brand identity design logo design

No, Your Clients Do Not Need Only a Logo — Offer Them a Brand Identity Instead

In the age when branding is necessary, there are still people who believe that having a logo makes them a brand. You, as a designer, will definitely (or have already) meet them. 

Today we will show you why you shouldn’t stop there, and offer your client something a lot more valuable – a brand identity. Together we will determine where the logo ends and a brand begins, and list all the benefits of going beyond a simple logo. Let’s go!

So, what’s a logo essentially, and how it’s different from a brand identity?

What is a logo?

A logo is a brand mark used to identify, represent a brand. It’s a visual marker of your brand: if you only have a logo, people have little to connect to that marker.

What is brand identity?

Your brand identity is the visual element of your business and should tie to your brand vision. Your logo forms part of your brand identity too, along with the color palette, font and typography, brand name, and other parts. If you’re a business owner, take a note – logotype is just an element in a brand identity that you need to develop in order to establish a memorable brand. 

Asking the right questions

Oftentimes clients reach out to me, – Josh, Gingersauce’s co-founder, shares, – They have their business, and they want to print out some deliverables – brochures, business cards, etc, and they need a logo for it. A logo designed to only appear on a brochure, or be placed on a website. At that, they stop and consider their branding over. My job as a branding designer is to ask the right questions then”.

People do not always realize that what they want is not what they need. A business owner who comes to you for logo design may not be too knowledgeable about the whole branding saga that’s going under the curtains of big companies. What they see is that every company has a logo. So, they go for what’s on the surface they order a logo.

At this point, you don’t need to be quick on suggesting your ideas. Follow the following steps:

  1. Ask questions first. Questions like these:
  • What is your marketing strategy?
  • What is the mission of your brand?
  • What is the target audience and what tone of voice are you planning to use communicating with them?
  • What feelings would you like to evoke?
  • What association you’d like people to have with your brand?
  • What brands do you perceive as competitors?

If you are an experienced branding designer, you can do your own research at this point and explain what feelings, tone of voice, and association the client wants: based on the expertise and the market knowledge.

Why? 

The questions we mentioned will direct your client into thinking that there’s more to it than they thought. That there needs to be a system, a wider aspect that they haven’t considered before. 

  1. Here is perfect timing to explain what is a brand identity, and how to create one. How it will benefit their business if they actually invest in it, and what elements go into it.

In part 2 of this article we list 7 elements of the visual brand identity you should offer to your client.

Explaining how it works

Dispel a myth that a logo needs to tell the whole story. Yes, the logo should be designed with a brand’s values in mind. No, it doesn’t have to be all-encompassing and share every bit of information. This is why you need a brand identity, branding strategy, and a brand in general. People will be basing their assumptions on the way you portray yourself throughout all mediums, what messages and products you put out. Every element should be tied into one story. 

Offer examples. As we mentioned earlier, people do not always pay attention to how big companies approach branding and their identities; it’s not visible to a naked eye of a non-professional. So, show them how companies they know do it. How their competitors do it. Here’s what you can offer:

  1. Take the client’s competitor. Single out the elements of their identity. 
  2. Explain how the mentioned elements combine into a one, cohesive system of visuals. 
  3. Describe the purpose of having such a system, and the benefits of it: memorability boost and a consistency guideline. If the client wants to have the brand recognized, a logo won’t suffice. A logo has to be just a piece of a thought-through puzzle called a brand identity.
firefox brand book
firefox brand identity
mozilla brand guidelines

Offering more value: Benefits

For a designer.

By explaining how logotypes work as a piece in the brand identity design you are:

  • Offering more value to the business. Remember, your client’s success is your success.
  • Establishing better communication with your client they see that you care about their work.
  • Engaging in a more long-term partnership, instead of going for just a logo.
  • Offering a vision of how a logo works and looks as a branding element, and thus allowing a client to choose faster between your options.

For a client.

By considering investing in a brand identity design, instead of a logo design, you are:

  • Engaging in a more efficient branding strategy.
  • Allowing your brand to become more widely recognizable by a single look of it.
  • Allowing your business to become a brand in the first place.

Looks like a win-win, isn’t it? Remember, it’s the sum of all the brand identity parts that make up a brand and how it connects with its customers. As a designer, you have to communicate that to your client. As a client, you should forget about only going for a logo it can only do so much.

Bonus: So, the client agreed. What’s next?

As soon as you’re given a green light on creating a brand identity, you objectively now have a lot of work to do. How to make the process easier? Consider automating some of the steps.

Use Gingersauce to:

Guide you through the identity creation. Every element of identity creation is a step in the Gingersauce wizard. Follow the steps and get a full brand identity in the end.

Automate. The system will automatically offer some of the logo variations and misuses.

Gather. All the elements will be gathered together in a professional brand book.

Present. Present every option of a logo and brand identity as a brand book: this will allow your client to visualize what the brand would look like if they chose a certain option.

Save time. Creating a brand book using Gingersauce will only take a few minutes. Time saved, the client’s expectations surpassed! 

In part 2 of this article we list 7 elements of the visual brand identity you should offer to your client.

Brand with Gingersauce!

Gingersauce is a professional tool for creating brand guidelines, that combines smart automation and your creativity. It’s a professional tool – meaning, it won’t do a half-baked job, leaving you with a mediocre result. 

You can download a created brand book right away – it will only take a few minutes to do so!

Create My Brand Guidelines

The author

Josh Bloch
Josh Bloch

Josh is a multidisciplinary designer with over 20 years of experience in industrial design, exhibitions, branding, 2d and 3d animation, graphics for print and digital, illustration, and UX/UI for mobile and desktop apps.

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