“Can you just design me a logo?” - If you ask any graphic designer how many times they’ve heard this question from a prospective client, it’s likely too many to count.
Having a strong logo is absolutely essential for any business, however, your brand should have so much more than just a logo.
So what does branding look like beyond a logo, and why do you need it? A brand is essentially the entire experience your customers have with your product or service.
Strong branding has many positive effects on a business, including brand awareness, enhanced customer relationships, customer loyalty, and increased sales to list a few examples. A logo is just one aspect of this to assist customers in recognising your brand, but there are so many other factors that help shape the brand experience too.
Colour Palette
Colours subjectively convey many different things to an audience, making your colour palette one of the most important tools in visually communicating your brand to others. You should have a primary and secondary colour palette that incorporate both light and dark colours, along with at least one contrast colour. Colour theory (what each colour communicates) should also be considered, and should align with how you want to portray your brand and its values.
Example of a brand colour palette; designed by Distil for Hinchcliff House
Typography
Typography is another important aspect of a brand that helps it to be unique and memorable. A brand style guide should provide an outline of different fonts or font weights used for headings, subheadings, body copy, and accents. It is important the set of brand fonts and how they are used are adhered to throughout collateral, in order to present your brand in a consistent manner and promote recognition.
Example of brand typography; designed by Distil for Apollonia Bar
Graphic Elements
Graphic elements refer to the different visual tools used to distinguish a brand’s visual identity from others and may include textures, shapes or illustrations. Using some graphic elements throughout your branding assists in creating a unique, memorable and consistent identity throughout all brand touch-points. Graphic elements are a great opportunity to get particularly creative with the way your brand is visually presented!
Example of graphic elements; designed by Distil for Moore Park View Hotel
Photography
The style of photography used in branding should be carefully considered, as there are many different moods that can be communicated depending on the photograph subject, lighting, composition and editing. Your brand photography should be creative but consistent, and we always recommend working with professional content creators for the best possible outcome.
Photography mood board example; compiled by Distil for The Carrington
Brand Personality
Having a distinct brand personality is just as important as the visual aspects of a brand. Your brand personality should encapsulate what your brand would sound like as a person. Your brand personality should be consistent across all channels, from social media captions to EDMs.
Example of how a brand's personality can be shown through the copy of an Instagram caption; written by Distil for Apollonia Bar
The above branding elements listed are experienced by the customer in various ways, including:
- Your website
- Your social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn)
- EDMs
- Advertisements
- Printed assets (coasters, posters, menus, brochures, merchandise)
- Customer service
- Work uniforms
We hope we have given you more options to consider for a brand beyond just having a logo! If you need assistance with anything design or marketing related, feel free to contact us using the link below.
