Visual Elements of Branding — Curated By Clea

Although branding encompasses much more than what meets the eye, what your audience sees is still an important aspect of developing your business or personal identity. Here are four primary visual elements of branding to consider when creating your brand:

Logo
Your logo broadly communicates the personality and style of your business. It can be comprised of text, symbols, or both. Ideally you want your logo to be simplistic, readable, and distinguishable between other brands’ logos—as this is what will set your brand apart from others visually. Although creating a unique and quintessential logo that perfectly encompasses your brand might seem like a daunting task, there is always room to create several iterations as your brand develops over time, so don’t feel as though your logo needs to be set in stone. As your brand grows, you may discover the need to make a few changes or even rebrand entirely—and thats okay. Even the most established brands, such as Burger King most recently, go through phases of rebranding as the years go by.

Submark
A submark is essentially an alternative style of your main logo that is less intricate and often more subtle. It can be used as a sticker, watermark, or stamp in order to add subdued branding to the many kinds of products or content your brand might produce. Personally, I find using my submark as a footer on my design work to be quite useful—as to not distract from the visuals I’ve presented, but still make it known that it was indeed work curated by Clea.

Colour Palette
This visual element of branding can capture your audiences interest at first glance—as we all have specific colours and hues that we naturally gravitate towards. Although there isn’t a specific methodology to choosing a colour palette for your brand, psychologically speaking, certain colours are thought to invoke a subconscious perception or response to your brand. For example, the colour red is often associated with passion or energy while the colour blue is often associated with trust and stability. You may want to do some research beforehand in order to strategically pick your brand colours that represent how you want your audience to perceive your brand.

Typography
Just like your logo and brand colours, your typography also showcases your brands personality. Generally, Serif and Sans Serif fonts are a classic approach to typography. Highly decorative fonts are usually not recommended, as they can come off as childish or distracting. However, I believe there are exceptions to this notion such as calligraphy styled fonts, which are mostly popular amongst brands that want to be perceived as high-toned or elegant. If having to decide between fonts is a tricky task—feel free to incorporate both a primary and secondary font, which compliment or contrast each other well.