What is Brand Identity?
So you’re launching a business: congratulations! Or maybe you’ve got the business, but you’re looking to level up, and you keep hearing this “brand identity” term thrown around, and you know (of course) what a logo is, but beyond that, what exactly does it mean?
The term “branding” evolved out of the iron brands cattle ranchers would use to mark their herds with a unique symbol in order to establish ownership… thankfully our version usually doesn’t involve any burning.
Let’s define our terms:
Brand Identity: A businesses’s brand identity is the face it presents to the world. The visual identity is the biggest part of this, including all logos (yes, you should have more than one!), brandmarks, color palette, typography system, complimentary graphics, packaging, swag, and anything else you can see with your eyes. The rest of your brand’s identity includes things like the language and tone of voice you choose to use (will you say “Check out these rad new shoes!” or “Experience the luxury of our pure calfskin mules”?) It is, essentially, your brand’s personality and the way it chooses to show it, with the ultimate aim of attracting the people you want to attract.
Branding: The terms are often used interchangeably, but technically “branding” is a little more expansive than “brand identity” and can include things like your brand strategy, your business’s values and culture, and other slightly more intangible qualities. (But people use it as shorthand for “brand identity” pretty often, so don’t get too caught up on the distinction.)
Brand Suite: A brand suite is the set of brand-identity related deliverables that you’ll receive from your designer, including the logos, brand marks, palette, type guide, etc. Pretty similar to your visual identity, but usually used specifically in “designer giving you some files” situations.
People often make the mistake of thinking that all they need is a logo. Your logo is definitely super important, but without other assets and consistent visual systems to back it up, it’s not nearly as effective.
Think, for example, of the color “Tiffany Blue”. The Tiffany & Co. logo is technically just a nice font, and doesn’t really have to be rendered in or on Tiffany Blue - but they’ve done such a good job of connecting that shade to their brand that if you were to see it alone you’d still probably think “Tiffany”. The same can be said for Nike’s swoosh, which is often used as a brandmark without the company name anywhere nearby. So if I show you this box:
You can probably guess what’s inside! (Yep, Tiffany x Nike collab sneakers!)
Patterns can have the same effect: if I come out of the mall with a pink-striped bag on one arm and a black and white striped bag on the other, you know I’ve been hitting up Victoria’s Secret and Sephora before you even get close enough to read the labels.
But it’s not just about brand recognizability (although that is super important) - it’s also about creating an immersive experience. Let’s go back into the mall for a sec - remember those Hollister stores that you could smell from several hallways over? You’d walk in through a faux porch, into a dark, tight, “surf shack” sort of space, surrounded by logo tees and beautiful salespeople in teeny jorts, and you couldn’t get the perfume out of your jacket for days. You couldn’t pay me enough money to experience that branding again, but it certainly stuck with you (and was incredibly effective for a whole generation of teens.) Even if your business doesn’t have a physical space, your online spaces will benefit from feeling as consistent and immersive as possible - when your ideal customer sees that you’ve created a world that they can’t wait to dive into, you’ve nailed it! Having a complete visual brand identity will give you the tools to help build that world.
(Buuuut maybe go a little easy on the perfume.)
