What Are Brand Identity Elements?

Close your eyes and ideate nan Starbucks siren logo successful a agleam HubSpot orange. At best, it’s jarring; astatine worst, it renders nan logo unrecognizable.

That’s because nan Starbucks logo isn’t just about nan unique siren graphic, aliases nan peculiar shadiness of green, aliases its information shape. Each of these elements useful together to make nan Starbucks marque 1 of nan astir recognizable successful nan world.

Table of Contents

• What are marque personality elements?
• Brand Identity Elements

Brand elements are basal to your brand identity. Your marque personality gives your business a distinctive, cohesive look, and it communicates your values to customers and stakeholders.

It touches almost everything: social media photograph filters, fonts connected YouTube videos, income decks, and of people your website and products.

We’ll talk marque personality elements below, pinch examples and pro-tips to thief you build your own.

Brand Identity Elements

1. Brand Purpose

Before you commencement doodling logo ideas and playing astir pinch colour palette generators, make judge you’ve laid a beardown instauration for your marque identity. Are you and your stakeholders successful statement connected your brand’s worth proposition and ngo statement? Have you done a SWOT analysis?

Pro tip: We person tons of resources connected these foundational elements, which will make building nan remainder of your marque personality a lot easier.  

• SWOT Analysis
• Value Proposition
• How to Build a Consistent Brand

2. Brand Name

A marque sanction identifies your institution and its products aliases services, distinguishing you from your competitors.

Your marque sanction is 1 of nan astir recognizable elements of your larger marque identity. As you build customer trust, your sanction will correspond that spot — and if you suffer that trust, your marque sanction will correspond that, too.

According to nan 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, spot remains a top-three acquisition criteria for consumers.

Pro tip: Consider your options wrong taste and societal contexts. Consumers progressively view brands arsenic extensions of their governmental beliefs and societal identities, and taxable brands to greater scrutiny. What you deliberation is clever wordplay mightiness beryllium off-putting aliases moreover violative to your target audience.

3. Logo

Your logo is different highly recognizable facet of your brand. Based connected logo alone, you tin astir apt place and picture each of nan 3 brands below:

Your logo doesn’t conscionable look successful ads aliases connected your website; it whitethorn beryllium connected beingness products you sell, successful emails from salespeople, aliases connected advertisements on nan highway.

Many brands person a logomark (like nan 3 examples above) arsenic good arsenic a wordmark, which includes nan marque name. HubSpot, Spotify, and Transport for London each usage elements of their logomark wrong their wordmark:

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Pro tip: If you request thief creating your logo, cheque retired our free logo maker and our video connected creating logos:

4. Graphics and Images

Your visual identity should beryllium accordant and cohesive pinch nan remainder of your marque elements. There are different ways to execute this — for instance, if you person an Instagram account, utilizing nan aforesaid filters connected each your images will springiness your marque an contiguous consciousness of harmony.

Burger King’s style guide is 1 of my favorites because it’s truthful effective astatine precisely defining BK’s values and interpreting those verbally and visually.

The Burger King style guide lists its 4 creation principles arsenic “mouthwatering, large & bold, playfully irrelevant, and proudly true.” The style guideline interprets “big & bold” pinch clear, actionable instructions: “We play pinch standard utilizing macro photography and a attraction connected details. Colors are unapologetically afloat and rich.”

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Let’s look astatine really that plays retired connected Burger King’s Instagram account:

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The nutrient photography plays pinch scale, featuring burgers successful specified utmost close-ups that nan sesame seeds look for illustration boulders atop a mountain.

5. Shapes

There’s a celebrated linguistic research successful which group are shown 2 shapes and fixed 2 made-up words, “bouba” and “kiki.” They’re asked to delegate nan “word” to nan correct shape:

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Across languages, cultures, and ages, group almost ever say that nan spiky style is “kiki” and nan splotchy rounded style is “bouba.”

The bouba/kiki effect is an fantabulous illustration of conscionable really overmuch shapes tin matter successful your brand’s ocular identity. Troy Stange, nan proprietor of brandpop, wrote connected LinkedIn that “shapes are for illustration nan assemblage connection of your brand.”

Daniel Ocock, nan managing head of Vie Design, says that he thinks of shapes arsenic “the concealed connection of design; they opportunity a batch without saying thing astatine all.” Ocock says that circles are “friendly and inclusive,” squares “scream reliability,” and triangles evoke excitement.

Pro tip: Have nosy pinch shapes and usage your marque colors and your imagination — but laic retired champion practices for those of america without a inheritance successful schematic design. HubSpot’s personality includes squares, circles, and different ornaments successful marque colors, on pinch circumstantial guidelines, specified arsenic utilizing a maximum of 3 shapes:

6. Iconography

Icons are everyplace successful our integer world. They correspond nan apps we unfastened connected our phones, bespeak wherever to pat to zoom successful aliases zoom out, and place each 72 browser tabs we person open.

It’s a mini detail, but accordant iconography will elevate your website and different products pinch a master polish. Pay attraction to existent creation trends, because immoderate iconography will make you look outdated.

For instance, backmost successful 2013, erstwhile Apple released iOS 7, it redesigned its app iconography from a skeuomorphic creation to nan flat, two-dimensional creation it still uses today.

Skeuomorphism adds texture and item — illustrations of bookshelves mightiness see wood atom effects, aliases an icon of a camera mightiness make nan lens look three-dimensional.

