The visual elements of a brand’s identity are the most immediately recognizable form of brand expression – subconsciously communicating brand message, tone and personality – in less than an instant. After that – it’s all about the experience.
A modern brand presents itself visually across more environments than ever before – and unless you’re McDonald’s, the most dominant of those is its digital manifestation, which also happens to be the primary environment in which it is first experienced beyond its visual state.
Because your customer may be experiencing both your brand and digital presence simultaneously for the first time, simplifying the user experience – and by virtue of that your focus on the customer – will immediately reinforce that customer’s initial brand experience before they explore a single product or solution that you offer.
While most visual design principles for digital brand mirror those of its non-virtual counterpart’s – digital brand design presents some unique opportunities to more effectively shape your customers initial online brand experience.
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make the language it forms most appealing to the user’s overall experience. Wikipedia defines it as an art form that can manipulate the significance of what it communicates – a definition that most digital first branding agencies like Bluetext might consider the holy grail of developing a brand identity. You need to consider very carefully how typography will fit into your overall digital brand architecture – and iconography shouldn’t be too far behind.
Content Strategy
As it relates to customer experience, content strategy is broadly defined as the plan for the creation, delivery and governance of useful and usable digital content that is ultimately designed to meet the needs of – and therefore expressed by the voice of – your customer. Therefore, content and creative strategies need to be aligned to ensure the user experience supports the desired narrative for your brand story to play out online.
Mobile UX
This leads us right back to simplifying the brand experience by focusing on the customer. A mobile first strategy helps develops brands that communicate their core values rapidly, simply and without clutter. The result is a focused, cleaner, and more user-centric brand experience.
Simply introducing mobile to the initial stages of brand development empowers creative teams to concentrate on what is at the core of a brand and establish priorities in the context of the mobile experience.
Ultimately a brand is the holistic sum of customers’ experiences, composed of visual, tonal and behavioral brand components – all of which can now be shaped by interactive design and manifested perfectly in the digital expression of your brand.