What is Branding Design?

The branding for your business is more than just a logo

The branding of your business is about so much more than a logo. Your brand covers the overall ideas, look and tone of your business. It is about how you want your potential customers to think and feel when they discover your business. Your brand also refers to the values of your company and is one of the most important assets for your business.

Branding Design

Getting your branding right can mean that people will recognise your company on any printed or digital material without even seeing the name of the company. But what do you need to consider when it comes to the branding of your business from a design point of view? Below we have broken down the main design areas you should be thinking about when it comes to your branding.

Colour Palette

Creating a colour palette that is unique to your business will ensure that anything you print or use online will have a similar look to it, even if the format and design are different. Choosing about 5 main brand colours is a good idea to give you enough variation within your designs. But where do you start with deciding on your brand colours? Could you take your colours from a photo? The Canva colour palette generator is just one of the many free online tools that allow you to upload a photo and it will break down the main 5 colours from that image.

It’s also important to think about the feeling you want your customers to have when they see your colours, and therefore the tone of your brand colours. For example, a business that is focused on health and well-being would usually have a much softer colour palette than a children’s activity club which would tend to be much brighter.

Fonts

There are so many fonts out there it’s tempting to keep changing what you use across your products, however, keeping to just 3 main fonts will ensure that your brand is instantly recognisable.

It is generally advised to pick a title font, a body font and a decorative font. You can either use a system font or if you want something more unique you can purchase fonts. You just need to make sure if you do purchase a font that the licence that comes with it will allow you to use that font in both print and online and for unlimited uses.

Have you heard of font pairings? Font pairings are sets of fonts that complement each other, there are lots of resources and recommendations online of popular font pairs.

Your Logo

Now it is time to talk about your logo. It’s a good idea to have your colour palette and fonts decided first as that can then help with the design of your logo. Depending on the name of your company you may want to create a text logo, or use an icon or image to represent your brand. If you are using an image it will need to be a vector image, which is a fancy name for an illustration, rather than a photo.

Things you should also consider with your logo are, how will it look on different background colours? Do you need different coloured versions of your logo to use in darker and lighter colours? How does your logo look in different sizes? When we look at a logo in isolation it’s not usually the same size it will be on a printed or digital product, will your logo still look good if it’s enlarged on an exhibition stand or small as the icon on your social media pages?

Creating your logo should not be rushed, it will be the main representation of your brand and will be on everything you do.

Other Imagery

When thinking about your brand it is also important to consider other imagery that you will use. If you have your products business is there a style that you want to photograph your products that is consistent across your brand. Maybe incorporate similar accessories or background colours in your photos?

If you don’t have products or your own imagery then royalty-free stock image libraries have a great selection of images you can use, our favourites are Pixabay and Unsplash. When using stock imagery it’s important to make sure you have the rights to use the images in both print and online and whether you need to credit the original photographer or website on your work.

We hope this has helped explain how much there is to branding design, and that the branding for your business is more than just a logo. If you are starting a business and are looking for help with setting up your branding, or already have a business but are looking to rebrand, contact Adam and find out more about Black Square’s design services. You can also visit the design page of our website to see our full range of design services.