Web Design and Branding: A Brief Introduction
It was not until I started designing my website that I realized the nuances that go into designing — websites, posters, TV ads, brand logos, magazines, catalogs, and whatnot. Let me tell you — It’s not easy!
Well, it may be because I have barely started designing, and quite early enough, I have come to appreciate the work that goes into creating something that not only catches attention but also stands for the brand identity.
Branding is the process of creating a loyal relationship between a company, and it’s customers. With website design and the logo being obvious contributors, various other factors can contribute to building the brand, such as customer expectations meeting reality, wonderful customer experiences, quality product, good employee behavior, etc. The companies/individuals that excel in the stated factors stand out as a brand, while the others are discarded.
Creating a brand experience is crucial to maintain the reputation of the brand, and every single one of the Fortune 500 companies understands that their website plays a vital role in upholding this reputation. Hence, they are continually evolving and ensuring that their website is clean and easy to use and, more importantly, representing the values that they stand for.
Designing a website to create a brand identity
It all starts with identifying a clear message that is to be associated with the brand, and quite often, the designer would spend hours, days, or even weeks in research. Everyone from the CEO to the guy in the mail room could be interviewed to understand the varying levels of perception that each employee has of the company. Moreover, if there exists a customer base, trying to understand customer expectations would also prove beneficial.
Ultimately, the following questions would need to be answered:
- What is the current brand strategy? If there is one, what is working and what isn’t?
- What does the client want to communicate? What should be the brand message?
- Who are the current customers vs. who are the ideal customers?
- What are the company values?
In this process of interviewing the involved stakeholders, it is essential to have a neutral conversation to get information rather than interrogate them.
Once we have all the answers to the questions, we move on to define the brand values that the client stands for and, in doing so, choose the styling elements to enforce the brand message.
Being consistent with the styling strongly enforces the brand message.
Color Palette
The importance of choosing a color palette that signifies the brand value cannot be less stressed upon. According to color psychology, human perception changes with color, and if the target audience fails to associate with the brand value, could there be a brand?
Also, not all colors go with each other, and this where the infamous color theory helps us choose compatible colors. For instance, let us take a shade of the color yellow(#FFCB05) and use it as the font color for a small block. At the same time, let’s have three different colors for the background.
The first block may not be something you would come across because designers understand the fact that it has absolutely no contrast. The second block has decent contrast, but it is stressful to keep looking at the font. The third block has contrast and is also pleasing to the eye. Or we could say the colors are compatible. Could this be a brand color? 😉
Fonts
The next step includes choosing the fonts(or Typeface). Like color psychology, font psychology states that fonts affect the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of an individual. If so, you would need to pay close attention to what feelings does the client wants to invoke in their customers and choose the appropriate font.
A premium font enforces a stronger message as it is uncommon.
However, a font that generates the target feelings is not enough; it should be human-readable as well. Let’s take an example to understand human-readability. In this case, let’s take the somewhat sane color combination of the third block from the previous image and change the font for it.
For the same color combination, the text in the third block stands out. Making sense?
A color palette may be suitable for a particular font but may not be ideal for others. It takes a bit of experimenting to land with the right combination of the color palette and a suitable font.
The Logo
Once the color palette and fonts have been selected, most of the brand essence has been captured. The next thing would be to create a suitable logo, and contrary to popular opinion, the logo is not the brand. It is the ecosystem built around the product experiences that lead to the creation of the brand, and the logo serves as a way to relate with it quickly. What if you had seen the letter “f” on a blue square block before Facebook launched itself? Would it mean anything?
Others
Various other styling elements are to be kept in mind as well. They may not enforce the brand message but certainly provide a great user experience(UX) or (in branding terms) customer experience. Elements such as margins, border, line heights, responsiveness, negative spaces, images, etc. play their part.
Conclusion
Once you have defined the styling elements to be in line with the brand values, you start brainstorming ideas from the client requirements and create n number of prototypes, which are then tested by the client. There is a constant feedback loop that runs throughout the process. If there was some error while gathering the requirements, the entire process might need to be repeated. But this time, with specific questions as you would already have notes from the previous sessions.
With all requirements met, prototype approved, tests performed, and product development complete, the customer can finally use the product. It is here that the customer experience and emotions are at the forefront, and if all goes well, it may become the seed for the creation of your brand.
