Tutorial | Visual Identity
INTRODUCTION
Visual identity is what people usually mistake for branding. Visual identity is a visual part of the branding, so while it's connected to it, it's important to distinguish one from the other.
As said above, this is a visual part of the branding. It's not only what we see but also what we picture in our heads when we hear the name of a certain brand. Needless to say, it's an important part of the branding.
LOGO
A logo is what we use to identify a brand. There are three different types of a logo, and each type is used with a different purpose.
LOGOTYPE
This is usually a text-only logo. There are no symbols, instead, we have a stylized text. The advantage of this type is that you can automatically connect the name of the brand to the logo since the name itself is a logo.
LOGOMARK
An opposite of logotype. There's usually no text, but instead, we have a symbol or an image that's representing a brand. Logomarks are great for a brand or product that's been on the market for quite some time – for a well-known brand or product.
COMBINED MARK
A combination of logotype and logomark. The great thing about combined mark is that it gives a strong identity to your brand. Another great thing about combined mark is that it gives you flexibility, meaning that you can use either mark or type, and still have your brand recognized.
COLOR PALETTE
What color you use is important since each color engages a different feeling, but more about that in our Color Theory tutorial.
As for the color palette, it's important that you pick and stick to one palette. Using the same color palette will help with the branding, and just by looking at the certain color(s), people will be able to recognize a certain brand(s). Take Coca-Cola as an example. They have their own shade of red, which they use for literally everything. Their red can be easily recognized, even from a far distance.
Here's a great example of how color palettes can be easily connected to a brand without having a logo or any other visual part of the brand.
LINK
FONT
Sticking to one font will give your brand consistency. Using the same font on a business card, your website, thread layout, and other visual elements can play a huge role in making a brand recognizable. Sans-serif fonts are all quite similar, especially in the smaller sizes, however, our brain can still distinguish one from the another.
As an example, you can take Maxim's graphics. He's always using the same font, and even though he's using a Sans-serif font, similar to a lot other Ss fonts, you can easily recognize Maxim's work anywhere.
ICONS
Having custom icons, and generally, icons in the same style might not seem important but it definitely is. For example, if your logomark is in the shape of a circle, your icons should be in that same shape. This will give consistency to your brand(whether you're using them on a business card, layout or something else).
PATTERN(S)
Even though we see patterns all the time, creating a custom one as a part of visual branding is not that common, especially when it comes to online communities such as Hack Forums. Creating a pattern can be time-consuming and most people tend to find one online, rather than creating it, and that's fine as long as you find a pattern that suits the rest of the visual identity and as long as you give credits to the author.
THREAD LAYOUT
We are all familiar with thread layouts, but what differs a bad from a good one and how does a thread layout affects the brand?
You've probably seen layouts going for under $15, and usually, they look alright, however, in most cases, cheap layouts are full of "small" mistakes that are indirectly affecting your potential customers.
HIERARCHY
If there's no hierarchy in your design, the design itself can be confusing. There will be no focal point so everything will look equally important, and viewers won't know where or what to look at first.
CONTRAST
Contrast between the letter and the background is important. If there's a too low or too high contrast between those two, viewers will have a hard time reading the text.
CONSISTENCY
Being consistent throughout your work is crucial. If you've used a certain style in the header, make sure to use that style throughout the rest of the layout. As an example, we can take icons. If you used a circular icon in one part of the layout, make sure to use that type of an icon in every other part of it as well.
FONT
Having multiple families of fonts will make a layout look unprofessional, childish and annoying to look at. Also, another common mistake that we see often is using ALL CAPS for paragraphs. Our brain recognizes the shape, rather than letter itself, so when there's a wall of text, having everything in uppercase will make it extremely hard to read since every letter will look similar in shape(same height and same length, meaning that you'll have to focus more on it in order to recognize the letter - we are talking about milliseconds here, but still, if there's a lot of text, people won't bother reading it - not only it will be annoying to look at/read, but it will also take them longer).
Even though these might not seem that important, they are. If there's no hierarchy, or no consistency, bad contract, etc., you will lose a customer. If something is annoying to look at or hard to read, people won't bother doing it.
CONCLUSION
It’s fair to say that visual aspect of branding is important and should never be taken lightly.
If you are the one making it, rather than blindly following instruction from your customers, communicate with them in creating a perfect visual identity for their brand. This practice of ‘upskilling’ your client so they are more aware of what makes design good or bad will make you a more valuable designer.
If you are the one buying it, listen to your designer and be open to new ideas. If you're working with someone who is experienced in this field, listen to what have to say. If your designer doesn't like the color palette you had in mind, there's probably a good reason behind it so rather than forcing him or her to use your palette, talk to them and see what they had in mind. Make compromises.
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