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Writer's pictureLexieMedia

Branding vs Brand Identity

Updated: Sep 8, 2021

What is a Difference Between Brand, Identity and Logo Design


There’s a lot of misconceptions and the terms brand/branding, logo, brand identity are falsely put in the same basket like they were synonymous. It’s true that they all work together, but at its core they are different.


To have a solid business you need to have strong, consistent and thoughtful brand/branding and brand identity, not just a logo design. This is absolutely must-have knowledge for every blogger, creative entrepreneur or small business owner.



WHAT IS BRANDING/BRAND?


Branding is an experience. Branding consists of your company’s mission, core values, visions, business voice, so it’s like a huge plan of your customer experience. It’s the way you make your target audience feel, what they imagine in their minds when they think of your business, it’s a psychological relationship with business and the customer.

The brand is an inherent part of your business – your business's personality, its style, it’s the promise of what your client will experience from your business.

The branding helps you shape your business, by more factors than just a visual aspect. It helps you differentiate your products and services from your competitors. Your brand strategy contains how, what, where, when and to whom you want to communicate and deliver your brand messages and values.


WHAT IS BRAND IDENTITY/BRAND DESIGN?


Brand identity/Brand design refers to what we see and what we feel about the company, by seeing their visuals (some call it visual identity). This includes colours, fonts, logo, alternative logos, submarks, graphic elements, patterns, photography. Brand goes side by side with brand identity and sometimes is hard to distinguish each.


The visual components like logos, shapes, typography, colours, patterns, photography, packaging and other design elements help to create the user’s experience.

The brand/branding and brand identity/brand design should work together, so you should be able to recognise the brand even if you don’t see their logo. It is certainly easier for larger companies like Apple, Starbucks, McDonald’s etc. but it’s possible for yours too.


HOW THE BRANDING AND BRAND IDENTITY WORK TOGETHER?


By defining your mission statement, the core values, goals, tone, target audience, brand keywords you’re creating the foundation of your brand, in order to translate that into visuals. As I’ve mentioned above, the brand is an experience and the brand identity is a face of the brand. You need to make sure that your brand identity, represents all the above in order to have cohesive, distinctive, memorable, professional brand.


WHAT IS A LOGO?


The logo is a visual representation of your business and brand - the graphic symbol. A professional logo allows you to build a prosperous, successful business by attracting your target clients. Investing in great design will separate you from competitors, create a professional visual presence, and maintain consistency across all platforms of your business.


The logo is an essential part of brand identity, but it’s not the only component of it. The logo should represent your business and doesn’t have to have dozens of other graphic elements and doesn’t have to be too literal.


Most of the iconic logos are simple and modern, even without any illustrations or icons. The logo should identify the business in a way that is recognisable and memorable. Once the logo becomes familiar, a lot of brands simplify them by removing some of the elements.


As mentioned, having consistent branding is essential for your business. You need to consistently use the same fonts, colours, photos, patterns and other graphic elements in order to get the recognition. Remember to think further about your brand than just a logo. Create a system that represents you, your missions and values.


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