Brand Identity

The term is often used for the visual part only (logo, colour, type, imagery), which designers call the visual identity. A complete brand identity also covers the verbal side, such as how the brand writes and names its products, and in some sectors sound and motion.

Brand identity, brand image and brand strategy

These terms are often mixed up. They describe different things, owned by different people:

Term	What it is	Who controls it
Brand strategy	The decisions behind the brand: audience, positioning, promise, how it differs from competitors	Leadership and marketing
Brand identity	The elements that express the strategy: name, logo, colour, type, imagery, voice	The brand team and its designers
Brand image	What people actually think and feel about the brand	Customers, shaped by every contact with the company
Brand guidelines	The document that records the identity and its rules	The brand team

Identity sits between the others. It turns the strategy into things people can see and hear, and it is written down in brand guidelines so that other people can apply it.

The components of a brand identity

Layer	Components
Core	Name, logo and its variants, emblem or symbol
Visual system	Brand colours, typefaces, grid and layout, icons, photography and illustration style
Verbal	Tagline, tone of voice, product naming rules, boilerplate text
Sensory	Sonic logo, motion principles, and in some sectors materials, packaging or the design of physical spaces
Applications	Templates, signage, packaging, slide decks, email signatures, the website

Each component is a brand element. The identity is the system that connects them: which elements exist, which one leads, and how they combine. A brand with a strong logo and no rules for photography still looks inconsistent, because photography is the largest part of what people see.

The brand identity prism

A common framework for the non-visual side is the brand identity prism, described by Jean-Noël Kapferer in his textbook on strategic brand management. It describes a brand through six facets: physique (its physical and visual traits), personality, culture (the values behind it), relationship (how it deals with customers), reflection (the customer the brand portrays) and self-image (how customers see themselves when they use it). Teams use it as a checklist before design work starts, so that each logo and colour decision expresses something specific.

Building a brand identity

1. Start from the strategy. Agree on the audience, the positioning and the few words the brand should be associated with. Every design decision is judged against these.
2. Audit what exists. Collect every logo version, template and photo in circulation. In an established company this usually turns up several unofficial variants. See brand audit.
3. Design the core elements. Logo, palette and typefaces first, because everything else depends on them. Brand design covers this stage.
4. Define the system. Which elements are primary and which are secondary, how they combine, and what is never done.
5. Document and distribute. Write the guidelines and publish the approved files where people look for them, not in a PDF attached to one email.
6. Apply and check. Rebuild the templates people use every day, and check new material against the rules.

Brand identity in B2B work

In a B2B company, most material that carries the brand is not made by the brand team. A sales engineer builds a proposal deck, a distributor prints a trade show banner, a partner adds the logo to a co-marketing page, a regional office translates a product sheet. The identity holds only if each of them can find the current logo, the right colour values and a suitable template without asking anyone.

In practice, a brand identity is only as consistent as the easiest file to find. If last year's logo is the first result in a shared drive, it is the logo that gets used. This is why identity work does not end with the design: distribution and review decide what the public actually sees. See brand consistency.

Brand identity in Freedam

• The brand guide holds the core visual identity: logo and emblem variants with their recommended backgrounds, clear space and size limits, colour palettes with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values, and typefaces with their font files. The whole guide downloads as one brand kit ZIP file.
• When a workspace is set up with a company email address, Freedam reads the company's website and proposes its logo and main colour. Nothing is applied until an administrator confirms or chooses another colour.
• The same logos, colours and typefaces are used by Studio brand overlays, and Studio blocks an overlay that breaks a logo's minimum size, maximum size or clear space rule.
• Brand portals present the identity and the approved files to partners, agencies and press without an account.

To see your own identity laid out as a brand center, try the free brand center generator, or browse brand center examples.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between brand identity and visual identity?

Visual identity is the visible part: logo, colour, typography, imagery and layout. Brand identity also includes the verbal side (name, tagline, tone of voice) and any sound or motion elements.

What is the difference between brand identity and corporate identity?

Corporate identity is the identity of the organisation as a whole, including its legal name, stationery, signage and behaviour towards employees and suppliers. A company with several product brands has one corporate identity and several brand identities. See corporate identity.

How often should a brand identity change?

Rarely. Small updates, such as a simplified logo or a revised palette, every several years are common. A complete change is a rebranding. Recognition depends on repetition, so every change costs some of it.