Brand Design

What is brand design?

Brand design is the process of creating the visual identity of a business, organisation or product. It includes much more than the logo. A successful identity brings a number of visual elements together so they work as one consistent system. These can include:

• Logo and supporting graphics
• Colour palettes
• Typography and font selection
• Photography and image style
• Illustration and iconography
• Layout and composition
• Graphic devices and visual elements
• Packaging and product presentation
• Website and digital graphics
• Advertising and marketing materials
• Printed literature
• Exhibition and display graphics

The individual elements are important, but it is the way they work together that creates a recognisable brand.

Brand design is more than a logo

A logo is an important part of a brand, but it isn’t the brand itself. A logo provides recognition. Brand design creates the visual language that surrounds it. Think of the logo as the signature of a business. The typography, colours, imagery, layouts and graphic style are the handwriting that makes everything else recognisable as belonging to the same organisation.

This is why simply changing a logo rarely creates a completely new brand. Effective brand design considers the whole visual identity and how it will be used.

What makes good brand design?

Good brand design should be distinctive enough to be recognised, flexible enough to work across different applications and appropriate for the business it represents.

Recognition

A successful brand becomes recognisable through consistent visual communication. Customers should be able to identify a business through its colours, typography, imagery and graphic style, sometimes before they even see its name.

Consistency

A brand needs to work everywhere it appears. A website, brochure, business card, advertisement, social media graphic, package or exhibition stand may all have different requirements, but they should still feel like the same brand.

Differentiation

Good brand design helps a business stand apart from its competitors. It should communicate what makes the organisation different rather than simply following whatever visual style happens to be fashionable.

Trust

Professional and consistent presentation can make a significant difference to how a business is perceived. A considered visual identity helps create confidence and gives customers a reason to take the business seriously.

Flexibility

Modern brands appear across an enormous range of formats and sizes. A successful identity needs to work on a mobile screen just as effectively as it does on a large-format exhibition graphic or printed brochure.

Longevity

Trends come and go. Good brand design shouldn’t need completely reinventing every few years simply because the latest visual fashion has changed. The best identities are designed with enough character to remain relevant while allowing them to evolve when necessary.

What does a brand identity include?

A complete brand identity provides the visual building blocks a business needs to communicate consistently.

Logo design

The logo is often the most recognisable part of a visual identity. It needs to work at different sizes, in different formats and across both digital and printed applications.

Colour

Colour has a powerful influence on recognition and perception. A considered colour palette provides consistency while helping establish the character of the brand.

Typography

Typography is often overlooked, yet the choice of typeface can dramatically alter the personality of a business. Professional, technical, traditional, modern, friendly and luxurious brands can all communicate very differently through typography.

Photography and imagery

The style of photography and imagery used by a business contributes significantly to its identity. Consistent image selection helps reinforce the character of the brand.

Graphic style

Shapes, patterns, lines, icons, illustrations and other graphic elements can provide a distinctive visual language that makes communications immediately recognisable.

Brand guidelines

Brand guidelines explain how the visual identity should be used. They can define logo usage, colours, typography, imagery, layouts and other elements to help maintain consistency.

Brand design and graphic design

Brand design and graphic design are closely related, but they are not exactly the same thing.

Brand design establishes the visual identity. Graphic design applies that identity to individual pieces of communication.

For example, a brand identity may establish the logo, colours, typography and visual style. A graphic designer then uses those elements to create a brochure, advertisement, exhibition panel, presentation or social media campaign.

Good graphic design therefore depends on understanding the brand it is communicating.

Brand design for print and digital

A brand needs to work across both digital and physical media. On screen, a brand may appear on a website, social media, email campaign or mobile device. In print, the same identity might appear on stationery, brochures, packaging, signage, exhibition graphics or promotional literature.

This is where technical knowledge becomes important. Colours can behave differently on screen and in print. Images require appropriate resolution. Logos need to be supplied in suitable formats. Typography needs to work across different applications.

A brand may look excellent on screen but fail when it is reproduced physically if these considerations haven’t been taken into account. Good brand design therefore considers how an identity will actually be used, not simply how it looks in a presentation.

Creating a strong brand

Creating a successful brand starts with understanding the business behind it. What does the company stand for? Who does it want to reach? What makes it different? What should customers think and feel when they encounter it? These questions help establish the direction for the visual identity.

The design process can then bring those ideas together through logo design, typography, colour, imagery, graphic style and layout. The result shouldn’t simply be a new logo. It should be a visual system that can be applied consistently across every place the business communicates.

Brand design in practice

Every business is different, so effective brand design shouldn’t come from a standard formula. Over the years, PrePress has created identities and visual communications for businesses and organisations across a wide range of sectors. Some have required a completely new identity; others have needed an existing brand developed, refreshed or brought up to date.

The objective is always the same: to create a distinctive visual identity that works in the real world. That means considering not only how the brand looks, but how it will be reproduced, adapted and used across different media.

Why professional brand design matters

Your brand is often the first impression people have of your business. Before someone reads your sales message, talks to your team or uses your product, they may already have formed an opinion based on what they see. A well-designed identity can communicate professionalism, confidence and credibility. More importantly, consistent use of that identity helps build recognition over time. Brand design is therefore an investment in how a business is seen, remembered and understood.

Brand & Design Knowledge Base

We’ve created a growing collection of practical information covering brand design, graphic design, colour, typography, logos, artwork and preparing creative work for print and digital use. Explore the Brand & Design Knowledge Base for straightforward explanations and practical advice from people with decades of experience in design, reprographics and print production.

Brand design from PrePress

PrePress brings together graphic design, reprographics, prepress and print knowledge developed over more than three decades. That combination matters because a brand doesn’t exist only on a screen. It has to work wherever your business communicates. From the original concept through to artwork, reproduction and finished communication, good brand design considers the complete journey.

A strong brand is more than a logo. It is a consistent visual identity that helps your business become recognised, remembered and trusted.

What Does a Brand Identity Include?

What Should Be in a Brand Book?

A brand book, often called brand guidelines or brand standards, explains how an identity should be used.

Its purpose is simple: to make sure the brand looks, sounds and behaves consistently wherever it appears.

The size of the document should reflect the size and complexity of the brand. There is little value in giving a small business a 100-page set of guidelines that nobody needs or uses. Equally, a large organisation may need extensive rules to ensure consistency across multiple departments, suppliers, agencies and countries.

A brand book for a small business

For a smaller business, a practical brand book might include:

• Brand overview and positioning
• Logo and logo variations
• Clear space and minimum size
• Incorrect logo usage
• Primary and secondary colours
• CMYK, RGB and HEX colour specifications
• Typography and font hierarchy
• Photography style
• Graphic elements and iconography
• Basic layout principles
• Tone of voice
• Examples of the identity in use

The objective is not to create unnecessary rules. It is to give everyone working with the brand enough information to reproduce it correctly and consistently.

A brand book for a larger organisation

Larger organisations usually require much more comprehensive guidelines. These may include:

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