Create a unique brand identity

The word “brand identity” refers to all of your company’s visual aspects, including colors, logos, and the way your company’s elements are created. These visual aspects work together to make your brand stand out in your clients’ minds.

You’ll want to get a sense of your brand’s identity before you start sketching logo concepts. Start by asking yourself the accompanying inquiries:

• What motivated you to start your company?
• As a corporation, what values are essential to you?
• What distinguishes you from the competition?

The answers to these questions will reveal your brand’s defining characteristics—most what’s essential to you and what will be most recognized to your consumers. Ask yourself who you are before you put pen to paper, before you choose your colors and aesthetics.

Don’t be concerned if you don’t know the answers straight immediately. They’re designed to be used as a starting point for further thought. However, once you’ve given it some thought, you’ll be in a better position to design a logo that properly distinguishes you.

We collaborated with actual in-house designers at the Shopify office to build a logo for LawnPure—our very ownnot-real brand of organic, citrus-based, chemical-free lawn-care products—to give you a better idea of this process.

We began by sketching out a “thought map” of our brand principles. A visual brainstorming approach is mind mapping. You start with a primary notion (in this example, your brand) and build a diagram around it by linking keywords and related themes.

Mind mapping is a terrific technique for refocusing your thoughts or inventing new ones, and it can be done alone or in a group. It’s ideal for reaching an agreement on a consistent brand identity in brand development.