VISUAL BRAND IDENTITY

The visual brand identity or corporate design can be explained as “the graphic components that all together provide a system for identifying and representing a brand. The basic elements of a brand’s visual identity might comprise; Logo, Symbols, Colors, Typography.

Elements of the visual brand identity

The logo is the major part of the visual brand identity, nevertheless other elements are fundamental in the corporate visual design.

The logo

A graphical mark used to identify a company, organization, product or brand. Logos can be displayed along side - or in lieu of - a company's name in order to generate awareness of the company's association with a particular product or service. The particular graphic used may be a stylized version of the company lettering (such as a wordmark) or abstract (such as a shape unrelated to the company lettering).

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According to Egan (2007, p.83), a logo is “an emblem or device used to distinguish an organization or brand”. A logo is a representation of the brand, which does not have to be confused with the brand itself. Even if the logo is nothing less than the visual embodiment of the brand, it is only a part of it. For Silver (2001) an effective logo is even able to generate emotion and desire. In their book “The power of logo” Haig and Harper (1997) define three main categories of logos that can be used by a company:

• Acronyms and Monograms: “the first letters of each word in the company name” forms the logo. It often brings confusion because the message transmitted with letters is limited.
• Name-Only Logos: The name represents the company’s logo. The advantage to use this kind of logo is that the consumer does not need to relate the logo with the name. Nevertheless, it is really hard to design a name that conveys the company’s values.
• Name/Symbol combination: The logo is a combination of the company’s name and one symbol. This type is often the best solution to create an efficient logo. The symbol imparts the firm’s attributes and the name is highlighted.

According to Joannès (2008), a logo requires to have particular properties to be effective: 

• consistency (the logo has to represent a unified view of the company; it has to give a consistent image of it, all the present elements in the logo need to be linked together),
• semantic and emotional richness (in spite of its apparent easiness, it has to generate in people’s mind a lot of cognitive answers), 
• durability (the average shelf life for a company logo is around 10 to 15 years. For products logo, it used to be shorter, around 5 years most of the time. It is needed to change the logo, or at least modify it, when its meaning or references are becoming obsolete or when it is not reflecting anymore the company’s purpose or philosophy),
• adaptability (a logo has to be always adaptable and recognizable, even on different supports, in black and white and in smaller size. The customer has to be able to recognize it in all situations).

The effective logo has to be:

• Simple: The logo’s design has to be simple, so the customer will remember it easily
• Memorable: More simple is a logo, the easier the customer will keep it in mind. At the same time, the logo has to be attractive; it has to catch the eyes. To sum up, a logo is a complex combination of simplicity and originality.
• Timeless: When creating a logo, the designer has to think about it in ten years or in twenty years. Of course, it will still be possible to make a logo evolved, but to change it entirely will lose the customer. The logo represents the brand.
• Versatile: A logo has to be adaptable to different supports; it also has to be recognizable even in only one color.
• Appropriate: A logo has to be linked with the company; it has to represent itself. So, the purpose of the company has to be translated in the design of the logo.

Logos are an example of intangible assets because they hold value, but not in a physical form. Logos have become an integral part of a company's identity, and are used heavily in the marketing of products and services. A well-recognized logo can increase a company's goodwill and is trademarked for intellectual property protection.

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The colors

The logo being the visual representation of the brand, it needs to be designed with caution to transmit the desired brand image. Colors are a fundamental part in a logo design (Bottomley and Doyle, 2006); they are the vectors of the feelings that the customers are supposed to perceive and “communicate corporate position” (De Mooij, 2010, p.186). Finding one or more colors matching perfectly with the company and its brand identity appears to be a complex process, because “color is personal and universal, sending messages full of endless variations” (Marks, Mine, Origin & Sutton, 2009, p.13).

The signs and symbols (brand marks)

To find the logo that better represents the brand, the firm has to study and know the character of basic signs. Each sign has one or more meanings that can be explicit or not depending on the company environment. All shapes impact the consumer’s perception of the brand, so, the sign and its meanings have to be in adequacy with the firm’s values.

The typography

“Typography is the process of arranging letters, words, and text for almost any context you can imagine: it is everywhere”, (Dabner, Calvert & Case, 2009, p.62). The lettering style helps to establish and identify the company; it can denote high quality, high price or a bargain. If the typography matches with the target market and is fully part of the brand visual identity, it represents a valuable visual equity. Three main elements, the typeface, the spacing and the layout, are included under the typography term.

First, the typeface combines the following aspects: the character style, the weight and the slant (characterize the choice to put the font in bold, italic, lowercase or capital letters), the size and the height.

Second, the spacing, which is the space between letters, words and lines, can be more or less important. It allows facilitating the comprehension of the reader.

Third, the layout signifies “the positioning of print and all the other visual elements of the work” (Peterson, 2005, p.64). The creation of different paragraphs, columns or the addition of headlines or borders represent the lay out. Making connections between text and graphical elements, the layout influences and facilitates the interpretation.

The slogan / tagline

Slogans are phrases that sum up important characteristics of the brand” (Egan 2007, 83).

A tagline is a short phrase that captures a company's brand essence, personality and positioning, and distinguishes a company from its competitors (Wheeler 2013, 24).
Examples: "Ideas worth spreading" (TED), "Feel the love" (Crocs), "Open happiness" (Coca-Cola), etc.

According to Foster (2001), a slogan has to:

• Be memorable: people have to keep the slogan in mind.
• Recall the brand name
• Include a key benefit
• Differentiate the brand
• Communicate positive feelings for the brand
• Reflect the brand's personality; in creating a slogan, it is needed to think to the brand as a person, and so to express its character and personality
• Be strategic, the slogan has to express the business strategy
• Be easy to use it in several advertising campaigns; it has to be the common point between all the different company’s advertisements
• Be competitive; a competitor should not be able to use the same slogan; it has to differentiate strongly the brand from others.
• Be original
• Be simple
• Be neat: linked to the idea of simplicity, it means that the slogan has to be a sentence, with a start and an end
• Be believable
• Help in ordering the brand: when talking about the slogan to a salesperson or even someone external to the company, the slogan has to be associated directly to the brand
• Not be in current use by other
• Not be insipid or generic
• Not incite a sarcastic or negative response
• Not be pretentious
• Not be negative
• Not be meaningless: people have to understand what are the ideas and emotions that the slogan is supposed to transmit
• Not be complicated or clumsy.

Visual brand identity process