan to use them.
- Printed Colour vs. Screen Colour: Colours can look different when printed versus how they appear on a screen. Keep this in mind when choosing colours for both digital and printed materials. What looks great online may not translate as well in print, and vice versa. So bear this in mind and do some test runs before committing to a colour.
- Pantone: While using Pantone colours is helpful for consistency, especially if you plan on scaling your brand, it’s not necessary to start with. You can focus on basic colour choices for now and refine them later as your brand grows. If you’re wondering what the f Pantone is, see my jargon busting blog here.
Fonts: The Voice of Your Brand
Choosing the right fonts can make a huge difference in how your brand is perceived. Your fonts communicate as much as your words, so it’s important to pick ones that reflect your brand’s personality. Here’s what to keep in mind:
- How Many Fonts Should You Use?
As a rule of thumb, stick to a maximum of two to three fonts. One for headings, one for body text, and possibly a third for accents or callouts. Too many fonts can make your brand feel chaotic and unprofessional. - How to Use Your Fonts:
Keep it consistent. Use one font for headlines, another for text, and only use your accent font sparingly. Consistency will help keep your branding recognisable and cohesive across different platforms. - Choosing Fonts & Pairing Them:
When selecting fonts, aim for a combination that is both complementary and readable. For example, a bold sans-serif font for headings can pair well with a more neutral serif font for body text. A good starting point is to look at fonts that are widely recognised for being professional and versatile. - Font Feel & Your Customers:
Think about the emotions you want to evoke through your typography. A font with harsh, jagged edges could make your brand feel aggressive or unsettling, while a script font might give a more elegant or personal vibe. For instance, something written in scratchy, uneven handwriting might feel unsettling, like a horror film, whereas using a delicate script font might evoke a romantic or nostalgic feel. Choose fonts that reflect how you want your customers to feel about your brand. - Licences and Usability:
Not all fonts are free to use commercially, so make sure to check the licensing. You don’t want to run into trouble by using a font that you don’t have the rights to. - Where to Find Safe Fonts:
For a new business, a great starting point is Google Fonts. They offer a huge selection of fonts that are free to use for commercial purposes, and they’re easy to implement on your website. Plus, they ensure that the fonts you choose will be accessible and work across different devices and browsers.
Logo: The Heart of Your Brand’s Identity
Your logo is the cornerstone of your visual identity. Even if you’re creating one yourself, it’s essential to make it simple, memorable, and versatile.
- Keep it Simple:
A simple design will always work best. Your logo should be clean and easy to recognise, even when displayed at smaller sizes. The more complicated the design, the harder it will be to reproduce across various formats. - Scalability:
Think about how your logo will look both large and small. It should be legible and identifiable whether it’s on a business card or a billboard. Avoid overly intricate details that might be lost when scaled down. - Think Outside the Box:
If your business is a coffee shop, don’t feel the need to use a coffee bean or cup in your logo. Similarly, builders and painters often use houses or paintbrushes in their logos. Stand out by coming up with something unique and unexpected. A creative logo can help you differentiate yourself from the competition. - Logo Design Options:
You don’t need to hire a designer straight away. There are plenty of options to create a logo on a budget:- DIY: Tools like Canva offer easy-to-use logo design templates.
- AI Design Tools: AI can be an excellent way to generate ideas for a logo design (with the right prompts).
- Fiverr Designers: If you want something more tailored and you have a bit of a budget, you can quickly find designers on platforms like Fiverr. However, be aware that these may not be long-term solutions if you want to scale in the future.
Icons: Add Extra Personality and Clarity
Icons can help add personality and clarity to your brand, whether they’re used in your website, marketing materials, or even social media.
- Enhance Your Identity:
Icons like small illustrations, shapes, or patterns can add another layer to your brand’s personality. Think about creating a specific style that aligns with your business, whether that’s playful, sophisticated, or artistic. - Replacing Generic Icons:
Instead of relying on the same old arrows and shopping trolley icons, consider creating custom icons that reflect your business more directly. These can be used for bullet points, headings, or navigation elements to make your design feel unique.
Photography: Creating the Right Mood for Your Brand
Photography is just as important as colours and fonts when it comes to creating your brand’s identity. The style of your imagery plays a huge role in shaping how your audience feels about your business.
- Define Your Photography Style:
Think about the type of photography style that suits your brand. Is it sharp, clean, and minimal, or is it arty, dark, and moody? Or maybe you want bold, colourful, and high-energy shots? Once you’ve nailed your style, make sure to use it consistently across all future imagery. - Consistency in Photography:
Just like colours and fonts, your photography needs to be consistent to create a cohesive brand feel. Keep all your images aligned with your brand’s mood, from your website to social media posts. - Stock Photography
Although stock photography can be a good starting point for getting some visuals for your business it is best to start looking at producing your own. Not only will these give you more credibility and build trust in your services/products, it will also begin to build your unique visual to set you apart from all the other businesses using that exact same stock image.
Consistency: The Key to Strong Branding
All of the elements above are meaningless if they’re not kept consistent. A cohesive brand identity requires consistent use of fonts, colours, logos, and imagery across all touchpoints.
- Create a Brand Guide:
To ensure consistency, create a brand guide that outlines your brand’s colours, fonts, logo usage, and photography style. This will serve as a reference for you and anyone else working on your brand. - Track Important Details:
Keep track of your hex codes (for colours) and font names and weights. This will make it easier to maintain consistency over time. - Be Organised:
Stay organised with your brand assets. If you’re passing your brand files to a third party (such as a web developer or printer), make sure everything is clearly labelled and easy to access. - Apply Consistent Rules:
Make sure that the rules you create for your brand are applied across your website, social media, and print materials. Consistency is what makes your brand recognisable and memorable.
Now it’s time to get creative, think outside the box and design your business’s personality, appearance and character. Tag me in your before and afters on Instagram! I’d love to see what you have done! @loonarcreative
If you’re still feeling a bit lost or overwhelmed with where to begin, swing us an email and lets have a chin wag!