Creating A Cohesive Brand Design
Creating a cohesive design for your brand can be a great way for your audience to identify your business quickly no matter what platform they find you on.
Let’s back up 3 paces and just add in a reminder that while we’re talking about brand design today, you want to start developing your brand with a strategy first. It’s strategy that informs design.
You want to take your cues for your design from the brand strategy you develop.
For example:
BRAND KEYWORDS
Let’s say you’re a health coach with a wellness business. When building your brand strategy, you chose 5 keywords to represent the experience you want your ideal clients to have…they are:
PEACEFUL | JOY | CONFIDENT | VIBRANT | PRESENT
Every single one of these words creates a feeling, and feelings and emotions can be translated into colors, fonts and styles. Does it mean you need to choose a color for every word? Certainly not. What you’re trying to do is translate the feeling you intend into a style that helps create the experience. That’s why an interior designer will first ask their client – how do you want this room to feel when you walk into it? They’re establishing the essence first so they can create a design to match. Same goes for your brand design.
1 – COLOR PALETTE
When you look back at the 5 words above, I could say right away that shades of green and natural earth tones may have a place in this overall brand style because:
Peaceful: makes me think of a relaxing sage green.
Vibrant: imagine a plant or tree stretching towards the sunlight.
Present: the word meditative comes to mind and I automatically want easy, calm and natural colors – could be greens, beiges, taupes, grays.
In addition, wellness and health are often associated with the color green.
QUICK TIP:
There are obviously thousands of shades for every color (been in the paint section of Home Depot lately?). It can be overwhelming, but let your strategy guide you.
If Peaceful & Present are part of the experience you want to deliver, don’t choose a lime green or a fluorescent green. Stick with the subtler or more sophisticated greens that FEEL like your brand experience.
Joy and Confident screams yellow to me, but if yellow feels disruptive to the other calm feelings we already have, you could choose to convey the joyful, confident vibes of your brand with specific fonts.
2 – FONTS
Typically you’ll have fonts for:
your logo
a headline + subheadline
body copy
an accent font (used sparingly to command attention)
If you’d like your brand to be joyful and confident, think of a bold, fun and modern font that could be slightly handwritten or has a swoop to some of the letters like “Q’s,” “Y’s,” or “R’s.”
Choosing fonts can also be dictated by the type of brand you have….
Do you have a legacy brand that’s classic and timeless? A Serif Font would tell that story well.
Do you have a brand that’s more modern, minimalistic or forward-thinking? Choose a Sans Serif Font in this case.
Many businesses choose a combination of fonts and layout their style guidelines so the use of the fonts is consistent (i.e. you only use sans serif for small font sized heading, but serif font for the big bold title…or the handwritten accent font is only used when describing a call to action).
3 – PHOTOGRAPHY
Using professional photography for your brand can really elevate the impression of your brand, building a positive brand perception and establishing trust and credibility right from the start. If you can’t yet invest in custom brand photos, start with really good stock photos that align with the look and feel of the brand you’re building.
Prioritize a brand photo shoot as soon as you’re able to for your business as it will 10x the positive perception of your brand.
Just like your colors and fonts, photographs can give you all different vibes and moods. It’s important that if your brand is supposed to feel vibrant you don’t choose a dark and moody photo style or editing pre-sets. To make your photos feel vibrant, you probably want more light and bright photos.
Ask yourself if the photo you’re taking or choosing to use feels consistent with every other part of your brand. You’ll know if something looks or feels off.
4 – STYLE
There’s so much to discover when it comes to the style of your brand. Do you want to have:
lots of white space
very minimal
big, bold lettering to stand out
small fonts center-aligned to be easy on the eye
words written sideways
color blocking
color highlights for your words
photo heavy designs to feature your work
To make it less overwhelming, I recommend going into Canva and choosing a few designs you love that work well together, work for the brand you’re building and the customer you’re looking to attract. Add your chosen brand fonts, brand colors and brand messaging to these templates to make them your own.
If you’d like to ensure a cohesive design look across all the different types of marketing materials you’ll be creating: social media squares, stories, email headers, social media headers, workflows, free guides, proposals, presentations, etc….I’d highly recommend investing in a membership like The Creative Template Shop that gives you fully aligned and cohesive design for everything you may need in your business. Check out The Shop right here.
QUICK TIP:
If you don’t have a design eye, I recommend taking a look at brands you love outside of your industry. What do you love about their style? Is there a brand that has a similar look and feel you’re going for? What is it that attracts you to their design – colors, fonts, spacing, photos? Take note of what you see that FEELS like the experience you want to project and then make it your own.
In summary, the art of creating a cohesive brand design is to choose colors, fonts, photos and styles that fit the brand strategy you’ve developed…and to stick with it.
Don’t be tempted to change your design every single time you head into Canva, and don’t be influenced by someone else’s design that works for their business but may have no place in telling the story of your own brand.