We see designs everywhere. It can be found in the colors, the format, the memorability, and its effectiveness in conveying the primary message cannot be overlooked. Design is utilized to bring optimization and recognition to the brand.
Design is a delicate balance between strategy and creativity. A good design for the brand works miracles; it increases the chances of people remembering your brand and what it stands for. Like how a product tries to stand out amidst competition, building a brand aims to be distinguishable in the market.
What other role does design play in branding? What kind of elements must be taken into consideration when deciding the right design for the brand? Read on to find out the answers to all these questions.
Table of Contents
What is Design?
A design is a process and a plan that works towards optimizing the construction of a project or a product. This is done in such a way that the design builds three major components of the business: brand, branding, and brand identity.
(Source: Google Images)
Design is also the process of creating a solution, be it for a medium of relaying a message, for developing operations, or for aesthetics. All of these needs are met to keep the brand floating and stand out in the market. It is not entirely for the looks and the aesthetic; design has a great deal to do with the communication of objectives, goals, and messages.
Good design is often accompanied by a marketing strategy, most commonly for the long term. When your design for your brand stands out, it helps customers identify you. Design is the language that communicates your goals and receives your customers’ experience.
How are Brand and Design Connected
Business design is the term given for the type of design that covers the brand, branding, and brand identity. It is also called brand identity design.
This means that a good design will communicate what your brand is about and what it seeks to deliver. It details what it is offering to your customers. Branding, on the other hand, is what your customers associate your brand with, other than your product. Brand identity is defined by elements like logos, patterns, visual representations, etc., used in describing the brand.
Design is the way by which your customers will understand what you are and how you work.
What is a Good Design Made Up Of
Your brand comprises the attributes found in the golden circle. A design is meant to depict the same in measure of utility, communication, and perception. Therefore, the golden circle principle also applies to making a good design.
Adherence
Adherence, specifically concerning the brand strategy and guidelines as issued by the marketing team, must be closely satiated.
Brand Guidelines are a part of the brand strategy attributes. It includes clauses like persona, competitor research, positioning, values, missions, etc., to create an everlasting brand. It is heavily based on brand identity pillars like spacing, font, boldness, variations, colors, and themes. All of these must be adhered to by the agency or the team.
Referring to such guidelines and standards in the company will bring uniformity among all designers.
Golden Circle Principle
The golden circle is a set of concentric circles, each leaving some space between the next and growing circle. You progress from the outermost circle and then inward.
The outermost circle is focused around the question ‘What.’ What is your company doing business in? What products or services do you offer? The answer to this translates materially into the brand design using brand identity tools.
(Source: Google Images)
The second one circles around the ‘How.’ This includes the brand strategy and brand guidelines you have set to differentiate your brand from the rest. The notion behind this is to combine how you will serve your customers, using values and ethos. This is further coupled with how you are choosing to represent that in your logo.
The last circle explores the ‘Why’ of the design. It not only questions why the design needs to look that way but also gives answers to why the business was established. Combining the two elements will make a stable design.
What A Good Design Will Communicate to Ensure Growth of Brand
A good design strategy will fulfill the following commitments of the company or business. It also encourages the public to interact with your brand; the design is thus an interface. If you are building your brand, ensure that your design communicates the following to the masses.
Value
The design you are going for must establish the fact that you are an established and welcome brand. A well-designed brand identity design will instill a sense of trustworthiness in the onlookers.
How do you ensure your logo holds value? It helps to have a name that closely aligns with the industry in which you are doing business. It must be designed in a way such that you are deciding the exact sort of perception you want your customers to view you as.
(Source: Google Images)
Warranting that the color scheme, visual elements like font and art, and structure mimic common elements most used in the industry. A tagline that goes along with the meaning intended to convey by the brand name is advisable.
Consistency
When talking about consistency, we are referring to the sort of design and scheme used to maintain consistency across all forms of brand identity. The forms and media used to market your brand are advertisements, brochures, websites, cards, billboards, etc.
Maintaining a sort of theme across all of these will unify your brand and identity and make it easier for users and customers to spot. In comparison to different themes for every single new event, uniformity will ensure easier recognition of the brand and its values.
(Source: Google Images)
Taking care of this small point can significantly enhance your target audience’s faith in how you handle various projects.
You’ll want to think about which colors best represent your brand and use those same colors throughout your materials. Here’s how to choose color for design projects.
Differentiation
When we speak of differentiation from other brands in the market, in one sense, it does mean looking different from them. However, a good design looks beyond what is seen by the consumer. A good design is inclusive of what and how the brand is perceived by the user.
