Brand Identity Design – Creating Good Corporate Identity

The next step on the Finding Brand journey is to begin looking at and updating your corporate identity (ID). (Don’t miss out, you can catch up here.) Corporate ID is your letterhead, fax covers, business cards, PowerPoint Templates, envelopes, and statements. Anything from your company in an “official” capacity is part of your corporate ID. So take a quick moment and start a list of what your corporate ID includes. You’ll add to this list as you work through the process, but for now, get it started. You won’t need special programs to do this, although a picture editor and word processor will make it easier. This is about you being creative, so find your creative hat, and let’s get started.

Your Brand Identity Design Should be the Cornerstone

Remember your manifesto and tagline? That is the attitude you need to bring to your corporate identity. Is it Fresh? Fun? Steady? Solid? Now, that’s the feeling you want to create with your identity. That feeling will translate to the fonts you use, the card/paper stock you choose, the colors you use, and the graphics you utilize. Remember you don’t want to use any more than three fonts in any document when choosing fonts. It simply gets too cluttered. This would include ALL CAP treatment, italics, and actual font changes — 3 is plenty, so resist the urge to add four or more! But choose something distinctive that blends the attitude in your tagline and the look of your logo. You’ll also have to choose something easy to read, as this is how people will contact you. Too fancy a font that is too difficult to read will not help someone decipher that email address without their glasses. Is there a graphical element in your logo that you can pull out and use to create something visually appealing on your Corporate ID? For example, if your logo has a tree (or a circle, mountain, etc.) in it, consider using an outline or block printing of that image as a graphical element in the corporate ID. You could also try using this element in a large size, washed out, as a watermark on your corporate ID. Also, try to put your tagline somewhere in the document. This will help reinforce the feeling you want the viewer to have about your company. Choose a distinctive font for your tagline, and let it also become a graphical element. Once you have your fonts and graphics, think about how you can layout the information in a visually appealing manner. Play around with it. Start with letterhead—it’s the easiest. Once you have the letterhead look locked down, try a fax cover sheet or statement.

The Business Card

Now comes the more challenging part — the business card. Why harder? You have to put more information in a smaller space. But if you’ve got a good look at letterhead and fax cover sheets, you can manage the business card. After that, it’s just a matter of setting up a PowerPoint template (if you use it in your business), Just remember your goal here is to make people FEEL about your business the way your tagline represents it.