They say never to judge a book by its cover. But let’s face it, a first encounter creates a long-lasting impression—whether you’re on a first date or trying out a new product.
It’s important to build a positive brand experience from the start, and your logo, packaging, website, and store design all contribute to how your brand is perceived. They form the backbone of your visual branding. Here’s how to create visual branding that puts your company on the map, attracts customers, and drives conversions.
What is visual branding?
Visual branding includes all the visual elements across your company’s products and services: logos, packaging, typography, brand colors, imagery, and store design. It encompasses everything your customers see, playing a major role in establishing a memorable visual brand identity.
Well-crafted visual branding is cohesive and recognizable; it strengthens your brand’s presence, resonates with consumers, and sets your company apart from competitors.
Take Glossier as an example. When the beauty brand entered the crowded online cosmetics market in 2014, they made a name for themselves by leaning into signature visual elements like their pastel pink color palette and minimalist aesthetic. This coordinated visual branding approach, from packaging to social media, gave the company a unique brand personality and contributed to their success.
Elements of visual branding
Visual branding includes various elements consumers encounter throughout their brand experience. These include:
Logo
Your logo, or brand mark, is the most prominent element of your visual branding. It represents your company and often includes a visual icon, like Apple’s iconic apple. It might also incorporate your company name or slogan. A well-designed logo is visually appealing, simple, and memorable.
Color palette
Color psychology shows that colors can evoke specific feelings or moods. By strategically using color in your visual branding and marketing, you can subtly influence decision making. A consistent brand color palette also establishes a cohesive company identity, reinforcing brand recognition and trust.
Typography
The font style, size, and serif used for copy and text across your visual branding can also help set the visual tone. For example, a more whimsical font may give off a playful vibe, while a more traditional serif conjures a more professional or serious energy. Make sure your typography is legible and visually pleasing, and use it consistently across your marketing materials.
While there’s an endless selection of both free and paid fonts available, you may also consider creating a custom font to stand out from competitors. Downloadable fonts are available in the Shopify Font Library, as well as from resources like Google Fonts, FontSpace, DaFont, and Adobe Fonts.
Imagery
Imagery includes the photography, illustrations, graphics, and icons you use across your brand touchpoints—from your website to your emails to your social media accounts. Your visual branding strategy will influence your choice of photography style. For example, a brand anchored in modernity may opt for high contrast product photography with stark, minimalist settings, while a brand rooted in nostalgia for the past might choose a softer style modeled after still life painting.
Graphic elements
Many brands create special graphics, like illustrated characters or mascots, to supplement their visual branding. Think Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger or the Kool-Aid Man. Original artwork can set your brand apart and act as a unique signifier.
Graphic elements also include visual assets like shapes, patterns, textures, negative and positive space, and the strategic use of space and formatting used across your brand.
Web design
A well-designed website helps maximize customer engagement with your brand’s digital home base, in turn driving conversions. Your site should encompass elements of your visual branding, such as your color palette and typography, and be optimized for both mobile and desktop to ensure customers can seamlessly access your page across devices.
Interior design
For ecommerce brands that also have a brick-and-mortar presence, interior design involves creating a visual look and feel for your stores that serves as a reflection of your visual brand strategy. This includes the design, layout, and graphic materials within the store, which must align with your visual identity on digital channels.
How to create a perfect visual branding
Crafting the perfect visual branding strategy is a multi-step process—one that Shane Vitaly, entrepreneur and co-founder of Compound Studio, a design studio specializing in direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, knows inside out. Here’s a general run down, plus Shane’s advice for crafting a resonant visual brand:
1. Get to know your audience
For Shane, developing a deep understanding of your target audience is essential to avoid “blanding”—when you inadvertently create dull, uninspired visual assets in an attempt to appeal to a mass audience.
“There’s a lot of brands out there right now that are just ‘blanding.’ They go, ‘We’re going to sell to everyone,’” Shane told the Shopify Masters podcast. “Our approach has always been to really define who our audience is going to be and then go after them.”
Shane’s namesake jewelry brand, Vitaly, has prioritized getting to know its customer through research surveys and one-on-one conversations, which allow it to collect “human data.” This strategy, when used in conjunction with traditional demographic data and audience information available through social media advertising platforms, can give you a solid sense of who your customer is, what they care about, and what visual aesthetic they’re likely to connect with.
2. Gather inspiration
Gathering inspiration from visual references is a critical part of the visual branding process—and you can pull these references from anywhere. Shane takes a boots-on-the-ground approach, opting to take cues from his target audience in the wild rather than the internet. “I’ve always been big on watching what’s actually happening in real life,” he says. “I really just spend time walking around the city. And I know that sounds silly, but I find that it’s the most authentic representation of what’s happening in the world right now.”
Whether your process is digital or analog, be sure to capture reference images that you can share with collaborators. You can leverage these to create initial mood boards, which will shape the initial design explorations.
3. Choose visual elements
Using your target audience’s taste and your visual references as a guide, it’s time to get into the nuts and bolts of visual branding elements. If design isn’t your area of expertise, you may consider working with a professional at this stage.
The design process should include choosing your color palette and typography, developing a logo, and creating initial executions, including your core website and other brand collateral like social media avatars. You’ll also create brand imagery, such as product and lifestyle photography.
When this initial work is complete, enshrine your choices in a style guide that can serve as a resource for crafting future assets and establishing consistency across touchpoints. The style guide can provide detailed descriptions, notes, and examples of each visual branding element and can be shared internally or with third-party design and marketing agencies.
4. Be consistent
With your visual branding strategy in place, be consistent in how you apply visual assets across products and marketing materials to reinforce your message and create a cohesive identity. For example, once you select a font and color palette, draw from them for your website content, social media posts, brand packaging, and marketing campaigns.
If you incorporate user-generated content (UGC) into your marketing strategy, you’ll want to apply your visual branding principles as a filter. Vitaly, for example, features photographs from influencer partners and its social media audience on its homepage, but curates the selection to show wearers whose style aligns with its aesthetic.
5. Revise as needed
Your visual branding may change over time as your brand identity or business evolves. Factors like business growth, world events, product expansion, and customer feedback may directly impact your company and how it would like to be perceived by the world. Your visual branding should likewise be adaptable to change.
Visual branding FAQ
What is the difference between visual identity and visual branding?
Visual identity establishes the foundation for your company’s look and feel, directly informing your visual branding. Visual identity is typically built on your brand’s mission, core values, and communication strategy, directly influencing how you conceptualize and create visual branding.
Why does visual branding matter?
Effective visual branding can set your company apart from competitors and create recognition in the market. Ideally, visual branding fosters and deepens connections with customers, which can increase sales.
Do visual identities of brands change?
Yes, your visual identity can evolve as your company’s mission or core values shift, or as you expand. While being consistent is key, your brand assets should remain flexible to adapt as needed.
