What goes into brand identity?
Key takeaways
Want the highlights without the deep dive? Here are the essentials:
Brand identity, is the full system that shapes how your audience sees and feels about you.
Strong identity starts with strategy.
Core visual elements, such as logo suite, colour palette, typography suite + hierachy and imagery, bring your strategy to life.
Extended elements like patterns, icons, and illustrations add depth, flexibility and a greater visual language to your audience.
Your messaging framework (tone, key phrases, brand story) must align with visuals to feel authentic.
Real-world application across touchpoints (social, print, web, packaging) builds recognition and trust.
Clear brand guidelines ensure consistency and scalability as your brand grows.
Ever Wonder What Actually Goes Into a Brand Identity?
A brand identity is the full system of visuals, words, and strategy that makes your business instantly recognisable and unforgettable. It’s the combination of how you look, how you sound, and what you stand for.
When it’s done right, your brand becomes magnetic, attracting the right people and building trust without you even being in the room. When it’s half-baked, you risk fading into the background, like a cake that didn’t rise… no one’s sure if it should be eaten, enjoyed, or quietly left on the table as you step away.
Here’s what goes into a brand identity.
Strategy
The foundation that brings direction.
Before any visuals, colours, fonts, or logos, you need to know where your brand is going and why. Without this, your visuals are just nice decoration without direction. It’s like your visual direction is underpinned by your strategy. It’s like driving with no GPS or clear direction. Things that your strategy will provide, but not limited to:
Purpose & Vision – Your “why” and your “what’s next.”
Mission – What you do, for whom, and how you do it.
Core Values – The rules you live and work by.
Positioning – Where you fit in the market and how you stand out.
Audience – The real people you want to reach (not “everyone”).
Personality & Voice – How your brand would sound if it were a person.
This is the roadmap that keeps everything aligned. The example of Harrisdale, is they have had a business plan and strategy done prior to rolling out any visuals. They have some key themes that they.
Core Visual Elements
Ultimately this is the face of your brand
These are the recognisable assets that appear everywhere your audience interacts with you.
They include:
Logo suite - primary, secondary, icon and responsive versions.
Colour palette - your official brand colours
Typography - chosen fonts for headlines, body text and accents
Imagery style - the look and feel of your photo’s, illustrations or graphics
Iconography - your visual symbols and how to use them
Patterns and textures - design details that add depth and consistency.
These aren’t just pretty, it’s not like your picking items out for your home if your building a house. Not it’s rather, intentional all linking to your strategy, your audience etc.
Extended Visual Language
The body language.
Beyond the basics, this is where your brand’s visual personality deepens:
Layout rules - grids, spacing, and composition that keeps things polished and consistent
Graphic Motifs - signature shapes, lines, or patterns
Motion and Animation - how your brand moves online and in video
Illustration style - a consistent approach to drawing and detail.
These little touches are what make your brand feel a living, breathing thing. It’s how it’s applied visually. There’s a lot of intentionality here.
Messaging Framework
Your voice and how you speak.
Visuals make you look, but words draws attention. Your messaging should match your brand visuals. Some of the things your messaging framework includes, but not limited to:
Key messages - core phrases and elevator pitch
Storytelling framework - the narrative that connects you to your audience
Copy guidelines - examples of tone in headlines, captions, syntax
Mismatch your voice and visuals, and your brand will feel disjointed, like wearing odd socks for those to see!
Application Examples
Putting it all together!
Your brand identity needs to function in the real world:
Collateral - brochures, presentation, lead magnets
Digital assets - website, social media template, email design
Packaging - labels, boxes, unboxing experience
Plus so much more. No two businesses are the same, so the application and the strategy behind it changes it up.
If you can’t apply your brand consistently, it’s not a complete identity.
Brand Guidelines
The Rulebook
Brand guidelines makes sure everyone stays on the same page, whether it’s you, your team or external partners. It basically helps keep the direction that your original brand strategy, visual direction and messaging was intented for. It’s so it doesn’t get muddy. What some brands do is they go to all the extent of getting this done, but then the roll out of the brand guidelines isn’t followed…. would you not want to use the brand survival kit? or read the instruction manual?
Some of the things in the brand guidelines that isn’t limited to:
Exact colour codes and whether they are primary, secondary or accent.
Logo usage rules, we know common sense is like deodorant, but those who need it don’t use it.
Font hierachy, how this is treated across different collateral both digital and print
Tone of voice samples
Image usage standards
Visual templates
Again, it’s your brand’s survival kit - no guesswork, no “close enough.”
The takeaway
A brand identity isn’t an accessory or just visuals, it’s the structure that supports every single marketing effort you’ll ever create.
Start with strategy, core visuals and voice. Then expand into the full toolkit so your brand not only stands out, but it stays consistent and scaleable as you grow. Because the right brand identity doesn’t just make you look or sound good, it makes an impact and unforgettable.
👉 Grab our services guide to see how we can help you with your brand identity.
Stay classy! xox
Ready to give your brand the identity it deserves?
Start having clarity, consistency, and confidence. Whether you’re starting fresh or giving your brand a strategic refresh, now’s the time to get the foundations right.
📩 Let’s chat, book a discovery call and download our services guide to see how we can help you with the visuals, voice, and strategy that make your brand have an impact.
📩 Alternatively, book a Creative Brainpower Session and we’ll chat about any uncertainties you have.
📚 Or, download our brand resources on our resources page.
Want to get all the juicy goss about branding and illustration straight to your inbox?
Sign up to my monthly newsletter today!