Branding is something we do in our businesses, organizations, or as individuals to find, describe and communicate our uniqueness and what makes us different from others that do the same as we do.
Unless your ideal client is blind and you are serving a target audience of the visually impaired, this communication will almost ALWAYS be visual. It will be visible to others.
We say:
LOOK at my website
LOOK at my offer
LOOK at my Facebook Page
LOOK at my Instagram account.
We encourage people to LOOK at our message.
I think it is permitted then to ask:
HOW does it LOOK?
Does it have a visual appearance that enhances or obscures it?
Enter Graphic Design.
Graphic Design is how we lay out a message visually in order to convey it effectively to the intended recipient. The entire purpose of graphic design is found within this calling of communication. Graphic Design without communication is in the best case décor, and, in the worst-case, contamination.
Graphic Design relates to branding the same way a car relates to transport.
Your intention is to get from A to B, and the car makes this possible. The car is not the goal, but the means. The entire purpose of a car is found within this calling of communication. Cars without communication are not even décor, ONLY contamination.
Visual Branding is when graphic design is used in a conscious and intentional way to solve a task of communication for a brand. The main challenges within this process are for the communication to be:
■ authentic
■ visually consistent
■ professionally and correctly executed.
These 3 main challenges constitutes the corners in the triangle model which I use when working with visual branding. I will follow up with more information on each of these in later blogposts. Stay tuned.
