The Importance of A Visual Brand

The term 'Brand' get's thrown around a lot. But what is it really?

Your brand, simply put, is a person’s gut feeling about you and what you have to offer.

There are many, many factors that go into defining, cultivating and managing a brand. When it comes to designing a website, however, the focus will be on expressing your brand visually, through the user experience of the site and through the copy.

The three components below expand on this.

1. Attributes

What qualities and feelings do you want customers to associate with your business. Attributes are adjectives like “calm” “competent” “modern” “stylish.”

2. Visual identity

Is there a color palette that matches your brand attributes? What about imagery? Typography? Gather images, colors and fonts that feel good to you and match your brand attributes.

Voice & Tone

“Voice and Tone” is a term copywriters use to describe the style of a particular piece of writing.

Think about the text you want on your website (and all of your marketing materials for that matter). Should your copy be formal and polite? Conversational? Chatty and intimate? No nonsense and to the point?

What kind of wording would grab the attention of your ideal customer and fits your overall brand?

The importance of graphic design

I picked the Paul Rand quote that opens this post, because it is so apt. Your visuals really do matter. They are often the first means of content a potential client has with you. So having an emphasis on them is important.

A visual brand tear-sheet like the one above, is a helpful reference tool whenever you need to develop visual materials for your business. If every time you create a piece of content, you use your tear-sheet as a guide, you’ll end up with consistent, coherent visual style.

This doesn’t just ‘look nice’, it communicates to the world that you’re professional and legitimate, that your business has it’s act together.

Huge companies like Coca-cola and McDonalds have entire departments that just focus on ‘the brand’. There’s a reason for this. People consistently buy from companies that feel stable, regular and consistent.

Did you know that my website Launch in A Day offer also includes a word mark and a brand tear sheet? Find out more below.