Designing Intentional Brand Visuals
No one sets out to build a brand that just adds to the noise. In our experience, folks are excited about releasing their passion into their brand in an intentional way. You know, that thing inside of them that they’ve been wanting for so long. Perhaps they can't quite put their finger on what it looks or feels like but it's in their heart and they will know it when they see it.
But let's face it, we’ve all seen the brands that just didn’t make sense. The colors didn’t match the emotion in their messaging or perhaps their brand missed their audience altogether. So what happened in these instances? How did the fire inside of them result in these watered down brands? There could be a myriad of answers to that question but for us, we seek to answer three questions to design intentional brands. Answering these questions is not fast nor is it easy but it’s worth it because it results in brand visuals that are intentional and speak directly to your target audience. The three questions we seek to answer with our clients are:
Why does your brand exist? - The Why
Who is your target audience? - The Audience
What are your goals as a brand? - The Vision
So, if you are looking to rebrand or you are designing a new brand, start by answering the above questions first. It will offer you, your team, and the designers you are working with a roadmap to move intentionally toward your brand visuals.
Before you jump off and start answering the above questions, we wanted to define what we mean by brand visuals. Brand visuals are anything visual that represents your brand such as but not limited to: name, logo, colors, fonts, graphics, photos, videos, illustrations, etc. Additionally, as you begin to answer the above questions, remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Something that we say often at The Lev Co is, “done is better than perfect”. You can always remodel the answers to theres questions but you need to start somewhere, even if that place is a piece of paper with a few sentences on it. Truly, that is more than many companies out there.
The Why
Your why is actually the rubric for designing brand visuals intentionally. To illustrate, take a look at Apple’s why statement:
“ We aim to challenge the status quo. We aim to think differently.” – Apple
Visually speaking, would it make more sense for Apple’s visuals to be comforting, traditional, and classic or rather sleek, progressive and innovative:? The latter of course. Why? Because it would violate their why to have visuals that aren’t “challenging” and “different”.
Let's take a look at another example. Think of Sperry’s, you know the cool deck shoes that Pharrell Williams wears. Their why is:
“To ignite the human spirit through the power of sea-based discovery and adventure”.– Sperry
Now, would it make sense for their brand visuals to be based in a desert or on a ship exploring the sea? Obviously the latter!
So yes, your why is integral to designing intentional brand visuals. If your visuals are not inline with your why, it will create dissonance with your brand and your auciend. Our job is to create connections and deepen the relationship that your brand has with your audience.
The Vision
A vision is not something that you just say...it's a statement about the results that you intend to do in the world through your brand. It's not necessarily the what, but rather the results or rather outcomes of your brand.
Here’s a few examples of some vision statements that we think are pretty great:
Feeding America: Our mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nation-wide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.
Alzheimer’s Association: A world without Alzheimer’s disease.
JetBlue: To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.
The point is not to simply say, “my brand will do X thing in the world” but rather “my brand will change X about the world and stands for Y”. Another way of phrasing it is, if your brand existed for 100 years, what impact would it have on the world by the 100th year? With long term vision in mind, you are able to design intentional brand visuals that support your vision rather than pull away from it.
The Audience
Perhaps the hardest one of all but also a crucial piece of your business...your audience. If you are designing a new brand, you likely don’t know precisely who your audience is just yet, but you can make some pretty good assumptions. Additionally, you can do some market research...even just polling your friends and family is a good start if you don’t have the budget for a more robust market research project. If you have no budget and no friends or family (that is a bummer btw), simply take a look at similar brands that are doing what you would like to do. If you are wanting to do something totally ground breaking that no one has ever done, look for brands that do similar things in adjacent verticals and observe as many data points as you can from their audience.
Some key data points to get your gears turning:
Social Media Data:
Who comments on their posts?
What social media platforms are they on?
How often do they post?
What type of content do they post?
Demographic and Geographic Data:
Do they have locations in particular parts of town?
What are their hours of operation?
Average ticket or purchase price per transaction?
What sort of age range is their buyer?
The goal here is to learn as much as you can about your competitor’s audience even if they are an adjacent audience as they are similar to who your audience will be. Additionally, look for gaps in their audience and then begin to think through how you might be able to speak to them as well.
The reason we seek to define the audience is to establish who your potential buyers are and begin to intentionally design your brand for them. The better you know your audience, the more intentionally your brand visuals can be to and toward them.
The goal of all of this is to be strategic with your brand visuals so that they are intentionally communicating who your brand is. As we always say, if you don’t tell your audience who you are, they will decide who you are for you.
Have questions about intentional brand design or have a project you'd like to work together on? If so, so feel free to reach out! You can reach us at thelevco@gmail.com or you can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @thelevco.
Be well!