The Professional Branding Design Process in 10 Steps
You don’t need a degree in graphic design or a creative director by your side to create the perfect logo for your business. A little time and effort could make all the difference between being an average business owner and a world-class brand.
You may already be an expert in branding your own business, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are an expert in branding. We’ll teach you everything you need about branding with this comprehensive, step-by-step guide.
Learn the essentials about designing a logo, creating a website, writing a marketing plan, choosing a color scheme, and more. This will be the best experience you’ll ever have on branding.
Many people think branding is only a logo and slogan. They fail to see the branding process that goes into every brand element, from visual design and logo creation to name selection, messaging, and customer experience.
Identify Your Company Core Values
Identifying your company’s core values is essential in the branding design process. You will focus on your brand and logo design by defining your company’s core values.
Here are some steps to identify your company’s core values.
Step 1. Define the purpose of your company
The first step in identifying your company’s core values is to determine the purpose of your company. What are your company goals? Are you aiming to build a successful company? Do you want to sell a product or service? What is your primary mission? Determine what exactly your company’s purpose is. You should be able to give at least three reasons why your company exists.
Step 2. Select your core values
Now that you have determined your company’s purpose, you need to select your company’s core values. You should consider internal and external factors to determine your company’s core values. These factors could include the following:
• What are the company’s strengths?
• What are the company’s weaknesses?
• Who are the company’s key customers?
• What are the company’s competitors?
• What are the industry standards?
• Who are the company’s employees?
• What are the company’s goals?
After determining your company’s core values, you can start to implement them into your branding design.
Step 3. Create a visual representation of your company’s core values
When creating your logo design, you need to make sure that the design represents your company’s core values. If your company values are to be represented through a logo, then you need to keep these core values in mind when creating your logo. For example, if your company values are quality and customer service, you should use those words to describe your logo.
Step 4. Include your core values in your brand
To bring your core values to life, you should include them in your brand. This will help people understand your brand and its meaning. It will also create a connection between your company and its customers. Include your core values throughout your brand and company marketing materials.
Step 5. Incorporate your company’s core values into your brand strategy
When incorporating your company’s core values into your brand strategy, you should use words and phrases that reflect your core values. This will help strengthen your brand and make it more memorable. For example, if your company values are quality and customer service, you should use those words and phrases in your branding strategy.
Determine Your Target Audience
Think about the types of people who visit your site and what they’re looking for. Are they coming to read about your products and services? Or do they want to buy something? If you sell clothing, you’ll want to focus on selling clothes to people. But if you run a tutoring service, you may want to attract people interested in learning something.
Your target audience determines what type of content you should use. If your target audience is people who are interested in learning, you might create an educational blog. On the other hand, if your target audience is interested in buying, you should focus on writing articles about products and services.
In addition to determining your target audience, you must decide your purpose when creating your brand. Is it to inform people about a product or service? Is it to make money? Whatever your reason, you’ll need to consider it when creating your brand.
Define Your Message
Your business should have a well-defined marketing message to build a strong brand. It should also be consistent. Your marketing messages should be consistent in the way you communicate them, and they should be consistent in the way your customers understand them.
Define your marketing message by ensuring it is simple, memorable and attractive.
Branding is the first step toward establishing a successful business. You should always define your message early to ensure consistency throughout your business’s different stages.
Here are a few points to consider while defining your marketing message:
Your message should be memorable. It should be unique, different and distinguishable from your competitors. You can use words like “better”, “stronger”, or “faster” to describe your product or service. Make it catchy and meaningful.
Consistency is key. Customers expect a certain quality from you. They expect a higher quality level from your company than their expectations. They want you to be honest and open about the problem and what will be done about it. The customer needs to trust you and feel comfortable with your brand.
When your customers receive your marketing message, they will accept, reject, or ignore it. If your message doesn’t resonate with your customer, they will probably not do business with you.
Research Key Competitors
Researching your competitors is easy to do online. All you need to do is search for them, and you’ll be able to see what kind of logo they’re using.
When researching your competitors, you should look at their logos and website. You can also look at the company information that they provide. You can find all of this information online.
Here are some of the best ways to research your competition:
1: Search for your competitors on Google
Searching for your competitors on Google can be very helpful. When searching for your competitors, try using the phrase “competitor search.” For example, if you were looking for a competitor to Amazon, you could type in “amazon competitor search.” You can narrow down your search results by adding specific keywords to the search, such as “Amazon competitor.”
2: Use Google image search
Another great way to research your competition is to use Google image search. If you’re interested in the competitors to Amazon, you can type in “amazon competitor” into Google image search.
