Corporate identity design and its impact on your brand image
Corporate identity design is a factor of vital importance for a company. It is a process that cannot and should not wait until the company is fully established, and work on it should begin in the early stages of the project.
Many believe that a company’s corporate identity is the image it presents to the public. But in reality, it goes much further. Corporate identity design should not only take into account logos, colors, or typography. It must also consider the company’s core and most important traits, its main characteristics, and everything it wants to be known for among the public.
Corporate identity design: bringing a brand to life
Corporate identity design, which is one of the phases of a company’s branding process, aims to give a brand a physical form. This is not achieved by creating a logo alone. Other elements are also part of it, clearly defining the style of the organization or company in question. Corporate identity is composed of both visual identity and verbal identity elements. The former include, for example, typefaces or colors. The latter, related to naming, involve style codes and even behavioral guidelines. In other words, verbal identity elements aim to connect with people.
Therefore, corporate identity is responsible for defining and shaping a personality for the corporation or entity for which it is designed. It reflects everything that represents it, as well as what differentiates the company or organization from others. In addition, corporate identity design is also responsible for developing the promotion of the company’s products and services.
In addition to clearly identifying the company and everything it represents, corporate identity also has another mission: to ensure that its employees feel more connected to the company. In other words, it should increase their sense of belonging. Consumers or subscribers to its services should also feel identified with it.
Corporate identity design also aims to create the brand image, which is made up of the set of perceptions that an individual or group has of that brand or company. In other words, how consumers perceive the company, its products, and what it represents to them.
Corporate identity and corporate image
Many people use the terms corporate identity and corporate image as if they were synonyms, but they are not. Both share similarities, as they are representations of a company and/or a brand. While corporate identity refers to how a company looks and the image it wants to project externally, corporate image refers to how consumers perceive a brand or company.
This depends not only on how the company is seen from the outside, but also on how its real image is projected externally. In other words, corporate identity and corporate image are closely related.
Elements to consider when designing a company’s identity
As mentioned, a company’s corporate identity is made up of verbal and visual elements. That is, everything that surrounds the company’s brand must be connected. There must be one or more linking elements between everything that identifies the company, from its logo to its website. In this way, the public will be able to easily recognize the brand and identify the company behind it.
The elements that make up corporate identity are far more numerous than they may seem, and care must be taken in designing each of them. From choosing the name and designing the logo to selecting typography and the company’s slogan—everything matters in conveying the desired image of the company.
Among these, perhaps two of the most important are the name and the logo. When choosing a company name, one must be aware of what it may mean in different languages and in the countries where the company will operate. As for the logo, it is usually directly related to the name. When creating it, consistency must also be maintained with the typeface chosen for the company name that will appear in the logo. Sometimes, corporate identity design also includes an imagotype as a complement to the logo. This can be an icon, a letter, or a small graphic that completes it and becomes associated with the company name as an identifier.
It should also be considered that if the brand name does not describe the company on its own, an additional element can be used to clarify it. This is the brand descriptor, which consists of a clarifying word such as “insurance,” “groceries,” “accessories,” “publishing,” etc. A slogan can also help improve the perception and retention of the brand image, as well as complete its corporate identity. All of this without forgetting colors and typography, which are fundamental to corporate identity. However, it is also important to ensure that all elements are correctly displayed across the media where they will be used: business cards, posters, brochures, stationery, decorative elements, etc.
To carry out corporate identity design, it is important to rely on the services of an expert in the field. These professionals usually have specialized higher education, and are therefore fully prepared to help a company develop the corporate identity it needs to communicate the message and impression it wants to convey to the public.
