There’s no doubt, there is a lot of visual noise currently in the world. Everywhere you look there is some sort of graphic design, whether that’s on a billboard, on a sign or in the flyer that came in the mail. Let’s work out how to differentiate your brand.
Below I have listed out a few techniques and how I personally find inspiration to create unique and memorable designs that stand out in a saturated visual world. Now is more important than ever, with a massive increase in sponsored posts, to differentiate your brand and make sure it stands out and makes the right kind of impact.
Research history & cultures
Example: You’re a food based business with a history and want to differentiate your brand
Ok so no matter what you are designing, there is history.
If I’m designing for an Indian restaurant I will research India’s culture and try to put a modern spin on that. This will deliver results far more in-depth than if you researched other Indian restaurants branding or just cool logo’s. If you’re designing for a food delivery service, what type of food are you making? Once you know this you can then look back in history and start researching that culture. Maybe something interesting comes up which has symbols or marks.
You can see below from the mood board I have put together, I found a side of the Indian culture which is bright, vibrate with a slightly grungy, street style. I used these visual cues to create the brand identity, without copying an existing style or logo and creating something unique and memorable.
When you come to market your product this will also give you an in-depth story, rather than “it just looked nice”. It will give you some momentum when deciding upon your restaurant interiors and your brand voice. People will be more likely to buy into your brand if you have more of a back story and it looks like you stand for something.
Leverage the brand story
Example: You’re a service based business with an offering
Ok so you’re selling an online mentoring program and need to differentiate your brand, where do you even begin? There isn’t a culture to research but perhaps you start with “what can I offer my customers?”. I have done this with the Rapid Mentoring brand, where the key messaging is “Further, Faster – Getting you from A to B in your career faster”.
From this tagline, everything that I researched revolved around speed and agility to further enforce the brand messaging and create a strong brand with a feeling of momentum. If you were a brand wanting to move quickly and get people to their goals you need to create a sense of this in a visual way.
Below you can see how I’ve used forward diagonal lines within the logo and speed streaks coming from the R to visually create this idea. From this these “Speed Lines” are used to house the tagline and begin creating the brand identity.
So in summary.
To keep it short and snappy, if you’re looking for inspiration to create a new look for your brand don’t look at what other people are doing.
- Look back in history and cultures and see if you can find your inspiration here. Find symbols, colours and marks that relate directly to your product and put a new spin on it to create something interesting.
- Dig deep into what your brand offers and create your story around this. How are you trying to relieve your customers pain points? Are you fast, are you friendly, are you the complete package? Create a visual story to enforce your offering.
Stand out…
Be bold…
Create your own story.
Stuck on finding inspiration to differentiate your brand?
Send me a message and I’ll get back to you with a complimentary email to get you kick started.