3: Look at their website
You can also visit your competitors’ websites and see what kind of logo they use. You can use the URL bar on your browser to navigate the website. Once on the website, you can hover over the logo to see what it looks like. You can also look at their website and see their brand identity.
4: Check out their social media accounts
You can also check out your competitors’ social media accounts. You can go to their website’s social media accounts section to learn more about what they’re doing on social media. You’ll also be able to see what kind of images they post.
5: Read their blog posts
Another great way to research your competitors is to read their blog posts. While you’re there, you’ll be able to learn about their brand identity and what kind of products and services they offer.
By doing these five things, you’ll be able to learn more about your competitors. You can use this information to help you with your branding process.
Brainstorm Potential Logo Designs
Brainstorming is a crucial skill every entrepreneur who wants to succeed should be mastered. Brainstorming is one of the most critical skills you can acquire if you want to improve your chances of business success.
When you brainstorm, you come up with fresh and new ideas. You are forced to think about things in ways that you haven’t considered before. You will learn much more about your customers and market in this manner.
Here are some tips on brainstorming potential logo designs for branding to help you brainstorm and develop creative ideas.
1: Use a whiteboard
A whiteboard is an excellent tool for brainstorming. It helps you to jot down everything in a simple, clean, and organized way. You can use different colored markers to make it easy to identify different ideas.
You can write the information directly on the board or use sticky notes to get your ideas written down quickly.
2: Use a brainstorming tool
There are many online tools that you can use to brainstorm. Some of the best include Evernote, MindMeister, and FreeMind. These tools enable you to easily and quickly create a mind map and list of ideas.
3: Create a word cloud
Another method you can use to brainstorm is to create a word cloud. In a word cloud, you arrange all the words you think of into a grid. Once you have done this, you can use different colors to make them easier to see.
4: Use free writing
Free writing is another technique you can use to brainstorm. You can simply let your thoughts flow freely without any expectations. This technique might be very effective because it forces you to focus on what you need to write.
5: Use a mind mapping software
Finally, you can also use mind mapping software to brainstorm. You must use different shapes to organize your ideas to create a mind map. Some of the best mind mapping software include Mindjet MindManager and OmniGraffle.
Identify Your Brand Style
A brand style is the most critical part of a brand because it defines the overall look of your brand. For instance, if your company name is ‘Google’, your brand font is ‘Open Sans’, and you use a ‘Google Chrome’ color, you’ll get a very Google-like appearance.
But if your company name is ‘Google’ and your brand name is ‘Search’ and you use a ‘Droid Sans’ font and a ‘Dark Blue’ color, you will get a different look.
Your brand should be unique because your customers would get confused between your products and your competitors’ products. Also, your brand is your most valuable asset. It’s something that you don’t want to give away to anyone else.
The most crucial factor to remember while designing your brand is that you should be consistent in all aspects of your brand.
For instance, if you have a ‘Google Chrome’ logo and a ‘Droid Sans’ font, you must use these fonts and the same color in all your design projects.
Apart from this, you must also ensure that your logo doesn’t look too similar to other companies.
A great brand style can take a company to another level.
Choose a Color Palette
Choosing a color palette for your brand can be a daunting task. There are so many factors that go into choosing colors for your brand. Whether you are designing logos, websites, or even marketing collateral, it is crucial to consider your audience. By considering this, you will be able to create a cohesive brand identity that is memorable and stands out from the competition.
Below, we will explain the importance of choosing a color palette that fits your audience and branding goals.
Before getting into this topic, we want to give you a bit of background on why your brand needs a color palette. A color palette is a collection of colors that form a consistent design system. For example, Nike uses a specific color palette on their clothing, shoes, and other products. These colors are chosen specifically because they work together to create a unique identity for the company. Nike’s distinct and recognizable brand sets them apart from other athletic clothing companies.
Choosing the right color palette for your brand requires a lot of thought and consideration. As you begin the process, think about the following four points.
Your Audience
If you want your brand to stand out, you need to make sure your chosen colors match your audience. If your audience is young and trendy, you may want to use bright and bold colors. However, if your audience is older and more conservative, then you might want to choose pastel or neutral colors. It’s essential to understand who your audience is so that you can make the right decisions for your brand.
If you create a logo, your target audience will affect your chosen colours. To target younger people, you should probably use a bold color palette. If your audience is older, then you might want to choose a pastel or neutral palette. If you don’t know what your audience looks like, try to find some information online. You can search the web for information about your audience. Another option would be to ask your customers what color palette they prefer. This can help you decide which colors will appeal to your audience.