What the above statement is trying to mean is that all agencies can offer operational design such as logos, card layout, and designs, etc. A good and optimal design will immerse the values of your brand in its identifying elements. It incorporates the essence of what your business stands to bring and achieve.
By looking for a good design that includes the heart of your business, you are designing to not only represent your product but to also represent your strategy and values. This can be achieved by the strategic workshop.
Story
Brands are made of the efforts of countless people. This is then delivered to another target of people. The best way to design the interface is by telling a story to connect.
(Source : Google Images)
When your design manages to capture the message in a story using brand identity, it will be able to draw a consumer’s genuine interest. It may be done by altering the many tools that make up a brand identity. Or, it could also be how utilitarian the design is for the consumer.
Strategic workshops tend to extract the true intent and objectives of the brand. It is thus up to the designer now to weave a tale that clarifies notes like usability and communicates them effectively.
Promotion
A good business design will be indicative of the brand and the business’s personality. Various elements of design will add up to spread a message more creatively. That personalization is what gives personality to your design, which gets reflected in your business.
This culture around the brand thus sparks a perspective among people, out of which many experiences may overlap. As a result, the brand image is created, which then plays a part in brand promotion.
How does Brand Design Translate into Growth and Profit
The common notion behind the design of the brand bringing customers, money, and goodwill is often seen in this process:
· The customer sees the brand and its identity.
· If the logo is great, they understand that the products are just as great. They know that logo.
· They will then go purchase the product.
See more: Here’s how to make cool logos.
This is a wrong interpretation of business branding. A new logo does not automatically bring a positive feeling or reaction in consumers. The customers do think that way and are not rational in their methods of purchasing.
This is why brand image matters. Design isn’t just about how the brand looks. It defines how helpful and useful the brand is and if purchases from that brand matter or not. That experience and product trial-and-tested by common feedback and personal anecdotes make up the brand image.
How does design matter here?
As said before, design transcends visuals and appearance. A good design will communicate properly, will be helpful in utility, and in helping the customer build a perspective. The design will trigger recognition, whether good or bad, which will dictate whether or not purchases made from your brand are worth it for the consumer.
Thus, this is how a good design translates into growth for your business:
· A potential customer sees and recognizes your logo.
· Customers are then reminded of all the experiences and feelings that they may know from personal interaction or hearsay.
· It enables a response from them to understand the service you provide
· They will then decide to purchase if they need your product/service.
Additionally, the response isn’t always triggered only when the logo is recognized. If they want a service of a kind, they might turn to your brand due to the number of good things they’ve heard, thanks to your good design.
Growing Your Brand With Design Strategies
In the section discussing what the brand design must communicate to people, the term ‘strategic workshop’ was used. A strategic workshop has seen and brought benefits of better communication and utility in brands, their identity, and images. This then helped to strengthen the public’s perspective of the brand.
In layman’s terms, a part of the strategic workshop is to form a cooperative partnership between the client, the design, and the designer. This sort of network has grown in importance to meet the expectations of a good design, which helps the brand grow.
From a strategic workshop, the brand strategy is discussed alongside the guidelines. A strategic workshop to discuss the design will provide more perspective than one. This is necessary because the meeting will reflect the nature of the business, the work culture, mission, and ethics of the organization.
This even tends to work with clients who are rather reluctant to engage in collective discussion. Your design process, details, and quality with alternatives are decided. This leaves both parties satisfied.
A design strategy tends to converge the aims that a design seeks to achieve. This process makes it easier for designers to work on a perfect logo and develop other alternatives to it, too.
Design strategies are the language that binds the brand with the design. It has already been discussed how the main aim of a design is to be communicative, helpful, and perceptive to customers. This is alongside the need to make designs interactive and self-reliant.
A designer will thus understand the essence of the brand and what makes it up. They will tend to apply the Golden Circle Principle and craft a brand design accordingly. These strategies help bring out the ethos, values, and unique selling points of both the brand as well as the product/service.
To Sum It Up
Design is the interface between your business and the target audience. It is critical to keep a special note of when you want to achieve economies of scale while expanding. Brand image and brand expansion are major components of this growth, and this can easily be achieved with a good design.
Set the story and gather touchpoints for the brand’s design to make it accessible and easy to understand. A design truly is a gateway to better operations.
Choosing the perfect color scheme to represent your brand and what your brand is all about is just one of the many things that are included with our unlimited graphic design service.
