Branding

What’s Your Company’s Brand Personality?

Branding is how consumers perceive your brand. It is absolutely critical to your business because it can drive new business and increase positive awareness or your company long into the future.

The First Step

in branding is to determine your company’s personality as it will drive every aspect of branding.

In a study on brand personality, Stanford professor and psychologist Jennifer Aaker found that five characteristics play a role in a brand’s personality.

While brands can occasionally combine traits, for the most part, their “personality” is focused on one. For example, a company that sells athletic equipment would identify with “ruggedness,” while a fashion brand might aim for “sophistication.”

Establishing your brand personality guides all other branding decisions.

Psychology of Color

Color can play a major role in showing consumers what your brand’s personality is like.

Choose A Winning Color Scheme

Color wields enormous sway over our attitudes and emotions. When our eyes take in a color, they communicate with a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus, which in turn sends a cascade of signals to the pituitary gland, on to the endocrine system, and then to the thyroid glands. The thyroid glands signal the release of hormones, which cause fluctuation in mood, emotion, and resulting behavior.

A famous study conducted by neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio, presented scientific proof that emotions impact our brain and directly influence our decision-making process. adjusting color, among other elements, can increase conversion by as much as 24%.

So, the bottom line is: use the right colors, and you win.

Color Popularity

Blue is the favorite or 57% of men and 35% of women while purple is favored by 23% of women and ZERO men!

Typography

The perfect brand fonts should be unique & memorable, be legible, work on all devices and communicate your brand personality

As can be seen by the font choices of these iconic brands, typography is just about as important as color.

Classic

Classic, Traditional, Trustworthy

Serif fonts are the oldest font style, originating way back in the 15th century. They’re named for the feet (called serifs) seen at the top and bottom of each letter.

Because serif fonts are the original font style, we generally perceive them as classic, traditional, and trustworthy

Favored by brands that want to convey a feeling of respectability and tradition, like Tiffany & Co, Vogue, and Time Magazine.

Playfair Display
Times Roman
EB Garamond
Lora

Modern

Clean, Modern, Versatile

Sans-serif fonts didn’t emerge until the 19th century, much more recently than the traditional serif fonts, so we tend to perceive them as more modern.

Sans-serif fonts are also much simpler in form than serif fonts, so they tend to evoke a sense of cleanliness and aid in giving you a minimal design.

Sans-serif fonts have taken over the web in recent years, with many of the top tech companies choosing bold sans-serif brand fonts

Helvetica
Ariel
Roboto
Source Sans Pro

Bold

Bold, Quirky, Confident

Slab serifs, a special breed of serif fonts, feature larger, blockier serifs. As a result, they look a bit more rugged, bold, and quirky than traditional serif fonts.

This type of font works well for companies with a long and proven history of producing quality products who still want to appear current

Courier New
Roboto Slab
Alfa Slab One
Arvo

Elegant

Upscale, Feminine, Fancy

Script fonts are designed to imitate cursive handwriting and have character strokes that connect one letter to the next.

Just as everyone’s handwriting looks very unique, each script font feels very distinctive. They tend to follow the design trends of the day, making script fonts a risky choice for a brand font, as they might fall out of fashion too quickly.

Still, the script fonts used by brands like Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Cadillac, and Instagram have stood the test of time (so far).

Lucida Script
Pacifico
Dancing Script
Satisfy

Unique

Artistic, Creative, Unique

Handwritten fonts are pretty self-explanatory…they’re fonts that look like they’ve been written out by hand.

They sometimes incorporate weird letterforms, and they’re about as different from traditional serif fonts as you can get.

They’re a fun choice if you want to present yourself as a playful, informal, approachable, or artistic brand

Permanent Marker
Patrick Hand
Amatic SC
Just Another Hand

Dramatic

Distinctive, Stylized, Dramatic

Decorative fonts are the most diverse. They include any font that uses unique shapes, forms, or proportions for a highly stylized look.

The logos of Lego, Disney, and IBM feature distinctive decorative fonts that make their brands especially memorable

Fredericka
Fredoka One
Lobster Two
Bangers

Logo Design

There are seven basic types of logo designs.

Lettermark

Got a long company name? No worries, a great lettermark logo can work for you just like it did for IBM.

Wordmark

Similar to a lettermark, a wordmark or logotype is a font-based logo that focuses on your business name only. Wordmark logos work really well when a company has a short and distinct name. Google’s logo is a great example of this.

Mascot

Mascot logos are generally colorful illustrated characters, many times cartoonish. These fun mascots can be animated and can become a great way to create your own brand spokes icon.

Emblem

Popular with many pro sports teams, schools, organizations or government agencies, an emblem logo consists of a font inside a symbol or an icon. They resemble seals, badges and crests.

Combination Mark

A Combination mark is a combination of text and images or icons that enhances your branding message and can help clarify what your business is about.

Abstract

An abstract mark is a specific type of pictorial logo. It’s an abstract geometric form that represents your business. Abstract logos allow you to create something truly unique to represent your brand.

Pictorial

A pictorial logo is an icon or graphic that represents your brand. If your brand is established enough, your pictorial mark alone will be enough for people to recognize your business.

Tag Lines & Slogans

Tag Lines

A tagline relates what defines the brand.

Slogans

Slogans may focus on the product or brand, a good slogan is brief, yet memorable.

Some of the most memorable slogans of all time — “Where’s the beef?” or “Just do it” — not only sell the brand, but become synonymous with it.

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