Visual brand personality is the alignment of your visual identity with your brand personality. Together, they help connect you with your audience. We’ve been talking all month about different aspects of your brand personality, and this post will tie all of that together with your visuals. If you haven’t already, read up on HOW TO DEFINE YOUR BRAND PERSONALITY, HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR BRAND and The correlation between brand personality and customer loyalty.
The mistake so many businesses make is building their visual brand and trying to cram their brand personality into the pretty little box they created. Most of the time it just doesn’t seem to fit. In reality, it’s because your personality is the box and the visual identity is the pretty detail that decorates it, not vice versa. If you have a visual identity but are having a hard time honing the elements that make up your brand personality to fit, it’s time to start working backward. Brand personality and visual identity are closely tied together and can vastly impact each other.
It’s easy to think of your brand’s visual identity as your brand personality, but it’s not. Just like your logo isn’t your brand. What your identity IS is the imagery and look you use to relay your personality to your consumer. Your brand personality is the human connection with your brand but your visual identity is basically a vehicle (albeit a really beautiful one) for making those emotional bonds. One can’t exist without the other. Read more in-depth about brand personality here and here. Evaluate your visual identity based on a solidified brand personality that you are happy with.
To evaluate the consistency of your visual identity with your brand personality, there are a few simple areas you can assess.
Colors
Choosing colors that evoke the emotions you want your audience to feel is essential to an impactful brand. Anybody can choose colors based on personal preference or what their competition is doing. It’s the ones that acknowledge that subjectivity and weigh it with psychological truth that elevate their visual brand above the rest.
Color psychology is a lengthy topic of discussion, but to look at broad strokes, there are emotive differences between using warm or cool colors and pairing complementary or contrasting colors. In addition to the particular color choices, the saturation level is very important. Each color can arouse a variety of feelings. The shade, as well as surrounding elements, can steer the emotional response in drastically different directions.
For example, a soothing, watery aqua gives a refreshing, calming and creative sense while a dark, navy blue feels powerful and responsible. Technically, both are blue. But that doesn’t mean they are the same. You can see how the feelings they elicit are related, but the saturation level plays a large part in the emotions they induce.
Read more about the psychology of specific color choices in your brand here and download the cheat sheet of what emotions particular colors evoke.
fonts
The line weight, curves and style of typography also reflect your brand personality. The overall visual feel is completely different between lowercase and uppercase, serif and sans serif, organic handlettering or digital script fonts. Make sure the emotions you are evoking with your colors are in line with the typographic style you are using.
Sans serif fonts tend to have a more modern, minimalist feel to them. I find that they soak up the style of the elements surrounding them. Surrounded by lots of white space and clean illustrations, they can look very upscale. With busy illustrations and darker colors, often they look much more casual and stiff. Serif fonts are more traditionally upscale, but can lack character if paired with equally traditional visuals. Script and handlettered fonts can vary based on style to be casual and fun or elegant and luxurious.
Graphic Style
The design style of your logo and brand elements plays a large part in the emotions it evokes. Patterns, textures and icons that you use as part of your overall brand design should continue the feel your logo began. Are your illustrations clean line drawings for a modern, sleek feel? Are they rough, organic sketches that feel casual and whimsical? Or maybe curvy, luxurious free-flowing illustration that feel plush and high end? Make sure they all fit together as a cohesive package. A little contrast does wonders for adding emphasis to certain elements, but there must still be a cohesive connection between all elements to weave a united story.
Spacing
The spacing and alignment of your website and collateral materials is an often-overlooked area to support your brand personality. Are your materials jam-packed full of graphics and information? Less white space gives an overall impression of clutter and chaos. For some brands, that may be just what they are trying to evoke. A light and airy design full of white space evokes a sense of calm, harmony and organization. Depending on the supporting graphics, colors and typography either style could be used to evoke similar feelings.
find the connection
None of these elements should be evaluated alone. It’s the power of the entire package that helps to support the emotional bond your visual brand personality makes with a customer. Once you have made sure all of your elements are aligned with your personality, put together a simple style guide to make sure you stay consistent in practice.