Your Branding Goals
The second thing you need to consider is your branding goals. What do you want to achieve through your brand? Do you want to promote a particular product? Do you want to create a certain aesthetic? Choosing a color palette for your brand should help you achieve these goals.
For example, if you want to promote a product, you might want to choose a bold palette. This helps your audience identify the brand as a trustworthy company. A bold palette also makes the brand look more powerful. This is an integral part of any advertising campaign. When you choose a bold palette, you tell your audience that this brand is powerful and has a good reputation. You could choose a pastel or neutral palette if you create a new logo for your company.
Create Your Logo Design
A logo is vital to any business as it represents the brand. It’s the identity of your company. Let’s discuss how to create a logo for branding purposes.
There are many websites available online that provide logo designing services. So, if you’re new to logo designing, it would be difficult for you to understand all these tools. This post will explain what you should consider while creating a logo for your business.
Before you start designing a logo, you need to understand the objectives of logo designing. There are several main objectives of logo design. These are:
• Branding
• Identity
• Visual Appeal
• Aesthetic Appeal
• Recognition
• Utility
The first impression matters a lot when it comes to branding. Branding positively impacts your customers and helps them associate the brand with your products and services. If your logo design is weak or poor, people will quickly fail to recognize your products and services.
Creating a logo is not an easy task. There are various things that you should consider before creating a logo. This includes the typeface you should use, the font style, the color, size and many other factors.
Before moving forward to create your logo, there are several things that you need to know.
Things You Need To Know Before Creating a Logo
Logo design is a vital part of any brand. Whether you’re running a business or you’re creating a logo for yourself, it’s vital that you understand what makes a good logo.
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to design a suitable logo, but you should have a basic understanding of graphic designing concepts. Here we will discuss some of the critical things you need to know before creating a logo.
Fonts and Typeface
The font that you choose should be unique and catchy. You must pay attention to the color of the fonts as well. Use bold, simple fonts and avoid using complicated fonts as they may distract your customer.
You should avoid using large fonts, making your logo look cluttered.
Size
The font size should suit the company or individual you are designing the logo for. You can use smaller sizes like 16, 24 or 32 pixels. If you use larger font size, it may look messy. You can also use multiple font sizes, depending upon the text size. For example, if your text is small, you can use smaller sizes; if your text is significant, you can use bigger sizes.
Colors
Colors are a crucial part of any logo design. When choosing the color for your logo, you should choose a color close to the color of your products or services. You can use two colors to represent the different aspects of your product or service.
For example, you can use blue and yellow for water bottles or red and white for pizza boxes.
You should never use an inappropriate color. You can use light colors for text, dark colors for background images, and complementary colors for the logos.
Develop Your Brand Identity
Brand identity is the way that a brand is presented to the world. It’s the overall look and feel of the brand, as well as the way the brand is represented in the media.
Branding has several vital roles, including:
• Marketing
• Sales
• Public relations
• Product design
• Design
• Image
• Perception
Branding is one of the most important aspects of running a business because it helps to build customer confidence and loyalty.
Branding is a long-term strategy; if you get it right, your brand will last longer than your products or services.
If your brand identity is apparent, customers will be able to recognize your brand instantly, and they will be confident in buying your products.
The essential part of creating a solid brand identity is deciding what kind of brand you want to create.
It would be best if you decided what makes your brand unique. How do you want your customers to identify you? What makes your company different from others?
Think about your customers and what they expect from you. Do they prefer a clean, modern design or old-school and traditional? Do they appreciate your company’s social presence, or would they instead be kept away from it?
You might have noticed that there are different kinds of companies out there. Each of them has a unique style and a distinct personality.
Your brand is supposed to match your company’s personality, but it doesn’t have to be identical. You must find a balance between your company’s identity and personal style.
Launch Your Branding Campaign
After you’ve created a brand strategy and developed a brand identity, you can launch a branding campaign. This includes various activities, such as creating a social media presence, emailing customers and designing a website.
Each step in your branding campaign aims to build awareness and make your brand memorable. If you can complete all these steps, you’ll be able to create a successful brand strategy and establish yourself as a leader in your field.
Conclusion
Now that you know the basics of the branding design process, the next step is to use your brand. A brand should never feel generic. It needs to have personality. That’s why we created a simple guide to make your brand stand out online.
The best brands are built on a foundation of great customer experiences. To create great customer experiences, you need to focus on your branding and create brand guidelines that communicate your brand values and style. And once you’ve created those guidelines, the next step is to ensure that they are consistently applied across your organization, both digitally and physically. So, why not start your branding journey today? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Let us help you create a brand identity for your company.
