Here at The Yardstick Agency, we understand that written content is the driving force of your communications. But that doesn’t stop us graphic designers from pushing the creativity of your branding to reinforce your message in a powerful and intriguing way.

It’s a common misconception to think that branding only means your logo. Yes, this is an important tool, but it’s only just the beginning.

Your logo tells us who you are, but your branding tells the story. 

The components of your brand are what sets you apart from other competitors in the industry. It’s your brand’s identity.

Imagine you wanted to convince people you’re a duck. Silly, right? In order to be convincing it wouldn’t just be enough to tell people you’re a duck. You’d also have to look like a duck, sound like a duck, and act like a duck.

We use these elements to identify a duck, as they’re instantly recognisable.

So, what key elements build your brand’s identity?

1. Your brand values – what drives your company?
2. Your brand voice – if your brand was a person, what would their personality be like and how would they communicate?
3. Your unique selling point – what makes you different from your competitors?

Having a clear understanding of this will help you know how you want your brand to look.

Next, designing your brand takes a few key steps:

1. Logo

I might be here to tell you how to enhance your branding around it, but we can’t deny the fact that your logo is pretty much central to your branding.

Your logo could be depicted with shapes, images, or even just isolated text. The beauty of having other visual ways of expressing your brand’s personality is that we can focus on making your logo an effective tool.

It’s never a good idea to mash too much together and come out with Frankenstein’s monster.

2. Fonts

There is such a wide range of font styles out there it’s important you select one that gives off the right feel. After all, your written content is your voice; how do you want it to sound?

We recommend using a primary font for the headings, this will reflect your brand’s personality, and it might even be similar to that of your logo. This is followed by a secondary font for a block of text, with the focus on this being clear and legible.

3. Colour palette

This is essential to ensure your customers’ experience of your brand is consistent. Once you get this right, it’ll help your clients connect to your brand and create a lasting visual impression.

4. Graphic assets

This may simply come down to whether you prefer to use sharp clean edges on your text boxes or something softer and rounder. It could be using a clear style of illustrations or icons.

Either way, this is a great way of bringing in something really visual, it might reflect your logo, or perhaps you simplified your logo and want to use this to further implement your brand’s personality.

5. Imagery

This is a great way to engage with your clients. It’s a visual tool which you can use to instantly represent your brand’s personality and relate to your client audience. Creating guidelines around the type of images you will use will help you create an impactful message.

Using these elements at the core of your brand, we can now work creatively to develop a strong identity across various platforms:

• Your website
• Printed or digital guides and brochures
• Your business cards and other stationery
• Signage and posters
• Animation and video
• Social media posts and banners.

We can carefully reflect the message and image you want to portray while pushing boundaries to make your brand stand out.

Here are a couple of examples of how we’ve implemented this:

Grey Parrot Financial Planning:

The Exit Partnership:

To find out how we can help you strengthen your branding, email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.