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Brand identity typically refers to how your brand looks, feels, and speaks to people. That said, when most people talk about brand identity, they’re referring to a brand’s visual components, and the overall visual identity that they lend themselves to. Because your choice of said components directly affects how consumers view your brand, it’s extremely important to understand the actual psychology behind them. In this article, we will discuss how your selection of brand colors, typography, and logos can impact your brand.
Brand Color Psychology
While attitudes vary based on the individual, people tend to associate colors with the same general ideas, emotions and concepts.These connections can be both positive and negative, so it is important to weigh your options when selecting a color to represent your brand.
Red
Positive associations:
Power
Passion
Excitement
Boldness
Negative associations:
Anger
Danger
Warning
Defiance
Orange
Positive associations:
Courage
Confidence
Warmth
Innovation
Negative associations:
Deprivation
Frustration
Frivolity
Immaturity
Yellow
Positive associations:
Optimism
Warmth
Happiness
Creativity
Negative associations:
Irrationality
Fear
Caution
Anxiety
Green
Positive associations:
Health
Eco-Friendly
Freshness
Nature
Negative associations:
Boredom
Stagnation
Envy
Blandness
Blue
Positive associations:
Trust
Loyalty
Dependability
Logic
Negative associations:
Coldness
Aloofness
Emotionless
Unfriendliness
Brand Typography Psychology
Like the psychology behind brand colors, typography also stirs up subliminal emotions that play a major role in how we behave as consumers. Besides the importance of having a legible and consistent brand typography, it is also important to consider the connotations behind each type of font.
Serif Font Psychology
Widely considered to be the most traditional font option, serif fonts often elicit feelings of class, heritage, trust and respectability. This means that this type of font is great for when you want to make your brand feel established, authoritative and grandiose.
Slab Serif Font Psychology
Slab serifs appear similar to serifs, but have specific slab sections in them. They’re frequently linked with confidence, integrity, and boldness.
Sans Serif Font Psychology
Sans serif fonts give off an air of cleanness, modernity, honesty and sensibility. They’re a good choice for brands who want to demonstrate a straight-forward, simplistic, and no-nonsense attitude.
Script Font Psychology
Script fonts typically appear to be much fancier than the aforementioned fonts. They tend to provoke ideas of femininity, elegance, and creativity, thanks to their hand-written nature. This choice of typography is suitable if you wish your brand to appear more personal and customer-centric.
Modern Font Psychology
Modern Fonts are meant to be simple and legible, and convey feelings of exclusivity, intelligence, and style. They’re an excellent typography style if you wish to showcase your brand name in a way that’s easy to read and gives off a contemporary feel.
Display Fonts
Display fonts are unique and stylised typefaces , and are often utilized in order to add a bit of personality to your brand. Because this type of font can vary so widely in it’s appearance, they can elicit an array of different emotions depending on it’s individual design.
Logo Style Psychology
There are also several logo types to choose from when resigning your brand identity, each of which have their own individual psychological impact on the consumer.
Emblem Logos
An emblem is a logotype that features text, a symbol, or imagery inside a geometric shape. It has the power to give a traditional feel to your brand. They are often richer in detail than other types of logos giving an official look to your brand. Once you come up with a good emblem logo, your brand will surely stand the test of time. Moreover, the chances to find another brand with a logo similar to yours are significantly smaller.
Pictorial Mark Logos
A pictorial mark logo is defined as imagery reduced to its symbolistic meaning. For this type of logo to work it has to be extremely representative, containing elements that will make your audience associate it with your brand. It is a great choice for brand names that can be easily visually represented, or for brands that wish to convey a meaningful idea through a symbol, when words would otherwise not do it justice.
Logotypes
Logotypes are solely the company’s name, with no other graphic components beyond typography. Because of this, it’s important to have a specific typography and color selected for your brand prior to designing this type of logo. A great pro of having logotype is that it allows people to make the connection between the logo and the brand in an instant.
Lettermark Logos
Lettermarks, or monograms, are minimalistic designs that reduce a brand’s name to an acronym of initials. Like a logotype, the uniqueness of this type of logo boils down to the choice of font and color. However, it is even more important to choose a unique font since this type of logo only consists of 2-4 letters on average.
While designing your brand identity goes beyond these visual components, they are the basis of any successful brand’s foundation. This is because each of these elements can elicit such varying emotions and psychological responses, which in turn, heavily impact the buying behavior of the average consumer. It is crucial to understand these subtle links between what customers see, and what emotions are conjured inside them as a result. Once you truly understand these connections, you can craft a brand identity that represents your business as you see fit!
Written by Omega High Impact Print Solutions’ Digital Marketing Specialist, Emily Steel