Branding Essentials: The Elements You Need to Make the Most Out of Your Branding
I've said it once and I'll say it again:
Your brand is so much more than your logo.
When people hear "branding," their minds often jump to logos, understandably so. But branding isn’t just about slapping a logo onto your website or products and calling it a day. It’s about cohesiveness, consistency, and versatility that brings light to who you are at your core and connects with your community.
Branding should mirror all the dimensions of your business, no matter its size or story.
Branding is a holistic experience with many moving parts that work together to tell your brand's story. Every detail counts when creating a brand experience, for even the most "simple" brands.
Understanding the nuances of branding is crucial for any business or organization wanting to make a meaningful impact with its visual marketing. A successful, strategic brand should go beyond just visuals and resonate deeply with its target audience's emotions, perceptions, and experiences.
So what elements other than a logo do you actually need in your branding to make a meaningful connection to your community?
A sure way to connect with them through your marketing is to have a unique library of visual elements that are designed with intention and created with versatility and cohesiveness in mind.
A library that offers cohesiveness and versatility ensures that your visual branding works for you on every touchpoint, so you're not stuck piecing together random graphics and stock photos and your audience isn't left with questions about your brand experience.
Let's take a look at what I consider the essentials in that library of visual elements!
The Branding Essentials:
While every designer's approach is different, you may notice that many branding packages look similar. Here's an outline of the visual branding elements that I offer my clients at AllieMarie Design.
Primary Elements:
Logo Suite
The logo suite is comprised of your brand's primary logo and additional logo variations. The primary logo is the central visual representation of your brand that encapsulates its essence. It acts as the face of your brand, communicating its values, personality, and identity. The additional logo variations can be used across different touchpoints and media that require different logo sizing or to simply add some visual variety across your branding!
Main Logo:
Logo Variations:
Secondary Marks
Secondary marks include submarks, seals, watermarks, and other logo variations that could be used as alternatives across different touch points. Oftentimes, these marks are more compact than your main logos and can feature your business name, tagline, established date, or location! These variations further reinforce your brand identity and help you both maintain consistency and add variety across different applications.
Brand Mark
The brand mark is designed to be the most concise mark in your library of branding elements and the memorable symbol your business will become known for.
It's most likely part of the other logos and secondary marks, but it's designed to stand alone in an illustration or icon style… like this custom illustrated flower for Blossom Spa Retreat!
Color palette
A well-defined color palette is a collection of carefully selected colors that represent your brand. It includes a range of primary, secondary, and accent colors that work harmoniously together to create a cohesive and visually appealing brand identity. The color palette not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of your brand but also plays a crucial role in evoking specific emotions and associations among your audience.
Main typography & font system
The main typography refers to the primary fonts or typefaces that are used within your brand's visual identity. The font system includes all of the font styles, weights, and sizes used consistently across your brand materials and all the fonts are specifically notated as header fonts, subheader fonts, and paragraph fonts for website design use (and beyond!). The choice of typography influences the overall look and feel of your brand, conveying its personality, tone, and style. It adds depth and personality to your brand's messaging while maintaining visual consistency.
Headers: Tenor Sans (all caps) | Subheads: Tenor Sans | Body/Paragraph Text: Lato Light | Accent font: Dorenia
Brand Textures, PATTERNS, AND Backgrounds
By incorporating a variety of interesting patterns and backgrounds, you can enhance your brand's visual identity on different touchpoints like your social media posts, printed packaging materials, or website banners, making them visually engaging and memorable.
Extra Elements
Tagline markS
These are exactly what they sound like. Simply put, tagline marks are branded marks that highlight your brand's tagline or slogan. Tagline marks are great for when you want to help build brand recognition without the full primary logo. They often times include your branding fonts and/or your brand mark for consistency, so it seamlessly fit within your library of elements.
For clients that don’t have a tagline, I sometimes create a mark like this with their established date and/or location, to place in the footer of their website or elsewhere that’s secondary to their logo and other marks. Other times, a mark like this isn’t necessary at all - it completely depends on the brand, the client, and their goals!
Custom brand icons
These icons, completely custom to your brand design, can be used in various ways, such as on websites, mobile applications, social media profiles, and promotional materials. When used, they will make your brand feel extra customized and further communicate your unique personality.
Sometimes, the brand mark can be used as an icon (as seen here for Blossom Spa Retreat). Other times, they are separate custom illustrations that represent the company’s values, process, or other aspects of their brand and business. I love the custom illustrated icons I created for this client!
These branding elements play a crucial role in how consumers perceive your business and they create a visual cohesive story.
By incorporating all of these unique but cohesive elements into your brand identity, you can create a visual representation of your brand that effectively communicates your brand's values and messaging, while resonating with your target audience and creating an enjoyable brand experience for them.
With the versatility of all of these design elements, you'll have the variety you need to practically implement your brand across platforms in unique ways, while still staying within the visual realm of your brand for the sake of brand recognition.
Scroll through to see how these elements come together to create a beautiful branding experience for Blossom Spa Retreat:
Does your brand have missing pieces?
I invite you to take a moment to reflect on your own brand. Have you truly taken the time to consider how your brand elements work together to create an impactful brand identity?
It's not just about having a logo; it's about weaving together all the unique brand elements across all of your client touchpoints that will captivate, engage, and resonate with your audience. From your color palette to font system, from your logo suite to your submarks, each component plays a vital role in shaping the perception and experience of your brand.
So, ask yourself: Is my brand harnessing the power of these elements to their full potential? Am I missing out on opportunities to deepen the connection with my audience?
If you find your brand lacking, I'm here for you! My holistic and collaborative branding process is designed for mission-driven businesses who want to create a timeless visual brand that conveys your story, shines a light on who you are, and meaningfully connects with your community.
