Brand Assets

Examples of brand assets

Kind	Examples
Name and marks	Company and product names, logo, wordmark, symbol or emblem, logo variants
Colour	Primary and secondary palette, a signature colour
Typography	Brand typefaces, a custom font, the type hierarchy
Imagery	Photography style, product shots, illustration, icons, patterns. See brand imagery
Language	Tagline, slogans, product naming, recurring phrases
Characters	Mascots, spokespeople, recurring characters in campaigns
Sound and motion	Sonic logo, jingle, animated logo, video intro
Templates	Slide decks, document templates, social templates, email signatures
Documents	Brand guidelines, boilerplate text, press kit

Distinctive brand assets

Not every element is equally recognisable. Marketing research uses the term distinctive brand assets for the elements people link to one brand without seeing its name, such as a colour, a shape or a character. Jenni Romaniuk's book Building Distinctive Brand Assets (Oxford University Press, 2018) proposes measuring them on two dimensions: how many people link the element to the brand (fame), and how few link it to competitors (uniqueness).

For the team that manages the files, the consequence is simple. An element only becomes distinctive if it is used the same way for years. Every off-colour logo, stretched wordmark or one-off typeface weakens it.

Brand assets, brand elements and digital assets

• Brand elements usually means the identity components themselves (logo, colour, type), without the files.
• Brand assets covers the elements and, in everyday use, the files that carry them.
• Digital assets is the wider category: every file a company manages and reuses, including brand assets, product imagery, campaign material and documents.

Managing brand assets

Requests for brand assets are the most frequent ones a brand team receives, and the most avoidable. A brand asset library answers them before they are sent:

1. One approved version of each file, with old versions archived rather than left in circulation.
2. The right format for each audience. Vector files (SVG, EPS, PDF) for designers and printers, PNG with transparency for slides and documents, JPG or WebP for the web. Most people should not have to convert a file themselves.
3. Rules next to the file. The clear space, minimum size and approved backgrounds of a logo are shown where the logo is downloaded.
4. Self-service access for partners, agencies and sales, through a brand portal, without asking for each file.
5. Rights on every image, so a photo whose licence ended does not stay in a partner kit. See usage rights.

Brand assets in Freedam

• The brand guide holds logo and emblem variants with their approved backgrounds, clear space and size limits, colour palettes with HEX, CMYK and Pantone values, and typefaces with their font files.
• Every file in the asset library downloads in the formats it can be converted to, with the original available to those allowed to have it.
• Brand portals give partners and agencies the approved brand assets without an account, and access control decides who sees what.
• Version control replaces a file in place, so links already sent show the new version.

See brand asset management for the whole workflow, or generate a brand center from your website with the free brand center generator.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most important brand assets?

For most companies: the name, the logo, the main colour and the typeface, because they appear on everything. Which ones are most recognisable is a research question, but the logo and the signature colour are usually first.

What is a brand asset library?

A single place where the approved brand files are stored with their usage rules and downloaded by anyone who needs them. It is usually part of a DAM, published to external users through a brand portal.

Is a brand asset the same as a brand's value on the balance sheet?

No. Accountants use "brand" as an intangible asset with a monetary value, defined by standards such as ISO 10668 for brand valuation. In marketing, brand assets means the identity elements and their files.