The Ultimate Brand Development Checklist: Building a Strong Identity from Scratch

If you’ve found your way to this branding design guide because you’re starting a new business or you’re updating and refreshing your current branding, congratulations! You’re in the right place. 

Discovering Your Brand

The following considerations cover all areas of your brand’s identity, including voice, color palette, typography, target audience, competitors, and more! It might feel a little overwhelming, but answering these questions can give you a clear idea of what you want to convey with your logo and branding. 

1. Brand Identity: Start with your mission, core values, and what sets you apart from your competitors. Think about who your ideal customers are and their needs and preferences. 
2. Competitive Research and Inspiration: Next, think about elements of your competitors’ brand that are compelling and effective. What’s missing? Identify some other logos, color schemes or designs that resonate with you and your brand vision. You should also explore the current design trends in your industry and think about how your brand can align with those trends and still stand out.
3. Branding Elements: Colors are associated with emotions, and psychological studies show these connections are fairly universal across all cultures. Think about what emotions you want to convey with your brand and logo and what colors would evoke those desired emotions. Additionally, think about the typography that might reflect your brand’s personality. Is it modern and trendy or more classic and traditional? Also think about images, illustrations, or icons that might represent your brand.
4. Brand Voice and Messaging: Now it’s time to think about your brand’s style of communication. It might be formal, casual, playful, or authoritative. Whatever your style, it can be reflected in your colors, logo, typography, and especially in the way you communicate both on your website and in other off-site communications such as email and social media. Think about some impactful phrases, taglines, or slogans that encapsulate your brand and the key messages you might use to convey your brand’s value and promise.

Here are a few more questions we ask our clients in the brand development process: 

• What are some words that describe the character of your brand? (Examples: affordable, accessible, bold, exclusive, innovative, modern, refined, unconventional.) 
• What are some emotions you’d like a person to feel when they experience your brand? (Examples: excited, calm, happy, relaxed, secure.)
• What characteristics would you like your brand to convey? (Examples: professional, attractive, upscale.)
• Are there any colors you feel should be used to represent the feelings and characteristics of your brand? 
• Name some key reasons why a customer would choose your brand. (Examples: amenities, cost, service, value, location.)
• Are there any words, ideas, or phrases we should definitely consider in your brand? Are there any words, ideas, or phrases we should avoid?

Armed with these details, you can now sit down with your branding design team to help you craft your brand identity. Your team may start with some rough sketches and basic concepts, gathering feedback from you along the way. They should provide some color and style options for you to choose from, and then they’ll move forward with finalizing a logo and compiling all elements into a comprehensive guide.

Elements of a Branding Guide

Your branding guide should include: 

• Logo Variations, including primary and secondary logos, and guidelines for usage, including space and sizing
• Color Palette, including RGB, CMYK, and HEX values for each color
• Brand Typeface, along with guidelines for usage in header and body text, and options for an alternative if the primary typeface is not available

You should also develop templates for your website, marketing materials, social media, and internal documents and make sure your entire team understands and adheres to your branding guidelines. 

Ongoing Brand Management

It’s a good idea to regularly review your branding materials for consistency, and when you make updates, make sure to remove all outdated versions of your images, logos, and templates to ensure consistent usage. 

Branding design involves thoughtful consideration of your brand’s identity, marketing, and target audience. Do you need an experienced team to bring your brand vision to life? Talk to BoxCrush.