Whether you want to start a new business or a social venture, branding is what comes first after the idea.

But what is Branding? What is the difference between branding and logo design? Is branding more than just an attractive design? Let’s dig and find the answers.

What is branding?

Suppose you have two bottles of water. One bottle has a label and the other one doesn’t.

Generally, anyone would prefer the bottle that has a label of a brand. Because the label creates a trust and the other one without the label does not.

Branding is the way of making your customers trust in your company. It is what makes your venture different from other and keeps your signature strategies.

In simple word, branding is a way of giving identity to a specific company, product or service by creating and shaping a brand.

What is a brand?

World’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, Founder of tech giant Amazon.com once said,

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

A brand is the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature or strategies that identify your product/service distinct from those of others. A brand makes the customer confident and eliminates the confusion to choose a specific product or service.

To create a brand, we need to go through the process of branding. We’ll talk about the branding process shortly.

What is the difference between logo and branding?

Despite being related to each other, branding and logo is completely different.

A logo is a symbol or a unique design that makes your brand stand out and makes different from all other brands. A logo is a part of the branding process but it’s not the only part of creating a brand.

What is the Branding Process?

There are few checklists for a branding process, let’s see what those are.

1.          Articulate the vision of your brand.

Undoubtedly, this is the first and one of the most important steps in creating a brand.

In this stage, you need to understand and articulate the mission, vision, and use of your service.

How you can do that? Simply research on the market, your potential customers/audience, and your competitors.

2.          Name your brand

After researching on the vision as we have discussed on the previous point, next you need to find a name for your brand. The brand name should have a relevant meaning of your vision and your products/service. Keep in mind, the name should be easy to remember and easily understandable by your potential customers or targeted audience.

3.          Find a domain name

When finding a brand name, it is also important to search for the domain name.

What is a domain name? In easy words, domain is your unique name to be used for your brand’s website. Your domain should have an extension along with the name of your brand. Popular domain extensions are .com, .net and .org etc.

Domain name is a subject to availability, you can use this website to check if your desired name is available to register https://instantdomainsearch.com.

SWN provides professional consultation regarding choosing a brand name or finding the perfect domain name along with it, feel free to reach us.

4.          Get your branding materials

Branding materials are mostly used to create the identity of the brand. It also plays a significant role in marketing. The number of branding material depends on your service/product. Here are few essential branding materials:

• Logo
• Business Card
• Letterhead
• Envelope
• Social Kit (Profile and cover photo for social accounts)

Among all branding materials, Logo is the most important one. How can you get a stunning logo? Let’s find out!

How to get a stunning logo?

To get a stunning logo for your brand, it is important to understand the types of the logo and the current design trends. SWN always follow the latest design trends.

A logo should contain a reflection of the brand’s story. Understanding and choosing the correct logotype considering the circumstances is important in this case.

What are some key points of a stunning logo? Well, let’s find out.

1.          What are the types of a logo?

How many types there are to choose from? it’s debatable but we’ve noted a few of the most important types of logo. Here are those:

• Symbol or icon based logo: It’s obvious that the symbol or icon based logo is the type of logo created with a unique symbol or icon relevant to the brand. Few notable examples are the logo of Apple, Instagram, Nike etc.
• Word Mark based logo: Word Mark logos are created with unique shaped or designed texts that spell out the brand name. In most cases, custom fonts or typography designs are created to make wordmark logo. Notable brands are Facebook, Disney, Canon etc.
• Letter Mark based logo: Letter mark based logos are the combination of symbol and wordmark based logo. Both symbols and words are used in these type of logos. In most cases, letter mark based logo contains a relevant iconic shape along with a typographic wordmark. Few examples are the logo of Google, Nasa, HP etc.
• Combination Logo: This kind of logos are the combination of icon-based logo and a wordmark based logo. The difference between letter mark based logo and combination logo is, in combination logo the texts stay mostly separately, and instead of typography, normal fonts are used in most cases. Example: Burger King, Pepsi etc.
• Emblem Logo: Emblem is a type to create more fancy looking logos. Emblem logo usually has more symbols, typographic and shaped look that reflects the signatures of the brand. Few examples are Starbucks, Harvard University etc.
• Mascot Logo: Mascot logos are one of the most interesting types of logo design. It’s a unique shape along with a face that mostly indicates an animal, human or objects that represents the brand. Example of Mascot logo: KFC, Lacoste, Hostgator etc.

2.          Which type of logo should I choose?

Choosing a specific type of logo mostly depends on the mission and strategies of your brand. Our designers are highly experienced in all kind of logo and always ready to help you to choose the perfect one that matches your brand the most.

3.          How to choose a color palette?

A color palette is a group of colors that consists of 1 or more color for your brand. These colors are used on all branding materials as well as your logo.

Choosing a perfect color palette for your brand is important. Because colors have a Psychological connection with the targeted audience.

Case studies have proved that the color palette of a brand has impacts in marketing and branding.

Whether you already have a preference for brand color or want to find the perfect one, our designers highly expert in color are always up to help you find the perfect one.

How much does it cost?

Whether you want a stunning logo to be designed or need the whole branding package, the price is variable since it depends on the type of your brand and its’ requirement.

For a proper cost valuation, feel free to reach us here. (Link Attached)

How much time does It take?

As SWN is a professional team, we are conscious of the deadline for any project. We deliver you the project according to the contract.

Do you provide revisions?

Since we have an amazing understanding of logo and have a great communication with our clients, most of the time we deliver quality works that don’t require many revisions.

However, we provide unlimited revisions when it’s needed.

What do I need to get started?

To get started, you need to provide us with the following informations:

• Name of your company/brand (If you have any)
• The tagline of your company/brand (Optional)
• Description of your company (Required)
• Color Preferences (Optional)
• Comments/Ideas (Optional)

What are the deliverable files?

After your approval of our designs, we provide the files in all extensions including the vector/source file in .ai/.eps extensions.

We also deliver the designs in attractive mockups to give you an idea of how the design will look like in practical uses.

Conclusion

In this article, we have tried covering a few of the frequently asked questions and myths most of our clients have.

We have tried to explain all the important facts and tried answering the questions. If you are still confused or have any questions, feel free to reach us here. (Link attached)

Personal note: Everything in this article is unique and written by me. However, I took inspiration from several articles but nothing has been copied. I am not sure about a few parts such as whether SWN provides the consultation service to find a brand name or not. However, I have written SWN does provide that, please edit if it does not.

Also, another point could be added and that is, “How many concepts do we provide to choose from?” I do not know the answer so I have skipped. If you provide the information I can add that as well.

Hope you like my writing, I would appreciate any suggestions.