When it comes to starting up a company and building a brand, visuals and an overall visual representation of your brand is very important. How your company is perceived depends a lot upon how it’s seen. So when it comes to branding your company, first you need to take the time to think about an image for your company, both in branding and an overall visual that gives potential customers a specific perception of what your company offers. Consistently portraying great visuals will ensure successfully portraying your brand to your vendors, employees, existing customers, and potential customers.
What is a visual identity?
Establishing a visual identity for your company means comprising visual images that people will easily associate with your business. These visuals can include a number of distinct things such as logos, colors, typography, photography, photography style, composition style, and textures.
For a brand to really resonate with customers, it needs to have a consistent visual identity. A consistent visual identity will help gain an instant recognition of your brand, which will also potentially lower your costs on advertising and marketing in the long-term. A visual identity also doesn’t mean you have to stick with a single visual. Your visual identity needs to tell the story of your company. So it’s important to think about how you want potential customers to perceive those visuals. And choosing wisely is vital. Remember, these visuals are what will be representing your company on letterheads, business cards, packaging, tradeshow banners, and more.
How to create your visual identity
Creating your visual identity is a vital key to the future success of your company, especially for those engaging in sales automation for customer acquisition where visual brand pivoting can be difficult. That means you’ll definitely need to dedicate time and money to the resources needed to help you acquire a consistent visual identity that your customers will identify as being associated with your company. Let’s take a look at a few steps that can help you organize and prioritize what you need to do when considering how to find your visual identity:
First…get inspired
You’re probably already excited about starting up your company. So what better way to feed that excitement than by getting inspired by creating your visual identity? So how can you get inspired if you don’t know where to start? Do your research first and foremost. Look into colors, fonts, and designs that excite you and engage you visually. It’s even a good idea to set up a “visual wall” in your office. Put up samples of all of the things that feel inspiring to you and from there, you’re sure to find the inspiration to put together a visual image…or several that you can chose from later.
Get prepared for the creation of your visual identity
What are you going to need to create your visual identity? The basics of any brand will need a simple color palette. A good rule of thumb to follow it choosing 1-3 primary colors and 2-3 secondary colors. You’ll want a primary logo and word mark as well as fonts that you think will suit your company’s brand. Textures and photography are other things to consider as well.
Know the five “P” keys
They are product, personality, personas, promise, and positioning. Your visual identity needs to be in line with the overall message you want your company to convey. It needs to communicate who you are as a company and what you’re selling.
Go with the basics
Once you’ve identified what your five “P” keys, next it’s time to pick the fundamental elements you want to consistently portray in your visuals. This means picking a color palette and font as well as creating a logo that will stand out and represent your company in a true and consistent manner.
Create the visuals
Once you’ve picked the fundamentals for your visuals, now it’s time to actually create them. You can either create them yourself or hire a third party. Either way, the key with creating the visuals is to ensure that visuals are consistent from on to another. That way you’ll know that they what they are communicating matches your company’s message.
Time to test the visuals
Once you’ve created your visuals and you’re satisfied with the end product, it’s time to test them out. You’ll need to see of those visuals can be instantly associated with your company’s brand. This can be done with focus groups and small focused social media groups.
Choosing a successful visual identity may seem like a daunting task. But as long as you know how you want your company represented and what sort of visual you want to convey, the rest of the process will seems quite a bit simpler. Don’t forget that this is the visual (or visuals) that will represent your company. It’s what customers both existing and new will associate with your brand. So take your time and utilize the process, and you’ll come out of that process with a stellar visual identity that will work with your company and its future growth for years to come.
Adrian DeGus is a software developer and the founder of both Nuvro, online project management software, and the marketing agency directory AgencyList. @Adrian_DeGus
