Your brand is unique. While you might not be the only company to sell your products or provide your services, your business has a story and a message unique just to you, and your brand identity helps you to tell that story and deliver that message.

In fact, your brand identity is one of the first things your clients will engage with, so it’s essential that you make a great first impression. Creatik is a branding agency in Australia, and we’ve worked with companies of all shapes and sizes to create attention-grabbing brand identities that tell their customers who they are, what they stand for, and what they sell. We’re here to let you in on everything you need to know about brand identity so you can work with our brand design team to create unforgettable designs and marketing materials for your business.

What is a brand identity?

Also known as visual identity, corporate identity, and identity design, brand identity is the visual expression of your brand. In most cases, the Creatik team help you define your brand strategy and then design your brand identity to bring it to life. There is a range of elements that make up a brand identity.

Colours. Most businesses choose 1-3 primary colours and a couple of secondary colours for their brand identity palette. But, of course, the psychology of colour will play into your choices, so do your research before settling on a palette.
Imagery. A picture says a thousand words, so what do you want those words to say about your business? Make sure every image you use in conjunction with your brand identity is consistent, appropriate and adds something to whatever you’re designing. Our brand agency always suggests our clients use their own high-quality pictures rather than stock images.
Typographic style. Typography, the type family (e.g. Roboto), and font, the weight, width, and style of the typography (e.g. Roboto Bold) are powerful design tools. Many huge brands have signature typography they are associated with, even if the text is taken entirely out of context. For example, Google’s signature font, Product Sans, and Nike’s font, Futura Condensed Extra Black, are recognisable almost anywhere.
The logo. Your logo is central to your brand identity. It incorporates your brand’s colours, font and typography, and align with every other element of your brand identity. Your logo needs to represent your brand visually, and it needs to be memorable. So it’s always best to leave your logo to a professional logo designer in Sydney.
Style guide. Your style guide helps you maintain consistency across your brand identity. It tells you which colours, typefaces, and images to use, how your logo should and shouldn’t appear, the tone of voice for your copy, and so much more. Trust us when we say it will quickly become your brand bible.
Packaging. A product’s packaging tells us about the product, the company who made the product, and the consumers buying the product. Therefore, it needs to reflect your brand identity and remain consistent. Fortunately, Creatik is a multi-talented branding agency in Sydney. Our team of graphic design professionals can help you create packaging that stands out and represents your brand perfectly. We’re the recipients of two Sydney ‘Driven By Design’ silver awards, so you can rest assured your designs are in the best of hands.

Why is creating a memorable brand identity important?

As a leading Sydney branding agency, the Creatik team has seen the impact of brand identity first-hand. We can’t understate the value brand identity brings to businesses.

You need to stand out. Your brand identity is what helps set you apart from your competitors. It’s your story, your business, and your product and services, so you need a curated brand identity that helps you tell the world all about it.
Consumer recognition. What do Apple, McDonald’s, and Bonds all have in common? Yes, they’re all worth billions of dollars. However, they also all have very clear brand identities. No one will mistake Apple for Microsoft, just like no one will mistake McDonald’s for Red Rooster. Without a clear brand identity, your customers may struggle to recognise your business. All the brand identity elements need to come together to create a consistent, appealing, recognisable visual representation of your business.
Build trust and loyalty. Would you rather buy a mobile phone from Samsung or Nubia? You’re probably thinking Samsung, right? Because you’ve heard of their brand, and you know they manufacture pretty reliable phones, whereas Nubia isn’t a brand many people have heard of. Samsung has a better brand identity, so more people can resonate with and trust their products.

Creatik’s top tips for creating a brand identity

At Creatik, we love helping our clients create a strong, memorable brand that identifies their business. We have a couple of tips to get you started on the brand identity development journey.

Maintain flexibility. Your brand identity needs to grow with your business, so make sure you maintain a little room for flexibility in the future. This allows for adjustments in ad campaigns, taglines, or modernisation over time.
Build a brand guide. Like we mentioned earlier, your brand guide will become kind of like your bible. Anyone who needs to create anything that has to do with your brand identity will be able to turn to this document and immediately understand what they can and can not do. It’s the best way to maintain consistency.
Add some heart and soul. This is your business; no one knows it like you do. So when the Creatik team is working on brand design in Sydney, we encourage our clients to pour a bit of themselves into their brand identity. We want to help you connect with clients on an emotional level and build long-lasting customer relationships, so bring some feeling into your brand identity.
Head to a branding agency. No one knows how to create an incredible brand identity quite like the experts at a branding studio. Packaging design, web design, and logo design in Australia; Creatik can do it all. We’ll help you create a cohesive, unforgettable brand identity.

