Corporate Identity and how to create one
Corporate identity isn’t only about combining logo, corporate colors, slogans and taglines, and fonts. The primary agenda behind this is to get a recognizable image of a company before the consumers’ eye.
On this ongoing process of building a corporate identity, every contact with the brand is crucial, from branded packaging to communicate with the customers.
The process looks tiring, but you will love the whole idea and the practice involved if you know the right methodology to follow.
In this blog, we will talk in depth about how well-known brands cope with this concept. Along with this, we will also look into some of the best examples of corporate identity.
Elements of a corporate identity
Style or corporate identity is often based on mission and company valuation. Besides, the message that is being conveyed to the target audience is of utmost importance too. This can mean the tools evoking all the significant senses: smell, hearing, tactile feel, and visions.
A corporate identity’s primary element involves the company name, logo, typography, tagline, colour, and photo or illustration.
Besides these essential elements, several other aspects add to the component of a corporate identity. These elements can be smells, uniform, communication with the customers, method of advertising, product packaging, social media posts, and the music tracks.
Tips for creating a corporate identity
You should always design a mock-up so that you know how your design will look in real life. This is a file with several images of your logo on various objects like cups, notebooks, and phone cases. This can also be downloaded ready-made templates from the Internet. You will need to upload your company’s logo. However, before you accomplish this, make sure that you have a versatile logo! If you don’t, you can pause the idea of creating corporate identity, and focus on getting a versatile logo.
Once you are done designing the brand identity that you want, you can create a brand book that will work as a complete guide for how you can use your corporate identity. You should describe the brand’s mission and values and understand the acceptable and unacceptable things of your logo, illustrations, graphics, or other essential elements.
Example of Famous Brands’ corporate identity
As promised, we have incorporated a list of the best brands that pulled out their corporate identity like a pro. Read about them and try figuring out the best they did and how they managed to retain this feast.
Helvetimart
This Swiss store is famous for its high-quality regional products, so branding is a clear national identity. The black and white graphics refer to some of the ancient architectures. The multi-colored flags of around 26 regions of the country label its product to make an excellent contrast to a monochrome palette.
Helvetia- the brand name is based on Switzerland’s Latin name, that is today used as a unified emblem of the country on postage stamps, and coins. Perhaps, the cornucopia emblem is a representation of a variety of different product.
The corporate identity’s success is also the brand identity used to show strengthened communication with the customers. Their staff are happy to brag about the details of their product’s production and features to their customer.
Autistic Art
It was a difficult task for the designer to create a corporate identity for a brand that supported children with autism. The fund organizes painting lessons for them and sells them to raiser funds. The company’s corporate identity is based on the brand identity that was built around the image of a window that symbolized the connection between the children’s inner world and their external environment. A beam of light are cast from the window with the metaphor of a bright painting.
The logo also possesses a dynamic embodiment, i.e., painting changes quickly, showing two identical personalities never exists. All of these elements make the identity look simple yet emotionally appealing. The image could look spectacular on any product, including a coffee mug, notebook cover, or credit card.
Apple
The corporate identity is achieved by the brand strategy built on a strong emotional connection with their consumers. The idea that their product makes them unique is embedded in all the advertisement campaigns and user communication.
A cult company does not focus on the product in its branding. It tends to focus on the quality you will acquire with its products like inspiration, originality, and creativity. Graphics and colors of a monochrome enhance the message. A subtle metallic line like a laconicism is associated with luxury, sophistication and style.
Animal Planet
The channel, in 2018 presented a corporate style that reflects its new global brand identity. They say that they are there to entertain, amaze, bring people closer to animals and nature, and preserve the joy of childhood.
The logo had a jumping elephant that ultimately became a visual embodiment of the idea. The blue color is associated with the globe, and the animal’s funny image conveyed a friendly and informal mood.
Coffeecell
This coffee seller builds its corporate identity out of a non-standard association that protects your cells. This referred to a scientific thesis stating that the caffeine positively affected the partition of the cardiovascular system.
The branding’s visual identity is based on the camouflage made up of six corporate colors, i.e., red, blue, yellow, khaki, and black. The picture demonstrated the cup with a drink, bright bags, and stylish Coffeecell boxes.
Orchestre Metropolitain
Montreal Orchestra missions to make classical music accessible to all the general public and ensure that music is not just confined to some. Therefore, the corporate identity of successful combination classifies the classical and modern element embodied.
A monogrammed logo conveys the contrast. The letter “O” is designed in a modern style with a black window from where the music pours. The idea is complemented by hand with a different instrument reaching out of the window. The “M” alphabet written in serif, looks strict. The approach gave the orchestra a modern character while keeping a critical reference to the classic and elegance.
Spotify
The Swedish music streaming service took the Internet and all the music lovers by storm. However, the original branding as probably more for American listeners. It is a funky logotype with the “O” being lifted with radio weaves coming out of it.
In 2013 Spotify updated their design and focused on the circle with radio waves. That stuck with the green and white being introduced to a gradient that could make some fake 3-D dimension. One thing that won Spotify the corporate identity it was looking for was the successful use of color palette. While the green color was their primary color, it was certainly not the only color used. Critics also appreciate the use of the duotone technique, gradients and pop art graphic. These techniques can help pull the branding together even though Spotify features musicians representing a more extensive section of the same domain.
Pandora
Paypal sued this company in the year 2017 for trademark infringement. Therefore, this might be a controversial brand to include in this list. Nevertheless, we will look at how the Pandora brand system work so well. Pandora’s primary logo is a modified all lowercase sans-serif wordmark. However, the alternate icon logo is a “P” with the bowl removed. It is interesting to note that instead of reducing the wordmark to just the lowercase “p”, they designed a different uppercase “P”.
Like Spotify, Pandora also needs to start representing itself in a more extensive section of the spectrum of musical styles and cultures. They went far beyond Spotify regarding modifying their logo to visually embrace a wide array of design and photography styles.
