What Does Brand Design Mean for Your Business?

Written by Terry Mwangi | Designs by Louis Gathara

Brand Design is commonly described as how a brand chooses to visually represent their brand identity to the public. When referring to brand design, it typically refers to key elements such as logo, colour scheme, typography and other components that makes a brand stand out from its competitors.

Personal branding is establishing your public persona for your target audience which involves accurate and careful communication about your ideas, values, beliefs, goals, and purpose. Your personal brand, whether you created it or not, exists. If you posted on social media, people would only know/relate to this aspect of you. Your personal brand is developed, whether you have a hand in it or not.

In the same way, branding for business creates a memorable impression on your audience. It differentiates you from the competition, displaying your products and services as the best in the market. Branding can alter how people perceive your company while boosting brand awareness. Your brand is an exemplification of who you want to be as a business. How can you achieve this?

You need a look and feel, this includes a clear brand purpose and positioning. The purpose is the main reason of your brands existence and the positioning is naming who your product is for and why it is better than your competitors.

Now you’re probably wondering why any of this even matters. Every business and person has an image or a brand identity, including you. People want to associate your brand with something that they feel means more to them than the functionality. People want to recommend you to others because they are emotionally invested in your brand, nothing sells better than affinity. Look at it this way, a brand cannot make a name for itself if it doesn’t have the right communication, logo or colours to help create the right image. A good example is one of the brands we helped bring to life.

Ushuru is a brand that helps you file your returns with ease with Kenya Revenue Authority. They wanted to convey a trustworthy but unique look that would be easy for people to remember and help them associate it with the brand. After discussing the mission that they wanted to accomplish, we settled for the Picathartes bird found in the rain-forest of tropical west and central Africa.

The bold type and contrasting colours, mainly black and orange, makes the logo easy to recognize, shows courage and inspires confidence. Now when you look at it this way, brand identity helps your brand stand out in a crowd, it also helps you make a name for yourself without doing the most.

We look to key elements such as a logo, colour palette and typography that portrays the brand in the perfect light. In addition, you will need brand guidelines for future references, sales and marketing collateral as well as Social Media and Email templates.

With a strong identity you are selling more than functionality. You are selling a lifestyle. People want to associate your brand with something that they feel means more to them than the functionality. People want to recommend you to others because they are emotionally invested in your brand, nothing sells better than affinity. Once you have established the perfect identity and created the collateral needed, we look to the next step. Advertising. When you advertise, you want everything to be cohesive and clearly outline/represent the brands values to the public. A company with great branding has an easier time getting employees to feel involved with their job as well as create a good rapport with the community.

Thereafter, you will need to create a plan to best showcase the brand as well as the different forms it can take, this includes PR, Digital Media, Design and Social Media. With PR, this could be various feature placements, arrange speaking arrangements, crisis management and organize special events. This goes hand in hand with Social media, amplifying what is happening with PR as well as running your products and services to ensure awareness and engagement. Media comes in to ensure that the content on social media are reaching the intended audience as well as run ads on search sites. This ensures that there is 360º communication, and the brand is thriving.

Remember, most of the time brand design is all about the journey than it is about the destination. You get to explore all the options you have and walk with your branding agency to fulfill its fullest potential. This might seem like a lot especially when you have your hands full with trying to get your business up and running, but this is where the branding agency (we) come in. We walk with you, understanding your mission as well the sustainability that will come with the future with the brand.