As part of our series on creating brand identities, we look at

How to build your brand values into your visual identity

In smaller organisations brand values are often centred around the owner. This is part of the company culture and needs to be understood at all levels of the organisation. Where this starts to break down is where two organisations merge or when an organisation grows and splits into different divisions. This is where clearly defined brand values become vitally important.

The steps below are relevant to both owner managers and corporate structures:

  1. The first stage is to examine how the organisation is perceived by different groups of people with whom it deals? Then to look at why is it perceived this way.
  2. Next, what are the organisations aims and ambitions?
  3. and how can a new identity help to achieve it’s aims?

The questions and answers above can be quite brutal and some of the answers may be hard to hear. However, if that is the wider perception, then these are things that need to be said. It is some consolation to know that few organisations emerge very well from this kind of detailed examination. It’s rather like going to a doctor, the patient doesn’t enjoy it but comes out knowing themselves much more clearly. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses and why you do certain things can be used to make the organisation more effective. The resultant recommended actions then have real weight behind them. This creates the brief for the new visual brand identity.