What does a brand identity include?

A logo is your brand's signature. A brand identity is the whole system that decides where that signature goes, in which colour, with which typeface and how. Your logo can be good on its own; but if your business card, your sign and your social media account do not look alike, customers will not realise they belong to the same business.

What is in an identity?

The logo and its versions

One logo does not fit everywhere. A horizontal and a vertical layout, a small version made of the emblem alone, a light version for dark backgrounds and a single-colour version are prepared together. That way the logo can be read on a sign, on a stamp and in a profile picture on a phone.

Colours

The brand's main and supporting colours are defined, each with its screen and print code. Without codes, every printer and every screen interprets the colour in its own way. You can look up the codes for a colour you already have in the colour code converter.

Typefaces

The typefaces for headings and body text are chosen. When the menu uses one typeface and the brochure another, the business looks scattered.

Printed materials

Business cards, letterhead, envelopes and, depending on your business, invoices, folders or labels. All of them follow the same colours, the same type and the same layout logic.

Digital use

Social media profile and cover images, the email signature, the logo on the website and the site icon.

Brand guidelines

The document that brings all of the above together: how the logo is used, how much empty space surrounds it, which colours are printed with which codes, and what must not be done. The guidelines are not for you; they are for everyone who produces work on your behalf.

How much does a small business need?

Not every business needs a full identity from day one. Roughly, there are three situations:

• You are just opening and do everything yourself: a logo, colours, a typeface and a business card are usually enough. The rest is added as the business grows.
• Other people produce work for you (a printer, a sign maker, someone running your social media, an agency): you need brand guidelines. Without them, everyone uses your logo as they see fit.
• You have more than one location or product: you need a full identity, because you can no longer check consistency piece by piece.

Where to start

First look at what you already have. The "Is your brand ready?" checklist shows in twelve items what is complete and what is missing; there is nothing to sign up for.

Once you see the gaps, you do not have to commission everything at once. With us, the pieces of an identity can be bought separately: only a logo, only a business card or only the guidelines. What is delivered for each job is listed on the Services page.

If you are wondering about the price difference between a logo and an identity, What changes the price of a logo? picks up from here.