What Is Brand Design? And Is It Different From Logo Design?
Post Created By Eric Burton | Updated On December 18, 2023
I can say from experience this is a question I’m asked often. And I’m always happy to answer it because I do get it. In the beginning, most aspiring business owners are sold on an idea, right? They should write a business plan. Get a business license. Permits. Insurance. And so on. Not to say all of that isn’t true. It is. But at the blunt end of the long list of legal stuff is more legal stuff mixed in with design stuff. You know the visuals? In which case, the new or aspiring business owner needs to appoint a designer to create a logo. I want to put an emphasis on that. The Logo.
The fast answer is, yes, Brand Design is different from Logo Design, because a brand is an intangible concept. It is created when a consumer experiences, or interacts with products or services and has an intuitive reaction to it. But like with anything, there’s some nuance.
The term Logo refers to a custom-made word used as a trademark for a business. These can appear in all shapes and sizes, which includes monograms and symbols. And here in the 21st century, you may even bump into a few logo systems; this is when a company uses multiple logos within a single trademark.
For example, Apple uses a symbol. A rather famous, bitten-apple. While on the other hand, MIT Media Lab uses a set of 24 different logos, all working in tandem to encompass its 24 departments. As you can already tell, logo design itself can garner some complexity. But still, these examples are simply logos, and are equivalent to a company’s signature at their core base.
Now, this is where some folks draw a soft line in the sand, believing that the logo is the final piece to a long, daunting “starting a business” phase. To their dismay, it unfortunately is not.
Once a new business owner has moved towards design, they are probably turning into one of three types of individuals: an anxious person grueling to get their business off the ground, an exhausted person who can’t stop themselves from working even when they’ve hired someone to design for them, or both. At the same time. Sucks.
That is not to say that a Logo doesn’t play a major role in a company’s identity and branding. In fact, it’s the touchpoint most consumed by a company’s audience for its entire lifetime.
So What Is Brand Design Then?
We’ve already established it’s not a logo. It’s also not marketing, or phone calls, or sign-spinning. Branding is intangible. It’s an invisible thing. It’s the consciousness surrounding a product and service, and how a consumer behaves when they perceive and interact with it.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Sounds a little weird, right? How can inanimate things, products and services, have a conscious? Well, think of it this way. Before a consumer makes a purchase, they are experiencing a company with their emotions.
This experience can be, for example, walking through a storefront, browsing a website, or smelling the smoke from a kitchen’s grill. But based on this initial interaction, consumers are probably deciding if they hate it. Or if they love it. This again has to do with intuition, the gut-feeling we as human-beings receive under certain circumstances. All or most consumers create a similar response when engaging with products or services, and this interaction, or sensory information is a defining moment.
Credits to Clay Banks from Unsplash.com
While a company can’t control the conclusion a consumer reaches, or how they respond during an interaction, they can of course influence certain scenarios through speech (writing & audio), colors, and environmental stimuli. Using these three types of communications together, create a persona, or perceived consciousness. And if enough consumers respond in the same way, this is recognized as the company’s Brand.
The conditions in which a company sees itself is often not how others see it. Therefore, having a designer build a personality that ties into a company’s qualities and attributes can help consumers respond more positively.
As you can see, a Logo can be part of the reason for a consumer’s behavior towards a company, but does not convey enough information for them to become fully aware of a company’s attributes. It is the Brand Design that helps create and initiate a personal connection and distinction for whence consumers can differentiate one company from another.
About The Author
Eric Burton, Brand Identity Designer
Eric is a visual identity designer and brand strategist who helps small businesses launch new products and services with content-driven solutions for print and web-based media.
With over five years of experience in graphic design, working in various industries and environments, from manufacturing and non-profit to freelance and collaborative. he enjoys working with executives, LOB leaders, vendors, and printers to ensure quality and consistency across all channels and platforms.
His mission is to create impactful and engaging designs that connect with a business’s target audience to achieve goals such as increasing brand awareness, trust, loyalty, growth and equity.