Although high-quality, selling designs look simple and natural, developing a new brand identity can be a challenge. A good corporate style guide should reveal a logical company story through detailed content that communicates not only the core values of the team, but also the strength of the brand as a whole.
In the article, we will analyze the steps for creating a corporate identity for an enterprise. It will be useful to study the algorithm for those who are at the first stages of brand development or are preparing for rebranding.
What is corporate identity
Corporate identity is the visual image of the company, the style of its communication, the name, that is, all the components of the image. For example, in the perfume business it is also a fragrance, in the music business it is a sound, and in a fashion store, a restaurant and a hotel it is both a sound and a fragrance.
In order for all these components to become a corporate identity, and for all company employees to use them correctly – that is, to choose certain shades, fonts and take into account important details, it is important to create a single document with rules. For starters, a presentation is enough, which can be easily done in a graphic editor.
How to create a corporate identity
Define a strategy for your project
Corporate identity is a method of communication with the outside world, helping to stand out from competitors and get the attention of the target audience. The more accurate, recognizable, impeccable corporate identity, the higher the likelihood that the company will become successful.
One of the tasks of corporate identity is to implement the brand strategy, which is a detailed plan containing information about what you want to get, in what ways.
Before developing corporate identity elements, it is necessary to draw up not only a strategy, but also positioning, identify the main brand values, its vision, mission, language, and main communications. All these elements will act in conjunction with the corporate identity. In addition, chips and uniqueness can often be “sewn” into a design or style.
Understand what a brand is and what makes it special
Corporate identity is formed not only by a logo, a palette of colors, a loud slogan. When figuring out how to design a corporate identity, the first thing to note is the need to create an overarching visual language that can be applied to every element, from a flyer to wrapping paper.
Depending on the characteristics of the business, the basic set of visual language components can be different. But traditionally it includes:
- Logo;
- Color palette;
- Typography;
- Photos;
- Illustrations;
- Icons;
- Data visualization presentation system;
- Interactive elements;
- Video;
- Principles of web design.
Each element is part of a system that is designed to work not only for the internal team, but also for people interacting with you as partners and clients.
To create a corporate identity that will give a good effect, you need to listen to the following recommendations:
- The project should have a high distinctiveness – it should stand out from a number of competitive organizations;
- It is important that you are remembered by the audience. Using a set of corporate identity elements allows consumers to interact with you, even when the brand name is not in sight;
- Do not forget about scaling, flexibility. The corporate identity should grow and transform along with the brand;
- Ensure the integrity of the image, in which every component is irreplaceable;
- Elements of the corporate identity structure should be available to the entire design team.
Learn all the important aspects
At the initial stage of development, it is important to conduct a thorough analysis of the brand, audience, and form a value proposition. Only by knowing all this deep information, you can translate the brand into a visual language.
This stage can be called the most time-consuming, since here you need to conduct a set of studies:
- About the target audience. Find out who your customers are, what they want, what their expectations are;
- About competitors. It is important to know which niches in the market are already occupied and which remain free. Considering possible options for further development, analyze the positioning, color schemes, communication strategies of competitors;
- About the current position of the company in the market. Here you need to evaluate the attitude towards your company on the part of both customers and employees, partners. Identify the main advantages of the business, its values, mission, reasons to trust your company, brand language, and more.
Build an identity system
By this point, you already know most of the information on how to create a corporate identity. Using this data, you can select the most interesting insights from your competitive analysis, customer reviews, brand audit survey, briefing. It’s time to translate all this information into visual objects.
A good way to solve the problem is to use an association map. It helps to reveal the brightest, most unexpected images for the future corporate identity among the associations of the second and third levels.
Create a branding guide
Here it is important to create not just a beautiful book that will stand on the shelf, but an applied guide that helps the company communicate effectively with the audience, partners, and staff. The text should be understandable, meaningful, so that each designer of the organization, having opened the brand book, could find answers to all questions related to the style of the company.
Creating a corporate identity is a laborious and lengthy process. We hope our advice will help you on this difficult journey. Good luck!
