Brand Identity vs. Visual Identity
This article was contributed by Levina Kusumadjaja
What makes a "Steve Jobs" isn't a black turtleneck and a pair of blue jeans. It's only because he wears them so often, that people began to associate those fashion items with Steve Jobs. As a result, when we see a black turtleneck in a clothing store, we think of Steve Jobs. And even beyond that, we might also be thinking about these words: Apple, technology, revolution, vision, innovation, and so on. What we see visually isn't the real identity, but the visuals help us remember the person or business associated to the visuals and how that person or business makes us feel.
This is the difference between brand identity and visual identity. Brand identity is who you are, what's at the core of your company. One of the ways for you to communicate this brand identity is through visual identity.
Brand identity asks the questions:
Who are you?
Why are you here?
What are you doing?
What do you believe in?
What makes you you?
Visual identity asks the questions:
How can you communicate who you are?
What can you use to share the values you believe in?
How can you get your message across?
What can live in the hearts and minds of people?
When you think of visual identity, think about everything you can see that is related to your brand, such as: logo, web design, packaging, typography, color palette, icons, photography, videography, GIFs, particular objects, you name it. If you can see it and then associate it with your brand, that's a part of your visual identity. Visual identity is meant to help a brand communicate what it is all about. It is meant to effectively share to the customers its brand identity.
This is why it's important that as a creative, we don't just create a company's visual identity without understanding it's brand identity. If we don't know the person, we can't hope to style them. We need to know who this person is before picking the right outfit for them. It makes a huge difference when we're picking an outfit for a CEO who is getting ready for a stakeholders' meeting, to picking an outfit for a basketball player who is getting ready for a playoff game. We're not picking the person to fit the clothes, but we are picking the clothes to fit the person.
Can you tell the difference now?
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!