A Checklist of Assets Every Business Needs for a Strong Brand Identity

Whether your brand is a year old or five years old, every brand should have at least the following assets to be able to build a stronger identity. For new brands, we know it can be difficult deciding which marketing collateral and brand identity assets are worth your time and investment, so we've made this list of the assets we'd class as high priority for any brand.

Logo

Your logo is in many cases the very first thing a prospective customer will use to make a judgement about your brand. That's why it's so important that you have a professionally designed logo from the very start of your brand's journey. Your logo will be used to communicate clearly what it is your business is offering and give an overall impression to your audience. If you want to make your brand memorable in all the right ways, it's a non-negotiable to have a clear and professional logo. Since your original logo should set the precedent for every logo adaptation that might come after that, it's best to take your time with this step and avoid rushing to start advertising your brand with a lower quality logo design.

Typography

Typography just refers to how your copy will look in terms of size, font, kerning and weight etc. It's important to have a set of rules when it comes to typography for your brand so that things look consistent across every touchpoint. For example, your brand should have set fonts and sizes to use for headings, subtitles and body copy. The font pairings that you choose will be included in your brand guidelines and then used when you are creating other marketing collateral in the future.

Colours

Having a colour palette for your brand is arguably one of the most crucial brand building blocks, think for example about all the brand's you could recognise based on colour alone. Your brand's colour palette should be decided early on in your brand-building journey, and used throughout every other piece of marketing collateral you'll create. That way your brand will be much more recognisable and memorable for your audience as they see a consistent visual identity more often.

Imagery guidelines

Each brand will have a slightly different image style, for example we stick to bold and bright stock imagery whereas a law firm might opt for more  greyscale images we wouldn't use. Your brand identity includes everything your audience can see visually when they research your brand, so it's a must to have imagery guidelines for your team. Your image guidelines could include details like the predominant colours that should be used in an image, and the style of the photography i.e formal, candid, editorial etc. A great tip is to collect a few different options of artists on whichever stock library you use to share with your team, that way they have a reference point to see the style of images that are on-brand.Skipping this step can result in web pages that reflect the personal taste of the person who has created them, rather than a consistent identity from your brand regardless of the landing page a customer enters on.

Carefully planned web design

After your logo, the next major impression that will be made on your potential future customer is from your website. This is most likely where they'll be educated in their purchasing journey, so a well-designed and planned out website is an important asset for any brand. And, if you haven't updated your website in a while, it might be worth considering to do so. Each page of your website should be purpose-built and follow strict design rules so that the consistency is perfect everywhere on your site. For example, your designer should outline the pixels used to pad certain design elements, which can then be used to replicate that design element correctly on each page throughout your site. The space between copy and the next design element should be measured and recreated on each page. That attention to detail will result in a website that provides a clear and pleasing experience for a customer.

Consistent social media feeds

We're including social media feeds in the checklist of assets all brand's need because it's such an important way that audiences interact with businesses now. Community building has got to start as soon as possible, and a lot of that community building will happen on your social media feeds. On the relevant platforms, having a presence is really important for exposure of your brand. To make the most with the platform, you should be using your feed to reinforce your brand's visual identity wherever possible.Make sure every social media graphic sticks to your brand guidelines, including choosing on-brand fonts, colours and imagery. Read this Design Cloud article for more on how to easily create stunning social media content.

A blog

Just like how your community building needs to start straight away with your social media channels, starting work on building up your brand authority starts on day one. One of the easiest ways to get this started is with your blog. Again, keeping this on-brand by planning a tone of voice your brand will use and making use of your image guidelines will go a long way in making your brand identity stronger.

For more graphic design and marketing resources, make sure to check out the full Design Cloud blog today.