Logo and Brand Identity. What’s the difference?
Often people get stuck in the idea that a brand is all about the business’s logo. The logo is just one aspect that fits under your business's whole brand identity. You should be able to cover up your logo and still be able to identify the company by the look and feel your brand identity creates. This includes things such as your brand's tone of voice, slogans, brand and marketing look and feel, design assets and more.
For a business to create a successful brand you must establish your brand’s purpose, values, and mission that all fit under your overarching idea.
As graphic Designers, we dig deeper into your brand to help the company to portray the right image to its audience/consumers. Knowing your business, your why and what sets your business apart, then discussing this with your graphic designer can help to lift your brand from just a logo to something bigger and more recognisable.
Different questions that you can ask yourself that will help to lift your brand identity are questions such as…
What are the beliefs and values that are important to this company?
Why did you start this business?
How is your brand special?
A great exercise is to think: what are 3 keywords that best describes your business? Boil your company down to the core. It is so much more than just the services, it is why you stand out from your competitors.
Branding is one of the most important parts of a growing business, telling your audiences who and what your company is about.
Branding is your company's identity - how it is represented.
This isn't ONLY graphic design elements but also includes the wants and needs you might want to communicate to your audience.
Marty Neumeter says:
“A brand is a persons GUT FEELING about a product, service or company. You can’t control the process, but you can influence it.”
That is where designers come in, our job is to help put your best foot forward and help you deliver your companies message through visual elements. The colour, the style, the feel, the tone - it all contributes to influence your potential client/customers gut feeling about you.
A good example of this would be the warehouse, By the statements: “Where everyone gets a bargain” or ‘Red Shed’ you would be able to identity what brand is being spoken about and would already recognise them by just the colour red, rather than needing to see the whole logo.
The world is full of so many different graphic elements which means being able to create a successful brand identity can help to easily distinguish yourself from your competitors.
"Branding is deliberate differentiation" - Debbie Milman
An easy way to think of your branding would be a mood board or blue print of everything you want your brand to be and represent, from imagery to a sing-along slogan. Your brand will become built on how the consumers and audience understand it. It is important to create your brand identity in a way that you want it to be perceived by your target audience.
To conclude, a logo alone is just a graphic element when not accompanied by a brand identity. Yes, it should be included but as a part of your whole brand's representation, but without having brand identity your logo should have no meaning and would just be the name of your company.
Do you need help developing a brand identity? Chat with our design team to see if we are the right fit for your business! Get in touch
