Your Brand (Visual Identity) Tells Your Story

Lately, I’ve been sharing with you the two of the three Brand Style components. If you haven’t seen those posts, start here with “Want to Create a Memorable Brand? Focus on the Integrity of your Brand Elements” and then go to “Are You Turning Off Your Audience With Your Brand Images?“. You’ll be able to pick up on what we’re talking about if you read those posts first.

Today I want to continue with:

Part 3 of the Brand Style series called Visual Identity

This refers to the outward look and feel of your inner brand. In other words, this is the step that you’ve been working on to uncover your identity and where your core values come to life.  Your brand (visual identity) tells your story!

When referring to your Visual Identity, take into consideration all those items that identify your visual brand like your logo, fonts, graphic elements and colors. Visual brand identity reflects your brand positioning.

And as you build your visual assets, you’re looking for more than just creating a fantastic look. It’s about telling your story.

This is the part where the focus and creation of your inner game come together and forms an outward expression.

Focusing on aesthetics may look great on the outside, but it won’t connect with those you want to reach. You need to consciously consider your brand position, your goals, your stand and who your “It Factors”.

An effective way to get your Visual Identity to tell your story is to make sure you share your story with all of those involved in the creation process. This will include your team members, your graphic designer, your web developer and even your VA.

To help you keep everyone aware of the big picture and assist in creating an effective Brand Style (Visual Identity) use these essential tips:

1. Be clear when you communicate your vision.

Express not only what you do like, but also what you don’t like. It is helpful to use visual examples to share your ideas like mockups, screenshots of various graphics, design elements, and logos.

2. Check out what the competition in your industry is doing.

This is a great place to get ideas and inspiration while still staying true to yourself. It also helps you distinguish your visual identity from everyone else.

3. Less is more!

If you have any design doubts, default to straightforward and clear over excessive and possibly confusing.

4. Test your final output to make sure it reflects the impression you were aiming for.

You can do this by finding ten “It Factors” and surveying your customers for their honest feedback. When you question them, ask closed-ended questions, such as:

• In three words or less, describe the feelings you get from this image/logo.
• Yes or No – When looking at this image/logo, do you get the sense of trust, dependability, and approachability?
• Multiple Choice: What emotion does this picture elicit? (Give them positive, negative, and neutral choices to pick from.)
• Using a scale of 1-5, this picture is…(list some adjectives for them to rate with.)

Most importantly, don’t get hung up on this. You can continue to refine your visual brand identity as it becomes clearer. It’s better to be BOLD and try something new vs. standing still and doing nothing.

Check out these before and after case studies:

How about you? Which challenges are you facing as you create your Visual Identity? What are you going to do to keep moving forward?