What is a brand identity?

A brand is much more than just a logo. It is a set of ideas, images and associations that people carry around in their heads about companies — the space you occupy in someone’s mind. 

It encompasses who you are, what you do, how you look and what you say, the principles you stand for and the impression you want to make. Getting it right means your company or product can command, and maintain, public attention. 

 

Many elements make up a successful brand.

  1. Your brand platform: summarising your purpose, vision, mission, position, essence, values, personality and benefits.

  2. Your verbal identity: comprising your name, strapline/descriptor, key messages and tone of voice. 

  3. Your visual identity: comprising your logo design, colour palettes, typography & layout, image styling and graphic language - these elements are collectively known as ‘brand assets’.

Every element of your visual and verbal identity should be chosen with the Brand Foundation in mind. This will ensure that you have a consistent brand that you can use to market to clients and referrals, as well as attract potential staff/partners. 

Once your brand is developed, you need to bring it to life consistently through your print and digital products – which include your website and social media channels. 

 

Simpson Booth
brand identity

In this example you can see how the various brand assets combine to create a consistent overall look and feel for this brand.

In addition to a logo and icon, the colour green is memorable, the photography style is distinctive and ownable, the horizon image manifests the brand essence of ‘simplicity’ and calm, and the infographics extend the visual identity into new territory.

What exactly
does an identity designer do?

 

An identity designer will create the visual elements of your brand – the logo design, colour palettes, typography & layout, image styling, graphic language and illustration.

 

A good identity designer doesn’t bring their own personal style to a task. Instead they adapt their style to suit the environment, to ensure they always do what is right for the project.

These design decisions are based upon the completed brand strategy work, which is used to inform the creative brief.

A consistently applied brand with appropriate brand assets will influence the public’s perception of you, and your brand will gain equity.

My Services

 

I work with a variety of different clients – from new businesses requiring a new identity to entice both customers and investors, to successfully established businesses that have outgrown their existing brand.

Do either of these sound like you? Then I can personally offer you the following brand identity design services:

 
 

Design services

  • Visual identity creation: logo design, colour palettes, typography & layout, image styling, graphic language and Illustration

  • Brand guidelines

  • Website design & build

  • Printed communications

  • Social media asset creation

  • Infographics

  • Product implementation

  • Artworking

  • Print management

Let's get started!
 

 

My partner network

Many clients have a challenge that requires more than just design. I have a network of partners that I work with to meet these requirements. The network also contains highly regarded consultants, writers, printers, web developers and project managers – people that I’ve worked with for many years and that I trust completely. Together we can offer the services listed below.

 
 

Strategic services

  • Competitor research

  • Stakeholder research

  • Brand audit

  • Brand platform development

  • Brand architecture

  • Brand naming

  • Touchpoint mapping

  • Internal brand alignment

 

Copywriting services

  • Verbal identity creation: name and strapline, tone of voice, key messages

  • Copy for print channels: brochures, articles, campaigns 

  • Copy for online channels: websites and social media

My design process

 

  • To begin with, fill out the form on my contact page to get in touch.

    Then we can have a quick call to get to know each other and discuss project scope, timeline, and budget. I’ll send you a proposal and contract via email, which you can approve online and sign.

    Once approved, a standard 50% deposit is required to begin, with the remaining on project delivery.

  • The next step is for us to listen to you. My partners & I want to understand your requirements, goals, target audience and market. We will look at your existing brand materials and your competitors, to identify what’s appropriate and where there is an opportunity to give you standout.

  • Based on the strategy and visual research that has been undertaken, I’ll create several initial design concepts, and apply them to sample mockups to help you visualise them in real life.

    I’ll present them in a screensharing meeting, and send PDFs you can review again afterwards.

  • After selecting the best concept, I’ll refine it further if needed.

    The best way to go about this is by gathering all of your team’s feedback and sending me any suggested edits all in one go. I’ll then implement them and send you a new draft to review (this will count as one round of revisions – a project scope includes 2 rounds of revisions).

    In the unlikely event you require any further revisions, I am happy to do so and will charge these at an hourly rate.

  • If your project is a new brand identity, then once approved I’ll create and deliver all final artwork files to you.

    If your project is a website, then this stage will become the ‘build’ phase – where the designs visuals become coded into a live website and testing is undertaken.

    If your project is a printed item such as a brochure or business cards, then I will implement the design and prepare the artwork for print. I can contact printers for quotes and manage the printing process for you if needed.

 

Why investing in great design is great for business

 

Rather than hiring a company that offers cheap logo designs, invest in good design and develop a more memorable brand that will set you apart from your competitors.

Investing in design means investing in professionalism. It will bring you enhanced customer satisfaction and advocacy, greater consistency in product or service output, and reduced project failure rates

 

2/5

More than two-fifths of survey respondents agreed that the use of design within their organisation has contributed to an increase in sales turnover, increased business competitiveness and increased awareness and recognition of the brand and/or raised brand loyalty.*

*The Design Economy 2018 Report

>50%

Consistent investing in design is highly profitable, even in the long term. The difference in profitability between firms that have invested in design and those that have not is 50 per cent or more!*

*A survey by Teknikföretagen, an employers’ organisation for Swedish engineering companies.

60%

Sixty per cent of firms use design in some way.* And those design savvy businesses could be your competitors.

*The Design Economy 2018 Report

Pricing

Here are some typical guide prices for budgeting purposes. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch for a customised quote.

 
 

Complete visual identity

  • Ideal if you’re starting from scratch or evolving your company’s existing branding. You need direction and a toolkit of all the necessary visual elements for a professional looking brand.

    Includes:

    ✓ 3 new logo designs (or existing logo refresh)
    ✓ 2 rounds of client refinements
    ✓ Logo colour specifications
    ✓ Logo files – for print & web
    ✓ Unrestricted usage rights
    ✓ Colour palette
    ✓ Typeface
    ✓ Graphic language
    ✓ Visualised on sample mock-ups

 

Marketing ‘brochure’ website

  • Ideal if you require a simple ‘brochure’ website to promote your business or services. Visually engaging, easy to update, affordable to maintain and fully responsive across all devices.

    Includes:

    ✓ Site design
    ✓ 2 rounds of client refinements
    ✓ Site build
    ✓ Testing
    ✓ Content Management System
    ✓ Fully responsive
    ✓ Discoverable on search engines
    ✓ Modern design
    ✓ Adobe typekit fonts
    ✓ 10 unique pages
    ✓ Can include forms, videos, galleries, newsletter signup, appointments, calendars, reservations, maps, social links, charts, custom code etc.

    Excludes copywriting, custom icon design and content updates - if required, these can be quoted for separately.

Logo design only

  • Ideal if you just want a new logo to represent your brand.

    Includes:

    ✓ 3 new logo designs
    ✓ Visualised on sample mock-ups
    ✓ 2 rounds of client refinements
    ✓ Logo colour specifications
    ✓ Logo files – for print & web
    ✓ Unrestricted usage rights

    ✗ Wider colour palette
    ✗ Typeface
    ✗ Graphic language
    ✗ Style Guide

 

Printed communications

Please contact for a customised quote, based upon your needs.