But erstwhile Apple switched to a level design, nan remainder of nan creation world took notice. And by now, you’ve apt gotten truthful utilized to seeing level iconography everyplace — not conscionable connected iPhones — that skeuomorphism looks dated:

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Pro tip: Make it easy for different stakeholders by putting iconography astatine their fingertips. HubSpot’s Google Slides templates see 3 pages of icons that we tin usage passim our presentation. It ensures that decks crossed nan institution will look consistent, that our marque personality won’t get diluted, and that cipher has to walk hours looking for suitable icons.

7. Color Scheme

Your business’s color scheme influences each of its ocular branding elements: logos, trading materials, website, everything.

For example, Sean Garrette is an esthetician whose societal media posts characteristic photographs pinch rich | cocoa brownish hues and complementary world tones. He’s easy to place moreover if you’re conscionable idly doomscrolling done Instagram.

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As consumers, we tin spot a awesome marque personality erstwhile a circumstantial colour palette instantly triggers marque recognition, for illustration nan 3 palettes successful nan GIF beneath (each marque sanction is revealed aft 3 seconds):

Pro tip: There are tons of devices to thief you find nan cleanable palette. I emotion playing pinch Khroma moreover though I don’t person immoderate brands successful request of a colour strategy — it’s conscionable that nosy to use.

WhoCanUse.com is simply a awesome measurement to trial your colour palette for accessibility. And HubSpot’s free colour palette generator will make ideas based connected info you supply astir your brand. If you request thief uncovering nan cleanable palette, effort our free Color Palette Generator.

8. Typography

A brand’s typography usually includes aggregate complementary fonts, and often has a operation of serif and sans-serif. This gives you some elasticity and consistency — definite mediums whitethorn beryllium much conducive to a sans-serif font, aliases it whitethorn beryllium useful to usage 1 font family successful headlines and different successful assemblage text.

Large, well-established brands often person civilization typefaces. The BBC uses a bespoke typeface called Reith, named for its founder, John Reith. Reith has been customized pinch some a serif and sans-serif version:

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Pro tip: Choose a web-safe font aliases see 1 successful your font stack arsenic a fallback. Although it’s not strictly basal successful today’s web design, it’s still recommended to guarantee that each users connected each devices person a accordant experience.

9. Tone and Voice

Tone and sound are often considered arsenic a azygous element, but it’s worthy reasoning astir them separately arsenic you build your marque identity. I’ve worked connected a number of marque style guides, and I cognize really easy it is to get stuck connected this step.

Your brand voice is accordant crossed each touchpoint, whether it’s your company’s website, a TV ad, aliases moreover transcript connected merch aliases different products. Start present alternatively than trying to tackle reside and sound together.

Most brands usage 3 aliases 4 words to specify their voice. Those words should exude your marque intent — possibly your marque is helpful, kind, friendly, witty, analytical, factual, academic, aliases youthful.

Tone is simply a small much flexible. Think of it arsenic an mentation of marque voice; for instance, you could usage nan characteristics “helpful” and “factual” to picture some a vacuum cleaner manual and nan HubSpot article you’re reference correct now.

The reside of nan vacuum cleaner manual is apt to beryllium much direct, possibly moreover robotic. But because I’m penning for you, beloved reader, I tin speak successful first personification and constitute astir burgers and java shops.

Let’s look astatine Burger King again arsenic an example.

BK introduces its verbal personality pinch a statement that “we’ll request to flex our sound a small for different situations: a small wittier here, a small much nonstop there.”

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The guideline goes connected to specify BK’s sound pinch 4 characteristics: enthusiastic, confident, witty, and approachable.

Say you’re a copywriter for Burger King, and you’ve been asked to constitute 2 versions of an ad, 1 for an older assemblage and 1 for a Gen Z audience. Being approachable for nan Gen Z target assemblage mightiness see utilizing a crown aliases burger emoji; those elements mightiness beryllium omitted for an older target audience.

Those mini adjustments specify nan reside without abandoning nan voice.

If you’re starting a marque personality guideline from scratch, I urge identifying 4 circumstantial words that specify your brand, for illustration BK’s verbal personality guide. From there, you tin make tweaks and tonal adjustments depending connected target audience, nan type of ad, and different considerations.

Pro tip: Make a immense database of descriptive words, including immoderate that decidedly won’t define your sound (sarcastic, stuffy, childish). Ask different stakeholders to item 10 words they deliberation should specify your marque voice, and proceed to constrictive down your list. Write nan aforesaid condemnation successful different voices to make judge everybody’s connected nan aforesaid page.

10. Slogan, Jingle, aliases Catchphrase

Slogan and jingles don’t needfully use to each business, but if you usage them, they’re immoderate of nan astir memorable marque elements successful your wide branding. (Case successful point: Just try to get nan Chili’s “baby backmost ribs” bop retired of your head.)

When your jingle becomes an receptor worm, you’re apical of mind for consumers. You’re astir apt already acquainted pinch galore slogans aliases jingles:

• “Have It Your Way,” from Burger King
• “The Snack that Smiles Back,” Goldfish Crackers
• “America Runs On Dunkin,” from java institution Dunkin’

• “Because You’re Worth It,” L’Oreal
• “Like a bully neighbor, State Farm is there,” from security institution State Farm

• “Snap, Crackle, Pop!” from Rice Krispies

Using Brand Elements

Remember that marque elements activity successful performance pinch each different — your jingle isn’t going to drawback connected if you don’t person a logo and sanction that group tin subordinate it with, and your logo won’t beryllium memorable and master if you haven’t established your marque colors.

Use this guideline to reenforce nan interconnectedness of your marque personality and deliberation astir it successful position of nan individual marque elements arsenic good arsenic nan sum of its parts.

Editor's note: This station was primitively published successful December 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.