Branding, brand identity design, and web design are some of the most challenging fields in graphic design. This is because the designers have to integrate all the knowledge and strategies from the other specialties to work correctly.
For example, they have to organize text and images to design a website, just as in editorial design. A branding designer sometimes has to make a marketing campaign, and they sometimes need to mix these two areas, first creating a brand and then a website for it.
These two areas are also the most common choice for graphic designers and are even the ones with the best pay. Sometimes the students or amateur designers don’t know the details of these areas and where we’re trying to clarify them.
Branding
First of all, there’s a thing that should be defined: the word brand. It isn’t more than a symbol, and that symbol should visually represent the company’s most important values and ideas.
It’s the most representative icon of the corporation, its products, services, and actions.
Branding is more than just designing a logo, even when this is one of the most important things. The designers also have to find a way to express the enterprise’s philosophy, values, and emotions.
It’s the way for a company to connect with the audience. The main goal is to build a solid and attractive company for the proper consumer.
Logo Design
A logo uses images, texts, or both to identify a brand correctly and make it more relevant and attractive to the public than its competitors. There are many different types of logos; these are the most common:
- Isotype: it uses only forms to represent the entire brand. It could be iconic, meaning that everyone knows it, like McDonald’s, or it can even not represent the brand’s products, like Apple.
- Logotype: it’s the graphic representation of the company’s name; it only uses words and typography, the use of another graphic element it’s just for secondary decoration. It’s used by companies such as Coca-Cola, Google, Zara, and many others.
There is a mix between these two. The symbol and the name can work separately in perfect harmony by complementing each other. This is used by brands like National Geographic, Heineken, and Burger King.
It’s the designer’s job to find which type of logo fits perfectly with the brand and create legibly, representative, unique, unforgettable, and possible to work within different scales.
Aspects Of Brand Identity Design
Designing a logo is actually the first step; there are other three aspects of the company that needs to be created.
The first one is brand culture and values, and for that, the designer must investigate a lot about the client. They need to make sure to catch their ideas and philosophy.
The second one is the position in the market. Here the specialist needs to think about where the brand will fit in and make sure it can be available for the right customer. Also, they have to study competitors and even create a marketing campaign.
The last one is the visual components of the brand. In this final step, the designer has to devise stickers, uniforms, mascots, and everything that makes it easy for the clients to remember the company.
The designer needs to make sure to use the logo designed previously correctly. They also have to use a specific color palette that transmits the correct message to make everything more visually attractive.
It’s good for the designer to give the owner a brand identity instructive. This specifies all the palpable aspects like the logo, typography, colors.
It also includes the impalpable ones such as ideals, philosophy, and values. Basically, it has to explain all the work done before and its meaning.
Web Design
It’s the design, planning, implementation, and even maintenance of a website. And it goes beyond what a design correctly said; it’s very related to programming.
The website design is regulated by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), which establishes its recommendations and standards.
For creating a website, the designer should know about writing plain texts in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or another programming language.
Plain text it’s a computer file that just has text, and it can be interpreted by a computer. That text has no typography; it’s kind of like a sketch without the commands.
There are other ways to create a website, such as using word processors like WYSIWYM, which means “What You See Is What You Mean,” or WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).
The designer can write a document with these programs while visualizing the final result.
It has three phases: the first is the visual design of the website’s components. The designer organizes the text, images, links to other pages, and other multimedia files.
The second one consists of structuring and classifying all the website pages by using HTML. This means relating a specific page on the website with the other pages and even other websites.
Finally, the last one seeks to put the website in the first place of the searchers by using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques.
Branding And Web Design
When a brand is entirely created, and the company’s identity is established, the owner may need to make a website. In that case, the designer can’t forget the primary purposes of the company. The website has to transmit the same message that the brand does.
It has to use the same color palette, the ideal typography, and many other elements to make it more captivating for the users.
Experts say that web design is more important than its content of it. The most common fails that keep the users from revisiting the page are:
- Complicated designs.
- Too many and huge ads.
- Too little color and small letters.
So basically, the web page has to be simple, colorful, and easy to read. The web design affects all the areas of the company, especially SEO. But not everything is the designer’s job. The content is also essential, and it has to be fresh, new, clear, and objective.
Many people talk about branding, forgetting the web design as part of the brand identity.
This affects the company’s image and can make the customer feel insecure and even mistrust the product. So, if it isn’t done correctly, it could damage and practically destroy all the work that has been done.
Branding and web design almost always work side by side, and one depends on the other.
For example, the first one must be made correctly for the website to fulfill its objectives. And the website has to be ideal and specific for each company, and enjoyable for the customers, to ensure the brand’s success.
The designer has to make sure that they fit each other in but always remember to transmit the brand’s values, message, and purpose correctly.
