Branding Basics: What does it all mean?

Here is a breakdown of some of the terms I use when working with clients on branding projects. Let's keep things simple: 

Brand: How your clients will perceive your company - including how you look, feel + the kind of experience you offer. It refers to the visual identity of your brand + how you present yourself through design elements (logo, colours, typeface, etc). Strong branding can establish recognition + set you apart from competitors within your target audience. Branding assets describe the items included within your brand visuals, such as your logo designs, fonts, etc.

Brand Guide/ Identity Board: This is an organized document that presents all of your branding visual assets in one place. It provides an all encompassing overview of your brand’s visual identity for quick, ongoing reference.

Brand Typography: This is your recommended font pairings for your brand’s written copy. Using a consistent typography across all platforms + materials helps to reinforce tone, style + personality of your brand.

Colour Palette: The curated collection of colours used to establish your brand’s personal style. Using a consistent colours across all platforms + materials helps to reinforce tone, style + personality of your brand.

Inspiration Board: Sometimes called a mood board, this refers to an organized collection of references that help communicate the look + feel that a brand is looking to pursue. Love Karla Designs utilizes a Pinterest for the creation of a inspiration board. Typically, they’re full of photos, illustrations, colours and designs that can inspire the project at hand.

Icon: An icon is an image that helps communicate on behalf of a brand. Often icons will have a connection to your offerings or origin story + help to add personal touches in marketing materials (e.g. stickers, E-Mail templates, social media highlight covers, etc).

Favicon: A very simple icon that will be associated with the URL of your business on all website browser’s address bars.

Typeface: This is the specific lettering (font) recommendations for your brand. 

Logo: A logo is a graphic design used to represent a brand. It typically includes a brand’s name, tagline, established year + illustration. For the sake of versatility, it’s best to have more than one logo design variation (main or primary logo + secondary or alternate design). A primary logo is the main logo used to represent the brand. The secondary logo is typically the abbreviated or simplified logo as most brands will require multiple ways to represent their brand.

Monogram/Signature: Sometimes called letter-marks, this describes a simplified logo design created using only letters

 

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