The Creatik guide to creating brands with impact

Australia’s consumer marketplace is full of people trying to get their business in front of customers. You really need to know how to stand out from the crowd, so we can’t stress enough the importance of brand strategy. We’re the experts at strategic brand design, and we’re here to help you define your brand essence with our brief guide to creating brands with impact. If you need a hand establishing or defining your brand strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact the team at Creatik.

What is a brand strategy, and why does it matter?

Contrary to popular belief, your brand strategy isn’t your logo, colour palette, or website. These are your brand identity elements, and to develop these, you need to have a clearly defined brand strategy. Your brand strategy is a combination of long-term goals and components of your business’s character that make it identifiable. It’s the intangible stuff that’s a lot harder to pin down, such as missions, values, and purpose. So why does brand strategy matter?

A brand strategy gives your business direction. The goals you set as part of your brand strategy will help guide your decisions and the direction of your business. It will lay the foundations for your business, and you’ll be able to rely on this strategy to plan your growth over the short and long term.
Your brand strategy is a great sounding board. Most people think of brand strategy in relation to marketing, but it informs decisions in all aspects of the business. From people and culture through to how the budget is allocated can be informed using your brand strategy.
It lets your customers know exactly who you are. Your brand strategy will help your customers identify what’s important to your business so they can choose whether or not to support you with their patronage. People are far more likely to support a brand personality that aligns with their beliefs and values, so make sure you do your market research properly!

Where do you sit in the marketplace?

One of the first steps to building a brand strategy is understanding where you sit in the marketplace. This will help you identify your competitors and differentiate your brand. So, how does one go about figuring out their brand positioning?

Where is your market? Before you start looking at your brand positioning, you need to ask yourself which market you’d like to see your business positioned within. Who are your customers? Which other businesses operate within that market? Find your target market and build from there.
Figure out your USP. Every business has a unique selling proposition (USP) that makes their business different. Look critically at your business and try to identify what sets you apart from your competitors. If you can’t think of anything that differentiates your brand, try thinking about why you do what you do, how you do it differently and what you do that no one else can claim, which might inform your USP.
Consider all the elements of your business. You’ll need to position yourself based on product characteristics, price, quality, product use, and competitors to get a really clear idea of where your business is positioned. It can help to have visual representations of your market positions when undergoing strategic brand design so you can see in an instant where you sit.

What does your brand stand for?

The next thing you need to do to define your brand strategy is to develop a clear idea of what your business represents.

Develop goals. This is where you need to think about where you’d like to see your business in the short and long term. Your brand architecture should be built to achieve these goals, so make sure they’re clearly defined.
Develop your mission and vision statements. This is the heart of your business. It’s the reason you get out of bed in the morning. Your brand messaging and brand story will reflect your mission and vision. Don’t worry if you’re struggling to articulate these statements; the Creatik team can help.
Create your brand identity. Once you’ve ironed out the strategy, you can start looking at visually representing it through your brand identity. Try to make sure your brand model is cohesive and consistent throughout all your branding materials.

Is your brand sending the right signals?

There’s no point in creating a brand strategy if your audience isn’t hearing your brand idea or they’re misinterpreting it. So make sure you’re sending all the right signals out there.

Connect with the right audience. Everything about your brand should aim to connect with your target market, so make sure you’re sending messages your audience will engage with and appreciate.
Connect in multiple ways. There’s no use putting all your eggs in one basket, so don’t use only one or two platforms to connect your audience with your brand. Instead, choose platforms that align with your brand strategy and use them creatively to reach your target market.
Make sure you’re saying all the right things. To ensure your brand strategy is working for your business, you need to ensure your audience connects with it. To determine whether you’re making connections (or, more importantly, sales), you’ll need to evaluate to see what’s working for you and what isn’t.

If you need help defining your brand strategy, the Creatik team can help

At Creatik, we do design a little bit differently. We have the skills, the experience, and the creativity, but it’s how we apply them that sets us apart.. We strive to wow our clients with our ideas, execution, and service, incorporating innovation, dedication, and integrity into everything we do. We’re passionate about great design, and we won’t rest until we deliver a product that meets and well and truly exceeds your expectations. We’re here to work with you to translate everything your business is and does into captivating presentations, websites, marketing materials, and merchandising, creating out of this world graphic design solutions that fit your needs, budget, and timeline. If you need help defining your brand strategy, contact Creatik today to learn what we can do for you.

Everything you need to know about creating a brand identity